People with relatively extreme opinions may be more willing to
publicly share their views than those with more moderate views,
according to a new study.
The key is that the extremists have to believe that more people share their views than actually do, the research found.
Social and Political Repercussions
The
results may offer one possible explanation for our fractured political
climate in the United States, where extreme liberal and conservative
opinions often seem to dominate.
"When people with extreme views
have this false sense that they are in the majority, they are more
willing to express themselves," said Kimberly Rios Morrison, co-author
of the study and assistant professor of communication at Ohio State
University.
Group Dynamics on Viewpoints
How do people with extreme views believe they are in
the majority? This can happen in groups that tend to lean moderately in
one direction on an issue. Those that take the extreme version of their
group's viewpoint may believe that they actually represent the true
views of their group, Morrison said.
One example is views about alcohol use among college students.
In
a series of studies, Morrison and her co-author found that college
students who were extremely pro-alcohol were more likely to express
their opinions than others, even though most students surveyed were
moderate in their views about alcohol use.
"Students who were
stridently pro-alcohol tended to think that their opinion was much more
popular than it actually was," she said. "They seemed to buy into the
stereotype that college students are very comfortable with alcohol use."
The average student's views were near the mid-point of
the scale -- but most rated the typical Stanford student as more
pro-alcohol than themselves.
"There's this stereotype that
college students are very pro-alcohol, and even most college students
believe it," Morrison said. "Most students think of themselves as less
pro-alcohol than average."
Morrison conducted this study with Dale Miller of Stanford University. Their research appeared in a recent issue of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
In the next two studies, students
again rated themselves on similar scales that revealed how pro-alcohol
they were. They were then asked how willing they would be to discuss
their views on alcohol use with other Stanford students.
Change Advocacy?
In
general, students who were the most pro-alcohol were the most likely to
say they wanted to express their views, compared to those with moderate
or anti-alcohol views.
However, in one study the researchers
added a twist: they gave participants fake data which indicated that
other Stanford students held relatively conservative, anti-alcohol
views.
Willing to Stick Your Neck Out?
When extremely pro-alcohol students viewed this data, they
were less likely to say they were willing to discuss alcohol usage with
their fellow students.
"It is only when they have this sense that
they are in the majority that extremely pro-alcohol students are more
willing to express their views on the issue," Morrison said.
However,
students who had more extreme anti-alcohol views were not more likely
to want to express their views, even when they saw the data that
suggested a majority of their fellow students agreed with them.
"Their
views that they are in the minority may be so deeply entrenched that it
is difficult to change just based on our one experiment," she said. "In
addition, they don't have the experience expressing their opinions on
the subject like the pro-alcohol extremists do, so they may not feel as
comfortable."
Extreme Versions of the Group's Actual Views
This finding shows that not all extremists are more
willing to share their opinions - only those who hold more extreme
versions of the group's actual views.
These results have
implications for how Americans view the political opinions of their
communities and their political parties, Morrison said.
Take as an example a community that tends to be moderate politically, but leans slightly liberal.
People
with more extreme liberal views in the community may be more likely
than others to attend publicly visible protests and display bumper
stickers espousing their liberal views, because they think the
community supports them.
"Everyone else sees these extreme
opinions being expressed on a regular basis and they may eventually
come to believe their community is more liberal than it actually is,"
Morrison said. "The same process could occur in moderately conservative
communities.
The Social Change Process
"You have a cycle that feeds on itself: the more you
hear these extremists expressing their opinions, the more you are going
to believe that those extreme beliefs are normal for your community."
A
similar process may occur in groups such as political parties.
Moderately conservative people who belong to the Republican Party, for
example, may believe that people with extremely conservative views
represent their party, because those are the opinions they hear most
often. However, that may not be true.
The Silent Majority...the Vocal Minority
Morrison said when she and
her colleagues were thinking about doing this study, they had in mind
the phrase about the "silent majority" in the United States, which was
popularized by President Richard Nixon and his vice-president, Spiro
Agnew. They referred to the silent majority as the people who supported
the war in Vietnam, but who were overshadowed by the "vocal minority"
against the war.
While there may not be one monolithic silent
majority in the United States, Morrison said this study suggests that
the minority may indeed be more vocal in some cases.
Source: Newswise
American Bird watchers coast to coast are invited
to take part in the 13th annual Great Backyard Bird Count, Friday,
February 12, through Monday, February 15, 2010. Participants in
the free event will join tens of thousands of volunteers counting
birds in their own backyards, local parks or wildlife
refuges.
Bird populations are always shifting and changing.