Vol. Psychol. doi: 10.1111/j.2044-8309.1996.tb01088.x, Tanford, S., and Penrod, S. (1984). Soc. Am. Psychol. Brewer and M. Hewstone (Oxford, UK: Blackwell), 136164. Mackie, D. M. (1987). Sign Up. It has been addressed by restricting a number of factors that presumably shape the dynamics of social influence and employing mathematical simulations to test proposed models. These minorities, often primarily motivated to broaden their social acceptance, are likely to seek social change advocating for tolerance. At what point in time does it become public and sufficiently substantial to change social relations and social structure within a group? New York: Psychology Press. The many advantages associated with majority positions, along with the many disadvantages associated with minority positions (for reviews, see Prislin and Wood, 2005; Prislin and Christensen, 2005a), fuel minorities attempts at social change. Midterm 3 study guide Flashcards | Chegg.com As stated earlier, every social change is initially a minoritys idea.6 To understand motives behind minorities pursuit of social change, it is useful to compare their position to that of their majority counterparts. Understanding their motivations is in the core of psychological approaches to social action, with different models emphasizing a variety of motives that reflect groups moral, fairness, and identity standards. Instead, it P. A. van Lange, E. T. Higgins, and A. W. Kruglanski (New York: Guilford Press), 181201. Psychol. Similar asymmetry but in the opposite direction has been documented in distribution of social burdens (e.g., illnesses, crime), which are heavier on minorities than majorities. Also, the authors own line of research on group dynamics in the aftermath of social change could be added to this minority category in that its focus on group dynamics is underrepresented in minority influence research (Prislin, 2010; Prislin et al., 2017). doi: 10.1111/josi.12259, Prislin, R., and Filson, J. eds. And in subsequent decades, the United States admitted millions of Italians, Jews and other ethnicities, with their foreign languages, religions and complexions. Majority influence occurs when the beliefs held by the larger number of individuals in the current social group prevail. ^Minority label used here in no way diminishes the significance and contribution of these two lines of research. This poses an additional challenge to applying many insights from the prevailing literature on a minority impact toward a social-psychological understanding of social change. The many reasons behind minorities pursuit of social change could be broadly recognized as seeking social validation, social control, or social acceptance. Though developed in parallel without much cross-pollination, research on minority influence within the persuasion framework and the interacting group framework converge to the conclusion that such influence is possible, although under a highly constrained set of circumstances (Levine and Tindale, 2015). Minority influence research was sparked by Moscovicis observation about the power of active minorities to instigate social change. Their influence raises important questions about the conditions under which minorities will (non) seek social change. While standing firm, minorities must also convey a level of open-mindedness in acknowledging others positions to avoid being perceived as rigid (Papastamou and Mugny, 1985). Psychological processes in social action, in APA Handbook of Personality and social Psychology. The field took notice. (eds.) (2009). An individual who associates the group with hippies and protests may find it difficult to identify with the group at the time, but over many years, the groups views become mainstream and the person becomes more environmentally conscientious. For decades, research on social influence, which established social psychology as a scientific discipline early in the 20th century, conceptualized influence as a one-way street (Prislin and Crano, 2012). WebMinority influence is the opposite process of conformity. Rev. London: Academic Press. doi: 10.1037/amp0000844. The latter is simply too costly for a frequent-publication dictum (see Levine and Kaarbo, 2001). Differential contributions of majority and minority influence. It cannot be a goal in and of itself. Whereas numerous other factors may be proposed, they likely covary with the included factors of time, competitive influence dynamics, and motivation. Importantly, most of these studies were conducted within the information processing (persuasion) framework, elucidating cognitive responses to a minority (vs. majority) advocacy and eventual attitudinal changes on the objects of advocacy (e.g., Mackie, 1987; Baker and Petty, 1994; Erb and Bohner, 2001; Martin and Hewstone, 2008). So, it was not so equally balanced as it was again in Punjab and Bengal. In these lines of research, group-level outcomes (e.g., consensual decisions, problem solving) are of focal interest, with minority influence being one of the multitude of processes underlying such outcomes. This idea invigorated research Procedural mechanisms and jury behavior, in Applied Social Psychology. Bulletin Swisse des Psychologues 7, 36. Rev. Minority influence: From groups to attitudes and back again, in Minority Influence and Innovation: Antecedents, Processes and Consequences. Thus, immediately in the aftermath of social change whereby minorities become majorities and vice versa (minority majority), the former should react only mildly positively, and the latter should react intensely negatively, toward the group in which they switched positions. Nemeth and Wachtler (1974) conducted an experiment in which a group of participants (including a confederate) were asked to decide the amount of compensation that ought to be awarded to a person who had been injured. Smith, C. M., and Diven, P. J. 5 Articles, This article is part of the Research Topic, Minorities Effect Social Change Over Time, Winning a Competition in Influence Exerted for Various Reasons, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.911654, Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, United States. This helps puncture a hole in the illusion of unanimity and loosens the pressure to conform. Adopting a motivational approach holds promise of advancing our understanding of the roles minorities play in originating social change. To ensure that only unique empirical studies were counted, care was taken not to double-count studies that were published in journals and later summarized in book chapters or vice versa. Over time, however, successful minoritys initial tepid reactions should increase in positivity if their newly won majority position stabilizes within the group (Hypothesis 1, see below Agenda item 1). He is the author of The New Minority: White Working Class Politics in an Age of Immigration and Inequality and the forthcoming book Majority Minority..