Gabriel Mugny

The social psychology of minority influence

1. Explain change 2. Minority influence and social comparison 3. The limits of discrimination 4. Validation and minority influence 5. Comparison and validation in minority influence 6. Resistance and change 7. Appendices References Index.

Social representations of intelligence

List of tables Preface Acknowledgements 1. From intelligence to its social representations 2. Research methodology 2. The dimensions of intelligence: results of the factor analysis 4. The socio-psychological origins of representations of intelligence 5. Parental identity 6. Sexual differentiation and representations of intelligence 7. Effects of occupation 8. Models of the child: experimental approach 9. Conclusions Appendixes References Index.

Performance-Approach and Performance-Avoidance Goals: When Uncertainty Makes a Difference

Performance-avoidance goals (the desire to avoid performing more poorly than others do) have been shown to have consistently deleterious effects on performance but the effects of performance-approach goals (trying to outperform others) are more complex. Two studies examine uncertainty as a moderator of the effect of performance-approach goals on performance. Experiment 1 shows that manipulated performance-approach goals lead to better performance than do performance-avoidance goals in the absence of uncertainty about performance but when participants learn that a coactor disagreed with them about problem solutions, creating uncertainty, performance-approach goals do not differ from performance-avoidance goals in their effect on performance. Experiment 2 shows that uncertainty also moderates the effects of self-set performance-approach goals. Moreover, the same dynamic occurs with another kind of uncertainty: negative competence feedback.

“I'm not gay. . . . I'm a real man!”: Heterosexual Men's Gender Self-Esteem and Sexual Prejudice

Five studies examined the hypothesis that heterosexual men, but not heterosexual women, endorse negative attitudes toward homosexuality (i.e., sexual prejudice) in order to maintain a positive gender-related identity that is unambiguously different from a homosexual identity. Studies 1 and 2 showed that mens (but not womens) gender self-esteem (but not personal self-esteem) was positively related to sexual prejudice: The more positive heterosexual mens gender self-esteem, the more negative their attitude toward homosexuality. Studies 3 and 4 showed that this link appears specifically among men motivated to maintain psychological distance from gay men. Study 5 experimentally manipulated the perceived biological differences between homosexual and heterosexual men. The previously observed link between mens gender self-esteem and sexual prejudice appeared in the control and no-differences conditions but disappeared in the differences condition. These findings are discussed in terms of mens attitudes as a defensive function against threat to masculinity.

Conflict Elaboration and Cognitive Outcomes

This article presents advice for teachers about using sociocognitive conflicts to promote academic learning. In doing so, the conditions under which sociocognitive conflicts are constructive or disruptive are examined and the relevant research is reviewed on social development, cooperative learning, and social influence. Two types of conflict elaboration—epistemic and relational—are identified. Epistemic elaborations focus students on task resolution leading to positive cognitive outcomes, and correspond to a cooperative relationship. Relational elaborations focus students on competence differentials and lead either to compliance or to competitive confrontations. Implications for education are discussed.

Resource interdependence, student interactions and performance in cooperative learning

Two studies were carried out during university workshops, and analyzed the effects of resource interdependence on student‐student interactions, and the impact of these interactions on performance. Students worked cooperatively, either on complementary information (positive resource interdependence) or on identical information (resource independence). In Study 1, analysis of videotaped interactions revealed that working on complementary information produced more positive interactions; however this was not sufficient to prevent students who had no direct access to the information from being disadvantaged, because of informational dependence. In Study 2, with simpler texts allowing better information transmission, performance was favored when students worked on complementary information. Moreover, working on identical information not only enhanced confrontations of point of views, it also elicited competence threat. Further analysis revealed that competence threat mediated resource interdependence effect on performance. Discussion provides insights into the conditions in which different cooperative methods can benefit learning.

Too complex for me! Why do performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals predict exam performance?

Classroom research on achievement goals has revealed that performance-approach goals (goals to outperform others) positively predict exam performance whereas performance-avoidance goals (goals not to perform more poorly than others) negatively predict it. Because prior classroom research has primarily utilized multiple-choice exam performance, the first aim of the present study was to extend these findings to a different measure of exam performance (oral examination). The second aim of this research was to test the mediating role of perceived difficulty. Participants were 49 4th year psychology students of the University of Geneva. Participants answered a questionnaire assessing their level of performance-approach and performance-avoidance goal endorsement in one of their classes as well as the perceived difficulty of this class for themselves. Results indicated that performance-approach goals significantly and positively predicted exam grades. Performance-avoidance goals significantly and negatively predicted grades. Both of these relationships were mediated by the perceived difficulty of the class for oneself. Thus, the links previously observed between performance goals and exam performance were replicated on an oral exam. Perceived difficulty is discussed as a key dimension responsible for these findings.RésuméLes recherches sur les buts d’accomplissement ont montré que les buts de performance-approche (réussir mieux que les autres) prédisent positivement la performance alors que les buts de performanceévitement (ne pas réussir moins bien que les autres) la prédisent négativement. Celles-ci ayant principalement utilisé des examens à choix multiples, le premier objectif de la présente étude était d’étendre ces résultats à une mesure différente de performance (examen oral). Le second objectif de cette recherche était de tester le rôle médiateur de la difficulté perçue. Les participants étaient 49 étudiants de 4ème année de psychologie de l’Université de Genève. Les participants ont répondu à un questionnaire mesurant leur niveau de buts de performance-approche et performance-évitement dans l’une de leur classe, ainsi que leur perception du niveau de difficulté de cette classe. Les résultats indiquent que les buts de performance-approche prédisent de manière significative et positive la note obtenue à l’examen. Les buts de performance-évitement la prédisent négativement. Ces deux relations sont médiatisées par la difficulté perçue de la tache pour soi. Ainsi, les liens obtenus au préalable entre buts de performance et performance à l’examen sont répliqués sur un examen oral. La difficulté perçue est discutée comme la dimension clé responsable de ces liens.

Being similar versus being equal: Intergroup similarity moderates the influence of in-group norms on discrimination and prejudice

In two studies, we examined the influence of in-group norms of anti- and pro-discrimination on prejudice and discrimination as a function of intergroup similarity (Studies 1 and 2) and in-group identification (Study 2). In a condition where there was no information about intergroup similarity (Study 1) or intergroup similarity was low (Study 2), prejudice and discrimination were lower when norms prescribe anti-discrimination compared to pro-discrimination. In contrast, when intergroup similarity was high, prejudice and discrimination were higher when the in-group norm represents anti-discrimination compared to pro-discrimination. This pattern was most apparent among highly identified in-group members (Study 2). The paradoxical effect of the anti-discrimination norm in the high similarity condition is interpreted as a response to the threat this situation introduces to in-group distinctiveness.

Self-competence, interaction style and expert social influence: Toward a correspondence hypothesis

The conditions were studied under which an expert source induces a less competent target to adopt a contrary point of view in a context of information transmission. In an experiment with a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design, university students (N = 157) had to predict (high involvement) or not (low involvement) the findings of a bogus scientific study carried by a researcher on friendship groups, and to estimate their ability (high versus low) to assess such predictions. They were then presented with bogus results from this study that contradicted their initial beliefs. The researcher presented these findings in either an authoritarian or a democratic style. The main dependent variable was the degree to which participants went beyond mere approval and adopted the information contradicting their own initial position. Results showed that information was more extensively adopted when the source was democratic and the participants a) were highly involved in their predictions and b) felt highly competent with respect...

Interaction styles and expert social influence

An experiment examined the conditions under which an expert source induces less competent targets to adopt a point of view contradicting their own in a context of information transmission. In a 2×2 factorial design participants (N=86) were either 1st year or 4th year university students, and the style of the message delivered by the epistemic authority was either authoritarian or democratic. The main dependent variable was the degree to which participants went beyond mere approval and adopted the contradicting information. The principal finding was that the contradicting information was adopted more readily by the 1st year participants confronted with an authoritarian as compared to a democratic expert source. Students in their 4th year were more influenced by a democratic source than the 1st year students. These results partially confirm the correspondence hypothesis according to which appropriation of knowledge from an expert source is favoured when the characteristics of the influence relations match fundamental expectations that individuals have concerning this relationship, these expectations varying as a function of the stage they have reached in their university education.RésuméUne expérimentation examine les conditions auxquelles une source experte induit des cibles moins compétentes qu’elle à adopter un point de vue contredisant le leur dans un contexte de transmission d’information. Dans un plan factoriel 2×2, les sujets (N=86) étaient des étudiants universitaires de 1ère ou de 4ème année, et le message délivré par l’autorité épistémique était formulé dans un style autoritaire ou démocratique. La principale mesure était le degré auquel les sujets allaient au-delà d’une simple approbation du message et adoptaient l’information contradictoire. Les résultats mettent principalement en évidence que l’information est davantage appropriée par les sujets de 1ère année confrontés à la source experte autoritaire plutôt que démocratique. Les étudiants de 4ème année sont plus influencés par la source démocratique que ceux de 1ère année. Ces résultats confirment partiellement l’hypothèse de correspondance selon laquelle l’appropriation de connaissances émanant d’une source experte est favorisée lorsque les caractéristiques de la relation d’influence correspond à des attentes fondamentales que les individus ont quant à cette relation, attentes qui varient en fonction du stade qu’ils ont atteint dans leur éducation universitaire.