Social Psychology: The power of groups

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Social Psychology The power of groups

• Th

• The study of the manner in which the personality,
  attitudes, motivations, and behavior of the
  individual influence and are influenced by social
  groups.

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Cultural influence

• Culture dictates how you dress.
• Culture specifies what you eat and do not eat.
• People from different cultures seek different
  amounts of personal space.
• Cultural truisms
• Norms

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Chameleon Effect

• http//www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199911/wer
  e-all-copycats

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Conformity

• Conformity voluntarily yielding to social norms,
  even at the expense of ones preferences.

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Conformity The Asch Experiment
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The more difficult the decision, the greater the
conformity.
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Obedience

• Obedience change of behavior in response to a
  command from another person, typically an
  authority figure.
• Factors that increase obedience

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Obedience The Milgram Experiment
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A good impact of being in a group social
facilitation

• At times, people will improve their performance
  of tasks in the presence of others
• Occurs with simple or well-learned tasks but not
  with tasks that are difficult or not yet mastered
• Expert pool players who made 71 of shots by
  themselves make 80 when 4 people are watching
  poor pool players who made 36 alone made 25
  when watched.
• Laughter comedy CDs that are mildly amusing in
  an uncrowded room seem funnier in a densely
  packed room (i.e. laugh tracks on TVs) a good
  house is a full house
• Driving After a light turns green, drivers take
  15 less time to travel the first 100 yards than
  when alone
• Can you think of activities that you do better
  when others are watching?

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Social Facilitation in sports
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The bad social loafing

• The tendency for people in a group to exert less
  effort when pooling their efforts toward
  attaining a common goal than when working
  individually.
• Inghams 1974 tug of war experiment

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The bad bystander effect

• We only help when a situation enables us to
  notice a situation, interpret it as an emergency,
  and assume responsibility
• Diffusion of responsibility
• http//www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/
  predators/kitty_genovese/1.html
• Have you ever seen a car accident or other bad
  event and hesitated before getting involved, or
  decided not to get involved at all?

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The bad deindividuation

• Loss of self-awareness and self-restraint in
  group situations that foster arousal and
  anonymity.
• http//www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/dail
  y/july99/woodstock29.htm
• What other kinds of things will people do when
  they are in a crowd or a mob?

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The bad group polarization

• Over time, initial differences between different
  groups tends to grow
• Do you spend most of your time with people who
  have the same opinions, or do you seek out
  differences?

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Group polarization
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The bad groupthink

• When the desire for harmony in a decision-making
  group overrides realistic appraisal of
  alternatives Challenger, Bay of Pigs, Iraq War,
  etc.
• Can you think of other examples?