Akkademia di Psicopolis

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CURRENT RESEARCH IN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
GROUP MEMBERSHIP AND SOCIAL INFLUENCE
Christopher Barnum-St. Ambrose University, Barry Markovsky- University of South Carolina

 

ABSTRACT
Can people influence others solely by virtue of shared group membership? To address this and related questions, we offer a theory of group-mediated social influence and then test it in a standardized collective task setting. The theory capitalizes on uncertainty reduction principles found in two longstanding social psychological traditions: social identity theory and status characteristics theory. Our primary hypothesis was that in-group members would be more influential than out-group members. Results from the experiment indicate that in-group members
were indeed more influential than out-group members. These findings supported a key derivation of our theory, and demonstrated that the integration accounts for phenomena that are not addressed by either of the motivating theories.

INTRODUCTION
Social influence in its many forms has been a central focus of research for decades. Building from traditions in social psychology, sociologists have developed rigorous, empirically validated theories to explain how larger group structures affect events at the levels of individuals, small groups and networks.[1] In this vein, we build upon existing theories to help understand how group membership determines the emergence of social influence hierarchies. We offer a theory of group-mediated social influence and test key implications in an experimental setting.
Theories in structural social psychology generally explain how group or network structures affect individual outcomes—self-identities, exchange profits, locations within status hierarchies—as social interaction plays out in an interpersonal arena (Lawler, Ridgeway and Markovsky 1993).
Sometimes individuals are unaware of the source of influence, as when the effects of distal changes in a network propagate through its connections and alter opportunity structures. Other times individuals may recognize and respond to relatively "macro" factors, such as strengthening ties in one's primary group under the perceived threat posed by a real but faceless group of outsiders. In either case, theoretically accounting for the impact of non-local factors provides a more accurate and complete understanding of the experiences, behaviors and consequences transpiring among a focal set of social actors.
The new theory integrates elements and ideas from two long-standing traditions in social psychology: self categorization theory and status characteristics theory. The integration permits us to examine the effects of status and group membership in collective task settings. Typically these settings are small face-to-face groups in which people interact in order to solve a problem.
Examples range from formal work groups such as business or academic committees to informal assemblages such as a group of strangers working to free a stuck car from a snow bank. These settings share a common feature: Participants have a strong desire to reach a correct solution.
Frequently however, there are complexities and ambiguities in the course of reaching this solution. Social psychologists have long argued that people is such settings look to one another for guidance. In the absence of more explicit knowledge, people readily make inferences about one another's task-relevant abilities on the basis of observable characteristics. For example, the group of strangers working to free the stuck car may use physical size as a cue to solve the problem and so decide to place the smallest member behind the wheel of the car to steer it, and the largest members at the rear of the car to push it.

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