Chapter Sixteen: Social Behavior

F. Behavior in Groups: Joining with Others

When people join together in a group, they create a social organism with unique characteristics and dynamics that can take on a life of its own. When we are in a group, we are likely to act differently that when we are alone. And like obedience, the effects of groups can be sometimes disturbing.

1. Introduction
2. Behavior Alone and in Groups: The Case of the Bystander Effect
3. Group Productivity and Social Loafing
4. Decision Making in Groups

Contents

Introduction

What is a group?

Groups share the following features:

• Roles - allocate responsibility for tasks.

• norms - identifies suitable behaviors.

• communication structure -details who talks to who.

• power structure - who has the most influence.

When it comes to groups, "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts." (a saying not to be confused with " a rolling stone gathers no moss.")

Behavior Alone and in Groups: The Case of the Bystander Effect.

Safety in numbers? Better think again.


The bystander effect

• The probability of getting help declines as group size increases. (figure 16.19)
  
  
• Estimate of % who will help across a large number of studies:
  • 75% if bystander alone
  • 53% if bystander in the presence of others
  • (but 0% if there no bystanders to help you at all when you are in crisis.)

Factors

• Ambiguous situations where one looks to others for clarification
• Diffusion of responsibility phenomenon

Group Productivity and Social Loafing

Synopsis: Although many important tasks can only be accomplished through the coordinated effort of a large group, individual productivity does decline as the group gets larger.


Factors

Reduced efficiency

• loss of coordination creates duplication of effort and working at cross purposes.

Reduced effort: Social loafing

• 
• Results of another maniacal social psychology study -- when subjects thought they were working in larger groups, their individual output declined.

Reduced efficiency and effort have additive effects:

• Figure 16.20

Diffusion of responsibility

• Responsibility is divided in groups and individual contribution is not easily recognizable.

Social loafing not inevitable:

• Social compensation - person works harder to make up for others' inadequacies.
• Collectivist cultures place priority in meeting group goals.

Decision Making in Groups

Synopsis: If you have ever seen the web wizards try to make a group decision about what they will do and how to use their resources, you will know the universal truth of why groups can get screwed up. Some of the strengths of being in a group can cause the chilling group polarization effect and groupthink.


Group Polarization

Will the collective wisdom of a group produce a conservative choice in decision making? Quite the contrary!

Risky shift

• Early research on group discussions.
• Groups arrived at riskier decisions than individuals...but

Later research changes risky shift notion to group polarization


Effect more likely to occur with important issues because group:

• Exposed to persuasive arguments.
• Finds that views shared by ingroup others.

Groupthink

Synopsis: When members get caught up in groupthink, they suspend their critical judgement and the group starts censoring dissent as the pressure to conform increases. Members begin to overestimate the group's unanimity, and they begin to view the outgroup as the enemy. The group's search for information is biased in favor of facts that support their decision. Model (Figure 16.22)


Causes/Conditions for Groupthink:

• Group cohesiveness.

• Group is working in isolation.

• Group has a strong directive leader.

• Group is under stress to make a big decision

There are some criticisms of groupthink.

• High cohesiveness may reduce groupthink in some situations.
• Model omits other influencing factors.

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