Groups

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Groups
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What is a group?

• Is five people waiting at the same corner for a
  bus a group?
• Is people attending a worship service a group?
• Is the Spice Girls Fan Club a group?
• Is the students in a seminar class a group?

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What is a group?

• How would you define a group?
• Two or more people who, for longer than a few
  moments, interact with and influence one another
  and perceive one another as us

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What effects do groups have?

• If you were invisible and could do anything
  humanly possible with complete assurance that you
  would not be detected or held responsible, what
  would you do?
• Write down -- no names -- and hand in

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What effects do groups have?

• Can affect our behavior
• Clapping alone and in group
• What happens here?
• Social loafing people tend to exert less effort
  when they pool their efforts than when theyre
  individually accountable
• Are people aware of this?
• Not always -- Clapping study people think
  theyre clapping the same amount

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Why does social loafing occur?

• People dont have a fear of being individually
  evaluated
• Responsibility for the outcome is diffused across
  group members

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Social loafing

• Examples in everyday life?
• When might social loafing be less likely to
  occur?
• Challenging task -- efforts seen as more needed
• Working with friends rather than strangers

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Effects of groups

• Candy at stake
• Can pick 1 or 0
• Payoff differs with how many people pick each
  number

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What effects do groups have?

• picking 1 payoff of 1 payoff of 0
• 0-2 1 5
• 3-5 2 7
• 6-8 3 9
• 9-11 4 11
• 12-14 5 13
• 15-17 6 15
• 18-20 7 17
• 21-23 8 19
• 24-26 9 21

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What effect do groups have?

• Who picked 0 -- why?
• Who picked 1 -- why?

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Free-rider

• Type of social loafing People expect others to
  pick up the slack
• Free-riders benefit from a group but give little
  in return
• Candy 1 and 0
• Other examples?
• Voluntary pay to go to museum, etc.
• Donations for public tv

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Deindividuation

• What would people do if they would not be caught
  or were invisible?
• Deindividuation is a similar situation
• loss of self-awareness and evaluation
  apprehension
• result of situations where part of group that
  fosters anonymity

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Deindividuation

• When does this occur?
• City vs. suburb
• Zimbardo car vandalized more in NYC or Palo
  Alto? Why?
• Feel more anonymous in big city
• more deindividuated in convertible or 4X4?
• Who would honk more if someone in front didnt
  move from stop sign?

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Deindividuation

• Other examples of people acting in a certain way
  because deindividuated?
• Celebration in NYC
• Actions during war
• Any time people perceive their behavior as part
  of the groups behavior, rather than as their own
  behavior

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Deindividuation

• When else might people be deindividuated?
• What holiday?
• Kids and trick-or-treating
• Non-uniform or anonymous ways to be
  deindividuated?
• When else is self-awareness diminished?
• Alcohol

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Deindividuation

• Does deindividuation always lead people to act
  out negative behavior?
• What if anonymous because in uniform that
  promotes positive acts, such as a nurses uniform?

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Deindividuation

• What might lower deindividuation?
• What would increase peoples perception of
  themselves as an individual, and accountable for
  their actions?
• Mirror
• name tag

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• Henry is a writer who is said to have
  considerable creative talent but who so far has
  been earning a comfortable living by writing
  cheap Westerns. Recently he has come up with an
  idea for a potentially significant novel. If it
  could be written and accepted it might have
  considerable literary impact and be a big boost
  to his career. On the other hand, if he is not
  able to work out his idea or if the novel is a
  flop, he will have expended considerable time and
  energy without remuneration.
• Imagine youre advising Henry. Henry should
  attempt to write the novel if the chances that
  the novel will succeed are at least ___
• Rate on your own
• Discuss and then rate...

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• Roger is a young married main with two school-age
  children and a secure but low-paying job. Roger
  can afford lifes necessities but few of its
  luxuries. He hears that the stock of a relatively
  unknown company may soon triple in value if its
  new product is favorably received or decline
  considerably if it does not sell. Roger has no
  savings. To invest in the company, he is
  considering selling his life insurance policy.
• Imagine youre advising Roger. Roger should sell
  his life insurance policy if the chances that the
  product will succeed are at least ___
• Rate on your own
• Discuss and then rate...

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Group polarization

• What happened when you advised Henry alone versus
  in a group?
• What happened when you advised Roger alone versus
  in a group?
• Group polarization discussion generally
  strengthens the average inclination of group
  members
• Risky shift group makes a riskier decision than
  an individual
• Why?

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Reasons for Group Polarization

• In group, discover new ideas for viewpoint
• In group, people tell others why they think their
  view is true
• Behavior and attitudes research
• Public commitment to viewpoint
• Social comparison (Festinger)
• if you think youre a risky person and realize
  others endorse the risky view more than you
  thought, you need to change your view to stay
  risky in comparison to others

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Groupthink

• When decisions are made in groups the outcome is
  frequently different than when theyre made alone
• Examples?
• No air reconnaissance to see Japanese aircraft,
  and no warning of Pearl Harbor
• Invading Cuba 1400 with CIA-trained Cuban exiles,
  who were all captured or killed, in Bay of Pigs
• escalating the Vietnam War

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Groupthink

• In all these cases, the decision-making group
  suppressed dissent in the interest of group
  harmony
• When might this be more likely to occur?
• Janis Ingredients of groupthink
• cohesive group
• isolation of group from other viewpoints
• directive leader -- lets others know what
  decision likes

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Groupthink

• Symptoms of groupthink (Janis)
• overestimate groups power
• illusion of invulnerability
• unquestioned belief in the groups morality
• close-minded
• rationalization
• stereotyped view of opponent
• pressures toward uniformity
• conformity pressure
• self-censorship
• illusion of unanimity
• mindguards members who protect the group from
  information that might call the decision into
  question

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Biases in groupthink

• Thinking back to the self, what types of biases
  may be involved in groupthink?
• Confirmation bias
• Self-serving bias
• Conformity
• If you were in charge of a group, how might you
  limit groupthink?

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How to prevent groupthink

• Make sure members dont look to group for
  acceptance, approval, and social identity
• Be impartial
• Assign a devils advocate
• Subdivide group
• Welcome critiques from outsiders
• Call a second-chance meeting where members can
  discuss doubts before implementing decision

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Are groups always bad?

• Name all the new fall tv shows you can think of
• Get together with 3 other people and name all the
  new fall tv shows you can think of

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Effects of groups

• What happened when you were alone versus in the
  group?
• Where did you have more shows?
• Sometimes groups can help, since group members
  can have information that others might not have

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Are people accurate about when groups are good?

• Is brainstorming in a group or alone more
  productive?
• People tend to feel like brainstorming in a group
  is more productive, but people working alone tend
  to generate more good ideas

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Groups can be good

• If some group members have the right answer, the
  group may make a better decision than individuals
• This happens more when at least 2 members of the
  group agree on the right answer
• One member with the right answer is less likely
  to convince other group members

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Social facilitation

• What effect might the presence of a group have on
  our performance?
• Triplett (1898) first social psychology
  experiment
• cyclists times
• children winding fishing line

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Social facilitation

• We do things more quickly in the presence of
  others
• Even occurs in other species
• cockroaches run more quickly
• ants excavate more sand

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Social Facilitation

• But people in the presence of groups are not
  always faster
• People are slower at
• completing a maze
• learning nonsense syllables
• performing complex math

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Social Facilitation

• How can these findings be reconciled?
• What effects do groups have -
• Do they help us?
• Do they hurt us?

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Social Facilitation

• Groups improve
• cycling
• winding fishing line
• Groups hurt
• completing a maze
• memorizing nonsense syllables
• complex math
• Any differences between these types of tasks?
• Which are easier?

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Social Facilitation

• Zajonc The presence of others enhances our
  dominant response
• We do better at easy tasks
• We do worse at hard tasks
• Playing pool in bar
• Effect stronger as there are more people

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Social Facilitation

• Why does this happen?
• Evaluation apprehension people worry about how
  others see them
• Distraction others distract people
• With fewer cognitive resources, resort to
  dominant response
• Mere presence Zajonc the simple presence of
  others produces arousal, without necessarily
  evaluation apprehension or distraction
• Helps explain why effects found in non-humans

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Groups play a role in

• What we do
• How hard we work
• How well we do