Anticipated interaction and thought generation: The role of faction size

Little attention has been given to how expected membership in a majority or minority faction affects the cognitive activity of prospective group members. In this study, subjects who expected to join a six-person discussion group were led to believe that (a) the other five people in the group disagreed with their position, (b) one person agreed and four people disagreed,(c) two people agreed and three disagreed, (d) three people agreed and two disagreed or (e) four people agreed and one person disagreed. Prior to the discussion, subjects were asked to liar their thoughts concerning the discussion topic. Results indicated that the smaller the subjects' faction (and the larger the opposing fact ion), the less biased subjects were in thinking about their own position. These findings shed new light on majority and minority influence and suggest char more attention should be devoted to the cognitive consequences of anticipated interaction in group settings.