| Abstract: | 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) |
