Flexible solidarity with refugees: Integrating minority influence and intergroup communication

Abstract

Extending Gabriel Mugny’s work on minority influence, this paper integrates models of minority influence with categorization and social identification processes. By doing so, we aim to understand how members of a national majority become willing to actively challenge political authority by showing solidarity with the refugee minority. In an experimental study (N = 112, Swiss nationals), participants read a minority position (pro-welcoming appeal), followed by measures of support for particular policies in favor of refugees in Switzerland. A 2 × 2 + control design was used, in which the intergroup context was organised as a function of categorical differentiation of the source of minority influence (Swiss national vs. refugee) and normative differentiation of the pro-welcoming message (assimilation vs. multicultural norms of integration). Results showed a cross-categorization effect whereby categorical and normative differentiation interacted to predict solidarity: Conditions in which the Swiss source mobilized multicultural arguments and the refugee source mobilized assimilationist ones were most effective. Furthermore, influence was stronger for higher national identifiers than for lower identifiers. Our findings underline the importance of integrating dynamics of intergroup communication in minority influence studies.