GROUP INFLUENCE
(CHAPTER 8)
OK, psychology of the crowd, but
is this crowd the right crowd?
What’s on the Agenda for this Chapter?
• What are groups and why do we form and join
them?
• What are the differences in our behavior when
we are alone vs. when we are in a group?
What is a Group?
What is a “Group”?
Blue Box
Two or more people who
interact and are
interdependent in the
sense that their needs and
goals cause them to
influence each other
e.g., your friend groups, this class, your family, work teams,
sports teams fans, political party supporters, students who
will take the midterm in a specific class because their surname
starts with A-K
• Some Questions from Former Students:
“Why do we form different communities?”
=
“Why do we form different groups?”
“Why do people want to be in a group, such as
a nation, religion, or even fans of a football
team?”
Why Do People Form and Join Groups?
! REMEMBER THE SOCIAL ANIMAL !
Groups are..
–Important agents for cooperation and
survival!
–Important aspects of our identity
• Help us define who we are
! Remember Interdependent View of the Self !
–Important sources of information
• Help us resolve ambiguity in the social
world
! Remember Informative Social Influence !
–Important sources of social norms
! Remember Normative Social Influence !
• Some Questions from Former Students:
“How do things change with respect to one-to-
one interactions as opposed to group
interactions?”
“Why can some people not be effective in
group work although they are actually capable
of doing that work when they are alone?”
The differences in our behavior when we
are alone vs. when we are in a group
Social Facilitation
• If individual efforts can be evaluated
The presence of others energizes us (arousal)
• If the task is simple, well-learned
The mere presence of others improves
performance
e.g., my teaching
• If the task is difficult
The opposite effect
People take longer to complete the task and
make more errors when others are watching
e.g., a new driver
• Others’ presence does improve the speed with
which people solve simple cognitive tasks and it
also improves accuracy on basic motor tasks
(Allport, 1920; Dashiell, 1930; Travis, 1925)
• In others’ presence, students take less time to learn
a simple maze and more time to learn a complex one
(Hunt & Hillery, 1973)
These effects are well replicated across several
domains, such as cognitive performance
(e.g., the Stroop task) and athletic performance
(see Garcia-Marques & Fernandes, 2024; Guspa et al.,
2025 for recent reviews and Bond & Titus, 1983 for
a classic meta-analysis of 241 studies with more than
24,000 participants)
Social facilitation occurs even with animals!
In the presence of other members of their species:
• ants excavate more sand, chickens eat more grain,
and rat pairs mate more often
(Bayer, 1929; Chen, 1937; Larsson, 1956)
but…
• cockroaches, parakeets, and green finches learn
mazes more slowly
(Allee & Masure, 1936; Gates & Allee, 1933; Klopfer, 1958)
(see Fonseca & Aparecida dos Santos, 2023 for a recent review on
social facilitation in insects)
Social Loafing
• If individual efforts are not evaluated
The presence of others relaxes us
People are more likely to underperform
e.g., your project groups
• Blindfolded P’s were assigned the first position in
an apparatus and told: “Pull as hard as you can”
– “You are alone”
– “There are others pulling behind you”
They pulled 18% harder when they thought
they were pulling alone vs. in a group
(Ingham et al., 1974)
Effort decreases as group size increases
(k = 49; N = 4,000+) (Williams et al., 1992)
(see Karau & Wilhaufor, 2020; Manğuş & Tolay, 2022
for recent reviews)
Collective effort is often less than the sum of
individual efforts
Due to:
• Diffusion of Responsibility
(“Someone else will do it”)
• Free Riders: People who benefit from
the group but give
little in return
• People in groups loaf less when
– the task is challenging, appealing, or involving
(e.g., Hüffmeier et al., 2012; Kerr et al., 2007;
Tan & Tan, 2008)
– members are friends, or when they feel
identified with or indispensable to the group
(Gockel et al., 2008)
even just expecting to interact with someone again
serves to increase effort
on team projects
(Groenenboom et al., 2001)
ANY QUESTIONS?
ANYTHING YOU WOULD
LIKE TO ADD?