Effect of Group Behaviour and Social Influence Chapter 34 Effect of Group Behaviour and Social Influence

Social Groups Human beings are social animals. A large part of the average person’s life is spent interacting with other people who act as stimuli and offer responses to the person’s behaviour. People belong to one or more social groups of different types and sizes. These could include, the family, the school orchestra, an army regiment, the teenage gang, the political party and so on Social groupings provide people with a feeling of belonging and of being accepted. Many groups are held together by rules written and unwritten and symbolism e.g. a uniform that sets the group apart from non-members. Groups provide support for their members especially in times of need. The group decides the behaviour of the members. A person who accepts these conditions must behave in the same way as the other members of the group

Social Facilitation Many people need status and want to impress and be admired by other members of the social group that they belong to. In a competitive situation, people work faster than when they are working alone. This increased performance in competitive situations is called social facilitation. Even in non- competitive situations if a person knows that results will be compared, they work better than when working alone.

Social Facilitation- An Athletics Club The graph shows the results of a survey on members of an athletics club in the absence of spectators. The presence of other competitors seems to make the individual faster than when they are on their own. This increased performance in a competitive situation is called Social Facilitation

Familiarity with the Task Competition is especially effective at improving a person’s performance if he or she is already very familiar with the task in hand. However competition tends to interfere with the person’s progress when the person is trying to learn something new. They imagine they are being judged, feel stressed and make mistakes.

Optical Illusions What animal do you see? Which is longer? What do you see? What do you see?

Visual Judgement Problem

Group Pressure This experiment was set up to investigate the effect on an individual of majority opinion even when it was clearly contrary to fact. A group of eight individuals were asked to solve this visual judgement problem. The first seven members were part of the experiment and told in advance to give the wrong answer C. The 8th member who was the experimental subject was then placed in the position of having to disagree with the majority or doubt their own judgement enough to conform to group opinion

Results of Group Pressure Experiment The experiment was repeated several times and the results shown opposite. Many of the subjects who agreed with the majority were asked later why they had changed their opinion. They had come to the conclusion that there was something wrong with their eyesight or they had been experiencing an optical illusion

Group Pressure The process of exerting such a strong influence on an individual that they abandon their own views or ideas in favour of those held by a social group is called GROUP PRESSURE. If susceptible individuals can be pressurised into agreeing to the wrong answer in a straightforward situation like this one, the possibility of influencing a person’s judgement is increased dramatically when it comes to an opinion or attitude

In real life, group pressure is a powerful force In real life, group pressure is a powerful force. People find it hard to resist going along with the decisions made by the group.

Why do members of a group conform? Many members conform because: 1.They identify with group members and want to be like them 2. They desire the personal gain which membership often brings 3. They want to be liked and not thought of as unpopular

Once under the influence of group pressure, people think differently from a way they would if they were on their own. Decisions and behaviour are now less dependent on the members’ individual personalities and more on the collective influence of the group.

Deindividuation The loss by an individual of personal identity when in a group is called deindividuation and can lead to diminished restraints on behaviour. Deindividuated people feel indistinguishable from others in the group and are more likely to act mindlessly and do things that they would never consider doing on their own. This often takes the form of anti-social, aggressive behaviour by a ‘faceless’ mob whose members have temporarily lost awareness of their individuality and sense of responsibility,

Risk-Taking. The members of a group will take bigger risks when in a group than when alone. A gang of teenagers will dare one another into pursuing extreme activities which they would be unlikely to attempt on their own.

Anonymity- Being an anonymous member of a crowd offers the individual protection from punishment. If members of a mob do not have to worry about being caught breaking the law then they are more likely to pursue their irresponsible activities.

Influences that Change Beliefs- Internalisation

Drug education programmes and anti-smoking campaigns often use posters in an attempt to persuade people to alter their behaviour