Majority group cohesion, not weakness, is the precondition for minority influence

Evidence

This logic is perfectly compatible with the leniency contract interpretation of the process of in-group minority influence (Crano, 2010c; Crano & Alvaro, 1998; Crano & Seyranian, 2008), which holds that majority members’ concern with maintaining the cohesion and wellbeing of the group results in the majority’s lenient treatment of the minority, and this leniency indirectly enhances the minority’s chances for success (Crano & Chen, 1998). Paradoxically, perhaps, a positive value placed on group membership by majority group members, who require the continued integrity of the group, is necessary if the minority is to have a chance of influencing the majority. Of course, other conditions apply if the minority is to prevail. However, these arguments do not apply if the in-group minority’s position threatens the group’s integrity or its continued existence. In that circumstance, the majority is likely to circle the wagons and reject outside influences. However, short of threats to the continued existence of the group, the fundamental precondition for minority influence is that the targets of minority influence, the members of the majority, care about the continued survival of the group. If this condition is not met, then there is little to motivate the majority to bother with the plaints of the minority, and without a viable minority, the majority will stagnate. — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 1415

Categorization

• XREF: Challenges a commonsense assumption carried in the prejudice thread (that out-group influence requires weakening the in-group’s identity commitment); minority influence paradoxically depends on majority caring about group survival. — connects to: Business lobbying dominance stems from group count, not per-group clout — Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page, Testing Theories of American Politics:…, 124
• SEED: Angle: the perverse stake majorities have in listening — satirical essay on how indifference, not hostility, is the true minority killer.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 1415