Leonardelli Geoffrey J, Loyd Denise Lewin
Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada Dept. of Psychology, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada
College of Business, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA.
Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2016 Jul;42(7):843-54. doi: 10.1177/0146167216643934. Epub 2016 May 2.
According to optimal distinctiveness theory, sufficiently small minority groups are associated with greater membership trust, even among members otherwise unknown, because the groups are seen as optimally distinctive. This article elaborates on the prediction's motivational and cognitive processes and tests whether sufficiently small minorities (defined by relative size; for example, 20%) are associated with greater membership trust relative to mere minorities (45%), and whether such trust is a function of optimal distinctiveness. Two experiments, examining observers' perceptions of minority and majority groups and using minimal groups and (in Experiment 2) a trust game, revealed greater membership trust in minorities than majorities. In Experiment 2, participants also preferred joining minorities over more powerful majorities. Both effects occurred only when minorities were 20% rather than 45%. In both studies, perceptions of optimal distinctiveness mediated effects. Discussion focuses on the value of relative size and optimal distinctiveness, and when membership trust manifests.
根据最优独特性理论，规模足够小的少数群体与更高的群体成员信任度相关联，即使在成员彼此不认识的情况下也是如此，因为这些群体被视为具有最优独特性。本文详细阐述了这一预测的动机和认知过程，并检验了规模足够小的少数群体（由相对规模定义；例如20%）相对于单纯的少数群体（45%）是否与更高的群体成员信任度相关联，以及这种信任是否是最优独特性的函数。两项实验考察了观察者对少数群体和多数群体的认知，并使用了最小群体范式以及（在实验2中）一个信任博弈，结果显示，相对于多数群体，少数群体的成员信任度更高。在实验2中，参与者也更倾向于加入少数群体而非更强大的多数群体。这两种效应只有在少数群体占比为20%而非45%时才会出现。在两项研究中，最优独特性的认知都介导了这些效应。讨论聚焦于相对规模和最优独特性的价值，以及群体成员信任何时显现。
