Group Influence

1. Group Influence

2. Group Influence • Group: • Two or more people who interact with and influence one another • Phenomena of collective influence: • Social Facilitation • Social Loafing • Deindividuation • Group Polarization • Groupthink

3. Social Facilitation • Presence of other people strengthens dominant, well-learned responses • We are energized and aroused by the presence of others • Why? • Evaluation Apprehension • Distraction • Mere Presence

4. Social Loafing • Tendency for people to exert less effort when they pool their efforts for a common goal than when they are individually accountable • Ingham et al. • Latane, Williams, & Harking • People loaf less when task is challenging and involving, or when group members are friends

5. Deindividuation • Presence of people causes arousal • Being part of a group can diffuse personal responsibility • Combination of these can diminish normal inhibitions • Foodfights • Vandalism • Riots

6. Deindividuation • Loss of sense of individual responsibility and abandonment of normal restraints

7. Deindividuation • Affected by: • Group size • ‘Jumper’ study • Physical anonymity • Uniform studies • Gergen, Gergen, and Barton • Distracting activities • Diminished self-awareness

8. Group Polarization • Group-produced enhancement of members’ preexisting tendencies • Normative influence • Informational Influence • Risky shift • Pluralistic ignorance

9. Groupthink • A tendency of a decision-making group to suppress dissent in the interests of group harmony • Occurs in groups with: • High cohesiveness • Relative isolation from dissenting views • Directive leadership

10. Symptoms of Groupthink • Overestimate might and right • Illusion of invulnerability • Unquestioned belief in group’s morality • Closed-mindedness • Rationalization • Stereotyped view of opponent

11. Symptoms of Groupthink • Pressures toward uniformity • Conformity • Self-censorship • Illusion of unanimity • Mindguards

12. Pearl Harbor

13. Bay of Pigs

14. Space Shuttle Challenger

15. Minority Influence • How do individuals influence groups? • Definition: Influence of attitudinal minority on the majority

16. Minority Influence • Majorities use: • Power (can force compliance) • Normative influence • Minority influence: • Tends to be weaker than majority influence • Uses informational influence to persuade

17. When is minority influence effective? • Consistency • Consensus • Confidence

18. Social Dilemmas • Short-term individual self-interest conflicts with long-term collective interest

19. Keep silent Confess 10 years 5 years Free! Confess 5 years Free! Keep silent 1 year 10 years 1 year The Prisoner’s Dilemma You Your Partner

21. Tragedy of the Commons • Commons: Shared resource that will replenish over time, if used in moderation

22. Social Dilemmas • Zero-sum game: • A situation in which one side’s gain equals the other side’s loss • Mixed-motive game (non-zero sum): • A situation in which both sides may gain or both sides may lose

23. How to resolve social dilemmas? • Regulation • Small groups • Communication • Appeal to altruism • Change the payoffs

24. Conflict • Perceived incompatibility of actions or goals • On an individual level, what do you do with someone whose behavior or goals are incompatible with yours? • Conflict escalation: • An increase in • The intensity of a conflict • The severity of tactics used in pursuing it

25. Features of Conflict Escalation • Shift from light tactics to heavy tactics • Conflict grows in size • Issues move from specific to general • Goals change from ‘doing well’ to winning to hurting the other party

26. Misperceptions Selective Perception Stereotyping Fundamental Attribution Error Group Polarization Perceived Injustice Self-Fulfilling Prophecies Group Polarization Competition Sacrifice Trap Mirror-Image Perceptions Applying Social Science to Conflict Situations