Moscovici, S. & Perez, J. (2006) - A study of minorities as victims

Description

Moscovici, S. & Perez, J. (2006) - A study of minorities as victims

Informations

• Publié par: atyjedum
• Nombre de lectures: 76
• Langue: English

Extrait

European Journal of Social Psychology Eur. J. Soc. Psychol. (in press) Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI : 10.1002/ejsp.388

A study of minorities as victims

SERGE MOSCOVICI 1 AND JUAN A. PE´  REZ 2 * 1 Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France 2 University of Valencia, Spain

Abstract This article presents the idea that during the 1990s an important change took place in relation between minorities and majorities: the emergence of minorities as victims alongside the formerly predominant active, militant minorities. A hypothesis is raised that these two types of minorities differ in their agenda as well as in the nature of the influence they exert. Active minorities trigger an external conflict with majority and induce conversion (latent rather than overt influence); minorities as victims create an internal conflict, a sense of guilt, within the majority, while they exert an exclusively overt influence. We report two experiments confirming our hypothesis. We discuss the novelty of this phenomenon and its relevance. Copyright # 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

INTRODUCTION

An Unfinished Task We are confident that the theory of innovation by the action of minorities has not exhausted its heuristic value for one major reason: as minorities keep changing, the field of exploration keeps broadening. To clarify this point, let us recall the two main explanations proposed by us to explain the attraction and the hold of minorities on majorities (Moscovici, 1976). The first was the behavior of the active minority, which provoked a conflict by refusing to adopt the norms and beliefs of the majority. It served as a model for change, either by severing its link with the group or by transgression against prohibitions. It thereby gave access to the unknown, the original, or to an alternative point of view, of which the dissident minorities at the end of last century are the best example. But we also raised the hypothesis that social culpability might be a second explanation, applying to many types of deviants and minorities. These belong to groups subjected to various forms of economic, social, and racial discriminations that place them in a position of inferiority and exclude them from society’s idea of normality. They are deprived— whether glaringly and directly or hypocritically — of *Correspondence to: Juan A. Pe´rez, Facultad de Psicologı´a; Av. Blasco Iba´n˜  ez, 21; E-46010-Valencia, Spain. E-mail: [e-mail]

Copyright # 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Received 16 February 2005 Accepted 27 July 2006