Distinguishing between silent and vocal minorities: not all deviants feel marginal.

Full Abstract

People's opinions can deviate from that of the average group member in two ways. Descriptive deviants diverge from the average group attitude in a direction consistent with the desirable group attitude; prescriptive deviants diverge from the average group attitude in a direction inconsistent with the desirable group attitude. Three studies tested the hypothesis that descriptive deviants are more willing to express their opinions than either nondeviants or prescriptive deviants. Study 1 found that college students reported more comfort in expressing descriptive deviant opinions because descriptive deviance induced feelings of superior conformity (i.e., being "different but good"). Study 2 found that descriptive deviants reported more pride after expressing their opinions, were rated as more proud by an observer, and were more willing to publicize their opinions. Study 3 showed that political bumper stickers with descriptive deviant messages were displayed disproportionately more frequently than were those with prescriptive deviant messages.(c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved

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Author information

Author/s: Morrison, Kimberly Rios (KR); Miller, Dale T (DT);

Affiliation: Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. krios@stanford.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Journal of personality and social psychology (J Pers Soc Psychol), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-May; vol 94 (issue 5) : pp 871-82

Dates: Created 2008/04/30; Completed 2008/08/11;

PMID: 18444744, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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