Abstract
This research focuses on people’s perceptions and explanations of majority and minority influence, and on the socio-cognitive processes that underlie them. Two experimental studies (Ns = 89, 139) examined the effects of source status (majority vs. minority) and message quality (strong vs. weak arguments) on perceptions of influence on self and others, explanations for this influence and message elaboration. An estimation of potential (and actual) influence on self and other recipients was examined and an expected bias in perception was evident, others were thought to be influenced more than the self (i.e. a third-person perception). These perceptions depended on the greater message elaboration instigated by a minority (vs. majority) source. The reasons people offer about the potential (or actual) influence were also examined – in particular, people’s thoughts about the influential message and source’s status (i.e. the information that they receive a message by a majority or a minority influence). Results showed that thinking as an explanation of influence is more important for a majority (vs. a minority) message and this does not depend on actual cognitive elaboration but rather on self-serving processes. Overall, the results show that thinking as an underlying process of, or as an account for, influence is differentially connected with majority and minority source. These findings contribute to our understanding of perceptions and explanations of social influence and of their underlying socio-cognitive processes.
Highlights
Social influence research has illuminated the effects of majority and minority messages on people’s attitudes and thoughts as well as the socio-cognitive processes underlying these effects
Do people assume that a majority message can differentially affect themselves and other recipients? Previous research suggests that people generally make such estimates in biased ways, but no previous research has examined this in a social influence context
Concerning potential influence on self, strong arguments led to greater influence in the minority condition only, replicating similar patterns of results found in studies of actual social influence (e.g. Gardikiotis et al, 2005; Martin et al, 2002)
Summary
Social influence research has illuminated the effects of majority and minority messages on people’s attitudes and thoughts as well as the socio-cognitive processes underlying these effects (for reviews see Martin & Hewstone, 2010; Mugny & Pérez, 1991; Papastamou, Gardikiotis & Prodromitis, 2017). Little is known about what people think of social influence itself, whether they estimate actual (or potential) majority and minority influence on themselves and others and how they explain these effects. This paper begins with a selective review of majority and minority influence research, focusing on the underlying socio-cognitive processes that are of main interest in the present studies (and necessarily neglecting other parts of social influence research). A main goal of the present study is to focus on the processes underlying perceptions and explanations of influence and especially on the cognitive elaboration that accompanies them
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