SOCPSY 1Z03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Pluralistic Ignorance, Social Loafing, Social Proof
Document Summary
Groups serve as a mechanism through which norms are passed down over generations: sherif additional tests. Had the same set up, at the end he would take one person out of the group and replace them with a new person. The new person quickly conformed to the group average. Took the second one and replaced them and the group average was still the same as the original. A complete new set of people but they are still holding to the norm from the original group. Similar to how we pass down norms, even if they are out of date. The bigger the group, to a certain point, the more likely the group will conform. Groups represent a fundamental concept of social behaviour: they shape individual behaviour in a variety of ways. The extent that this occurs depends on a number of group-level and individual-level factors: group size, strength of group norms, group unanimity.