Group Influence�

Social Facilitation

• Most likely response is strengthened in the presence of others - Crowds activate our sympathetic nervous system.
• Improved performance of tasks in the presence of others
• Occurs with simple or well learned tasks
• Social Inhibition - Tasks that are difficult or not yet learned then the presence of other people is likely to hinder performance
• Deals with levels of arousal (Yerkes-Dodson Law)

Social Loafing

• Tendency to expend less effort on a task when it is a group effort
• The larger the group, the lower each individual’s output
• People may be less accountable in a group, or they may think their efforts aren’t needed.

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• Reduced when…
• Group is composed of people we know
• We are members of a highly valued group
• Task is meaningful
• Women are generally less likely to engage in social loafing than are men.
• Social Striving - Opposite occurs in many collectivistic cultures, people work harder in a group setting

Deindividuation

• The loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity
• People lose their sense of responsibility when in a group.

Group Polarization

• When group decisions end up as extreme versions of what each individual’s preferences are.
• Get a bunch of violent people together and they will come up with more aggressive plans than if they were acting alone.

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• Originally called risky shift - Group takes more chances when making a decision than individuals

Social Pressure in �Group Decisions

• Group polarization
• When people find themselves in groups of like-minded types, they are likely to move to extremes
• Creates an Us vs. Them mentality
• Why does this occur?
• informational and normative influences

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Group Polarization

Separation + Conversation = Polarization

Groupthink

• When the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of the alternatives
• Group members try to maintain harmony and unanimity in group
• Can lead to worse decisions than individuals when people don’t raise concerns or alternatives so they can instead agree with the group.
• Prevented when a leader welcomes various opinions & critiques & assigns people to identify possible problems.

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Social Trap

• Harming the collective-well being by pursuing our own personal interests
• Social Traps challenge us to find ways to reconcile our right to pursue our own best interests with our responsibility for the well-being of all.

Example: Conserving gasoline, water or electricity. Whenever our personal comfort or convenience is involved, it is highly tempting to "let the other person worry about it." Yet – in the long run when everyone things this – everybody loses.

Click HERE for more examples.

Self-fulfilling Prophecies

• When our beliefs and expectations create reality
• I think Jim is a “jerk.” So I act negatively toward Jim whenever I see him. Noticing this, Jim doesn’t like me and acts negatively towards me.
• I don’t believe I can pass a test so I don’t study. Now that I haven’t studied at all, I’ve guaranteed I won’t pass the next test.

Studies of the Self-fulfilling Prophecy

• Rosenthal & Fode
• tested whether labeling would affect outcome
• divided students into 2 groups and gave them randomly selected rats
• 1 group was told they had a group of “super genius” rats and the other was told they had a group of “super moron” rats
• all students told to train rats to run mazes
• “genius” rat group ended up doing better than the “moron” rat group b/c of the expectations of the students

Studies of the Self-fulfilling Prophecy

• Rosenthal & Jacobson
• went to a school and did IQ tests with kids
• told teachers that the test was a “spurters” test
• randomly selected several kids and told the teacher they were spurters
• did another IQ test at end of year
• spurters showed significant improvements in their IQ scores b/c of their teacher’s expectations of them

Spotlight effect

• Overestimating others’ noticing and evaluating our appearance, performance, and blunders
• (like a spotlight shining on us)
• Fewer people notice our clothing, nervousness, irritation, attraction, embarrassing moments, etc. than we think

Our Power as Individuals

Minority Influence

• One or Two people can sway a majority IF…
• Hold firm to your position and don’t waffle
• Self-confidence makes others consider why you are staying with your position & they may develop sympathy for your position & rethink their view.

Cultural Influences on Behavior

• Cultural NORMS – Rules for accepted & expected behavior in society
• Can change with time.

Would this be accepted for Graduation?