Effects of minority opinion support on opinion expression

• Main Authors: Lim, Cui Min, Lim, Zi Song, Lai, Kang Rui Ryan, Chia, Yanting Juliana
• Other Authors: Sonny Ben Rosenthal
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/73606
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Current literature surrounding opinion expression largely focuses on how majority pressures lead to conformity, neglecting the impact that minority influence could exert on minority opinion expression online. Yet, the interconnected online environment makes it easy for minority opinion holders to encounter others who support their opinion. With an increasing number of people discussing and commenting on public issues online, it is important to examine the effect of such minority opinion support on the expression of a minority opinion online. Through an experiment (N = 363) we tested the effects of minority opinion support and anonymity on minority opinion expression online. We also looked into how expectation of sanctions, opinion certainty, and perceived social support could act as possible antecedents to predict minority opinion expression online. The results show that presence of minority opinion support increases the strength of minority opinion expression. Further, we found that expectation of sanctions is negatively associated with minority opinion expression. Post-hoc analyses revealed that perceived social support acts as a mediator between opinion certainty and expectation of sanctions. Findings suggest the importance of minority opinion support and warrants further research into the mechanism of its effects.