Sense of belonging helps minority voices speak up and be heard, KAIST study finds

- Secure group attachment promotes expression and acceptance of dissenting views

- Reduced relational anxiety leads to more specific, persuasive minority arguments

An AI-generated image illustrating research findings that "secure group attachment" promotes the expression and acceptance of minority opinions within a group. [Provided by KAIST]

When people feel confident that they will remain accepted in their organization even after voicing disagreement, they express dissenting views more concretely and persuasively — and the majority is more likely to treat those views as useful information, according to new research.

KAIST said Sunday that professors Lee Su-jin and Jung Seung-won of its Graduate School of Management of Technology, together with Professor Joye Kiniyas of the Ivey Business School at Western University in Canada, had established that "secure group attachment" promotes the expression and acceptance of minority opinions within a group.

Secure group attachment refers to a psychological state in which a person feels emotionally and relationally supported by their group and recognized as a valued member. The stronger this sense of belonging, the more confident a person becomes that they will not be excluded from the group even when they hold views that differ from the majority.

The research team hypothesized that when a stable sense of belonging reduces relational anxiety, people can focus more on the issue and their own argument rather than worrying about how others will react. The team conducted two experiments to test this.

In the first experiment, participants were primed to feel secure group attachment and then placed in a scenario where they held a minority opinion within their group and were asked to express that view.

Participants in whom secure group attachment had been induced used more words and explained their positions more specifically than those in whom it had not, and the persuasiveness of their arguments also increased. The research team attributed this to participants focusing on the issue itself as relational concerns diminished.

Differences also emerged in how the majority received minority views. In the second experiment, participants evaluated arguments made by minority-opinion holders. They rated the arguments of those with induced secure group attachment as more persuasive, were less likely to perceive those arguments as going against group expectations, and were more willing to use them in actual decision-making.

From left: Kim Tae-hyun, a doctoral candidate at KAIST; KAIST professors Lee Su-jin and Jung Seung-won; and Professor Joye Kiniyas of Western University in Canada. [Provided by KAIST]

Particularly notable was the finding that simply belonging to the same organization does not make it easy to voice dissent. Internal members may in fact feel even more pressure to conform to prevailing norms or majority opinion, making it harder for them to raise concerns about current practices or offer critical assessments.

The research team said the findings could offer insights for designing organizational cultures that reduce "groupthink" in companies, research institutions and public organizations. Simply giving people the opportunity to voice dissent is not enough, they said — what matters is building trust that speaking up will not result in relational or reputational penalties within the organization.

The study also highlights that diversifying the backgrounds of an organization's members is not sufficient on its own. For diversity to translate into real outcomes, organizations must create an environment where different ideas can be raised safely and are received not as challenges or sources of conflict but as information needed for better decision-making.

"Simply giving members the opportunity to voice dissenting opinions is not enough," said Professor Jung Seung-won. "People need the confidence that they will not be excluded from the organization for thinking differently — only then can they communicate their ideas more specifically and persuasively, and only then can the majority receive those ideas not as conflict but as useful information for better decisions."

The findings were published in the international academic journal Scientific Reports.

However, the study confirmed through experiments the effects of secure group attachment on the expression, persuasiveness and intended use of minority opinions, and did not directly verify long-term improvements in decision-making outcomes or innovation in actual companies or institutions.

nbgkoo@heraldcorp.com