MINORITY INFLUENCE AND INTERGROUP RELATIONS - SOCIAL-COMPARISON AND VALIDATION PROCESSES IN THE CONTEXT OF XENOPHOBIA IN SWITZERLAND

This article reviews a research program dealing with minority influenc e in the realm of intergroup attitudes. It represents an attempt to fu rther expand upon the integration of minority influence research and i ntergroup research. Specifically, it addresses the social-psychologica l processes that may account for either the effectiveness or the failu re of minority influence attempts directed at changing negative interg roup attitudes, such as xenophobia (i.e., a negative attitude towards immigrants or ''guest workers''). First, the influence setting is conc eptualized as an intergroup context, and identity-based resistance to change is examined. We then stress the role of contextual factors whic h activate either compelling social comparisons or validation of the m inority viewpoint. Several studies involving Swiss nationals (predomin antly factory apprentices enrolled in on-the-job training) show that f or identity relevant intergroup attitudes, conversion to minority posi tions is undermined under high salience of intergroup conflict (i.e. i ntergroup competition or assimilation), but facilitated through enhanc ed content-related conflict (i.e. attitudinal debate or value conflict ).