Serge Moscovici
Encyclopedia
Serge Moscovici is a Romania
n-born French
social psychologist
, currently the director of the Laboratoire Européen de Psychologie Sociale ("European Laboratory of Social Psychology"), which he co-founded in 1974 at the Maison des sciences de l'homme in Paris
. He is a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts
and Officer of the Légion d'honneur
, as well as a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences
and honorary member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
. Moscovici's son, Pierre Moscovici
, is a well-known French politician.
into a Jewish
familyhttp://translate.google.com/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww1.alliancefr.com%2Fpierre-moscovici-desir-d-avenir-news0%2C39%2C3729.html, the son of a grain merchant. He frequently relocated, together with his father, spending time in Cahul
, Galaţi
, and Bucharest
. Later, he indicated that his stay in Bessarabia
had contributed to his image of a homeland. From an early age, Moscovici suffered the effects of anti-semitic discrimination
: in 1938, he was expelled from a Bucharest
high school on the basis of newly-issued anti-semitic legislation. In later years, he commented on the impact of the Iron Guard, and expressed criticism for intellectual
s associated with it (Emil Cioran
and Mircea Eliade
).
Moscovici trained as a mechanic
at the Bucharest vocational school
Ciocanul. Faced with an ideological choice between Zionism
and communism
, he opted for the latter, and, in 1939, joined the then-illegal Romanian Communist Party
, being introduced by a clandestine activist whom he knew by the pseudonym Kappa.
During World War II
, Moscovici witnessed the Iron Guard
-instigated Bucharest Pogrom
in January 1941, and was later interned by the Ion Antonescu
regime in a forced labor camp
, where, together with other persons of his age, he worked on construction teams until being set free by the Soviet
Red Army
in 1944. During those years, he taught himself French
and educated himself by reading philosophical works (including those of Baruch Spinoza
and René Descartes
).
Subsequently, Moscovici travelled extensively, notably visiting Palestine, Germany
and Austria
. During the late stage of World War II
he met Isidore Isou
, the founder of lettrism
, with whom he founded the artistic and literary review Da towards the end of 1944 (Da was quickly censored
). Refusing promotion on the basis of political affiliation at a time when the Communist Party participated in Romania's governments, he became instead a welder
in the large Bucharest factory owned by Nicolae Malaxa
.
Initially welcoming Soviet occupation
, Moscovici grew progressively disillusioned with communist politics, and noted the incidence of antisemitism among Red Army soldiers. As the communist regime
was taking over and the Cold War
erupted, he helped Zionist dissidents cross the border illegally. For this, he was implicated in a 1947 trial held in Timişoara
, and decided to leave Romania for good. Choosing clandestine immigration, he arrived in France a year later, passing through Hungary
and Austria, and spending time in a refugee camp
in Italy
.
In Paris
, helped by a refugee fund, he studied psychology
at the Sorbonne
, while being employed by an industrial enterprise. At the time, Moscovici became close to Paris-based writers, including the Romanian-born Jewish Paul Celan
and Isaac Chiva. In reference to himself, Celan, and Moscovici, Chiva later recalled: "For us, people on the Left
, but who had fled communism, the first period in Paris, in a capital where the intellectual environments were developing under full-scale Stalinist
enthusiasm, was very harsh. We were caught between a rock and a hard place: on one side, the French university environment who saw us as «fascists
». [...] On the other, the Romanian exiles, most of all the nationalist
students, when not outright on the far right
, who did not shy away from denouncing us as communist «moles
» in the pay of Bucharest or Moscow
."
Moscovici's 1961 thesis (La psychanalyse, son image, son public), directed by the psychoanalyst Daniel Lagache
, explored the social representations
of psychoanalysis in France. Moscovici also studied epistemology and history of science
s with philosopher Alexandre Koyré
. During the 1960s, he was invited to the United States
by the Princeton University
's Institute for Advanced Study
; he also worked at Stanford University
and Yale
, before returning to Paris to teach at the École pratique des hautes études
. Serge Moscovici has been a visiting professor at the The New School
in New York City
, at the Rousseau Institute
in Geneva
, as well as at the Université catholique de Louvain
and the University of Cambridge
.
By 1968, together with Brice Lalonde
and others, he became involved in green politics
, and even ran in elections for the office of Mayor of Paris for what later became Les Verts
. A doctor honoris causa of several universities, Moscovici was the recipient of the Balzan Prize
in 2003 for Social Psychology.
In 1997, Serge Moscovici authored an autobiographical
essay titled Chronique des années égarées ("Chronicle of the Mislaid Years"). It was translated into Romanian
as Cronica anilor risipiţi (published by Polirom
in 1999).
, he later criticized American research into majority influence (conformity) and instead investigated the effects of minority influence, where the opinions of a small group influence those of a larger one. He also researched the dynamics of group decisions and consensus-forming.
, he pointed to the fact that most major social movements have been started by individuals and small groups (e.g. Christianity
, Buddhism
, the Suffragette
movement, Nazism
, etc.) and that without an outspoken minority, we would have no innovation or social change.
The study he is most famous for, Influences of a consistent minority on the responses of a majority in a colour perception task, is now seen as one of the defining investigations into the effects of minority influence:
Moscovici Serge Invention of Society: Psychological Explanations for Social Phenomena (1993) Polity Press
Moscovici Serge, Doise Willem (trans W.D.Hall) Conflict and Consensus: General Theory of Collective Decisions (1994) Sage
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n-born French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
social psychologist
Social psychology
Social psychology is the scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. By this definition, scientific refers to the empirical method of investigation. The terms thoughts, feelings, and behaviors include all...
, currently the director of the Laboratoire Européen de Psychologie Sociale ("European Laboratory of Social Psychology"), which he co-founded in 1974 at the Maison des sciences de l'homme in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. He is a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts
European Academy of Sciences and Arts
The European Academy of Sciences and Arts was created in 1990 in Salzburg, Austria by heart surgeon Felix Unger of Salzburg; the cardinal archbishop of Vienna, Franz König; and the political scientist and philosopher Nikolaus Lobkowicz....
and Officer of the Légion d'honneur
Légion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
, as well as a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Russian Academy of Sciences
The Russian Academy of Sciences consists of the national academy of Russia and a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation as well as auxiliary scientific and social units like libraries, publishers and hospitals....
and honorary member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Hungarian Academy of Sciences
The Hungarian Academy of Sciences is the most important and prestigious learned society of Hungary. Its seat is at the bank of the Danube in Budapest.-History:...
. Moscovici's son, Pierre Moscovici
Pierre Moscovici
Pierre Moscovici is a French politician, a member of the Departmental Council of Doubs and a Member of the French Parliament. He is a member of the French Socialist Party ; part of the Party of European Socialists...
, is a well-known French politician.
Biography
Moscovici was born in BrăilaBraila
Brăila is a city in Muntenia, eastern Romania, a port on the Danube and the capital of Brăila County, in the close vicinity of Galaţi.According to the 2002 Romanian census there were 216,292 people living within the city of Brăila, making it the 10th most populous city in Romania.-History:A...
into a Jewish
History of the Jews in Romania
The history of Jews in Romania concerns the Jews of Romania and of Romanian origins, from their first mention on what is nowadays Romanian territory....
familyhttp://translate.google.com/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww1.alliancefr.com%2Fpierre-moscovici-desir-d-avenir-news0%2C39%2C3729.html, the son of a grain merchant. He frequently relocated, together with his father, spending time in Cahul
Cahul
-Demographics:According to the last Moldovan census from 2004 there were 35,488 people living within the city of Cahul and 1,317 people within Cotihana....
, Galaţi
Galati
Galați is a city and municipality in Romania, the capital of Galați County. Located in the historical region of Moldavia, in the close vicinity of Brăila, Galați is the largest port and sea port on the Danube River and the second largest Romanian port....
, and Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
. Later, he indicated that his stay in Bessarabia
Bessarabia
Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....
had contributed to his image of a homeland. From an early age, Moscovici suffered the effects of anti-semitic discrimination
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
: in 1938, he was expelled from a Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
high school on the basis of newly-issued anti-semitic legislation. In later years, he commented on the impact of the Iron Guard, and expressed criticism for intellectual
Intellectual
An intellectual is a person who uses intelligence and critical or analytical reasoning in either a professional or a personal capacity.- Terminology and endeavours :"Intellectual" can denote four types of persons:...
s associated with it (Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
-Early life:Emil M. Cioran was born in Răşinari, Sibiu County, which was part of Austria-Hungary at the time. His father, Emilian Cioran, was a Romanian Orthodox priest, while his mother, Elvira Cioran , was originally from Veneţia de Jos, a commune near Făgăraş.After studying humanities at the...
and Mircea Eliade
Mircea Eliade
Mircea Eliade was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. He was a leading interpreter of religious experience, who established paradigms in religious studies that persist to this day...
).
Moscovici trained as a mechanic
Mechanic
A mechanic is a craftsman or technician who uses tools to build or repair machinery.Many mechanics are specialized in a particular field such as auto mechanics, bicycle mechanics, motorcycle mechanics, boiler mechanics, general mechanics, industrial maintenance mechanics , air conditioning and...
at the Bucharest vocational school
Vocational school
A vocational school , providing vocational education, is a school in which students are taught the skills needed to perform a particular job...
Ciocanul. Faced with an ideological choice between Zionism
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
and communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
, he opted for the latter, and, in 1939, joined the then-illegal Romanian Communist Party
Romanian Communist Party
The Romanian Communist Party was a communist political party in Romania. Successor to the Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to communist revolution and the disestablishment of Greater Romania. The PCR was a minor and illegal grouping for much of the...
, being introduced by a clandestine activist whom he knew by the pseudonym Kappa.
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Moscovici witnessed the Iron Guard
Iron Guard
The Iron Guard is the name most commonly given to a far-right movement and political party in Romania in the period from 1927 into the early part of World War II. The Iron Guard was ultra-nationalist, fascist, anti-communist, and promoted the Orthodox Christian faith...
-instigated Bucharest Pogrom
Legionnaires' Rebellion and Bucharest Pogrom
The Legionnaires' rebellion and the Bucharest pogrom occurred in Bucharest, Romania, between 21 and 23 January 1941.As the privileges of the Iron Guard were being cut off by Conducător Ion Antonescu, members of the Iron Guard, also known as the Legionnaires, revolted...
in January 1941, and was later interned by the Ion Antonescu
Ion Antonescu
Ion Victor Antonescu was a Romanian soldier, authoritarian politician and convicted war criminal. The Prime Minister and Conducător during most of World War II, he presided over two successive wartime dictatorships...
regime in a forced labor camp
Penal labour
Penal labour is a form of unfree labour in which prisoners perform work, typically manual labour. The work may be light or hard, depending on the context. Forms of sentence which involve penal labour include penal servitude and imprisonment with hard labour...
, where, together with other persons of his age, he worked on construction teams until being set free by the Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
in 1944. During those years, he taught himself French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and educated himself by reading philosophical works (including those of Baruch Spinoza
Baruch Spinoza
Baruch de Spinoza and later Benedict de Spinoza was a Dutch Jewish philosopher. Revealing considerable scientific aptitude, the breadth and importance of Spinoza's work was not fully realized until years after his death...
and René Descartes
René Descartes
René Descartes ; was a French philosopher and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the 'Father of Modern Philosophy', and much subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day...
).
Subsequently, Moscovici travelled extensively, notably visiting Palestine, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
. During the late stage of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
he met Isidore Isou
Isidore Isou
Isidore Isou , born Ioan-Isidor Goldstein, was a Romanian-born French poet, film critic and visual artist...
, the founder of lettrism
Lettrism
Lettrism is a French avant-garde movement, established in Paris in the mid-1940s by Romanian immigrant Isidore Isou. In a body of work totaling hundreds of volumes, Isou and the Lettrists have applied their theories to all areas of art and culture, most notably in poetry, film, painting and...
, with whom he founded the artistic and literary review Da towards the end of 1944 (Da was quickly censored
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
). Refusing promotion on the basis of political affiliation at a time when the Communist Party participated in Romania's governments, he became instead a welder
Welder
A welder is a tradesman who specializes in welding materials together. The materials to be joined can be metals or varieties of plastic or polymer...
in the large Bucharest factory owned by Nicolae Malaxa
Nicolae Malaxa
-Biography:Born in a family of Greek origins in Huşi, Malaxa studied engineering in Iaşi and Karlsruhe...
.
Initially welcoming Soviet occupation
Soviet occupation of Romania
The Soviet occupation of Romania refers to the period from 1944 to August 1958, during which the Soviet Union maintained a significant military presence in Romania...
, Moscovici grew progressively disillusioned with communist politics, and noted the incidence of antisemitism among Red Army soldiers. As the communist regime
Communist Romania
Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...
was taking over and the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
erupted, he helped Zionist dissidents cross the border illegally. For this, he was implicated in a 1947 trial held in Timişoara
Timisoara
Timișoara is the capital city of Timiș County, in western Romania. One of the largest Romanian cities, with an estimated population of 311,586 inhabitants , and considered the informal capital city of the historical region of Banat, Timișoara is the main social, economic and cultural center in the...
, and decided to leave Romania for good. Choosing clandestine immigration, he arrived in France a year later, passing through Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
and Austria, and spending time in a refugee camp
Refugee camp
A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees. Hundreds of thousands of people may live in any one single camp. Usually they are built and run by a government, the United Nations, or international organizations, or NGOs.Refugee camps are generally set up in an impromptu...
in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
.
In Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, helped by a refugee fund, he studied psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
at the Sorbonne
University of Paris
The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...
, while being employed by an industrial enterprise. At the time, Moscovici became close to Paris-based writers, including the Romanian-born Jewish Paul Celan
Paul Celan
Paul Celan was a poet and translator...
and Isaac Chiva. In reference to himself, Celan, and Moscovici, Chiva later recalled: "For us, people on the Left
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
, but who had fled communism, the first period in Paris, in a capital where the intellectual environments were developing under full-scale Stalinist
Stalinism
Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
enthusiasm, was very harsh. We were caught between a rock and a hard place: on one side, the French university environment who saw us as «fascists
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
». [...] On the other, the Romanian exiles, most of all the nationalist
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
students, when not outright on the far right
Far right
Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...
, who did not shy away from denouncing us as communist «moles
Mole (espionage)
A mole is a spy who works for an enemy nation, but whose loyalty ostensibly lies with his own nation's government. In some usage, a mole differs from a defector in that a mole is a spy before gaining access to classified information, while a defector becomes a spy only after gaining access...
» in the pay of Bucharest or Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
."
Moscovici's 1961 thesis (La psychanalyse, son image, son public), directed by the psychoanalyst Daniel Lagache
Daniel Lagache
French physician, psychoanalyst, and professor at the Sorbonne, Daniel Lagache was born on December 3, 1903, in Paris, where he died on December 3, 1972.'He was one of the leading figures in twentieth century French psychoanalysis.-Career:...
, explored the social representations
Social representations
A social representation is a stock of values, ideas, beliefs, and practices that are shared among the members of groups and communities. Social Representations Theory is a body of theory within Social Psychology and Sociological social psychology...
of psychoanalysis in France. Moscovici also studied epistemology and history of science
History of science
The history of science is the study of the historical development of human understandings of the natural world and the domains of the social sciences....
s with philosopher Alexandre Koyré
Alexandre Koyré
Alexandre Koyré , sometimes anglicised as Alexander Koiré, was a French philosopher of Russian origin who wrote on the history and philosophy of science.-Life:...
. During the 1960s, he was invited to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
by the Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
's Institute for Advanced Study
Institute for Advanced Study
The Institute for Advanced Study, located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States, is an independent postgraduate center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It was founded in 1930 by Abraham Flexner...
; he also worked at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
and Yale
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, before returning to Paris to teach at the École pratique des hautes études
École pratique des hautes études
The École pratique des hautes études is a Grand Établissement in Paris, France. It is counted among France's most prestigious research and higher education institutions....
. Serge Moscovici has been a visiting professor at the The New School
The New School
The New School is a university in New York City, located mostly in Greenwich Village. From its founding in 1919 by progressive New York academics, and for most of its history, the university was known as the New School for Social Research. Between 1997 and 2005 it was known as New School University...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, at the Rousseau Institute
Rousseau Institute
Rousseau Institute is a private school in Geneva, Switzerland. In 1912, Édouard Claparède created an institute to turn educational theory into a science...
in Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
, as well as at the Université catholique de Louvain
Université catholique de Louvain
The Université catholique de Louvain, sometimes known, especially in Belgium, as UCL, is Belgium's largest French-speaking university. It is located in Louvain-la-Neuve and in Brussels...
and the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
.
By 1968, together with Brice Lalonde
Brice Lalonde
Brice Lalonde is a former green party leader in France, who ran for President of France in the Presidential elections, 1981. In 1988 he was named Minister of the Environment, and in 1990 founded the green party Ecology Generation...
and others, he became involved in green politics
Green politics
Green politics is a political ideology that aims for the creation of an ecologically sustainable society rooted in environmentalism, social liberalism, and grassroots democracy...
, and even ran in elections for the office of Mayor of Paris for what later became Les Verts
The Greens (France)
The Greens were a Green political party to the centre-left of the political spectrum in France. They had officially been in existence since 1984, but their spiritual roots could be traced as far back as René Dumont’s candidacy for the presidency in 1974...
. A doctor honoris causa of several universities, Moscovici was the recipient of the Balzan Prize
Balzan Prize
The International Balzan Prize Foundation awards four annual monetary prizes to people or organisations who have made outstanding achievements in the fields of humanities, natural sciences, culture, as well as for endeavours for peace and the brotherhood of man.-Rewards and assets:Each year the...
in 2003 for Social Psychology.
In 1997, Serge Moscovici authored an autobiographical
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
essay titled Chronique des années égarées ("Chronicle of the Mislaid Years"). It was translated into Romanian
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
as Cronica anilor risipiţi (published by Polirom
Polirom
Polirom or Editura Polirom is a Romanian publishing house with a tradition of publishing classics of international literature and also various titles in the fields of social sciences, such as psychology, sociology and anthropology. The company was founded in February 1995. The first title...
in 1999).
Research
His research focus was on group psychology and he began his career by investigating the way knowledge is reformulated as groups take hold of it, distorting it from its original form. His theory of social representations is now widespread in understanding this process of cultural Chinese whispers. Influenced by Gabriel TardeGabriel Tarde
Jean-Gabriel De Tarde or Gabriel Tarde in short French sociologist, criminologist and social psychologist who conceived sociology as based on small psychological interactions among individuals , the fundamental forces being imitation and innovation.- Theory :Among the concepts...
, he later criticized American research into majority influence (conformity) and instead investigated the effects of minority influence, where the opinions of a small group influence those of a larger one. He also researched the dynamics of group decisions and consensus-forming.
Minority influence
Moscovici claimed that majority influence in many ways was misleading – if the majority was indeed all-powerful, we would all end up thinking the same. Drawing attention to the works of Gabriel TardeGabriel Tarde
Jean-Gabriel De Tarde or Gabriel Tarde in short French sociologist, criminologist and social psychologist who conceived sociology as based on small psychological interactions among individuals , the fundamental forces being imitation and innovation.- Theory :Among the concepts...
, he pointed to the fact that most major social movements have been started by individuals and small groups (e.g. Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
, Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
, the Suffragette
Suffragette
"Suffragette" is a term coined by the Daily Mail newspaper as a derogatory label for members of the late 19th and early 20th century movement for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, in particular members of the Women's Social and Political Union...
movement, Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
, etc.) and that without an outspoken minority, we would have no innovation or social change.
The study he is most famous for, Influences of a consistent minority on the responses of a majority in a colour perception task, is now seen as one of the defining investigations into the effects of minority influence:
- Aims: To investigate the process of innovation by looking at how a consistent minority affect the opinions of a larger group, possibly creating doubt and leading them to question and alter their views
- Procedures: Participants were first given an eye test to check that they were not colour blind. They were then placed in a group of four participants and two confederates. they were all shown 36 slides that were different shades of blue and asked to state the colour out loud. There were two groups in the experiment. In the first group the confederates were consistent and answered green for every slide. In the second group the confederates were inconsistent and answered green 24 times and blue 12 times.
- Findings: For 8.42% of the trials, participants agreed with the minority and said that the slides were green. Overall, 32% of the participants agreed at least once.
- Conclusions: The study suggested that minorities can indeed exert an effect over the opinion of a majority. Not to the same degree as majority influence, but the fact that almost a third of people agreed at least once is significant. However, this also leaves two thirds who never agreed. In a follow up experiment, Moscovici demonstrated that consistency was the key factor in minority influenceMinority influenceMinority influence, a form of social influence, takes place when a minority, like an individual, influences a majority to accept the minority's beliefs or behaviour. There are two types of social influence: majority influence and minority influence...
, by instructing the stooges to be inconsistent. The effect fell off sharply.
Works
- La psychanalyse, son image, son public, University Presses of FranceUniversity Presses of FrancePresses Universitaires de France or PUF , founded in 1921 by Paul Angoulvent , is the largest French university publishing house....
, 1961/1976 - Reconversion industrielle et changements sociaux. Un exemple: la chapellerie dans l'Aude, Armand ColinArmand ColinArmand Colin is a historically important French publishing house created in 1870 by Auguste Armand Colin. It quickly became the principal publisher in the world of education, including higher education, with works for students and faculty in the human sciences, economics and education...
, 1961 - L’expérience du mouvement. Jean-Baptiste Baliani, disciple et critique de Galilée, HermannHermannHermann or Herrmann is a German given name , and might refer to:-People:* Herrmann or Hermann der Cherusker, "Arminius", Germanic leader opposed to Roman conquest and victor of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest...
, 1967 - Essai sur l’histoire humaine de la nature, FlammarionGroupe FlammarionGroupe Flammarion is the fourth largest publishing group in France, comprising many units, including its namesake, founded in 1876 by Ernest Flammarion, as well as units in distribution, sales, printing and bookshops . Flammarion became part of the Italian media conglomerate RCS MediaGroup in 2000...
, 1968/1977 - La société contre nature, Union Générale d’éditions, 1972 / SeuilSeuilSeuil is a commune in the Ardennes department in northern France.-Population:...
, 1994 - Hommes domestiques et hommes sauvages, Union Générale d’éditions, 1974
- Social influence and social change, Academic PressAcademic PressAcademic Press is an academic book publisher. Originally independent, it was acquired by Harcourt, Brace & World in 1969. Reed Elsevier bought Harcourt in 2000, and Academic Press is now an imprint of Elsevier....
, 1976. - Psychologie des minorités actives, University Presses of France, 1979
- L'Age des foules: un traité historique de psychologie des masses, FayardFayardFayard is a French Paris-based publishing house established in 1857. Fayard is controlled by Hachette Livre.-Works published:Works published by Editions Fayard include:...
, 1981 (about Gustave Le BonGustave Le BonGustave Le Bon was a French social psychologist, sociologist, and amateur physicist...
's invention of crowd psychologyCrowd psychologyCrowd psychology is a branch of social psychology. Ordinary people can typically gain direct power by acting collectively. Historically, because large groups of people have been able to bring about dramatic and sudden social change in a manner that bypasses established due process, they have also...
and Gabriel TardeGabriel TardeJean-Gabriel De Tarde or Gabriel Tarde in short French sociologist, criminologist and social psychologist who conceived sociology as based on small psychological interactions among individuals , the fundamental forces being imitation and innovation.- Theory :Among the concepts...
) - La Machine à faire les dieux, Fayard, 1988
- Chronique des années égarées: récit autobiographique, StockStockThe capital stock of a business entity represents the original capital paid into or invested in the business by its founders. It serves as a security for the creditors of a business since it cannot be withdrawn to the detriment of the creditors...
, 1997 - Social Representations: Explorations in Social Psychology, Polity Press, 2000
- De la Nature. Pour penser l'écologie, Métailié, 2002
- Réenchanter la nature. Entretiens avec Pascal Dibie, AubeAubeAube is a department in the northeastern part of France named after the Aube River. In 1995, its population was 293,100 inhabitants.- History :Aube is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790...
, 2002. - Moscovici, S., Lage, E. and Naffrenchoux, M. (1969) "Influences of a consistent minority on the responses of a majority in a colour perception task", SociometrySociometrySociometry is a quantitative method for measuring social relationships. It was developed by psychotherapist Jacob L. Moreno in his studies of the relationship between social structures and psychological well-being....
, Vol.32, pp. 365–80. cited in Cardwell, M. and Flanagan, C. (2003) Psychology AS The Complete Companion, Nelson Thornes - Serge Moscovici and Ivana MarkovaIvana MarkovaIvana Marková is an emerita professor of psychology at the University of Stirling, known for her work on language and the constructs of communication....
(2006) The Making of Modern Social Psychology: The Hidden Story of How an International Social Science was Created. Cambridge and Oxford: Polity Press.
See also
- Crowd psychologyCrowd psychologyCrowd psychology is a branch of social psychology. Ordinary people can typically gain direct power by acting collectively. Historically, because large groups of people have been able to bring about dramatic and sudden social change in a manner that bypasses established due process, they have also...
- Gustave Le BonGustave Le BonGustave Le Bon was a French social psychologist, sociologist, and amateur physicist...
- Gabriel TardeGabriel TardeJean-Gabriel De Tarde or Gabriel Tarde in short French sociologist, criminologist and social psychologist who conceived sociology as based on small psychological interactions among individuals , the fundamental forces being imitation and innovation.- Theory :Among the concepts...
- Minority influenceMinority influenceMinority influence, a form of social influence, takes place when a minority, like an individual, influences a majority to accept the minority's beliefs or behaviour. There are two types of social influence: majority influence and minority influence...
Moscovici Serge Invention of Society: Psychological Explanations for Social Phenomena (1993) Polity Press
Moscovici Serge, Doise Willem (trans W.D.Hall) Conflict and Consensus: General Theory of Collective Decisions (1994) Sage
Further reading
- Mirilia Bonnes (ed.), La Vita, il percorso intellettuale, i temi, le opere, Milano, Franco Angeli, 1999
- Fabrice Buschini, Nikos Kalampalikis (eds.), Penser la vie, le social, la nature. Mélanges en l'honneur de Serge Moscovici, Paris, Editions de la Maison des sciences de l'homme, 2001