Cards (4)

  • ·       Support for flexibility - Nemeth & Brilmayer (1987) found in a simulated jury trial confederates holding a minority view who compromised with the majority were mire influential.
  • ·         Better quality decisions can be made by minorities – Nemeth (2010) argues dissent ‘opens’ the mind making us search for more information and consider more opinions. Research has found better decisions are made when a dissenting minority was present.
  • ·         There is a tipping point in minority influence – this is where the number of people holding a minority position is sufficient to change a majority opinion. Xie et al (2011) found just 10% was necessary. 
  • ·         Difficult to convenience people the value of dissentNemeth argues dissent can be seen as disrupting the harmony, so their view point is belittled and the group are marginalized. This means innovate thinking may be lost/unheard.