What is a group?
- Group in social psychology defined as three or more people who INTERACT and INFLUENCE one and another
- Groups vary in size, tightness, longevity, etc
What is the idea of social facilitation?
The process by which the presence of others enhances performance on easy tasks, but impairs performance on difficult tasks
What did Zajonc propose for social Facilitation?
- Presence of others from own species creates arousal.
- Increased arousal increases tendency for dominant response.
- For easy or well-learned tasks, the dominant response is the correct response
- For difficult or novel tasks, the dominant response is an incorrect response.
What is Social Loafing?
The tendency for people to relax in the presence of others when their individual performance cannot be evaluated.
e.g. clap quieter in a crowd, but louder when alone.
- Sometimes intentional and other times unintentional.
What factors influence whether we engage in social loafing or not?
- Size of the group.
- Perceived anonymity. (i.e. how invisible is our individual performance perceived by our-self)
- Importance of group. (e.g. do we care or are we forced to do it)
- Value of individual effort. (how much of an impact do we believe we personally have)
- Negative consequences to group. (are we concerned about the negative consequences if we fail or under perform as a group)
Gender and cultural differences for social loafing?
- On average, social loafing less prevalent among women than men
- Socialisation of interdependence and group orientation may explain gap (as women are often more interdependent and concerned about others)
- Social loafing (on average) less prevalent in collectivist than individualist cultures
- However, collectivist cultures show tendency when group norm is low productivity. (when the group as a whole seems to not care/try)
Deindividuation
The loss of a person’s sense of individuality and the loosening of constraints on behaviour when people can’t be identified
e.g. you would do things you usually wouldn’t if you had the power to be invisible
or unidentified trick or treaters tended to take more candy/ steal on average
Why may Deindividuation occur?
- Le Bon and Tarde first to propose that in groups, individual mind gives way to less reflective ‘group’ mind.
Why may Deindividuation lead to anti-social acts?
- Deindividuation can lead to self-interested behaviour due to illusion of anonymity
- People feel less accountable for their actions
- E.g., using identifying information about the individual reduces the likelihood of anti-social behaviour.
- It shifts attentional cues from self to the situation decreasing control
- e.g. being at a loud concert
- E.g, Ps engaged in more aggressive and uninhibited behaviour in highly stimulating environments.
- Social Identity Model of Deindividuation Effects (SIDE)
Deindividuation lead to greater reliance on social norms
- Social Identity Model of Deindividuation Effects (SIDE): Whether deindividuation affects people for better or worse reflects norms and characteristics of the group surrounding the individual.
- Deindividuation can have prosocial or antisocial impacts on behaviour depending on the whether the social norms of the group are positive or negative.
What was demonstrated by a study involving the KKK uniform and a nurse’s uniform + participants being individualised or Deindividualised
KKK + deindividualised = worse behaviour (more electric shocks) vs KKK + individualised
however
Nurse + deindividualised = less electric shocks vs nurse + individualised
- shows that Deindividuation can have positive effects depending on the norm of the group, as the non-named nurses behaved nicer than the named nurses
Examples of Deindividuation in other contexts?
- Brutality of wars may be related to deindividuation
- 80% of those wearing war paint and masks were found particularly aggressive compared to only 13% of those that did not.
- Internet has become ripe context for deindividuation
- People may express extreme sentiments toward specific individuals or entire groups that they wouldn’t otherwise.
What are 2 faulty group dynamics that result in impaired group decision making?
- Group think
- Group polarization
What is Group Think?
A group decision making style characterized by excessive pressure among group members for consensus leading to inadequate appraisal of options and poor decisions.
What are the precursors to Group Think?
- Highly cohesive groups (groups with high emphasis on good relationships between each other and each other’s feelings) –> can lead to people not sharing concerns about ideas in order to keep everyone happy
- Insulation of the group (only cared about opinions of group members)
- Lack of procedures for information search and appraisal
- Directive leadership (a leader that pushes what he wants)
- Stressful situation and urgency (results in rushed decision making)
What are the symptoms of Group Think?
- Illusion of invulnerability (confident they are not wrong)
- Rationalization of warnings (Different viewpoints/concerns are dismissed)
- Unquestioned belief in the morality of the group (Think they’re 100% in the right)
- Pressure on group members who challenge the consensus (Social Pressure)
- Self-censorship of misgivings, questions, and counterarguments (Social pressure leads to people not speaking out about concerns as “everyone else seems to be onboard”)
- Illusion of unanimity (since no one is speaking up, people may start assuming everyone has no doubts and that everything is fine)
- Emergence of mindguards (People who decide what opinions/ideas the leader hears)
- Stereotyped view of the outgroup
- Selective biases in information processing (confirmation bias, motivated reasoning etc)
- Collectively, these factors contribute to poor decision-making. (even if everyone is really intelligent)
How can you prevent Group Think?
- Leader should be non-directive (e.g. give their opinion after everyone else)
- A norm of openness should be established.
- One member could be designated to be devil’s advocate each time to reduce group think.(a person who critiques people’s ideas –> important to switch up who is assigned as devil’s advocate)
- People from outside of the group should be included in the decision making process.
- Seek anonymous opinions from group members.
What is Risky shift?
Tendency for groups to make riskier decisions than individuals would.
Group polarization?
The tendency for group discussion to exaggerate and strengthen the initial leanings of the members in a group.
e.g. people with a similar ideology will have a stronger more exaggerate view point when discussing the matter as a group with others holding the same ideology
- an individual liberals opinion is more extreme when discussing among a group of liberals vs individually
What are the causes of Group Polarization?
- Persuasive arguments => hearing others with the same viewpoint and their supporting arguments further reassures your idea is correct.
- Social comparison => social pressure to agree with other members of the group
