Normal Triplett:

The Norman Triplett Hypothesis:

Complications:

-Norman Triplett conducted systematic studies to demonstrate that people behave differently in the presence of others

-Hypothesized that the mere presence of others was an important variable in the performance of the actor

-Sometimes the presence of others isn't beneficial, or can be detrimental (e.g. learning nonsense syllables, completing a difficult maze)

the presence of an audience:

-ENHANCES performance for SIMPLE tasks because you are an expert or well practiced

-HINDERS performance for COMPLEX tasks because you are neither practiced nor an expert

Albert Bandura:

Social Learning Theory

SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY:The idea that you learn appropriate behaviours by modelling and imitating the behaviour of others

*different from conditioning because it does not require explicit reinforcement to develop

-Albert Bandera

-Children who watched a video where adults played aggressively with a bobo doll played more aggressively with the doll than the children who did not see it

-counters the idea that the learning of a behaviour would only occur with explicit reinforcement

Autokinetic Effect

A stationary light in a pitch black room will appear to move around randomly (mistake the movement on the retina for actual movement)

-Used the autokinetic effect and asked subjects to state how far the light moved and then got them to state it in a group (different people would have different values)

-RESULTS: the responses of multiple subjects would gradually converge together, despite the varying starting points (NORMATIVE FUNCTION)

Solomon Asch:

-Had a subject match 2 line lengths and report it after 6 "other subjects" said a wrong answer

-RESULTS: 37% of all responses conformed, 75% of subjects conformed at least once

*Normative Function

The role of others in setting standards for our conduct based on a fear of rejection (e.g. fashion trends)

Compatative Function:

The role of others in providing information about an ambiguous situation (e.g.reacting to a fire drill vs. fire alarm)

James Stoner:

The Risky Shift

-RISKY SHIFT: A group of slighty risky individuals will be more risky together

-Of these options, what do you think is the lowest probability of success you would consider acceptable for Helen to write the novel?

Group decision making strengthens the original inclinations of the individual group members, causes risky or cautious extremes

*Internet has a large effect on group polarization because you can always find a group that shares your interests

Irving Janis:

Groupthink

(Implications and Preventions)

GROUPTHINK: A group decision-making environment that occurs when group cohesiveness becomes so strong it overrides realistic appraisals of reality and alternative opinions (e.g. mob mentality)

IMPLICATIONS: Groups believe that they are unquestionably right and all other groups are wrong, meaning they fail to critically test, analyze and evaluate group ideas. The decisions tend to be rationalized and the pressure to conform is high

*Overestimate their might and right

PREVENTIONS:

-Be impartial and don't endorse an idea right away

-Critical evaluation (play the devil's advocate)

-Subdivide the group and come to conclusions separately and then re-group

-Provide a second chance to air any lingering doubts

Kitty Genovese was abused for 30 minutes and then murdered and nobody called the police because they all assumed someone else had

-Is it an emergency?

-Does it require a response?

COLLECTIVE IGNORANCE: When each individual in a group see nobody responding in a given situation, they conclude that the situation is not an emergency

-The more people in a situation, the less the response

Have a group of people fill out a short questionaire and then have smoke come into the room and observe the responses

RESULTS: when people worked together they noticed the smoke faster, the more people in the room, the less people notice (everyone is calm so there is no danger)

DIFFUSION OF RESPONSIBILITY: In deciding whether or not to act, we determine that someone else in the group is more qualified

*singleing people out can help avoid diffusion of responsibility ("Hey you in the red shirt, go call 911!")