Social Psychologists Have Found That When People Are Asked to Make Judgements About a Particular Issue or Problem These Judgements Are Different Depending on Whether They Are Made Alone or with Other People. Discuss the
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Social psychologists have found that when people are asked to make judgements about a particular issue or problem these judgements are different depending on whether they are made alone or with other people. Discuss the strengths and weakness of Cultural Value and Informational Influence explanations of this phenomenon.
Many conflicts happen as a result of groups sharing and supporting only opinion of like-minded others in the group. Such interaction can intensify previous opinions and ideas and it remains to be investigated why this is the case. The question remains whether it is the bad or the good outcome in such interactions as opinions can polarize depending on the group attitude as the group discussion usually strengthen individual’s initial predisposition.
Looking at the research helps us to clarify why the group opinion and cultural influence could be greater than individual’s opinion and influence and how the group polarization and social comparison could be more influential and play greater role in everyday life ranging from conflicts, violence, friendships, families to governments.
Brown (1965) argues that there only could be two value orientations in decision making. Firstly it is a direction towards risky decisions and secondly a direction towards cautious or conservative choices. Such orientations usually have a cultural influence as some cultures are more for the risky approach while others prefer a cautious attitude. Subsequently, cultural values can become more prominent in a group through social comparison and social exchange. As a result the outcome could be that either decision by the group can be more risky than those made by the individuals alone. Meanwhile, in the cautious cultures, decisions made by the group could be more risky than those made by the individuals.
However, Hong (1978) proposes that the evidence which supports the culture value theory was mostly produced by studying cultures that support risky decisions and at the...
Many conflicts happen as a result of groups sharing and supporting only opinion of like-minded others in the group. Such interaction can intensify previous opinions and ideas and it remains to be investigated why this is the case. The question remains whether it is the bad or the good outcome in such interactions as opinions can polarize depending on the group attitude as the group discussion usually strengthen individual’s initial predisposition.
Looking at the research helps us to clarify why the group opinion and cultural influence could be greater than individual’s opinion and influence and how the group polarization and social comparison could be more influential and play greater role in everyday life ranging from conflicts, violence, friendships, families to governments.
Brown (1965) argues that there only could be two value orientations in decision making. Firstly it is a direction towards risky decisions and secondly a direction towards cautious or conservative choices. Such orientations usually have a cultural influence as some cultures are more for the risky approach while others prefer a cautious attitude. Subsequently, cultural values can become more prominent in a group through social comparison and social exchange. As a result the outcome could be that either decision by the group can be more risky than those made by the individuals alone. Meanwhile, in the cautious cultures, decisions made by the group could be more risky than those made by the individuals.
However, Hong (1978) proposes that the evidence which supports the culture value theory was mostly produced by studying cultures that support risky decisions and at the...