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What is social facilitation?

(1) Original meaning: the tendency of people to perform simple tasks better when others are present. (2) Current meaning: tendency for individuals to perform differently when in the mere presence of others.

What are the symptoms of groupthink?

1 Feeling invulnerable 2 Belief in group's morality 3 Shared rationalization 4 Stereotyping outgroup 5 Self-censorship 6 Pressuring dissenters 7 Unanimity illusion 8 Mind guards

How do informational influences explain polarization?

Arguments Active participation

How does anonymity affect deindividuation?

Being anonymous makes one less self-conscious, more group-conscious, and more responsive to cues present in the situation, whether negative or positive

How do crowds affect arousal and performance?

Being in a crowd is similarly arousing and facilitates dominant responses. That helps explain the home-field advantage in sports.

Describe how we are affected by the mere presence of another person.

Co-actors and Social facilitation

What are co-actors?

Co-participants working individually on a noncompetitive activity.

How do individuals of the minority influence the group?

Consistency( Minority slowness effect) Self-Confidence (Portrayed by consistency and persistence) Defections from the Majority (Minority person who defects from the majority is more persuasive than a consistent minority voice

What are some critiques of groupthink?

Directive leadership is associated with poorer decisions Groups prefer supporting over challenging information Groups make smart decisions by widely distributed conversation with members who take turns speaking Group acceptance, approval, and social identity, suppress disagreeable thoughts among members Diverse groups produce more creativity Groups may not always benefit from all that members know

In a team tug-of-war, will eight people on a side exert as much force as the sum of their best efforts in individual tugs-of-war? If not, why not?

In tug-of-wars, individuals used half of their efforts when being in a group. Perform better and try harder when it is individually

How does group size affect deindividuation?

Larger the group the more its members lose self-awareness and become willing to commit atrocities. People's attention is focused on the situation, not on themselves. "Everyone's doing it" attitude

Define "deindividuation".

Loss of self-awareness and evaluation apprehension; occurs in group situations that foster responsiveness to group norms, good or bad.

Know the group polarization experiments: Moscovici and Zavalloni (1969), Mititoshi Isozaki (1984), and Markus Brauer, et al. (2001)

Observed that discussion enhanced French student's initially positive attitude toward their president and negative attitude towards americans Mitioshi Isozaki: Found that Japanese university students gave more pronounced judgements og "guilty" after discussing a traffic case. When jury members are inclined to award damages, the group award similarly tends to exceed that preferred by the median jury member Markus Brauer: Found that french student's dislike for certain other people was exacerbated after discussing their shared negative impressions Myers and Bishop: Discussion increased polarization between homogeneous groups of high and low prejudice high school students. Talking over racial issues increased prejudice a high prejudice group and decreased it in a low prejudice group

How do normative influences explain polarization?

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)

Define task leadership, social leadership and transformational leadership.

Task leadership: leadership that organizes work, sets standards, and focuses on goals Social leadership: leadership that builds teamwork, mediates conflict, and offers support Transformational leadership: leadership that, enabled by a leader's vision and inspiration, exerts significant influence.

How does diminished self-awareness affect people's responsiveness to immediate situations?

Tend to increase people's responsiveness to the immediate situation, be it negative or positive

Why are we aroused in the presence of others?

The arousal stems partly from evaluation apprehension and partly from distraction. (a conflict between paying attention to others and concentrating on the task).

What is social loafing?

The tendency for people to exert less effort when they pool their efforts toward a common goal than when they are individually accountable.

What is a group?

Two or more people who interact and influence one another.

How does arousing and distracting activities affect deindividuation?

When we act in an impulsive way as a group, we are not thinking about our values; we are reacting to the immediate situation. Impulsive group action absorbs our attention.

What is evaluation apprehension?

concern for how others are evaluating us

Who are free riders?

people who benefit from the group but give little in return

What is group polarization?

tendency for a group to make decisions that are more extreme than the initial inclination of its members.

What is groupthink?

the practice of thinking or making decisions as a group in a way that discourages creativity or individual responsibility.

When do people in groups loaf less?

the task is challenging, appealing, involving and when their members are friends

When does the "Risky Shift" phenomenon occur?

when a group decides by consensus after a brief discussion.

What are some ways to prevent groupthink?

∙ Be impartial—do not endorse any position. Don't start group discussions by hav- ing people state their positions; doing so suppresses information sharing and degrades the quality of decisions ∙ Encourage critical evaluation; assign a "devil's advocate." Better yet, welcome the input of a genuine dissenter, which does even more to stimulate original thinking and to open a group to opposing views, report Charlan Nemeth and colleagues (2001a,b). ∙ Occasionally subdivide the group, then reunite to air differences. ∙ Welcome critiques from outside experts and associates.∙ Before implementing, call a "second-chance" meeting to air any lingering doubts