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Influence of Others

The presence of others can both increase and decrease individual performance on tasks. The mere presence of others, whether co-actors performing the same task or an audience observing, can increase arousal and improve performance on well-practiced tasks but may hinder performance on complex or unfamiliar tasks. Social learning theory suggests people learn behaviors by observing and imitating others. Norms and conformity also influence individual behavior in groups as people seek acceptance and look to others for cues on appropriate behavior in ambiguous situations. However, groups can also make suboptimal or risky decisions due to pressures toward conformity and lack of dissent known as groupthink.

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15 views

Influence of Others

The presence of others can both increase and decrease individual performance on tasks. The mere presence of others, whether co-actors performing the same task or an audience observing, can increase arousal and improve performance on well-practiced tasks but may hinder performance on complex or unfamiliar tasks. Social learning theory suggests people learn behaviors by observing and imitating others. Norms and conformity also influence individual behavior in groups as people seek acceptance and look to others for cues on appropriate behavior in ambiguous situations. However, groups can also make suboptimal or risky decisions due to pressures toward conformity and lack of dissent known as groupthink.

Uploaded by

Lyla Faroogh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Presence of others

● Cyclists compete faster when competing around others than by themself


○ Better performance with the presence of others
● Triplett noticed that children (with no reward) would wind the string faster when
others were around
○ Triplett hypothesized that the mere presence of others was an important
variable in the performance of the actor

Co-Actor: Another individual performing the same task.


● The other individual performing the task with you

Audience: A group of people watching an individual perform a task.


● Observing you perform the task

Social Facilitation: The increased performance that occurs in the presence of co-actors or an
audience.
● The termed phenomenon for an increased performance when others are present

Exceptions
● In some cases, the presence of co-actors and audience did not produce a noticeable
enhancement in performance
● Some studies even demonstrated compelling evidence that the presence of others
can hinder performance on a variety of tasks such as learning nonsense syllables,
completing a difficult maze, or solving complex math problems

Why does the presence of others vary in performance?


● Robert Zajonc
○ Presence of others increases arousal to improve performance on well
practiced tasks
■ Tasks that one has practiced and comfortable with
○ Presence of others hinders performance on complex tasks
■ Tasks that one has difficulty with and may not be familiar to
● The updated definition of the term social facilitation includes both the increase and
the decrease in performance that can occur in the presence of others.

Social learning theory


● Albert Bandura 1970
○ Social Learning Theory suggests that you learn appropriate behaviors by
modeling and imitating the behaviors of others.
● Social learning theory can be differentiated from basic conditioning because the
behaviors you learn from others do not always require explicit reinforcement to
develop
Bobo Doll Experiment
● An adult would model aggressive or passive play with the bobo doll
● Children who had previously viewed the aggressive play model were much more
likely to subsequently display aggressive behavior to the Bobo doll, punching, yelling
and generally attacking the doll
○ No reinforcement or encouragement was provided for them to imitate the
adults actions

Norms: Unwritten but commonly accepted rules for how to behave.


● Help guide the way we interact with others
● Norms often give a rise to conformity

Muzafer Sherif: Autokinetic Effect


● Light movement in a pitch black room, mistake the movement of the image on your
retina as actual motion of the light.
○ However participant is not aware of this
● Over several days of testing, your responses will gradually converge with the others
despite the different starting points of the individual participants.
● This convergence is an example of norm formation, which also shows conformity in
action

Norm formation
● Example: Using laugh track, as hearing others laugh may convince you that the
dialogue is funny

Why do people seem to fall in line with a group so easily?


● Solomon Asch
● Line experiment, 7 people put in experiment, only 1 being participant
● On one of the tries they say an obviously incorrect answer, once it gets to the 6th
person (the participant) they still managed to make a correct report - but this was not
always the case
● Found that 75% of participants conformed to an incorrect answer, on at least one trial
● For an average participant, 37% of the responses conformed to a clearly incorrect
answer

Normative function: The role of others in setting standards for our conduct based on a fear of
rejection.

Informational function: The role of others in providing information about an ambiguous


situation.
● Comparing ideas to those around in times of uncertainty

● In relation to the Solomon Asch experiment, even with anonymity, participants still
conformed in cases where the answer is not entirely clear
● Normative function when we conform due to fear of rejection and is akin to peer
pressure
● Informational function is when we conform due to uncertainty in an ambiguous
situation

● Group polarization: Group decision making strengthens the original inclinations of the
individual group members.
○ Builds on idea of risky shift, when decisions become riskier as well as adding
a cautious shift where group decisions become more cautious
■ Term group polarization is used to encompass these two trends

Group decision making seems to enhance:


● National pride
● Negative racial
● Financial attitudes
● Decision-making in juries

● If individually favored a low award, discussion would lead to an even lower award
○ Conversely, if most individuals favored a large award, discussion would lead
to an even larger award

Groupthink: A group decision making environment that occurs when group cohesiveness
becomes so strong it overrides realistic appraisals of reality and alternative opinions.
● Mob mentality
● Believes they are unquestionably correct

Preventing groupthink
1. Be impartial
2. Encourage critical evaluation
● Devils advocate
3. Subdivide the group
● Come to separate decisions and later reunite to discuss differences
4. Provide a second chance
● To air any lingering doubts

● Pluralistic ignorance: When each individual in a group sees nobody responding in a


given situation, they conclude that the situation is not an emergency
● Diffusion of responsibility: In deciding whether you act on an emergency, we look to
see how many others are nearby, and what specialized skills they might have. If
there are many others around, particularly anyone with special skills, you are less
likely to act.

● Social loafing: Individuals seem to be less motivated when working in a group than
when working alone
Influence of others 2
● Milgram's experiment
○ 65% people obeyed and continued to shock
○ People are surprised by these results, yet they would most likely do the same
in accordance to Milgram’s findings
○ Unethical experiment
○ Prestige of institution did not impact
○ Increasing physical distance, lead to following directions easier
○ Only 25% obeyed over the phone (infact cheated and provided lower shocks)

● Never know how you’d react in given situations, believing we are above average

● Cognitive dissonance: A state of psychological discomfort brought on by conflict


between a person’s attitudes and their behavior
● Overjustification effect: The resolution of cognitive dissonance as conflict in behavior
and attitude are justified by some external means
○ Can be applied to reward training
● Deindividuation: In a group situation, the loss of a sense of personal responsibility
and restraint

Persuasions
● Experts - credibility
● Physical attractiveness and similarity - personal

Central appeal
● Well reasoned, factual, two-sided arguments
● Effective for academic audiences

Peripheral appeal
● Well presented, easy to understand messages
● Effective for non-academic audiences

Low-ball technique: An escalation of the terms of an agreement after someone has already
agreed to comply.
● Revealing other factors later, once someone sets their heart on something

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