Many theorists contributed to theories on social influence. Two in particular are Asch and Moscovici. These talked about the majority influence and the minority influence.

Solomon Asch conducted an experiment in 1951 to investigate the extent to which social pressure from a majority group could affect a person to conform. He showed the participants 3 lines and asked them which line had the same length as the one he had presented. Only one of the participants weren't collaborating with the researcher whilst the others had to say a wrong answer. Even though it was obvious which lines were the same, after hearing the collaborators say their wrong answers, the participants found themselves in a conflict whether they should give the same answer as the others even if it was wrong or say the right one. 75% of the participants gave into the group pressure at least once whilst 37% conformed on all trials. He found out that apparently people conform for two main reasons, because they want to fit in with the group (normative influence) and because they believe the group is better informed than they are (informational influence). Asch had assumed that the participants would be able to say the truth. However, about 70% of the participants went against the majority at least in one of the trials. They also had a strong conflict because they wanted to be like the rest of the group. Most gave both wrong and right answers to avoid being ridiculed but at the same time show perceptual accuracy.

Minority influence is a form of social influence that is brought about by being exposed to a consistent minority position in a group. It is only felt after some time and it creates a private acceptance by the majority. Serge Moscovici argued that not enough credit is given to the influence a minority can have on the majority. In his dual-process theory, he distinguished between compliance and conversion. An example of compliance would be Asch's experiment where the participants publicly conform to the majority's views but privately reject them. Conversion explains how a minority can influence a majority. It involves persuading the majority that the minority's opinions are correct, it can be achieved through consistency. It often achieves public and also private agreement. David and Turner gave an example that minority influence is only found when the minority is part of an in- group. They said that moderate feminists started being exposed to extreme feminists, which where the minority but their opinion didn't make an impact. However, when they were feminists against non feminists, the extreme feminists became part of the in- group and the minority influence was much bigger.

Asch only took into account the majority influence which consisted of normative and informational influence. Whilst Moscovici looked at both minority and majority influence and stated that both of them could influence each other. Majority influence and minority influence differ by cognitive processes.