Self-definition, defensive processing, and influence: The normative impact of majority and minority groups.

Past research has found that recipients agree with majority group positions and resist minority group positions on direct measures of influence. The authors suggest that these attitude shifts reflect normative pressures to align with valued majorities and to differentiate from derogated minorities. In support of this idea, participants who considered a majority group relevant to their own self-definitions (but not those who judged it irrelevant), on learning that the group held a counterattitudinal position, shifted their attitudes to agree with the source. In a second study, recipients who judged a minority group (negatively) self-relevant, on learning that the group held a similar attitude to their own, shifted their attitudes to diverge from the source. These shifts in attitudes were based on participants' interpretations of the attitude issues. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Manifest and latent influence of majorities and minorities.

Compared group cohesiveness and behavioral style as mediators of majority and minority influence and tested the hypothesis that whereas majorities produce more manifest influence, minorities produce more latent influence. 96 female undergraduates, divided into majority and minority groups based on their initial judgments of the experimental issue, were asked to role play members of a jury and were led to anticipate deliberating on 2 civil cases. Ss, who were led to believe they were interacting in groups were exposed to an influence attempt by an individual who advocated either a majority or a minority position in the group. A 2?×?2?×?2 design was used, varying source status (majority or minority), group cohesiveness (high or low), and behavioral style of the influence source (high or low consistency). Results confirm the greater influence of majorities on a manifest level but not of minorities on a latent level. Both majority and minority influence were affected by group cohesiveness; neither was affected by behavioral style. Findings provide no evidence of different processes underlying majority and minority influence, consistent with a unitary model of social influence phenomena. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The eyes have it: Minority influence in face-to-face and computer-mediated group discussion.

Results of an experiment comparing face-to-face groups with anonymous and identified computer-supported groups challenged theoretical arguments (V. S. Rao & S. L. Jarvenpaa, 1991 ) that computer-based group decision support systems (GDSS) can increase group decision quality by facilitating expression of minority opinions. In groups working on a hidden-profile investment decision task, minority opinion holders expressed their arguments most frequently under anonymous GDSS communication, but the influence of the minority arguments on private opinions and on group decisions was highest under face-to-face communication. These results suggest that the conditions that facilitate the expression of minority arguments may also diminish the influence of those arguments. The implications of these findings for a normative view of social influence, for social presence theory, and for the effects of GDSS on participation rates in group discussion are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Exposure to dissent and recall of information.

Recent work on minority influence has led to a debate about whether majorities and minorities exercise different forms of influence. C. L. Nemeth (see record 1986-14271-001) has argued that consistent minorities induce different cognitive processes than do consistent majorities, with a resulting impact on the quality of the judgments rendered. Two experiments test this theory. In Experiment 1, Ss heard 3 tape-recorded lists of words and learned that either a minority or a majority differed in the category "first noticed." This feedback occurred either once or over 3 trials. When exposure was once, recall was not affected by the source; when it was consistent, Ss exposed to the minority view recalled more words than those exposed to the majority view. In Experiment 2, Ss were exposed to a minority view that was either consistent over time or inconsistent over time. Ss exposed to a consistent minority had better recall than control Ss. Exposure to an inconsistent minority did not improve recall. The results offer support for the Nemeth formulation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The leniency contract and persistence of majority and minority influence.

The leniency contract (E. M. Alvaro & W. D. Crano, 1997) explicates a maxim of social influence: Majorities induce public, temporary change, whereas minority influence is indirect and persistent. The contract holds that minority messages are elaborated without derogation or counterargument; in recompense, direct change is repudiated. This response pattern unbalances the constellation of beliefs containing the critical attitude. It is stabilized by modifying related beliefs. These propositions were tested by uncovering links among a set of attitudes and developing persuasive messages on 1 of them. The messages were attributed to majority or in-group minority sources. Strong messages fostered persistent focal attitude change. When attributed to a minority, strong messages induced indirect attitude change, which was associated with delayed focal change. For the majority source, positivity of cognitive responses was related to focal change; for the minority, it was related to indirect change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Indirect minority influence: Evidence for leniency in source evaluation and counterargumentation.

In-group minorities instigate indirect change because of their distinctiveness, the unexpectedness of their position, and their common identity with their targets. Preliminary study (N?=?408) uncovered links among a set of attitudes and revealed participants were unaware of the relationship between some attitudes despite significant correlation and proximity in multidimensional space. Study 1 (N?=?222) advocated a ban of homosexual soldiers attributed to majority, in-group, or out-group minority sources. No direct influence was evident. When credited to an in-group minority, the message influenced attitudes toward gun control, which were linked to the focal beliefs. Relative to other sources, the in-group minority was more positively evaluated, and its message less strongly counterargued (both p N?=?78) reversed direct and indirect attitude objects and replicated these results. Study 3 (N?=?66) examined majority influence and revealed direct, but not indirect, majority influence when participants' membership group was threatened. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Affiliation with antisocial peers, susceptibility to peer influence, and antisocial behavior during the transition to adulthood.

Developmental theories suggest that affiliation with deviant peers and susceptibility to peer influence are important contributors to adolescent delinquency, but it is unclear how these variables impact antisocial behavior during the transition to adulthood, a period when most delinquent individuals decline in antisocial behavior. Using data from a longitudinal study of 1,354 antisocial youth, the present study examined how individual variation in exposure to deviant peers and resistance to peer influence affect antisocial behavior from middle adolescence into young adulthood (ages 14 to 22 years). Whereas we find evidence that antisocial individuals choose to affiliate with deviant peers, and that affiliating with deviant peers is associated with an individual’s own delinquency, these complementary processes of selection and socialization operate in different developmental periods. In middle adolescence, both selection and socialization serve to make peers similar in antisocial behavior, but from ages 16 to 20 years, only socialization appears to be important. After age 20, the impact of peers on antisocial behavior disappears as individuals become increasingly resistant to peer influence, suggesting that the process of desistance from antisocial behavior may be tied to normative changes in peer relations that occur as individuals mature socially and emotionally. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Informational and normative routes to conformity: The effect of faction size as a function of norm extremity and attention to the stimulus.

Demonstrates that the effect of faction size on conformity depends on the relative importance of normative and informational mechanisms. As the norm changes from one that could be correct to one that is clearly wrong, influence should derive less from informational and more from normative mechanisms. Faction size, norm extremity, and attention to the stimulus were manipulated; conformity, reaction times (RTs), and subsequent private acceptance were measured. When the norm could have been correct (low extremity or low attention), the faction-size effect was marginal, RTs were fast, and the public–private decline in influence was small. When the norm was clearly wrong (high extremity and high attention), there were large effects for faction size, slow RTs, and a substantial public–private decline. Data also support the claim that the influence process does not vary as a function of faction size. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The social impact of majorities and minorities.

Reviews 2 traditional lines of research on social influence processes—research on conformity, which looks at the influence of the majority on a passive minority, and research on innovation, which considers the influence of active minorities on a silent majority. A new theory of social impact is examined that views social influence as resulting from forces operating in a social force field. It proposes that influence by either a majority or a minority will be a multiplicative function of the strength, immediacy, and number of its members. It is suggested that social impact theory offers a general model of social influence processes that integrates previous theoretical formulations and empirical findings and accounts for the reciprocal influence of majorities and minorities. Thus, by viewing social influence as a unitary concept, social impact theory permits comparisons between conformity and innovation and predicts the relative magnitude of their effects. (39 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hidden impact of minorities: Fifteen years of minority influence research.

Evaluates minority influence literature since the original formulation of the theory by S. Moscovici (1969). Empirical or design problems include the exclusive use of the minimal group paradigm, inconsistent operationalizations of key concepts, the omission of process-oriented methodologies, and inadequate treatment of mediating variables and group effects. Theoretical problems arise from the overall scarcity of theoretical integrations. The psychological processes underlying the zeitgeist phenomenon continue to elude investigators. Potential applications of the theory to actual minority groups have been neglected. The relation between minority influence and conformity needs to be further explored; it is suggested that people tend to yield to the majority in public while accepting the position of the minority in private. (97 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of source expertise and physical distance on minority influence.

The treatment of source strength and immediacy distinguishes social impact theory from other theories of social influence. The present study examined the effects of source expertise (e.g., strength) and physical distance (i.e., immediacy) on minority influence. Groups (N?=?40), consisting of 2 naive research participants and 1 confederate who argued for a minority position, provided ratings for 40 hypothetical graduate school applicants. The confederate was seated either 4 ft (1.2192 m; high immediacy) or 10 ft (3.048 m; low immediacy) from the other group members and presented himself as either a senior who had recently applied to several graduate programs (high strength) or as a freshman (low strength). The confederate exerted more influence in the high-strength condition than in the low-strength condition, but only when immediacy was low. The implications of these findings for social impact theory and for future research and practice are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social Influence Model: A formal integration of research on majority and minority influence processes.

Presents a formal model of social influence that integrates majority and minority influence processes within a single theoretical framework and uses computer simulations to model the group influence process. The Social Influence Model (SIM) predicts that as a faction increases in size, its impact increases and vice versa. The performance of the SIM is assessed by comparison with empirical findings from a meta-analysis of research on conformity, minority influence, and deviate rejection. The results indicate that influence is predominantly a function of the number of targets and sources of influence, both of which are incorporated into a nonlinear growth function that accurately predicts the amount of influence obtained in social influence studies. The consistency of the influence source was also an important predictor of influence; task type, group type, and response mode affected influence to a lesser degree. (58 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Majority and minority influences on restaurant preferences.

Studied how social influence is affected by varying majority and minority size and strength (expertise) in the context of an information-integration task. The authors tested the predictions, derived from social impact theory, that influence by either a majority or a minority would be a multiplicative function of the number and strength of its members and that strength would therefore have more effect for majorities than minorities. 40 undergraduates, exposed to the restaurant preferences of 12 residents of each of 2 cities, were asked how much they would like to eat at each restaurant mentioned. By integrating the information provided, participants could determine the number of high- and low-expertise individuals who liked and disliked each restaurant. Six levels of majority–minority size (unanimous majorities of 1, 2, 4, and 6 and, holding majority size at 4, opposing minorities of 1 and 2), 2 levels of expertise, and 2 directions of influence were varied, with a different restaurant assigned to each of the 24 conditions. Unexpectedly, negative information had no effect on restaurant preference. However, positive information did, and the number and strength of influence sources affected influence largely as predicted. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The entry of underrepresented minority students into US medical schools: an evaluation of recent trends

OBJECTIVES: Recent challenges to affirmative action suggest the need to reassess the status of the admission of underrepresented minority students to US medical schools. METHODS: The Association of American medical colleges provided US medical school enrollment data and characteristics. Five measures of underrepresented minority enrolled and an overall performance scale were constructed for each school. Multivariate regression identified significant overall performance predictors. Predicted and observed values were compared. RESULTS: Underrepresented minority enrollment increased by 43% after 1986, peaked at 2014 in 1994, did not increase in 1995, and decreased by 5% in 1996. Enrollment was associated with increasing federal research funding and with percentage of underrepresented minorities in the sources population P < .001). The 1996 decline was almost entirely limited to public medical schools. Those in California, Texas, Mississippi, and Louisiana accounted for 18% of 1995 enrollment but 44% of the 1996 decline. CONCLUSIONS: Recent gains in medical school enrollment of underrepresented minorities are being reversed, particularly at public institutions. Implications exist for the health of poor, minority, and underserved communities, which are most likely to be cared for by underrepresented minority physicians.     

Relative contributions of expressive behavior and contextual information to the judgment of the emotional state of another.

Used a technique for assessing the relative impact of facial–gestural expressions, as opposed to contextual information regarding the elicitor and situation, on the judgment of emotion. In Study 1, 28 undergraduates rated videotapes of spontaneous facial–gestural expressions and separately rated the emotionally loaded color slides that elicited those expressions. The source clarities of the expressions and slides were matched using correlation and distance measures, and 18 expressions and 9 slides were selected. In Study 2, 72 undergraduate receivers were shown systematic pairings of these expressions and slides and rated the emotional state of the expresser, who was supposedly watching that slide under public or private situational conditions. Expressions were found to be more important sources for all emotion judgments. For female receivers slides were relatively more important in the public than the private situation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Majority and minority influence: Source-position imbalance as a determinant of message scrutiny.

Two experiments addressed the issue of whether endorsement of a position by a numerical majority or a minority leads to greater scrutiny of the information presented in a persuasive message. In Exp 1, a counterattitudinal position was endorsed by a majority or a minority and was supported by strong or weak arguments. Argument quality had a larger impact on attitudes with majority than with minority endorsement. In Exp 2, a proattitudinal or a counterattitudinal message was endorsed by a majority or a minority and was supported by strong or weak arguments. When the source and message position were unexpected (i.e., majority-counter and minority-pro messages), argument quality had a larger impact on attitudes than when the source and message position were expected (i.e., majority-pro and minority-counter messages). Thus, either majority or minority endorsement can enhance message scrutiny if the source-position pairing is surprising. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of majority defection and multiple minority sources on minority influence.

A study using the Twelve Angry Men (R. Rose, 1954) paradigm was used to investigate the impact of jury verdicts and numerical minority argumentation on minority influence. Participants were more influenced by the minority when they were given information about majority members defecting to the minority position than when they were not. Although there were no differences among the experimental conditions after the minority's 1st and 2nd arguments, more minority influence occurred when 2 other jurors separately presented the 3rd and 4th minority arguments than when the initial, lone minority singularly presented all of the arguments. The superiority of multiple-source minority argumentation was attributed to multiple sources being viewed as independent or as representing different perspectives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Performance as a function of increased minority hiring.

Examined the impact of increasing the percentage of hires (above the T. A. Cleary [1968] fair-hiring level) from minority groups with demonstrated lower average job performance. Increased minority hiring resulted in only a small performance loss, even when minority hiring exceeded the minority applicant representation. However, when minorities were hired at a rate equal to or greater than their applicant representation, the expected performance loss among the hired minorities was much greater than performance loss across all hires. More important, the discrepancy in performance between majority and minority hires increased as minority hiring increased. With minority hiring above the level of minority applicant representation, this discrepancy exceeded the population difference in performance between the 2 groups. These findings suggest additional considerations when raising minority hiring above minority applicant representation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Family therapy with ethnic minorities.

Reviews the book, Family therapy with ethnic minorities by Man Keung Ho (see record 1987-98516-000). This book offers a coherent aggregation of theories for working with ethnic minority families in the United States. Its author focuses on an ecological family systemic approach, with emphasis on sociocultural and communication theories. Within this conceptual framework, he discusses six factors that distinguish ethnic minorities from the mainstream middle-class white American families and that bear implications for their treatment. Ho identifies them as: 1) ethnic minority reality, 2) impact of external system on minority cultures, 3) biculturalism, 4) ethnic differences in minority status, 5) ethnicity and language, and 6) ethnicity and social class. The book's strengths rest on the identification of the major ethnocultural issues affecting the treatment of ethnic minority families. Conversely, its weaknesses lie on the clinical illustrations of these issues. Although Ho states that he also utilizes psychodynamic and interpersonal perspectives, clinically he emphasizes sociocultural issues, neglecting other indexes, such as intrapsychic, interpersonal, and developmental variables. The major contribution of Family therapy with ethnic minorities lies in its efforts toward the development of a conceptualization of a family therapy model for working with ethnic minorities. Ho reviews existing theoretical paradigms and critically examines their applicability to ethnic minorities. He enriches the field by aiding in the development of a therapeutic structure that allows cultural diversity. Within this context, the book represents priority reading for the beginning family therapist working with ethnic minority individuals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differential contributions of majority and minority influence.

Contends that in most studies comparing majority and minority influence, there is an emphasis on influence in the sense of prevailing. Within this context, evidence exists that majorities exert more public influence and that minority influence, when it occurs, tends to operate primarily at the latent level. In the present formulation, it is proposed that the differences between majority and minority influence are more extensive once influence is considered in a broader context and that exposure to persistent minority views fosters greater thought about the issue. Furthermore, this thought tends to be divergent rather than convergent, so that people tend to be better decision makers because they attend to more aspects of the situation and reexamine premises. By contrast, it is proposed that exposure to persistent majority views fosters convergent thinking and leads to an unreflective acceptance of the majority position. Three studies by the author (1976) and by the author and J. Kwan (1985) that directly tested some of the propositions are reviewed, and the formulation is linked to available knowledge in the areas of social cognition, creativity, and problem solving both at the individual and group levels. (64 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)