Group Influence

1
Group Influence

• What is a group?
• How does being in a group change us?

2
What is a group?

• Numerous definitions of the term.
• A number of individuals who are interacting with
  each other.
• Several individuals who are interdependent in
  some way.
• A number of individuals who join together to
  achieve a goal.
• A social unit consisting of two or more people
  who perceive themselves as belonging to a group.
• A collection of individuals whose interactions
  are structured by a set of roles and norms.

3
Different Forums of Group Influence

• Collective influence in minimal group situations
• Social facilitation
• Social Loafing
• Deindividuation
• Group influence in interacting groups
• Group polarization
• Groupthink
• Minority Influence

4
Social Facilitation

• The strengthening of dominant responses in the
  presence of others.
• Why?
• Evaluation Apprehension enhancement is strongest
  when people think they are being evaluated.
• Mere presence occurs in other species, may be a
  built-in biological mechanism.

5
Social Loafing

• Tendency to reduce effort when pooling effort
  toward a common goal and when they are not
  individually accountable.
• Tug of war, clapping studies.
• In essence, social loafing appears to occur due
  to a reduction in evaluation apprehension.
• Increases when not individually evaluated or
  rewarded.
• Decreases when tasks are challenging or
  appealing, and when fellow group members are
  friends (as opposed to strangers).

6
Deindividuation

• Loss of self-awareness and evaluation
  apprehension.
• Factors
• Physical anonymity (Zimbardo study with masked
  women delivering shocks, drivers in convertibles
  are less likely to honk, anthropological research
  that suggests that cultures with depersonalized
  warriors also were the cultures more likely to
  brutalize enemies).

7
Deindividuation

• However, deindividuation does not automatically
  lead to negative behavior.
• Makes one more responsive to cues in the
  environment, thus altruistic cues lead a
  deindividuated person to be kinder.
• Why?
• Diminished self-awareness those made self-aware
  exhibit more self-control and their actions are
  more consistent with their attitudes.

8
Group Polarization

• Originally dubbed the risky shift
• The risky shift involved the tendency for group
  decisions to be riskier than the average decision
  of the individuals in the group.
• However, subsequent research showed that groups
  may get more cautious
• Group polarization is the tendency for group
  decisions to be more extreme than that of
  individuals. Amplifies pre-existing tendencies.
• Same logic as social facilitation.

9
Group Polarization

• Why?
• Group discussion leads you to hear more
  information.
• Active participation in a discussion leads you to
  rehearse your thoughts leading to more attitude
  change.
• Safer to provide more extreme answers once the
  normative opinion of the group has been
  determined.

10
Minority Influence and Leadership

• What makes someone a good leader?
• Theories
• Trait Theory/Great Leader Charisma,
  intelligence?
• Social Determinism.
• Fiedlers Contingency Theory person vs. task
  oriented leaders.