A council meeting has produced heated debate about an issue. Most of the members of the council hold one opinion, but a few hold another. During a break in the meeting, the members of the council who have the minority opinion call you for advice as to the best way to influence the majority of the council. Based on social psychological research, particularly concerning the dual-process approach,

what should you advise them to do?

What will be an ideal response?

According to the dual-process approach, minorities and majorities exert influence in
different ways. You should advise the council members to take advantage of factors
that enhance minority influence rather than trying to manipulate factors that enhance
majority influence. One such factor is style of behavior. The research of Moscovici and
others has suggested that consistency is very important for a group minority. That is,
the people in the minority should be forceful, persistent, and unwavering in support of
their view, while appearing to be open-minded and flexible. Hollander recommends a
different approach, however. Hollander argues that those in the minority should first
conform to the majority opinions in order to establish themselves as competent insiders,
and only then dissent from the majority. Thus, you should advise the council members
that they initially show their support for the majority's opinion and then suggest their
own opinion, and further, that they present their arguments for this latter position in a
forceful, persistent, and unwavering style. In addition, the council members should also
call for an anonymous, private vote on the issue, as minorities exert stronger influence
on private measures of conformity than on public measures.