Minority sources hold influence primacy when no strong prior position exists

Evidence

Crano and Hannula-Bral (1994) assumed that this outcome would occur owing to the enhanced salience of minorities, which, almost by definition, are more rare and unusual than the majority. As such, the minority’s persuasive communications were more likely than those of the majority to be attended to and elaborated. Under these circumstances, given a strong message and a context in which no strong position had been established, the usual resistance to minority influence was not expected. The hypothesized enhanced attention to the minority’s position coupled with a credible communication was expected to result in greater influence, and this expectation was confirmed. In a true attitude formation context, that is, one in which a strong position has not been established, these results foster the rather unusual prediction of the primacy of minority influence sources over majority sources (see also Olson & Kendrick, 2008). — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 1396

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to dual-process persuasion models and the classic minority vs majority influence literature (Moscovici, Nemeth).
• DEFINE: Clarifies the attitude formation vs attitude change distinction as conceptually load-bearing.