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Group Process Group Influence on Individual Behavior What is a group? Two or more people… …who are interacting with each other… …and are interdependent —to fulfill their needs and goals they must rely on each other. Why do people join groups?

 Survival  Evolutionarily advantageous  Benefits  Provide information  Define identity  Establish social norms for behavior What is the composition of groups?  Most groups 2-6 people  Tendency to be similar  Social norms  Social roles  Group cohesiveness Social norms  “Rules” of behavior that are acceptable in a group/society  Change according to environment; can change over time  Deviation often punished, unless you have idiosyncrasy credits Social norms  Descriptive vs. Injunctive norms  Injunctive norms  what should happen  Descriptive norms  what actually happens  Prescriptive vs. Proscriptive norms  Prescriptive norms  For things we should do  Proscriptive norms  For things we should not do Social Roles All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts… William Shakespeare, As You Like It  Parts we play as members of social groups  Behavior changes to fit expectations you and others have of that role  There are different social norms for each situation & roles stem from those norms Social roles  Stanford Prison Experiment (Zimbardo, 1971)  Created “jail” in basement of Psych building  RA volunteers to be guards or prisoners  Both groups quickly took on their roles  Was supposed to last 2 weeks  Lasted 6 days before having to be stopped  Illustrates power of social roles to shape our behaviors Group Cohesiveness  The qualities of a group that bind members together and promote liking between members.  The more cohesion:  the more likely to retain members  members take part in group activities  members try to recruit new members  The good and bad sides of cohesion  Too much cohesion can impede performance How Groups Influence Behaviors of Individuals  Social Facilitation  When the presence of others energizes us  Social Loafing  When the presence of others relaxes us  Deindividuation  Getting lost in the crowd Social Facilitation  The tendency for people to do better on simple tasks and worse on complex tasks when they are in the presence of others and their individual performance can be evaluated .

 Norman Triplett (1898)  Children reeled in fishing line faster in groups than alone  Robert Zajonc (1969)  Applied this effect to cockroaches Zajonc et al. (1969 ) 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 Seconds to navigate maze Simple Complex Alone Audience Social Facilitation: simple vs. difficult tasks Social Facilitation:

Arousal and Dominant Response  Zajonc ( 1969)  The presence of others increases arousal.  Arousal (physiological excitation) increases the likelihood of the dominant response  Markus (1978)  The tendency for people to do worse on simple tasks when they are in the presence of others and their individual performance cannot be evaluated .  Max Ringelmann (1913) Social Loafing  Who slacks off the most?

 Men more than Women  Western -oriented more than Eastern -oriented  Why do we loaf?  Individual effort cannot be identified and rewarded.  The task is not challenging, appealing, or involving Social Loafing Is a loss of self-awareness and evaluation apprehension resulting in uninhibited behavior. Deindividuation What causes deindividuation?

Anonymity  Large groups (hiding in the crowd)  Mullen (1986) found that the larger the mob, the more savage and vicious the lynching.  Costumes (hiding behind masks & uniforms)  Zimbardo (1970) found that P s in sheets and hoods held a shock lever twice as long as those who wore name tags instead of the costume. Deindividuation Group Decisions  Major function of groups = making decisions  Are two heads better than one?  It depends!  Process Loss  Group Polarization  Leadership in Groups Group Decisions: Process Loss Process Loss: any aspect of group interaction that inhibits good problem solving  Groups might not try to find most expert member  Normative social pressures felt by expert  Communication problems  Failure to share unique information  Groupthink Group Decisions: Process Loss  Failure to Share Unique Information  the tendency to focus on shared information and ignore unique information known to only some members  Stasser & Titus, 1995  Student Body President Candidates  IV: Information – Shared vs. Unshared  DV: Which candidate was chosen? Failure to share unique information They all know the same thing about Candidate A:

Positive facts #1 #2 #3 # 4 #5 #6 #7 #8 Negative facts #1 #2 #3 # 4 They all know different things about Candidate A: Positive #1 #2 Negative #1 #2 #3 #4 Positive #3 #4 Negative #1 #2 #3 #4 Positive #5 #6 Negative #1 #2 #3 #4 Positive #7 #8 Negative #1 #2 #3 #4 Group Decision 83% = A Group Decision 24% = A Group Decisions: Process Loss  Groupthink: a kind of thinking in which maintaining group cohesiveness and solidarity is more important than considering the facts in a realistic manner  Kennedy and the “Bay of Pigs” invasion Groupthink  Preconditions  Highly cohesive group  Group is isolated  Directive leader  High stress  Poor decision -making procedures Groupthink  Symptoms  Illusion of invulnerability  Belief in moral correctness of group  Stereotyped views of out-group  Self-censorship  Direct pressure on dissenters to conform  Illusion of unanimity  Mindguards Groupthink  Defective decision -making  Incomplete survey of alternatives  Failure to examine risks of the favored alternative  Poor information search  Failure to develop contingency plans Group Decisions: Polarization  Group Polarization : the tendency for groups to make decisions that are more extreme than the initial inclinations of its members.  Myers and Bishop (1970)  Surveyed high schoolers on their racial attitudes and then split them into high and low prejudiced groups.  In like-minded groups, the students discussed racial issues.  After discussion, again measured their racial attitudes. Group Decisions: Polarization -4 -3 -2 -10 1 2 3 4 Before discussion After discusion Prejudice High prejudiced Low prejudiced Why does group polarization occur?

 Informational social influence  New information and one- sided arguments are presented that persuade people even more.

 Normative social influence  People’s perception of the group norm shifts, freeing them to express more extreme beliefs. Group Decisions: Polarization