Minority Social Influence

Definition

Many tasks and decisions are completed by groups of people instead of by a single person. One challenge of group tasks and decisions is that members of groups are not always in agreement with each other; some members of the group might hold that one view or behavior is preferable, whereas other group members might hold that an opposing view or behavior is preferable. For example, work groups may disagree on business plans, medical teams may disagree on patient diagnoses, and trial juries may disagree on a defendant's guilt or innocence.

In many situations in which group members disagree, opposing views are not equally represented in the group. For example, 4 jurors in a 12-person jury may believe the defendant to be not guilty, whereas the remaining 8 believe the defendant to be guilty. One view is expressed by a numerical minority (e.g., 4 jurors who claim not guilty) and an opposing view is expressed by a numerical majority (e.g., 8 jurors who claim guilty). Although subgroups may differ in aspects such as power, status, or individual characteristics, the terms majority and minority refer to the number of people who support each view. Both the majority and minority groups may strive to change the opposing views of the other group members. [Page 580]Minority social influence refers to the minority group's influence on the majority group members' views or behavior. Although minority and majority members may share the goal of influencing group members who hold opposing views, they differ in their underlying motivations, the strategies to achieve influence, and the outcomes of those strategies.

Motivations for Minority Influence

Although a majority is typically thought of as more influential than a minority, minority group members may be particularly motivated to influence the group's views and behaviors in certain situations, such as when minority members are highly invested in the outcome of the group task or decision. This is especially likely if the outcome of the task or decision has direct implications for the minority group members. For example, a work group may decide that an effective way to save money is to eliminate departments. The minority members of the work group who would lose their jobs as a result of this decision have a strong interest in lobbying for an alternative plan that would not eliminate their departments.

Sometimes members of the minority may be motivated to influence majority members because the minority members have more knowledge or expertise than the majority members do. For example, the minority of a medical team might include the most experienced doctors of the group. If the team of doctors is in disagreement about a diagnosis, the experts in the minority may be especially motivated to guide the decision that the group makes. The minority of experts may attempt to convince the majority members to trust the minority's knowledge and expertise.

Personal characteristics of the members of minority groups also might encourage them to influence the outcome of a group task or decision. For example, minority members who are very outgoing or have high self-esteem are more likely to speak up if they disagree with the majority. Some minority members may feel threatened because the majority outnumbers them. This feeling of threat might encourage minority members to increase their number of supporters to be equal to or exceed the majority in size. Also, minority group members may feel a personal responsibility to defend their views if their views are very strong or very important to them. Although it is often easier to side with the majority to bring the group to an agreement, the minority might be motivated to take a stand and attempt to influence the majority view or behavior for many reasons.

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