Janis's concept of groupthink refers to:
A: The tendency for groups to become more extreme than their individual members' initial positions
B: A mode of thinking in which the desire for unanimity overrides realistic appraisal of alternatives, leading to poor decisions
C: The process by which individual members lose responsibility within a crowd
D: The tendency for group members to reduce their individual effort
Correct: A mode of thinking in which the desire for unanimity overrides realistic appraisal of alternatives, leading to poor decisions
Irving Janis (1972) developed the groupthink concept through case studies of foreign policy disasters (Bay of Pigs, Pearl Harbor). Groupthink occurs in highly cohesive groups under pressure where symptoms include: illusion of invulnerability, collective rationalisation, belief in the group's moral superiority, stereotyping outgroups, pressure on dissenters, self-censorship, illusion of unanimity, and self-appointed mindguards. Antidotes include assigning a devil's advocate, breaking into sub-groups, and seeking outside expert opinion.
Social loafing refers to the tendency for individuals to exert less effort on a task when working in a group than when working alone.
Answer: True
Ringelmann (1913) first observed that individuals pulled less hard on a rope when in a group. Latané et al. (1979) systematically demonstrated social loafing: participants clapped and shouted less loudly in groups than alone. The mechanism involves diffusion of responsibility and reduced identifiability — individual contributions become less visible in a group. Social loafing is reduced when contributions are identifiable, the task is meaningful, and the group is cohesive.
Group polarisation refers to:
A: The splitting of a group into two opposing factions
B: The tendency for group discussion to move members toward a more extreme version of their initial average position
C: The tendency for majority opinions to silence minority views
D: The formation of hostile outgroup stereotypes following intergroup conflict
Correct: The tendency for group discussion to move members toward a more extreme version of their initial average position
Group polarisation (Moscovici & Zavalloni, 1969) describes how group discussion shifts collective opinion toward the extreme of the initial average. If most members lean cautious initially, group discussion tends to make them more cautious; if they lean risky, they become more risky. Two mechanisms drive this: (1) persuasive arguments — new arguments in the predominant direction are heard; (2) social comparison — members discover others share their view and shift to signal even stronger commitment.
Match each group phenomenon to its defining characteristic.
Social Identity Theory (Tajfel & Turner) proposes that intergroup discrimination can arise from:
A: Real conflict over scarce resources between groups
B: Mere categorisation into groups, because people derive self-esteem from their group memberships
C: Personality characteristics such as authoritarianism
D: Early childhood experiences of prejudice learned from parents
Correct: Mere categorisation into groups, because people derive self-esteem from their group memberships
Tajfel & Turner's minimal group paradigm showed that even arbitrary, meaningless categorisation (into groups based on a coin flip) led participants to favour their ingroup and discriminate against the outgroup in resource allocation. Social Identity Theory explains this: group membership contributes to self-concept; people enhance self-esteem by viewing their ingroup positively relative to outgroups (social comparison → positive distinctiveness). This has profound implications for reducing prejudice.
The Stanford Prison Experiment (Zimbardo, 1971) demonstrated that ordinary people can adopt abusive behaviour when placed in powerful social roles.
Answer: True
Zimbardo randomly assigned participants to "prisoner" or "guard" roles in a simulated prison. Guards rapidly began behaving in cruel and dehumanising ways, while prisoners became passive and distressed. The study was terminated after six days. While the study's methodology and ethics have been extensively criticised (and Zimbardo's own role as "superintendent" questioned), it remains influential for illustrating how situational roles and institutional context can overwhelm individual dispositions.
Allport's contact hypothesis proposes that prejudice between groups can be reduced by:
A: Separating groups to reduce competitive contact
B: Intergroup contact under conditions of equal status, common goals, intergroup cooperation, and institutional support
C: Increasing awareness of in-group superiority
D: Randomly reassigning people to new social categories
Correct: Intergroup contact under conditions of equal status, common goals, intergroup cooperation, and institutional support
Allport (1954) proposed that contact between groups reduces prejudice, but only under optimal conditions: (1) equal status between groups in the contact situation; (2) common goals; (3) intergroup cooperation (not competition); (4) support of authorities, laws, or customs. A meta-analysis by Pettigrew & Tropp (2006) across 515 studies confirmed that contact reliably reduces prejudice, with the best effects when Allport's conditions are met. This underpins policies of school integration and workplace diversity.