You can't sit here with us."
Many people can immediately identify this as a popular quote from the movie Mean Girls. In this scene, one of the "popular girls," Gretchen Wieners, tells the former queen bee, Regina George, that she can't sit with the group at lunch because she broke one of their fashion rules. This is one of the many examples in the movie that reveals how powerful a group's actions, thoughts, or feelings can affect an individual or group.
- What is group behavior?
- What are the four aspects of group behavior?
- What are different types of group behavior?
- What are examples of group behavior?
Definition of Group Behavior
First, let's examine what defines a group. Groups are formed for many different reasons and in many ways. They can be very powerful in that an individual may be able to accomplish more with a group than by oneself.
A group is defined as two or more people who interact and share a common identity, belief, purpose, or morals.
Group behavior refers to the actions, thoughts, or feelings of a collection of people or individuals within a group.
Group behavior is often guided by a set of rules or regulations that may not always be the case for every individual within that group.
Group Behavior and Group Identity
Once we identify with a group, we begin to categorize ourselves within an ingroup and others in an outgroup. The tendency is to form an "us vs them" mentality and view outgroups as homogeneous and favor our ingroup.
Fig. 1 On game nights, we tend to see our team as the ingroup and the other team as the outgroup, freepik.com
Outgroup homogeneity refers to our tendency to see members of our ingroup as individuals and members of an outgroup as the same.
Ingroup favoritism or ingroup bias refers to our tendency to assume that people similar to us are like us, favoring ingroup members over outgroup members.
Four Aspects of Group Behavior
There are four aspects of a group’s behavior that may be present within a group.
Purpose and Mission: Individuals within the group share similar beliefs, values, or attitudes resulting in a unified mission or purpose. The group may then develop clear goals or a specific agenda.
Norms: The group has a clear standard of behavioral norms. These norms are used to evaluate group members. Behavioral norms may be clearly written as rules, or they may be informal. However, group members are always aware of what the behavior norms are.
Cohesion: How well the group can overcome conflict or other unpleasant experiences. If cohesion is low, the group may struggle to establish control over its members and enforce its behavior norms and rules.
Structure: Each group has a structure for status and authority. This may be hierarchical or more democratic. There is also a clear dynamic between the leader and the follower.
Types of Group Behavior
Communal labor, joining protests or a march, acting patriotically, and spectating are examples of social situations in which group behavior may occur.
Group Behavior: Communal Labor
Communal labor refers to a group that comes together to accomplish a specific task that benefits the group as a whole. This type of group behavior is usually constructive as cooperation is imperative for the group to accomplish its task. Members of groups that gather for communal labor often have common social interests, aspirations, feelings, and a particular topic.
Fig. 2 A community garden is an example of communal labor where Group Behavior can form, freepik.com
Joining a Protest or March
Another form of group behavior is when individuals join a protest or march. In this case, individuals come together to protest for or against a cause. A modern-day example of a protest or demonstration is the one that took place after the murder of George Floyd. Or the Women’s March that formed following the inauguration of former President Donald Trump.
Acting Patriotically
Groups that have been formed as a result of shared love and pride for their country are acting patriotically. The behavior of groups who have gathered for this purpose is often zealous and committed. Groups acting patriotically can be constructive but can also easily become destructive.
Group Behavior: Spectators
A spectator group behavior refers to gathering a group of people with the shared purpose to participate in or attend an event. Events may include a concert, movie, or sports game.
Culture as a Form of Group Behavior
Culture refers to a group's shared attitudes, ideas, values, traditions, and behaviors passed down from generation to generation.
Humans are social animals capable of learning and adapting their behaviors for survival. Cultures form as the result of this human trait. Through language, humans have been able to preserve innovation throughout history. Even though we differ across cultures, our capacity for culture is the same. Culture enables us to communicate, play, engage in commerce, and live.
As cultures compete for resources, they evolve over time. A Frenchman in the fourteenth century might not fully understand a Frenchman in the twenty-first century. While cultures evolve to survive, the change is not always positive. For example, although the federal government increased the loan amount a student could borrow for their post-secondary degree, it may have allowed colleges to raise their tuition costs. (Bundick & Pollard, 2019). Culture and cultural differences can greatly affect the behavior of groups and individuals within that group.
Fig. 3 Different cultures form their own Group Behavior, freepik.com
Group Behavior – Examples
Group behavior can occur in everyday situations. Here are some examples:
- Planning/executing cultural festival
Organizing the clean up of a dirty street corner
Setting up a community garden
Black Lives Matter Protests
March on Washington during the Civil Rights Movement
Dakota Access Pipeline Protest
January 6th United States Capitol Attack
Group Behavior in Psychology
Individual behavior differs from group behavior in the first may be influenced by several internal and external factors. Individual behavior may result from genes, mental health, environment, or self-perception.
When group behavior is observed in psychology, the focus is on how groups affect an individual's behavior, thinking, decision-making, or ideas. Psychologists also observe how groups behave as a whole and how groups interact with one another.
Group Polarization
The ways in which a group interacts with other groups and with one another is called group dynamics. Group polarization is when a group’s beliefs and inclinations are enhanced through group discussion, and decisions are more extreme than an individual’s initial inclination.
Group polarization is when a group’s beliefs and inclinations are enhanced through group discussion, and decisions are more extreme than an individual’s initial inclination.
For example, a class discussion would make students whose prejudice is low become more accepting after discussing racial issues. However, students whose prejudice is high would become less accepting after discussing racial issues. In the real world, we see group polarization occur in politics. After a debate, political groups may become more polarized in their views.
Group polarization often intensifies the "us vs them" mentality. Group members may also behave in more extreme ways than while on their own. While increasing access through the internet can be a powerful tool in connecting people, it can also be a powerful tool in polarizing people's opinions. Conservatives can connect more with other conservative perspectives, and liberals can connect more with other liberal views.
Conformity
In 1955, Solomon Asch conducted an experiment to test conformity within a group.
Conformity is when a person's behavior changes to match the group's behavior, regardless of their own opinion.
In the experiment, he had a group of people answer a very easy question. However, each group had confederates, people who work for the researcher, who answered the question incorrectly. Then, Asch observed how often the subjects would give the wrong answer. This resulted in the Ash effect, which refers to how the group majority influences an individual's behavior and judgment.
Groupthink
When faced with a decision, groups may reach a consensus due to the desire for harmony. This phenomenon is called groupthink. This consensus, however, may not have been achieved through reason or evaluation.
Groupthink is the phenomenon in which decision-making groups reach a consensus due to the desire for harmony, regardless of any consequences or alternatives.
Groupthink is often fed by overconfidence, conformity, group polarization, and self-justification. (Meyer et al., 2009). Throughout history, administrations in the United States have fallen victim to groupthink. For example, social psychologist Irvan Janis (1982) discovered that the Kennedy administration's decision to invade Cuba with Cuban exiles trained by the CIA was likely led by a collective desire to preserve the morale. Leaders opted to ignore their doubts to protect the harmony of the group.
Helping People
Individual behavior can be especially influenced by the presence of others when it comes to helping.
The bystander effect, for example, refers to a situation in which people are less likely to offer help if others are around.
This phenomenon can often have negative effects where no one steps up to help because they believe someone else will be there to do it. Or, have you heard of the saying, “Scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours?” This reflects the reciprocity norm, the idea that individuals within a group expect others to help them if they help others.
Group Behavior - Key takeaways
- A group is defined as two or more people who interact with each other and share a common identity.
- Group behavior refers to the observable actions, thoughts, or feelings of a collection of people or the individuals within a collection of people.
- Outgroup homogeneity refers to our tendency to see members of our ingroup as individuals and members of an outgroup as the same.
- Ingroup favoritism or ingroup bias refers to our tendency to assume people similar to us are like us, therefore favoring ingroup members over outgroup members.
- Four aspects of group behavior are purpose/mission, norms, cohesion, and structure.
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