Social Facilitation: Affected By The Presence Of Others

Chapter 8: Group Influence  Group Influence What Is 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” Social Facilitation: How Are We
Affected by the Presence of Others?
 The Mere Presence of Others
 Social facilitation
 Strengthening of dominant responses whether correct or incorrect in the presence of others
 Boosts performance on easy tasks
 Impairs performance on difficult tasks Social Facilitation: How Are We
Affected by the Presence of Others?
 Crowding: The Presence of Many Others
 Effect of others’ presence increases with their number
 Being in a crowd intensifies positive or negative reactions
 Enhances arousal
 Explaining Polarization
 Informational influence
 Arguments
 Active participation Group Polarization: Do Groups
Intensify Our Opinions?
 Explaining Polarization
 Normative influence
 Social comparison
 Evaluating one’s opinions and abilities by comparing oneself with others
 Pluralistic ignorance
 A false impression of what most other people are thinking or feeling, or how they are responding Groupthink: Do Groups Hinder or
Assist Good Decisions?
 Mode of thinking that persons engage in when concurrence-seeking becomes so dominant in a cohesive in-group that it tends to override realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action
 Caused by
 Cohesive group
 Isolation of the group from dissenting viewpoints
 Directive leader Groupthink: Do Groups Hinder or
Assist Good Decisions?
 Symptoms of Groupthink
 Following lead group members to overestimate their group’s might and right
 Illusion of invulnerability
 Unquestioned belief in the group’s morality Groupthink: Do Groups Hinder or
Assist Good Decisions?
 Symptoms of