Dépendance informationnelle et styles de comportement dans l'influence sociale
Informational dependence and behavioral styles within social influence

Summary/Abstract: First year Romanian students (N = 100) were confronted to an alleged scientific study about friendship groups that contradicted previous beliefs. In a 2 × 2 factorial design, we manipulated the style (authoritarian vs. democratic) of the contradictory message delivered by the epistemic authority. The second independent variable concerned the participants (low vs. high) approval of the notion of an informational dependence of students toward their teachers. The main measure was the appropriation of the contradictory information. Results show an interaction of both variables. For the students who admit the informational dependence of students at a lower level there is no difference between both styles. The students who admit the informational dependence at a higher level express a representation of friendship groups that is closer to the source's one when the source was authoritarian than when it was democratic. For those last students correlations with other measures show contrasted dynamics: Informational dependence guides the influence when the source is authoritarian whereas disengagement is linked to the lack of influence when the source is democratic.

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