MAJORITY AND MINORITY INFLUENCE USING THE AFTERIMAGE PARADIGM - A REPLICATION WITH AN UNAMBIGUOUS BLUE SLIDE

This study re-examines the afterimage paradigm which claims to show th at a minority produces a conversion in a task involving afterimage jud gements (more private influence than public influence) as opposed to m ere compliance produced by a majority. Subsequent failures to replicat e this finding have suggested that the changes in the afterimages coul d be attributed to increased attention due to an ambiguous stimulus co upled with subject suspiciousness. This study attempted to replicate t he original experiment but with an unambiguous stimulus in order to re move potential biases. The results showed shifts in afterimages consis tent with the increased attention hypothesis for a minority and majori ty and these were unaffected by the level of suspiciousness reported b y the subjects. Additional data shows that no shifts were found in a n o-influence control condition showing that shifts were related to expo sure to a deviant source and not to response repetition.