Throughout our discussion of social influence, dissenters have been mentioned frequently, due to the large impact they can have on group behavior. Everytime Dr. G. says the word dissenter, my mind immediately jumps to Thomas. Each summer throughout college I worked at a summer camp in Austin with children ages 3-10. Last summer I worked a lot with the youngest group, 3 and 4 year olds. After spending even a short amount of time with that many children, you quickly learn the importance of order, as well as the chaos that can result from just one rebel. It is veryimportant that each child respects your authority and will get in line when you say to do so, because when he is about to jump into the deep end of the pool, though he is too little to swim, you want to know that when you say stop he won't pause to question your authority and risk drowning. Basically, maintaining control over the group is essential. Inherently there is always a troublemaker in each group, some worse than others. There is always at least one or two kids that really push your limits, no doubt testing you to make sure you the adult and capable of taking care of them. Over the years there have been some fairly memorable testers. However, no one will ever live up to Thomas. I was assigned to the youngest group toward the end of the summer and so I didn't interact directly with Thomas until after I had heard many stories. I spent most of the summer watching his tantrums from a distance. Thomas was this cute, chubby, short, blonde kid with big brown eyes, a bowl cut, and a really bad stutter. He looked a lot like a chunky Dennis the Menis (that's what I called him) and when you asked him his name he always said Thomas the Train. He wasn't what you'd picture as the troublemaker, he had a sweet disposition and was really pretty amusing. BUT, when you asked him to do something he didn't want to do, there was no way in hell he would obey. He would first ignore you, then run away, then after you finally caught him he would go limp and lay on the floor. If you threatened punishment he would burst into tears and screaming but still wouldn't obey. Despite the tantrums though, the most challenging part of dealing with Thomas was dealing with the rebellion he started among the other kids. Changing after swimming was always the worst. We'd have about 20 3 year-olds in a very small room, all incapable of dressing themselves, with about 10 minutes to change and only 2 or 3 counselors to help. Thomas made it even worse. He would run around distracting all the other kids from changing. I finally started getting the kids to sit down and look at a book after they changed but of course this would only hold Thomas for about 2 seconds and he'd be off to leading the changed kids into some kind of trouble. I realized pretty fast that Thomas was the main ingredient to getting the group to obey. If Thomas was calm and listening there was peace (even more so on days he didn't come). When he started causing trouble, it woudl take about 30 seconds for the whole group to be rioting. To maintain order in the group I had to exert 5% energy to keeping everyone calm and 95% energy went to Thomas and either keeping him calm or separate. So, everytime we mention the power of just one dissenter, I get this instant image of a room full of naked porkies (that's what we called their group- after Porky Pig) and Thomas running around with his shorts on his head causing a full-fledged 3 year-old rebellion. This situation is a perfect example of minority influence, the way in which a dissenter can cause change in a group, such as taking it from calm to chaotic, (De Dreu & De Vries, 2001; Hollander, 1985; Maass & Clark, 1984; Moscovici et al., 1985; Mugny & Perez, 1991).
De Dreu, C., & De Vries, N. (Eds.). (2001). Group consensus and minority influence: Implications for innovation. London: Blackwell.
Hollander, E. P. (1985). Leadership and power. In G. Lindzey & E. Aronson (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (3rd ed., Vol. 2, pp. 485-537). New York: Random House.
Maass, A., & Clark, R. D., III. (1984). Hidden impact of minorities: Fifteen years of minority influence research. Psychological Bulletin, 95, 428-450.
Moscovici, S., Mugny, G., & Van Avermaet, E. (Eds.). (1985). Perspective on minority influence. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Mugny, G., & Perez, J. A. (1991). Social psychology of minority influence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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2 comments:
Little kids are the best example of dissenters because there always seems to be at least one that leads them into mischief!
I worked at a summer camp as a lifeguard for a few years, and I observed many cases of these headstrong kids breaking rules and persuading others to join them. One day, a little girl decided to start doing dives in the shallow end of the pool, over other kids heads. Each time she dove, she got closer and closer to landing on top of them. I blew my whistle at her many times, but every time she successfully jumped, she got new peers to join her in her risky activity. I finally had to get the counselors to break it up and keep those kids from swimming the rest of the day. But it was obvious from her behavior that kids will easily follow dissenters, and it only takes one!
Just this morning I experienced the challenge of a dissenting child! I work at a nursery for a local church and am in charge of caring for the toddler group. Most mornings, we have the typical buzz of activity, but everyone plays safely and respects on another. That is, until Mason arrives. Every morning Mason runs in with his cowboy boots and hat and an attitude the size of Texas. It's not long before the cars that were once peacefully commuting across the tile become projectile objects aimed at the nearest King Kong (namely, me and my coworkers).
Mason is a sweet kid and, if you can catch him in time, fairly obedient. However, if at some point during his morning transition, he catches a whiff of the potential for dissent, he's hooked and will spend the rest of the morning doing the exact opposite of whatever you request and leading every other toddler following in his footsteps. I feel your pain in the first-hand experience of a minority dissenter and how difficult it can be to reestablish authority.
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