Norms and attitude change II: The phenomenon of bipolarization

Abstract

Abstract In a preceding article we discussed the links between norm and attitude change: a particular phenomenon in this relation will be developed in the present article. During a group discussion, and in the presence of a consistent confederate defending positions which follow the trend of the norms on the global level of society, subjects tend to polarize their attitudes much more than in control groups. In the opposite situation, we observe a division of the group: a number of subjects are sensitive to the confederate's reactionary positions; these subjects are initially, that is, before the interaction, ‘moderate’. The other subjects, with firmer initial positions, resist the consistent confederate, thus resigning themselves to not reaching the consensus demanded of them by the experimenter, and enduring the conflict resulting from the standstill in the group negotiation.