Cognitive Restructuring in Minority and Majority Influence
Abstract
An experiment was developed to determine (a) the means by which source groups invoke attitude change and (b) the difference in influence between deviant minority source groups and valued majority source groups. The literature supports both pre and post-construal attitude change. The present research supports the former, a cognitive restructuring theory of attitude change. The attitude issue is first reinterpreted in a more favorable way, and then attitude change occurs based upon this reinterpretation. Contrary to some models of minority/majority influence, we have found that majorities as well as minorities use informational pressures to invoke attitude change. We hypothesize that deviant minorities do not immediately have direct public influence because they lack the power to induce reinterpretation. Majorities will have influential power only to the extent that they are valued by the subject.
Description
Program year: 1996/1997Digitized from print original stored in HDR
Subject
attitude changemajorities
minorities
cognitive restructuring theory
informational pressures
Citation
Purvis, Daniel L. (1994). Cognitive Restructuring in Minority and Majority Influence. University Undergraduate Fellow. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /CAPSTONE -PurvisDaniel _1994.