PSY 2012 Lecture Notes - Lecture 26: Social Influence, Minority Influence, Groupthink
Document Summary
Groupthink: tendency for group members to suspend critical thinking because they are striving to seek agreement. High stress to reach a decision: 2. Illusion of invulnerability (group overestimates itself: 2. Groupthink increases risk of defective decision making: 1. Failure to examine risks of preferred choice: 4. Majority and minority influence: majority exerts informational and normative influence, minority influence through consistency and confidence. Social identity: defining self in terms of group membership, crucial part of self-image and source of good feelings. Ethnocentrism: tendency to favor one"s own ethnic group. Unjustified negative attitude based on group membership. Explicit racism: conscious and openly shared attitude. Implicit racism: attitude on deeper, hidden level. Factors: competition between groups, scarcity of resouces, cultural learning, low self-esteem, limits information-processing abilities. Prejudice: negative attitudes about and treatment of others. Although prejudice can be positive, social psychologists have focused on understanding the roots of negative prejudice. Two main forms of prejudice: explicit, prejudices that people display publicity.
