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Modelling courage: The role of dissent in fostering independence
Author(s) -
Nemeth Charlan,
Chiles Cynthia
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
european journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.609
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1099-0992
pISSN - 0046-2772
DOI - 10.1002/ejsp.2420180306
Subject(s) - dissent , dissenting opinion , conformity , psychology , social psychology , independence (probability theory) , political science , law , statistics , mathematics , politics
While dissent has been construed in terms of social support and informational influence, this paper hypothesizes that exposure to dissenting minority views, even when they are wrong, stimulates resistance to conformity and increased adherence to one's own views. In this study, individuals in groups of four judged the colour of a series of blue stimuli and were exposed to one individual who consistently judged the stimuli to be ‘green: inconsistently judged them to be 'green' or expressed no dissent. In a subsequent setting, when judging a series of red slides; subjects were exposed to a majority who repeatedly judged them as 'orange’. Exposure to dissent, whether it was consistent or inconsistent, substantially reduced the level of conformity. In fact, exposure to the consistent dissent led to almost complete independence.