C H A P T E R 1 8

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Group Influence – How are we influenced by the mere presence of others?

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Social facilitation – improved performance of well known tasks in the presence of others.
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Ex. Comedian performing in front of a full house.
Ex. Runners perform better in front of a crowd.
Ex. Shooting pool or bowling

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Social Impairment – when being observed while performing a difficult task performance is hard… making the task seem nearly impossible
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Ex. Children that do not read well
EX. Playing pool for the first time
A player “chokes” at a basketball game .

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Social Loafing – tendency for people to exert less effort in a group than when they are individually accountable
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Ex. Group projects
How is this phenomenon explained?
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In a group effort, you worry less about what people think about you - You may feel less accountable

1. Take out a half sheet of paper
2. Do NOT put your name on it
Q. If you could be invisible for 24 hours guaranteed not to be detected or held responsible for anything you do what would you do? (List everything you would do.)

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Deindividuation – the loss of self-restraint occurs when group members feel anonymous, being in a crowd reduces guilt and selfawareness.
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Ex. Cafeteria Food Fight
Ex. KKK and hoods.
Ex. Guards in Prison study wearing sunglasses.
Ex. Tribal warriors that mask themselves are more likely to kill.
Ex. The armed forces shaves heads of new recruits increasing the chances of turning them into “killers”

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Ex. Fans at football game with face painted yelling at the officials.
Ex. Drivers are more likely to honk their horns long and hard if they have little chance of being identified.
2009 Free Response- high school pep rally.

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Ex. If a group’s initial stance is liberal. After they have joined together and interacted for an extended period of time, they will grow to be more liberal than when they first joined together. Watching MSNBC (liberals)or
Fox News (conservatives) might do this.

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Ex. 9/11 terrorists and their extreme behaviors of suicide bombing. Internet chatting took place.
Exposure to other opinions (not thought of by the individual member) encourage original beliefs and may make those beliefs more extreme and stronger.
How has the internet encouraged group polarization?
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Ihateeskimoos.com.
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Cafeteria talking smack about Jennifer.

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Groupthink - Faulty decision making that occurs when a highly cohesive group strives for agreement and avoids critical thinking and inconsistent information
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Term developed by Irving Janis, social psychologist
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Examples of groupthink
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Bay of Pigs invasion
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Spaceship Challenger launching
Groupthink and Iraq (including Colin Powell). Cost over 1 trillion. Many argue that violence today result of this.
(Open debate is better than closed. Groupthink can be prevented if we are open to others opinions. None of us is smarter than all of us). Ex. JFK and the cuban missile crisis.

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Individualism - Do not forget the power of the individual
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We aren’t puppets and can act according to our beliefs.
The minority can often sway the majority
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Ex. Leaders of the civil rights movement.

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Imagine that our country is under threat of imminent nuclear attack. A person approaches you and asks you to make a decision concerning a nearby fallout shelter that can accommodate 6 people but has 12 people vying to get in. Based on the following information about the 12 people, which 6 would you choose to go into the shelter?
First complete assignment individually then in groups of 3 or 4 come to a consensus.

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The group includes a 40-year-old male violinist who is a suspected narcotics pusher; a 34-year-old male architect who is thought to be a homosexual; a 26year-old lawyer; the lawyer’s 24-year-old wife who has just gotten out of a mental institution – they both want to go in together or stay out together; a 75year-old priest; a 34-year-old retired prostitute who was so successful that she’s been living off her annuities for 5 years; a 20-year-old black militant; a
23-year-old female graduate student who speaks publicly on the virtues of chastity; a 28-year-old male physicist who will only come into the shelter if he can bring his gun with him; a 30-year-old female MD who is an avowed bigot; a 12-year-old girl who has a low
IQ; and a high school student.

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Stereotypes- thought to be a
Q. Could a MD be a black person?
could a bigot have prejudice toward women, whites, religious people not blacks or 75-year old Priest-
(experiences effect this), stigma attached to mental institution patients virtues of chasity may change in the situation.
drug dealer- “because the world will still need black people in it”.
AMAZING what studies show about people whom are normally socially divided come together in these situations, IQ girl how do we define intelligence could she have practical intell.
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Group Polarization
Groupthink
Social Facilitation
Conformity
Social Loafing