Effects of Group and Relationship on Perceptions of Stability
Introductory psychology students, 52 men and 52 women, made estimates of the consistency of a decision-maker in 24 hypothetical social influence situations. The decision-maker was either a group or an individual, and the petitioner who was attempting to influence a change in decisions was in either a weak or equal status relationship with the decision-maker. As hypothesized, subjects predicted that group decision-makers would be less likely to change than would individual decision-makers. Subjects also predicted greater consistency on the part of the decision-maker when the petitioner was weak than when he was equal in status with the decision-maker. There were interaction effects of sex of subject and sex of characters on stability predictions.