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Attitude Change During College: Normative or Informational Social Influence?

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Abstract

Students from a small, tightly knit military college participated in a longitudinal study which assessed attitudes toward sociopolitical issues as well as military attitudes at entrance and three years later. A college-wide change in a conservative direction was predicted and observed (p < .001). While a normative influence explanation argues that peer group pressure is responsible for such attitude change, an explanation based on informational influence would argue that the knowledge communicated by faculty also plays a role. The results confirmed the existence of peer group influence on measures of military attitudes but not on measures of sociopolitical attitudes. Rather, and consistent with a process of informational influence, the academic major pursued by the students emerged as a significant predictor of change in sociopolitical attitudes, regardless of reference group identification.

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  1. Université Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand, France

    Serge Guimond

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Guimond, S. Attitude Change During College: Normative or Informational Social Influence?. Social Psychology of Education 2, 237–261 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009662807702

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