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When is a minority a minority? Active versus passive minority advocacy and social influence

Kerr, Norbert L. (2002) When is a minority a minority? Active versus passive minority advocacy and social influence. European Journal of Social Psychology, 32 (4). pp. 471-483. ISSN 0046-2772. (doi:10.1002/ejsp.103) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:42438)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.103

Abstract

Some conceptions of minority influence have stressed the impact of the mere existence of an unpopular, deviant position. Others (e.g. Moscovici, 1980) have emphasized the active opposition of a committed minority to a powerful majority. An active advocate is defined as one that is aware of the level of support for his/her position, expresses his/her position openly, and whose outcomes may depend on others' agreement/disagreement. In the present study, the potential moderating role of an advocates' active/passive status on opinion change was examined. When the issue was highly relevant to the target of influence, all that mattered was the quality of the source's arguments (i.e. majority? minority, active source?=?passive source). When the issue was not highly relevant to the target, though, active and passive sources had different impact: (1) active sources prompted attention to argument quality (for minorities) and heuristic compliance (for majorities); (2) passive sources prompted insensitivity to both the popularity of the position and to the quality of the source's arguments.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1002/ejsp.103
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Psychology
Depositing User: M.L. Barnoux
Date Deposited: 19 Aug 2014 10:37 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:16 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/42438 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Kerr, Norbert L..

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