Group and Social Influence on Behavior and Decision Making

Group Roles

“All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances

And one man in his time plays many parts”

Shakespeare

• Refers to a notion of public behaviour (rules, norms, expectations) that the person believes is appropriate for the sitation and his or her position in it

Role Playing

Three Categories• Self oriented roles

– motivated mainly to fulfill personal needs; tend to be less productive

• Group-maintenance roles– Help members to work well together

• Task-facilitating roles– Help members solve the problem or make the decision

Self-Oriented Group-Maintenance

Task Facilitating

Controlling Encouraging Initiating

Withdrawing Harmonising Information giving or seeking

Attention Seeking

Compromising Coordinating

Diverting Procedure setting

Group Norms

• Shared attitudes, opinions, feelings, or actions that guide behaviour

1.) an agenda for acceptable behaviour2.) provide roles3.) group survival – suppress and reject

deviants4.) provide identification – gives group

cohesion

Conformity

Occurs when individuals adopt the attitude or behaviour of others because of real or

imagined pressure to do so

+ Conforming to group norms allows groups to function effectively

- Conformity pressures can sometimes make us act against our better judgement

Asch Studies – 1950sConducted conformity experiments on group

influence

• Groups of 7 (6 accomplices and one subject)

• Instructed his accomplices to answer incorrectly on 12 of the 18 trials

• Subjects conformed 35% of the time

 

   

 

 

Asch’s Conformity Experiment

Key factors influencing conformity1. Group size

As groups grow larger conformity increases – to a point

– Conformity increased as group size went from 2 to 4 and peaked at 7

2. Group unanimity– Presence of one dissenter lowered conformity

Zimbardo’s Prison Experiment (1971)

www.prisonexp.org

Degradation Proceduresdeloused prisoners as they do in this Texas

prison photograph

Zimbardo’s Prison Experiment

• Tendency to conform to the expected social roles for guards and prisoners

• Degree to which roles shape attitudes and behaviour

Obedience: The Power of Authority

• Obedience:– Form of compliance that occurs when people

follow direct commands from someone in a position of authority

Stanley Milgram’s Obedience Studies (1963)

• 65% (26/40) adminstered all 30 levels of shocks. Highest level was up to 450 volts, a shock of fatal intensity

• Subjects focused on approval of authority figure rather than the pain they inflicted on the victim

Milgram’s Studies

• Obedience increased when:1.) authority figure was near the subjects

2.) when the victim was less visible and less audible to the subject

3.) when the experiment was conducted in a prestigious university

Milgram’s Studies

Conclusion:

“our actions are determined less by the kind of people we are than by the kind of situation we are in”

• We don’t lose sense of morality but we start to focus on how well we are living up to the expectations of the authority figure

Criticisms

• Subjects who agree to participate in a scientific experiment expect to obey orders– Milgram’s response: So do soldiers and

bureaucrats in the real world who are accused of terrible acts performed in obedience to authority

• Ethics– Milgram used extensive deception

Social Influence on Behaviour

• Presence of others can influence our behaviour – even when not attempting to do so

- “choking under pressure” – because of elevated self-consciousness

Bystander Effect

• Individuals are less likely to provide needed help when others are present than when they are alone

• Tendency to seek help declines as number of bystanders increased –– Occurs in ambiguous situations

– Diffusion of responsibility – expecting others to take responsibility

Decision Making in Groups

Group Cohesiveness

• Refers to the strength of the bonds that link group members to one another and to the group itself+ communicate more and participate more- increases pressure to conform

Perceived threat increases group cohesiveness

Groupthink

• When members of a cohesive group emphasise concurrence at the expense of critical thinking in arriving at a decision

• A deterioration of mental efficiency, reality testing and moral judgement that results from in-group pressure

Examples of groupthink

• Bay of Pigs

• Escalation of the Vietnam War

• Space shuttle challenger

• Failure to prepare for the invasion of Pearl harbor

Existing conditions that could lead to groupthink

• High cohesiveness

• Insulation of group

• Lack of methodical procedures

• Directive leadership

• High stress with low degree of hope for finding better solution

Groupthink Symptoms

• Illusion of group invulnerability• Rationalisation/suppression of non-supporting data• Belief in inherent morality of group• Stereotyping of “out groups”• Pressure on deviants to conform• Illusion of unanimity• Self appointed mind guard

– Tries to shield group from information that contradicts the group’s view

Groupthink Preventitive Steps

• Leader encourages expressions of doubt

• Leader accepts criticisms of own ideas

• High status members speak last

• Recommendations from duplicate group

• Divide into sub groups from time to time

• Invite objective outsiders

• Assign devils advocate role