Niveles experimentales de conflicto social e influencia minoritariaLímites en la definición de influencia indirecta

Abstract

The purpose of the present research is to develop an experimental hierarchy which studies the most important characteristics of social conflicts in minority influence processes as well as an analysis of the boundaries in minority latent influence. We hence uphold the idea that the indirect influence of minorities rests on a relation of a non-transitive binary nature between the minority positions and the opinions or attitudes object of influence. In order to do this, an experiment was elaborated; it combines the following variables, categorial and representative ownership of the minority sources; in a 3 x 2 factorial design. The subjects, 197 high schools students (110 girls and 87 boys), are distributed in six experimental conditions resulting from crossing two kinds of variables: influence source belonging to the ingroup, to the outgroup or to the minority without social categorization; representative or not representative minority source. The results underline the importance of the social conflict in the production of minority influence and seem to confirm the hypothesis of the limits on indirect minority influence.