Perspectives on Minority Influence

The contributors to this volume examine social processes in terms of minority influence. This alternative perspective will be of interest not only to social and community psychologists, but also to political scientists concerned to understand how beliefs or behaviours are modified.

How does a minority exert influence on a majority? Traditionally social psychologists have characterised influence as a process leading to conformity - the minority coming to accept the view of the majority. For the contributors to this volume, working in a society where the reverse process is frequently exemplified - a society characterised by change and innovation - such an approach is no longer tenable. They believe that only by examining social processes also in terms of minority influence can the paradox be resolved. The volume is organised into two broadly based but interconnected parts. Part I analyses the process of influence itself, while Part II sets it within the context of groups. The influence of minorities is thus located within the cognitive and social field in which interaction between minorities and majorities occurs. The original and dynamic research paradigms presented here and the theoretical and empirical results that are reported offer alternative insights not only into the phenomenon of influence per se, but also into such classical notions as 'the group' , 'deviance' and 'convergence'.