Minority Influence and Group Dynamics: Understanding Social Behavior

Minority Influence

Social relations involve antagonistic forces, where some groups seek to maintain power and status while others strive for improvement. S. Moscovici investigated how minority groups can influence the majority. He conducted various experimental investigations:

• Consistency: The minority must consistently and persistently transmit their ideas, defending them with conviction.
• Flexibility: Consistency can be maintained rigidly or flexibly.
• Defections of the majority: The minority can challenge the social consensus by proposing alternatives to majority rule.
• Fighting psychologizing: Some groups attack the minority without considering their ideas, resorting to the Ad hominem fallacy.

Groups

Human groups are diverse, with varying structures and organizations, sometimes flexible and sometimes rigid. Understanding the inner workings of groups and intergroup dynamics is crucial.

Characteristics of the Group

• Common objectives: Defined by a deficiency state, aiming to achieve a new situation.
• Group structure: The organization that guides the group's activities.
  • Status: Each member's position within the group, contributing to its operation.
  • Role: The expected behavior of a person based on their status.
• Standards: Rules and procedures governing the behavior and attitudes of group members.
• Values and beliefs: Shared ideas, beliefs, values, and attitudes that form an ideology, maintaining group cohesion.
• Group atmosphere: The mood and feelings within a group, influencing interactions.
• Group communication: Forms of communication, understanding, and mastery of the social environment.
• Types of groups: Size (large/small), duration (temporary/permanent), origin of affiliation (primary/secondary), and formality (formal/informal).

Groupthink

Irving Janis identified eight symptoms of groupthink:

1. Illusion of invulnerability: Groups develop excessive optimism, blinding them to dangers when making important decisions.
2. Unquestioned belief in the group's morality: The group believes in its inherent righteousness, as seen in Kennedy's advisors against communism.
3. Common stereotypes: The group views its enemies as too weak or unintelligent to negotiate with.
4. Collective rationalization: The group collectively rejects challenges to justify their decisions, using lies if necessary to defend their interests.