‘Zeitgeist’and minority influence—where is the causality: A comment on Clark (1990)

1995

Does the mood of the time (Zeitgeist) facilitate the influence minorities are able to exercise, or is it itself a direct product of minority influence ? It is argued, from a social psychological definition of the minority-majority relation, that the former interpretation fails to explain many of the observed effects and in particular the conversion effect. A model is offered that is consistent with the second interpretation.