The social psychology of minority influence

Abstract

It was made possible through several exchange networks all contributing to its creation.The first is the social psychology research team of the University of Geneva, and in particular, Willem Doise, who introduced us to the study of intergroup relations and with whom we developed our constructivist approach to social psychology; Stamos Papastamou, collaborator in our first book on the issue, The Power of Minorities; and Clause Kaiser and Patricia Roux, with whom so many of our studies were conducted.A second network, this time international and connected to the first, was instrumental in enabling the experiments reported in this book.Serge Moscovici played a central role here, providing initial inspiration and constant suggestions.These networks were supported from outside the University of Geneva, where we found the means to develop our research and confront our ideas with others, particularly through two conferences on minority influence, one held in Barcelona in 1980, the other in Geneva in 1985, with the assistance of the Laboratoire Europ‚en de Psychologie Sociale and the European Association of Experimental Social Psychology.Our experimental research, so fundamental to this approach,