Minority influence: the role of the rate of majority defection and persuasive arguments

✍ Scribed by Russell D. Clark III

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 143 KB
• Volume: 28
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0046-2772
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0992(199809/10)28:5<787::aid-ejsp895>3.0.co;2-c

✦ Synopsis

An experiment employing the Twelve Angry Men paradigm was conducted to determine the role of the rate of majority defection to the minority position and the use of persuasive arguments by the minority on minority in¯uence. Subjects were more in¯uenced by the minority when it provided persuasive arguments by refuting the majority viewpoint than when the minority did not. More minority in¯uence occurred when the minority obtained majority defectors than when the minority did not. Moreover, the rate of majority defection made a dierence. Minority in¯uence was not obtained with the initial acquisition of a single defector and the signi®cant in¯uence that occurred with the acquisition of four defectors was not further increased by the acquisition of additional defectors. The results for the number of majority defectors were generally consistent with Tanford and Penrod's social in¯uence model. Finally, the issue of the number of majority defectors versus the speed at which they defect is discussed.