Minority influence requires majority acceptance of the minority as legitimate in-group

Evidence

How does this picture comport with our emphasis on the minority’s successes? We have argued that minorities can affect majority beliefs and behaviors, but only when they are accepted as legitimate members of the larger group. Minorities attempt to move into this status for many reasons, such as to fulfill belongingness needs and to enable them to move the majority. Minorities that are of low status, heavily stigmatized, or socially disadvantaged are not likely to be accepted by the majority as in-group, irrespective of their desires for inclusion. When the minority is not accepted as legitimate or acceptable for inclusion, its power to influence is forfeit. Satisfying uniqueness needs may motivate individuals to distance themselves from the majority; however, unless the uniqueness is reigned in and the minority is accepted as a legitimate part of the majority, it is destined to remain out-group and thus surrenders its power to influence. — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 1425

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s noise/silence thread in a different way — the constraint that acceptance precedes influence mirrors how cultural meaning must be legible before it can register. More directly, it fits the broader social-psychology theme the reader tracks.
• DEFINE: Clarifies the in-group projection model of Wenzel et al.: the superordinate group supplies the basis for comparing in-group vs out-group, and minorities are valued to the extent they fit its projected features.

Related

• Minority influence on majorities requires social legitimacy, which stigmatized groups cannot attain (similarity 0.91)
• Minorities gain acceptance by foregrounding traits valued in the superordinate group (similarity 0.87)
• Groups are judged by fit with a superordinate prototype that favors the majority (similarity 0.83)
• Majority group cohesion, not weakness, is the precondition for minority influence (similarity 0.83)
• Groups tolerate dissent unless it threatens identity-defining core beliefs (similarity 0.82)
• In-group minorities out-persuade in-group majorities on objective but undecided judgment tasks (similarity 0.82)
• Majority care for group survival is what permits minority influence (similarity 0.82)
• Minority-sourced persuasion produces lasting change and spillover to unaddressed beliefs, unlike majority pressure. (similarity 0.81)
• Distinct minority group members show higher satisfaction and self-esteem than majorities. (similarity 0.79)
• In-groups acquire definition only through comparison and contrast with out-groups (similarity 0.79)
• In-group identity is defined only through contrast with out-groups (similarity 0.79)
• Minority sources hold influence primacy when no strong prior position exists (similarity 0.79)
• Majority members contrast with in-groups while minorities assimilate with them (similarity 0.79)
• Minorities influence attitudes more than majorities when no prior position exists (similarity 0.79)