How does group membership affect people?
Each human need that we have, from food and shelter to belonging and meaning, is served by being
connected to other people in relationships and as part of a society. For these reasons, social
psychologists have labeled humans the social animal. We are creatures that evolved to live in groups,
so we have adapted in ways that help us get along, fit in, and thrive in group contexts.
We need these adaptations because group membership can be tricky. It is not always obvious, for
instance, what our group expects of us in each situation. The social brain hypothesis places such
challenges in the context of brain size.
According to the social brain hypothesis, primates (humans belong in this order) have large brains
because they live in complex social groups that change over time.
,12.1 People favor their own groups
Humans automatically and pervasively from groups, and they are powerfully connected to the groups
they belong to. Those groups to which particular people belong are ingroups, these to which they do
not belong are outgroups.
- Forming ingroups and outgroups
People are especially likely to organize themselves into groups when two conditions are met. One
condition is reciprocity, meaning that people treat others as others treat them. The other condition is
transitivity, meaning that people generally share their friend’s opinions of other people.
Outdoor homogeneity effect: the tendency to view outgroup members as less varied then ingroup
members.
- Social identity theory
Group memberships are an important part of social identities, ad they contribute to each group
member’s overall sense of self-esteem.
Social identity theory: the idea that ingroups consists of individuals who perceive themselves t be
members of the same social category and experience pride through their group membership.
As people define themselves as members of groups, they begin to learn, mimic, and eventually
internalize the ways other groups members behave toward both ingroup and outgroup members.
Ingroup favoritism: the tendency for people to evaluate favorably and privilege members of the
ingroup more than members of the outgroup.
Ingroup favoritism in society at large is one reason that some groups enjoy higher levels of status,
power, and resources than others.
Why do people favor members of their own groups? One possibility is that people who work together
to keep resources within a group and deny resources to outgroup members have a selective
advantage over those who are willing to share with the outgroup. Another possibility is that group
membership is so important to us that we are willing to hurt people in outgroups as a way of
signaling how much we value the people in our ingroup.
- Brian activity associated with group membership
Group exclusion could be fatal in the ancestral environment. People therefore need to be able to
understand what other group members are thinking, especially how other thinking about them.
The middle region of the prefrontal cortex, called the medial prefrontal cortex, is important fro
thinking about other people. Activity in this region is also associated with the ingroup bias that
emerges after assignment though the minimal group paradigm.
, 12.2 Groups influence individual behavior
- Group decision making
The psychologist James Stoner (1968) noted the risky-shift effect: groups often make riskier decision
than individuals do.
The initial attitudes of group members determine whether the group becomes riskier or more
cautious. of most of the group members are somewhat cautious, then the group becomes even more
cautious. This tendency is known as group polarization.
Group polarization: the process by which initial attitudes of groups become more extreme over time.
When groups make decisions, they usually choose the course of action that was initially favored by
the majority of individuals in the groups. Through mutual persuasion, the decision-making individuals
come to agreement.
In 1972, the social psychologist Irving Janis coined the them groupthink.
Groupthink: the tendency of a group to make a bad decision as a result of persevering the group and
maintaining its cohesiveness; especially likely when the group is under intense pressure, is facing
external threats, and is biased in a particular direction.
To prevent groupthink, leaders must refrain from expressing their opinions too strongly at the
beginning of discussions. Carefully going through alternatives and weighing the pros and cons of each
can also help people to avoid groupthink.
The main point behind the concept of groupthink is that group members sometimes go along with
bad decisions to protect group harmony.
- Social facilitation
Social facilitation: the idea that the presence of others
generally enhances performance.
Robert Zajonc (1065) proposed a model of social facilitation.
Arousal leads animals to exhibit a dominant response – that is,
the response most likely to be performed in the situation.
Zojonc’s model predict that social facilitation can either improve
or impair performance. The change depends on whether the
response that is required in a stimulation is the individual’s
dominant response.
Each human need that we have, from food and shelter to belonging and meaning, is served by being
connected to other people in relationships and as part of a society. For these reasons, social
psychologists have labeled humans the social animal. We are creatures that evolved to live in groups,
so we have adapted in ways that help us get along, fit in, and thrive in group contexts.
We need these adaptations because group membership can be tricky. It is not always obvious, for
instance, what our group expects of us in each situation. The social brain hypothesis places such
challenges in the context of brain size.
According to the social brain hypothesis, primates (humans belong in this order) have large brains
because they live in complex social groups that change over time.
,12.1 People favor their own groups
Humans automatically and pervasively from groups, and they are powerfully connected to the groups
they belong to. Those groups to which particular people belong are ingroups, these to which they do
not belong are outgroups.
- Forming ingroups and outgroups
People are especially likely to organize themselves into groups when two conditions are met. One
condition is reciprocity, meaning that people treat others as others treat them. The other condition is
transitivity, meaning that people generally share their friend’s opinions of other people.
Outdoor homogeneity effect: the tendency to view outgroup members as less varied then ingroup
members.
- Social identity theory
Group memberships are an important part of social identities, ad they contribute to each group
member’s overall sense of self-esteem.
Social identity theory: the idea that ingroups consists of individuals who perceive themselves t be
members of the same social category and experience pride through their group membership.
As people define themselves as members of groups, they begin to learn, mimic, and eventually
internalize the ways other groups members behave toward both ingroup and outgroup members.
Ingroup favoritism: the tendency for people to evaluate favorably and privilege members of the
ingroup more than members of the outgroup.
Ingroup favoritism in society at large is one reason that some groups enjoy higher levels of status,
power, and resources than others.
Why do people favor members of their own groups? One possibility is that people who work together
to keep resources within a group and deny resources to outgroup members have a selective
advantage over those who are willing to share with the outgroup. Another possibility is that group
membership is so important to us that we are willing to hurt people in outgroups as a way of
signaling how much we value the people in our ingroup.
- Brian activity associated with group membership
Group exclusion could be fatal in the ancestral environment. People therefore need to be able to
understand what other group members are thinking, especially how other thinking about them.
The middle region of the prefrontal cortex, called the medial prefrontal cortex, is important fro
thinking about other people. Activity in this region is also associated with the ingroup bias that
emerges after assignment though the minimal group paradigm.
, 12.2 Groups influence individual behavior
- Group decision making
The psychologist James Stoner (1968) noted the risky-shift effect: groups often make riskier decision
than individuals do.
The initial attitudes of group members determine whether the group becomes riskier or more
cautious. of most of the group members are somewhat cautious, then the group becomes even more
cautious. This tendency is known as group polarization.
Group polarization: the process by which initial attitudes of groups become more extreme over time.
When groups make decisions, they usually choose the course of action that was initially favored by
the majority of individuals in the groups. Through mutual persuasion, the decision-making individuals
come to agreement.
In 1972, the social psychologist Irving Janis coined the them groupthink.
Groupthink: the tendency of a group to make a bad decision as a result of persevering the group and
maintaining its cohesiveness; especially likely when the group is under intense pressure, is facing
external threats, and is biased in a particular direction.
To prevent groupthink, leaders must refrain from expressing their opinions too strongly at the
beginning of discussions. Carefully going through alternatives and weighing the pros and cons of each
can also help people to avoid groupthink.
The main point behind the concept of groupthink is that group members sometimes go along with
bad decisions to protect group harmony.
- Social facilitation
Social facilitation: the idea that the presence of others
generally enhances performance.
Robert Zajonc (1065) proposed a model of social facilitation.
Arousal leads animals to exhibit a dominant response – that is,
the response most likely to be performed in the situation.
Zojonc’s model predict that social facilitation can either improve
or impair performance. The change depends on whether the
response that is required in a stimulation is the individual’s
dominant response.
