ABSTRACT

Majority and minority influence research examines how groups influence the attitudes, thoughts and behaviours of individuals, groups and society as a whole. This volume collects recent work by an international group of scholars, representing a variety of different theoretical approaches to majority and minority influence.

The book provides a thorough evaluation of significant current developments with a particular focus on how active minorities can influence people’s thinking and behaviour, fight against conformity and contribute to real social change. It also discusses the following themes:

  • Social vs. cognitive processes of social influence: cooperation vs. antagonism
  • Majority and minority influence: a singular or a dual socio-psychological process?
  • Conversion vs appropriation of minority ideas
  • Different meta-theoretical considerations underlying social influence research

New avenues for future research are presented and many are born from a new integration between influence and persuasion theoretical traditions.

By focusing on the societal dimension of social influence this book contributes to filling a theoretical and epistemological gap in the relative literature. It offers a balanced and thorough presentation of the distinct theoretical and epistemological approaches employed by active and important researchers in the field making it essential reading for researchers and upper-level students of social psychology.

chapter 2|38 pages

Conversion to active minorities

The chronicle of a successful theory and the uncertain result of a minority influence attempt

chapter 3|25 pages

The Context/Comparison Model of majority and minority Influence

Different processes, different outcomes

chapter 4|26 pages

Multiple categorizations and minority influence

An integration of dissociation and self-categorization theories

chapter 5|19 pages

Majority versus minority source status and persuasion

Processes of primary and secondary cognition

chapter 6|20 pages

Attitude persistence to persuasive messages

As a function of numerical majority versus minority source status

chapter 7|21 pages

Mind over matter

Target states, not stimulus characteristics, determine information processing in minority influence