SITUATIONS AND SOCIAL ROLES

1. SITUATIONS AND SOCIAL ROLES Like Milgram, in his Stanford Prison experiment Philip Zimbardo demonstrated under certain conditions, normal, decent people can be abnormally cruel → Zimbardo randomly assigned 24 stable, healthy male college students to be either a ‘guard’ or a ‘prisoner’ in a fake prison

2. SITUATIONS AND SOCIAL ROLES → after six days Zimbardo called off the study because the ‘guards’ became sadistic and degrading, while the majority of ‘prisoners’ became apathetic and listless

3. SITUATIONS AND SOCIAL ROLES → Zimbardo attributed the behavior to situational forces and the gradual adoption of the (social) roles of prison guards

4. GROUP BEHAVIOR – THE BYSTANDER EFFECT People behave differently in groups than when they are alone; the bystander effect refers to the tendency for any person to be less likely to give aid if other people are present → if it is unclear that there is an emergency/the person needs help, the less likely someone will help

5. THE BYSTANDER EFFECT → the diffusion of responsibility means that since we are not alone in a group, we are not alone in responsibility (“someone else will help”)

6. GROUP BEHAVIOR – SOCIAL FACILITITATION Social facilitation refers to the strengthened performance on simple or well-learned tasks when in the presence of others → file under same but different: we perform worse on more difficult tasks with others around

7. GROUP BEHAVIOR – SOCIAL LOAFING Social loafing refers to the tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal than when being held individually accountable → once again, diffusion of responsibility plays a role, as does the ‘free ride’ effect for those who are unmotivated

9. GROUP BEHAVIOR – DEINDIVIDUATION Deindividuation occurs when the presence of others both arouses people (social facilitation) AND diminishes feelings of responsibility (social loafing) at the same time → when we shed self- awareness and restraint we become more responsive to the group, for better (at a sporting event) or worse (in a mob)

10. GROUP DECISION-MAKING: POLARIZATION Group polarization refers to the enhancement of a group’s prevailing inclinations through discussion within the group → like-minded people provide an ‘echo chamber’ that intensify individual inclinations: ideological separation + conversation = polarization

11. GROUPTHINK Groupthink occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives → associated with JFK’s Bay of Pigs invasion, groupthink often involves an overestimation of unanimity in close-knit, cohesive groups making stressful decisions viewed in ‘us-versus-them’ terms