ABSTRACT
J n the early 1970s Moscovici and his colleagues (Moscovici, 1976) launched a broadside against the dominant "dependence" theory of social influence (see Turner, 1991). They criticized the idea that power was the basis of influence and that influence was the exertion of power. They argued that power (reflecting peoples dependence on others) and influence (persuasion, the capacity to change private attitudes) were alternative and opposed means of changing people s behavior. Empirically, they demonstrated the fact of minority influence, that a minority within a group could change the judgments of the majority to some degree even if they had less power by all the normal criteria. Moscovici (1976) also rejected the dualism within traditional theory which contrasted nor-
Address correspondence to: Barbara David and John C. Turner, Division of Psychology, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia. E-mail: barbara.david@ anu.edu.au
mative and informational processes of influence (Deutsch & Gerard, 1955). He suggested that there was one fundamental process of influence (separate from power) related to the production, avoidance, and resolution of social conflict, and that all members of a group (whether majority or minority) had the capacity for influence.
