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Chapter 8: Groups Purestock/Superstock
Group Influence Chapter 8: Groups Purestock/Superstock Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display
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What Is a Group? A group is two or more people who, for longer than a few moments, interact with and influence one another and perceive one another as “us” Different groups meet different human needs to affiliate- part of our evolutionary heritage In our ancestry we could not have survived the harshness of the environment if we did not align ourselves with others and supported one another Sometimes we may be physically together, yet work individually, not interacting- so we are not a group Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
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Social Facilitation: How Are We Affected by the Presence of Others?
The Mere Presence of Others: Early studies found that the presence of others improves speed f performance on simple tasks ; e.g Triplett (1898) that bicyclists times were faster when they raced together Social facilitation Concept originally referred to simple, well-learned tasks Strengthening of dominant responses whether correct or incorrect in the presence of others Boosts performance on easy tasks Impairs performance on difficult tasks Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
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How are the contradictory results regarding the presence of others explained?
Zajonc (1965) found that the presence of others causes arousal and this arousal enhances performance on easy, dominant, well-learned tasks On complex tasks increased arousal (that is- anxiety) affects performance negatively
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Social Facilitation: How Are We Affected by the Presence of Others?
Crowding: The Presence of Many Others Effect of others’ presence increases with their number Arousal and self-conscious attention interferes even with well-learned responses Being in a crowd intensifies positive or negative reactions Enhances arousal which facilitates dominant responses Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
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Social Facilitation: How Are We Affected by the Presence of Others?
Why Are We Aroused in the Presence of Others? Evaluation apprehension Concern for how others are evaluating us Driven by distraction When we wonder how co-actors are doing or how an audience is reacting, we become distracted Mere presence Can be arousing even when we are not evaluated or distracted Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
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(more) Evaluation apprehension
Concern for how others are evaluating us People perform the best when their co-actor is slightly superior Arousal lessens high-status group is diluted by adding people whose opinions do not matter to us People who worry most about what others think are more affected by their by their presence The self-consciousness also interferes with behaviors we perform automatically.
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Possible explanation for the mere presence of others
Facilitation effects occurs also with animals It hints to innate social arousal mechanism common to much of the species, possibly because of our evolutionary legacy: In our ancestry we needed to align ourselves with the group in order to survive We were depended on the group and sensitive to the extent to which the group had evaluated us and accepted or rejected us
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Social Loafing: Do Individuals Exert Less Effort in a Group?
Tendency for people to exert less effort when they pool their efforts toward a common goal than when they are individually accountable Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
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Historical Background
Nearly a century ago, French Engineer Ringelmann found that the collective effort of tug-a-war teams was half of the sum of individual efforts He suggested that group members are less motivated when performing additive tasks When subjects in studies (blindfolded) thought they are pulling with others they exerted less efforts when they were led to believe they were pulling by themselves. When students work on group projects, sharing a grade, social loafing often occurs- “free-riders”
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Social Loafing: Do Individuals Exert Less Effort in a Group?
Many Hands Make Light Work Effort decreases as group size increases Evaluation apprehension decreases Free riders People who benefit from the group but give little in return To motivate group members, one strategy is to make individual performances identifiable. Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
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Social Loafing: Do Individuals Exert Less Effort in a Group?
Social Loafing in Everyday Life People in groups loaf less when the task is Challenging Appealing Rewards are significant Involving Team spirit Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
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Deindividuation: When Do People Lose Their Sense of Self in Groups?
Loss of self-awareness and evaluation apprehension; occurs in group situations that foster responsiveness to group norms, good or bad Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
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Deindividuation: When Do People Lose Their Sense of Self in Groups?
Doing Together What We Would Not Do Alone Group size Larger the group the more its members lose self-awareness and become willing to commit atrocities People’s attention is focused on the situation, not on themselves “Everyone’s doing it” attitude They contribute their behavior to the situation rather than to their own choices Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
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Deindividuation: When Do People Lose Their Sense of Self in Groups?
Doing Together What We Would Not Do Alone Anonymity Being anonymous makes one less self-conscious, more group-conscious, and more responsive to cues present in the situation, whether negative or positive Children were more likely to transgress by taking extra Halloween candy when in a group, when anonymous, and, especially, when deindividuated by the combination of group immersion and anonymity. Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
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Deindividuation: When Do People Lose Their Sense of Self in Groups?
Doing Together What We Would Not Do Alone Arousing and distracting activities When we act in an impulsive way as a group, we are not thinking about our values; we are reacting to the immediate situation Impulsive group action absorbs our attention Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
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Deindividuation: When Do People Lose Their Sense of Self in Groups?
Diminished Self-Awareness Tend to increase people’s responsiveness to the immediate situation, be it negative or positive Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
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Group Polarization: Do Groups Intensify Our Opinions?
Group-produced enhancement of members’ preexisting tendencies; a strengthening of the members’ average tendency, not a split within the group Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
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Group Polarization: Do Groups Intensify Our Opinions?
“Risky Shift” Phenomenon Occurs not only when a group decides by consensus; after a brief discussion, individuals, too, will alter their decisions Juries Business committees Military organizations Teen drivers: Reckless driving nearly doubles when a 16 or 17 y.o. driver has two teenager passengers rather than one. Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
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Group Polarization: Do Groups Intensify Our Opinions?
Do Groups Intensify Opinions? : Most studies indicate a tendency for group discussion to enhance the members’ initial tendency, sometimes the average tendency. Group polarization experiments Moscovici and Zavalloni (1969): Found that discussion enhanced French students’ initial positive attitudes toward their president and negative attitudes toward Americans Mititoshi Isozaki (1984) studied “guilty” judgment in legal case Markus Brauer, et al. (2001): French students dislike of certain other people increase after discsuuing their shared negative impressions. Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
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Group Polarization: Do Groups Intensify Our Opinions?
Do Groups Intensify Opinions? In everyday life we associate with people whose attitudes are similar to our own Group polarization in everyday life Schools: Segregation in gender groups intensifies gender differences Accentuation effect: Over time, initial differences among groups of college students become accentuated, Communities Self-segregation Internet Terrorists organizations September 11, 2001 Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
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Group Polarization: Do Groups Intensify Our Opinions?
Explaining Polarization: Why do groups adopt stances that are more exaggerated than that of their average member? Informational influence: Group discussion elicits a pooling of ideas, most of which favor the dominant viewpoint Arguments Active participation produces more attitude change, as the verbal commitment magnifies the impact Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
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Group Polarization: Do Groups Intensify Our Opinions?
Explaining Polarization Normative influence Social comparison (Festinger) Evaluating one’s opinions and abilities by comparing oneself with others , especially with one’s reference group. Pluralistic ignorance A false impression of what most other people are thinking or feeling, or how they are responding Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
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Groupthink: Do Groups Hinder or Assist Good Decisions?
Mode of thinking that persons engage in when concurrence-seeking becomes so dominant in a cohesive in-group that it tends to override realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action Caused by Cohesive group Isolation of the group from dissenting viewpoints Directive leader Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
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President Kennedy and advisors debating invasion to Cuba after Russian put missiles there (1961)
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Groupthink: Do Groups Hinder or Assist Good Decisions?
Symptoms of Groupthink Following lead group members to overestimate their group’s might and right Illusion of invulnerability Unquestioned belief in the group’s morality Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
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Groupthink: Do Groups Hinder or Assist Good Decisions?
Symptoms of Groupthink Following leads group members to become closed-minded Rationalization Stereotyped view of opponent Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
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Groupthink: Do Groups Hinder or Assist Good Decisions?
Symptoms of Groupthink Following leads group to feel pressure toward uniformity Conformity pressure Self-censorship Illusion of unanimity Mindguards: Some members of the group protect the group from information that would call into question their decisions. Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
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Groupthink: Do Groups Hinder or Assist Good Decisions?
Critiquing Groupthink Directive leadership is associated with poorer decisions Groups do prefer supporting over challenging information Groups make smart decisions by widely distributed conversation with members who take turns speaking Group with diverse perspectives outperform groups of like minded experts. Group success depends both on what group members know and how effectively they can share that information. Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
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Groupthink: Do Groups Hinder or Assist Good Decisions?
Preventing Groupthink Be impartial Encourage critical evaluation Occasionally subdivide the group, then reunite to air differences Welcome critiques from outside experts and associates Call a second-chance meeting to air lingering doubts Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
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Groupthink: Do Groups Hinder or Assist Good Decisions?
Group Problem Solving Combine group and solitary brainstorming Have group members interact by writing Incorporate electronic brainstorming Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
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The Influence of the Minority: How Do Individuals Influence the Group?
Consistency Minority slowness effect Self-Confidence Portrayed by consistency and persistence Defections from the Majority Minority person who defects from the majority is more persuasive than a consistent minority voice Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
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The Influence of the Minority: How Do Individuals Influence the Group?
Is Leadership Minority Influence? Leadership Process by which certain group members motivate and guide the group Formal and informal group leaders exert disproportionate influence Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
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The Influence of the Minority: How Do Individuals Influence the Group?
Is Leadership Minority Influence? Task leadership Organizes work, sets standards, and focuses on goals Social leadership Builds teamwork, mediates conflict, and offers support Transformational leadership Enabled by a leader’s vision and inspiration, exerts significant influence Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
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