Chapter 7: Group Influence Flashcards
Group
Two or more people who interact with and influence on another
All groups have one thing in common: their members interact
Perceive an us vs them
Mere Presence
People are not competing, do not reward or punish, do nothing except be present as a passive audience or co-actors
Bikers go faster when in group than alone (when competing)
Children wind string faster in the presence of others doing the same task
Presence of others improves accuracy of simple motor tasks
Makes us better at recognizing faces
Social facilitation effect in animals
Presence of same species helps performance (e.g. Ants excavate more sand, Chickens eat more grain)
Presence of same species hinders performance (e.g. Cockroaches, parakeets, green finches learn maze more slowly with others there)
Presence of others can hinder performance
Diminishes efficiency at learning nonsense syllables, completing a maze, performing complex multiplication problems
Can even be worse at learning new faces
Role of arousal in response
Arousal enhances dominant response tendency
Arousal & Simple Tasks
Increased arousal enhances performance on easy tasks for which the most likely dominant response is correct
Overlearned, instinctual, automatized, require no resources
E.g. easy anagrams, quicker to learn short maze
Arousal & Complex Tasks
Increased arousal promotes incorrect responding when answer is not dominant
E.g. hard anagrams, take longer to learn difficult mazes
Novel, learned, controlled, require cognitive resources
Presence of many others
Crowding
Crowds intensify positive or negative reactions
Arousal and self conscious attention created by audience can interfere with well learned and automatic behaviours such as speaking
Effect of others’ presence increases with their number
Even supportive audience may elicit poorer performance on challenging tasks
Evaluation Apprehension
Observers make us apprehensive because we wonder how they are evaluating us
Enhancement of dominant responses is strongest when people think they are being evaluated
Social Loafing
Group members may be less motivated when completing additive tasks
People in tug of war line pull less when in a group and more when alone
People think they put in full effort with group even though didn’t
Reducing Social Loafing
Groups loaf less when members are friends or are identified with or indispensable to their group
People loaf less if the task is challenging, appealing, or involving
If goal is very compelling maximum output from everyone is essential
Using rewards based on effort
Evaluating each member alone
Deindividuation
When arousal and diffused responsibility combine and normal inhibitions diminish
Occurs in group situations that foster anonymity and draw attention away from the individual
Lessening of restraint
Impulsive self gratification
Destructive social explosions
Counteracting Deindividuation
Increase self awareness (e.g. mirrors, name tags, individualized clothing, decrease alcohol)
Group Polarization
Groups enhance initial inclination
Groups come to more extreme decisions than individuals
Groupthink
Tendency of decision making groups to suppress dissent in the interest of group harmony (big groups make bad decisions)
Lead group members to overestimate their group’s might and right
Group members become close minded
Group suffers from pressures toward uniformity
Preventing Groupthink
Be impartial (don’t endorse any position)
Encourage critical evaluation (devils advocate)
Occasionally subdivide the group and reunite to air differences
Welcome critiques from outside experts and associates
Before implementing a decision, call a second chance meeting to air lingering doubts
Task Leadership
Organizing work, setting standards, and focusing on goal attainment
Often have directive style
Keep attention and effort focused on task
Men that exhibit masculine traits tend to be perceived as dominant leaders and to be successful CEOs
Social Leadership
Building teamwork, mediating conflicts, and being supportive
Democratic style that delegates authority, welcomes input from team members, and prevents groupthink
Women in general are more egalitarian than men and more likely to oppose hierarchies
When given control over tasks workers become more motivated
When participating in decisions members feel more satisfied
Transactional Leaders
Combine task and social leadership
Transformational Leader
Motivates others to identify with and commit themselves to the group’s mission
Charismatic, energetic, self confident extroverts
Articulate high standards, inspire people to share their vision, offer personal attention
Minority Influence: Consistency
Minority that sticks to its position is most influential
Persistent nonconformity is often painful
Minorities tend to become influential because it becomes the focus of the debate
Minority Slowness Effect
Tendency for people with minority views to express them less quickly than people in the majority
Minority Influence: Self Confidence
Any behaviour by a minority that displays confidence tends to raise self doubts among majority
Especially influential for matters of opinion (not fact)
Minority Influence: Majority Defections
Consistent minorities create feeling of freedom for majority members to change sides
Minority person who defected from majority was more persuasive than consistent minority voice
Once one defection occurs typically more follow
