Influence of Group on Individual Behaviour

Influence of Group on Individual Behaviour

Impact of the presence of others on one’s performance:

1. Social Facilitation

• An individual performing an activity alone in the presence of others.
• Presence of others leads to arousal and can motivate individuals to enhance their performance if they are already good at solving something.
• This enhancement occurs when a person’s efforts are individually evaluated.

2. Social Loafing

• An individual performing an activity along with the others as part of a larger group.
• Individuals work less hard in a group than they do when performing alone.
• Social loafing is a reduction in individual effort when working on a collective task, i.e. one in which outputs are pooled with those of other group members.
• Example: the game of tug-of-war as it is not possible for us to identify how much force each member of the team has been exerting. Such situations give opportunities to group members to relax and become a free rider.
• Each participant/member puts in less effort as the group size increases (experiment be Latane).
• Reasons for social loafing:

1. Group members feel less responsible for the overall task being performed and therefore exert less effort.
2. Motivation of members decreases because they realise that their contributions will not be evaluated on individual basis.
3. The performance of the group is not to be compared with other groups. • There is an improper coordination (or no coordination) among members.
4. Belonging to the same group is not important for members. It is only an aggregate of individuals.

• Social loafing may be reduced by:

1. Making the efforts of each person identifiable.
2. Increasing the pressure to work hard (making group members committed to successful task performance).
3. Increasing the apparent importance or value of a task.
4. Making people feel that their individual contribution is important.
5. Strengthening group cohesiveness which increases the motivation for successful group outcome.
6. Group Polarisation

• Groups are more likely to take extreme decisions than individuals alone.
• Whatever the initial position in the group, this position becomes much stronger as a result of discussions in the group. This strengthening of the group’s initial position as a result of group interaction and discussion is referred to as group polarisation.
• A phenomena wherein the decisions and opinions of people in a group setting become more extreme than their actual, privately held beliefs.
• This may sometimes have dangerous repercussions as groups may take extreme positions, i.e. from very weak to very strong decisions.
• Example: After a discussion about racism, members of the group who are racist will defend their attitudes far more strongly than they would have beforehand.
• Reasons for group polarisation:

1. In the company of like-minded people, you are likely to hear newer arguments favouring your viewpoints. This will make you more favourable towards your own point of view.
2. When you find others also favouring your opinion, you feel that this view is validated by the public. This is called the bandwagon effect.
3. When you find people having similar views, you are likely to perceive them as ingroup. You start identifying with the group, begin showing conformity, and as a consequence your views become strengthened.