Computer-Mediated Communication and Majority Influence

“Majority influence is the attempt by a majority of people in a group to impose its common position on a minority of dissenters during decision making (Levine and Russo 1987)”

Majority influence can have both positive and negative effects on decision making. Majority influence is also affected by Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC). The culture of the audience or group also has an impact on majority influence.

‘”At the extreme, strong majority influence can lead to groupthink, when the striving for unanimity overrides the motivation to appraise realistically alternative courses of action (Janis 1989).” The paper sites extreme examples of this. President Kennedy and the Bay of Pigs invasion, President Johnson escalation of the Vietnam War, as well as the Challenger disaster of NASA in 1986 are all monumental mistakes caused by groupthink. Majority influence can also be a useful tool. “In an increasingly turbulent business environment groups often need to make complex decisions very rapidly to respond effectively to environmental changes (Huber 1984). In emergency situations majority influence needs prevail where is hasn’t in some circumstances. The way the U.S. government dealt with Hurricane Katrina was an instance where majority influence did come into play soon enough.

I was surprised that studies in the paper suggest that majority influence is more of a factor without CMC then with it. Majority influence always came into play with a tipping point of a majority being at 3. In face to face meetings majority influence had the greatest impact. Followed by face to face in a CMC setting which was then followed by CMC in a dispersed setting. It was interesting that in the studies sited that majority influence always won out but it took longer in a CMC environment. What was also interesting was that two different cultures were used. One being the United States and the other being Singapore.

The culture of the audience or group being either individualistic or collective made a difference in majority influence but the results were the same. Individualistic cultures have stronger more disperse opinions but the majority has a louder voice and is more opinionated as well. In a collective society Majority influence prevails because dissenters don’t want to “rock the boat” so to speak.

To conclude majority influence is prevalent in CMC and face to face communication. Hopefully CMC will allow more voices to be heard and better judgments made as we move forward together as a people in the information age.

References:

Bernard C.Y. Tan Kwok-Kee Wei Richard T. Watson Danial L. Clapper Ephriam R. McLean Computer-Mediated Communication and Majority influence: Assessing the Impact in an Individualistic and Collective culture.

Huber, G.P. 1984 The nature and design of post industrial organizations.

Janis, I. L. Crucial Decisions: Leadership in Policymaking and Crisis management. The Free Press NY NY.

Levine J. M. E. M. Russo 1987 Majority and Minority influence in group processes.