Q.How do groups influence our behaviour?

Groups are powerful because they shape how individuals behave. NCERT discusses two situations: social facilitation — the presence of others produces arousal that can enhance performance on tasks a person is already good at, especially when the individual's effort is evaluated; and social loafing — a reduction in individual effort when working on a collective task where outputs are pooled (as in tug-of-war), because members feel less responsible and their contribution is not individually evaluated. Groups also show group polarisation: after discussion with like-minded people, a group's initial position becomes stronger, so groups take more extreme decisions than individuals (helped by newer supporting arguments, the bandwagon effect, and ingroup identification/conformity). Extreme cohesiveness can also cause groupthink, where the drive for unanimity overrides realistic appr …

We have seen that groups are powerful because they are able to influence the behaviour of individuals. The chapter asks: what impact does the presence of others have on our performance and decisions? It answers through the following processes.

1. Social facilitation

This concerns an individual performing an activity in the presence of others. Research suggests that the presence of others leads to arousal, which can motivate an individual to enhance performance — but mainly if the person is already good at the task, and especially when the person's efforts are individually evaluated. So an audience or co-actors can improve well-learned performance.

2. Social loafing

This concerns an individual performing an activity as part of a larger group, where efforts are pooled so you look at the performance of the group as a whole. Here individuals often work less hard in a group than when performing alone. Social loafing is a reduction in individual effort when working on a collective task (one in which outputs are pooled), such as tug-of-war, where it is not possible to identify how much force each member exerts. Latané and associates demonstrated it: when male students were asked to clap or cheer as loudly as possible, the total noise rose as group size increased, but the noise produced by each participant dropped. Explanations include: members feel less responsible for the overall task; motivation decreases because contributions are not evaluated individually; performance is not compared with other groups; there is improper coordination; and belonging to the group is not important — it is only an aggregate of individuals.

3. Group polarisation

Important decisions are taken by groups, not individuals alone. It has been found that groups are more likely to take extreme decisions than individuals alone. Whatever the initial position of the group, that position becomes much stronger as a result of discussion — this strengthening is called group polarisation, and positions can shift from very weak to very strong (sometimes with dangerous repercussions). It occurs because, among like-minded people: (i) you hear newer arguments favouring your viewpoint; (ii) finding others who agree validates the view — a sort of bandwagon effect; and (iii) you perceive those with similar views as your ingroup, identify with the group and show conformity, so your views become strengthened.

4. Groupthink …