The term group polarization came up in this article and I found it interesting.
It's saying that when placed in a group setting an individual will introduce a more radical course of action to a problem in order to gain group acceptance. Then they make whats called a risky or choice shift to that more extreme result and go from there. This is interesting because after further research I found some real life applications of this issue of group polarization.
First is the holocaust and Hitler brought together a group of people who disliked Jewish people. As this group came together they polarized to that hatred of the Jewish peoples and their way of dealing with them became much more extreme which we all know.
Another is in government, say the president (democrat) lays a new bill down in the senate. The republicans get together and discuss it. Someone speaks up saying why they disagree with the bill and then another and then another and then the group polarizes around their disapproval of the bill making radical changes that would not have originally taken place if not for the polarization.
Group Polarization is a crucial topic that can produce devastating results and while the understanding of this topic is not fully acquired it is still something that has been observed to have happened within teams and is something we should be aware of for the future.
I agree with your example of the holocaust; it is scary to see that one person's hatred can influence an entire group, this is similar to mass suicides, like drinking the kool-aid. Groups make people have one perception rather than forming ideas for themselves, they accept what they are told to be the truth. However your example of government may be a tad off, politicians rarely take what they hear and accept it for fact. Politicians by nature love to argue their opinions, even if it is within their own parties.
ReplyDeleteI read this and was still a little confused. I think what you mean is that one person can transform an entire groups ideals on a certain topic. Right? If so then yes I completely agree with you and its rather fascination how that works. People don't really think for themselves anymore, its just what the "majority" is doing. It's kind of disgusting, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteHonestly, the idea of group polarization kind of makes me nervous. Nine times out of ten, I wouldn't recognize when this was happening from the inside. Sometimes, from the outside, we can observe this kind of thing happening and think of how silly the people who are being swayed are. On the other hand, if this is a natural, normal occurrence, then I probably have been a part of it, too, whether I'm being convinced or doing the convincing. When a group gets together with an idea that isn't even necessarily a bad one, such as throwing a Halloween party, their ideas blows up and become bigger and greater and more intense than the idea would have been if one person were planning it. Your examples showcase the bad sides of group polarization, but there could be good sides as well if the group was making a positive change together.
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