THE INLUENCE OF THE MINORITY: HOW

DO INDIVIDUALS INFLUNCE THE

GROUP
WHEN AND HOW INDIVIDUALS INFLUENCE
THEIR GROUPS
 FROM THE PREVIOUS TOPICS WE ALL
LEARNED THE POWER OF AN INDIVIDUAL
Cultural situations mold us, but we also help create and choose these situations.

Pressures to conform sometimes overwhelm our better judgment. but blatant pres
re motivates reactance as we assert our individuality and freedom.
• We are being pushed and pressured to conform, but with these we learn to
stand up for ourselves as individuals.

Persuasive forces are powerful, but we can resist persuasion by making public
commitments and by anticipating persuasive appeals.
– Anyone can give a very persuasive offer , but when its to good to be true it
can’t be true.
12 ANGRY MEN – ORION NOVA PRODUCTION
The lone juror eventually wins over the
11 others
WHAT IS A MINORITY IN A GROUP CONTEXT?

REFERS TO THE MINORITY

OPINION
WHAT MAKES A MINORITY
PERSUASIVE?
SERGE MOSCOVICI
Argued that not
enough credit is
given to the
influence of a
minority can have
on the majority.
SERGE MOSCOVICI
Identified several
determinants of
minority influence:
CONSISTENCY,
SELF-CONFIDENCE
and DEFECTION.
 CONSISTENCY
More influential than a minority
that wavers is a minority that
sticks to its position

EXAMPLE:
MOSCOVICI EXPERIMENT
 CONSISTENCY
Nonconformity is MINORITY SLOWNESS EFFECT
painful, especially A tendency to for a people to with the
minority views to express them less quickly
persistent than the people in the majority
nonconformity
 CONSISTENCY
When you argue an issue that concerns the Even when people in the
interest of the majority and if you want to majority know that the
settle an issue by means of popularity on disagreeing person is
the group’s opinion. Prepare to get factually or morally
ridiculed. right they may still, if
refusing to change,
dislike the person.
 CONSISTENCY
MAJORITY INFLUENCE
Triggers unthinking agreement
MINORITY INFLUENCE
Stimulates a deeper processing
of arguments often with
increased creativity
 SELF-CONFIDENCE
Consistency and persistence convey self-confidence. Furthermore, Nemeth and
Joel Wachtler (974) reported that any behavior by a minority that conveys
self-confidence- for example, taking the head seat at the table tends to raise
self-doubts among the majority. By being firm and forceful, the minority's
apparent self-assurance may prompt the majority to reconsider its position.
This is especially so on matters of opinion ( "from which do country should
Italy import most of its raw oil?"), rather than fact ("from m which country
does Italy import most of its raw oil? 99 [Maass et al., 1996l).
 DEFECTION OF THE MINORITY
A persistent When a minority consistently doubts
minority punctures the majority wisdom, majority
any illusion of members become freer to express
unanimity their doubt and may even switch to
the minority position.
WHAT ABOUT
A LONE
DEFECTOR?
WHAT ABOUT A LONE DEFECTOR?
JOHN LEVINE (1989) University of
Pittsburgh student found out that a
minority person who had defected
from the majority was even more
persuasive than a consistent minority
voice.
WHAT ABOUT A LONE DEFECTOR?
CHARLAN NEMETH’s JURY SIMULATION
found that once defection begins,
others soon follow, initiating a
snowball effect.
IS LEADERSHIP
MINORITY
INFLUENCE?
IS LEADERSHIP MINORITY INFLUENCE?
The process by What makes a good
which individuals
mobilize and guide leadership often depends
groups. on the situation.
 LEADERSHIP
TASK LEADERSHIP SOCIAL LEADERSHIP
Organizing work, Building teamwork,
setting standards mediating conflicts and
and focusing on being supportive
goal attainment
 LEADERSHIP
TASK LEADERSHIP generally have a directive style
One that can work well if the leader is bright
enough to give good orders (Fiedler, 1987).

Challenging goals and periodic progress

reports help motivate high achievements
(Locke & latham, 1990, 2002, 2009).
 LEADERSHIP
GOAL LEADERSHIP generally have a democratic style -
One that delegates authority, welcomes input
from the team members and as we have seen,
helps prevent groupthink.
118 studies shows that women are more
egalitarian than men (Lee et al., 2011).
Many experiments reveal that social
leadership is good for morale. (Spector, 1986;
Vanderslice, 1987).
GREAT PERSON THEORY OF LEADERSHIP
All leaders have a democratic style – has fallen into DISREPUTE
The mythology behind some of the world's most famous leaders such as
Abraham Lincoln, Julius Caesar, Mahatma Gandhi and Alexander the Great
helped contribute to the notion that great leaders are born and not made. In
many examples, it seems as if the right man for the job seems to emerge
almost magically to take control of a situation and lead a group of people
into safety or success. Historian Thomas Carlyle also had a major influence
on this theory of leadership, at one point stating that, "The history of the
world is but the biography of great men." According to Carlyle, effective
leaders are those gifted with divine inspiration and the right characteristics .
- Kendra Cherry, Verywell Mind
Effective leaders represent, enhance, and champion a group's identity
(Haslam et al., 2010). Effective leadership also varies with the situation.
Subordinates who know what they are doing may resent working under
task leadership. whereas those who don't may welcome it.
Recently, however, social psychologists have again wondered if there might
be qualities that mark a good leader in many situations (Hogan et al.,
1994). British social psychologists Peter Smith and Monir Tayeb (1989)
report that studies done in India, Taiwan, and Iran have found that the
most effective supervisors in coal mines, banks, and government offices
scored high on tests of both task and social leadership. They are actively
concerned with how work is progressing and sensitive to the needs of their
subordinates. Socially dominant, influential individuals also seem
competent because they act like it – by talking a lot (Anderson &Kilduff,
2009).
 LEADERSHIP
TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP
Motivates others to Charismatic, energetic, self-confident,
identify with and extraverts – articulate, high
commit themselves standards, inspire people to share
their vision and offer personal
to a group’s
attention (Bono & Judge, 2004).
mission
 LEADERSHIP
TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP
GROUPS ALSO In organizations, the frequent results
INFLUENCE THEIR of such leadership is a more engaged.
LEADERS Trusting and effevtive working force
(Turner et al., 2004)

Someone who typifies the groups views is more likely to be

selected as a leader; a leader who deviates too radically from the
group’s standards may be rejected (Hogg et al., 1998)
 LEADERSHIP
Smart leaders usually remain with the majority and spend their
influence prudently. In rare circumstances, the right traits matched
with the right situation yield history-making greatness, notes Dean
Keith Simonton (1994). To have a Winston Churchill or, a Thomas
Jefferson, a Napoleon or an Adolf Hitler, an Abraham Lincoln or a
Martin Luther King, Jr., takes the right person in the right place at
the right time, When an apt combination of intelligence, skill,
determination, self-confidence, and t social charisma meets a rare
opportunity, the result is sometimes a championship, a Nobel Prize,
or a social revolution.
 ARE GROUPS BAD FOR US?
A selective reading of this chapter could, we must admit, leave readers with
the impression that, on balance, groups are bad. In groups we become more
aroused, more stressed, more tense, more error-prone on complex tasks.
Submerged in a group that gives us anonymity, we have a tendency to loaf or
have our worst impulses unleashed by deindividuation. Police brutality,
lynching's, gang destruction, and terrorism are all group phenomena.
Discussion in groups often polarizes our views, enhancing mutual racism or
hostility. It may also suppress dissent. creating a homogenized groupthink
that pro duces disastrous decisions. No wonder we celebrate those individuals
- minorities of one - who, alone against a group. have stood up for truth and
justice. Groups, it seems are ba-a-a-d.
 ARE GROUPS BAD FOR US?
All that is true, but it's only half the truth. The other half is that, as social animals,
we are group-dwelling creatures. Like our distant ancestors, we depend on one
another for sustenance, support, and security. Moreover, when our individual
tendencies are positive, group interaction accentuates our best. In groups,
runners run faster, audiences laugh louder, and givers become more generous.
In self-help groups, people strengthen their resolve to stop drinking. lose
weight, and study harder. In kindred-spirited groups, people s. "A devout
communing on spiritual things sometimes expand their spiritual
consciousness. observed fifteenth-century eleric Thomas à Kempis. greatly
helps the health of the soul especially when people of faith "meet and speak
and commune together.“
Depending on which tendency a group is magnifying or disinheriting. groups
can be very, very bad or very, very good. So we had best choose our groups
wisely and intentionally.