People Will Not Change Their Oppinion Even if They Are the Minority
Have you ever wondered what would have happened if you would have developed a strong opinion about something only to find out that your peers, your family, and so on, all disagree with you? Many would say that if such a thing would happen, then they would change their opinion, but science says otherwise.
The researchers have found out that when such a situation occurs, the people react exactly in the opposite manner. Instead of changing their opinion because the other people have a different opinion, they grow more confident in what they believe in, just because of all the other people. Richard Petty, co-author of the study and professor of psychology at Ohio State University stated that this happens because we feel prod because we were able to disapprove something which the majority of the other people believed in. That also gives you a little feeling of superiority and of individuality. Apparently the people who have a different opinion than the majority feel that they do not belong to the “herd”, and that they have a will of their own, even if their opinion is wrong.
The person is more confident that he is right, even if the facts prove something else. Pablo Briñol, a former postdoctoral fellow at Ohio State, and Javier Horcago, both at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in Spain were also involved in the experiment. The results of the research will be published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and will appear in the future editions of the magazines. Petty said that the research is not an uncommon one in the field of psychology. Many similar studies have been done in the domain, in which they psychologists wanted to observe the influence which the majority opinion has on the individual.
It has been revealed that the majority opinion has a very big influence on the individual. However, the influence occurs only when the subject bares no importance for the individual, and when he simply does not care too much about it. When he is not interested in the subject, the people will follow the majority. The psychologists say that this happens because the people feel that it is much easier to follow the crowd than to make a choice. The minority opinion is important as well, but unlike the majority opinion, this one matters when the subject is important for the individual.
However, the other researches were different than this one. The main difference between them is that in the case of the previous researches, the people received the majority opinion before they had the opportunity of giving too much thought to the situation. Petty and his team did things different: they gave the people time to think about the situation and only after they thought about it they were given the majority opinion. The researchers performed similar tests on students from Spain. They told the students that they would be examining the organizational conditions of an international company. The company was unfamiliar for them, but the researchers told them that they might work for the company in the future, and as a result the subject had importance for all of the students.
The students received whether strong or weak arguments about the company. For example they were told that the work schedule is very flexible and that they will be able to work with much ease, which was important for the students. They also stated that the company had an attractive logo, and as everyone expected, this information was not have the same importance. The students were asked to share their thoughts about the company, and the results were not surprising. The ones, who received the weak information about the firm, formed a negative opinion about it, whereas the ones who received the strong information formed a positive opinion about it.
After that the researchers told half of the students that 86 percent of the other students support the company, and they told the other half that 14 percent of the students support the company. After they received this information the students were asked to rate the confidence in their choice. They were also asked to rate their attitude towards the company. The results showed that when the students who had a negative opinion about the company because they received weak arguments about it, were much more confident in their decision when they were told that the majority of the other students had positive opinions about the company. They were less confident in their decision when they were told that the other students have negative beliefs about the company as well.
Petty said that this happens because the people, who do not share an opinion with the majority, think that their thoughts must be really good, as they were able to find a flaw in something which most of the people saw as being perfect. Petty said that it was extremely important to give the information to the students before they asked them to make a choice. He believes that the results would have been different if the students would have been told about the majority and minority opinions before they would have been given the strong and weak arguments. He also stated that when people learn about the opinion of the others after they have formed their own opinion, will make the people be more confident in their decisions.
He stated that the research also revealed the fact how persuaders might be able to influence other people. If one has a weak argument, it is best to reveal the fact that many people share your opinion. If you do that, you have high chances that the other people will support your opinion. Petty explained that there are high chances for the people to support your opinion even if it is weak, because they go with the majority when it comes to subjects which do not have too much importance for them. However, the situation will be different if you present your weak argument first, because then the people will form their own opinion about the situation.
