Crowd Psychology

According to the handout,
"There is still a great deal of controversy about whether groups of people influence the individual or whether acting collectively is the result of choices made by individuals."

What's your opinion about this. Do groups of people act in certain ways because the group as a whole influences the individuals, or because the individuals are making their own choices?



Also, please feel free to start any topics.

At first, individuals choose their ideas and get together to express their opinions to the public. Then, people who have the same ideas approach to them and become a group. On that side, individuals influences the public. However, after a group is made, the group starts to affect a person. A group can give an individual huge pressures, and each person is hard to resist against the group. Finally, the group effects an individual continually if the group has already been made.

Do groups of people act in certain ways because the group as a whole influences the individuals, or because the individuals are making their own choices?

I think that the group influences the individuals more than their own opinion. Also, If someone is in a certain group, it means that he or she share same opinions with other group members. Thus, People feel strong bonds with group members who have same purpose and goal, and they become more greatly motivated to acheive that purpose or goal. By these reasons, many people make their choices according to groups' common values and opinion.
In some cases, some people don't have similar opinion with a group. However, even in this case, people necessarily follow major opinion because group pressure is so strong that one is difficult to reject it. Once I watched the experiment related to it on tv, many people adjusted to major opinion.
By those reasons, I think a group is more influential in one's own choices than individual's own thought.

[quote="JesseTeacher"]According to the handout,
"There is still a great deal of controversy about whether groups of people influence the individual or whether acting collectively is the result of choices made by individuals."

What's your opinion about this. Do groups of people act in certain ways because the group as a whole influences the individuals, or because the individuals are making their own choices?



In my opinion, groups of people can influence individuals in many cases. I experienced that even when my thought is right for certain question, if the rest of group members disagree with me, I usually follow the rest of opinion. This kind of situation is common in our daily life, and we can say that I was under group pressure. More specific, if most of my friends smoke and asked me to do, even though I don’t want to do, I feel like having to do because I worry about being separated from them. Likewise, there are many examples of being influenced by group. Therefore, I think that groups can affect individuals.

JesseTeacher wrote:According to the handout,
"There is still a great deal of controversy about whether groups of people influence the individual or whether acting collectively is the result of choices made by individuals."

What's your opinion about this. Do groups of people act in certain ways because the group as a whole influences the individuals, or because the individuals are making their own choices?



Also, please feel free to start any topics.

I think it is the group not the individuals, that influences the people. Well, at first, people get to choose a group that they want to join, but once they choose a certain group and start to socialize with the members, it is more likely that they will be influenced by the group. However, this ‘group pressure’ does not seem to be such a serious problem to the individuals because in most cases, they agree with the group’s decisions and the will to belong to the group is often stronger than the will to stand out and speak up. I believe this is because people want to indentify themselves with other group members and maintain their status as one of the members in the group.

Do groups of people act in certain ways because the group as a whole influences the individuals, or because the individuals are making their own choices?

About this topic, l remembered an really interesting show. That is a documetary about crowd psychology in EBS. This documentary shows “the law of 3”, often mentioned in psychology filed.
In the sidewalk, a man stands alone. He is pointing out something of the sky as there are some strange things. But nobody concentrates (on) his act and just ignore. And it is also same result as a 2 man stands. But people act completely different from the former situation, when 3 people stand and act same thing. People wonder what they do and surround the 3 men and try to find the subject.
Like this there is a many situation that the individuals are influenced by group. And we commonly meet these at daily life. People are social men and they want to be a part of strong group to survive. I think that make a group is primitive desire of people to live. We can't not live without society and we want to be a real member of group. So we can't not avoid from power of majority and intention of group. So it might be even evitable phenomenon that group influences the individuals.

Do groups of people act in certain ways because the group as a whole influences the individuals, or because the individuals are making their own choices?

I think group has individuals under its thumb. 'Group pressure' has controled most of individuals. Though, one individual has definite opinion, group attracts the individual gradually. I also have that experience. When I don't have certain thought, I follow my group's thought. Though I have certain thought, I follow my group's thought because I have not confidence to defeat group pressure. Group pressure has amazing power like this. So I think people act in certain ways because the group as a whole influences the individuals.

Do groups of people act in certain ways because the group as a whole influences the individuals, or because the individuals are making their own choices?

At most cases, the group as a whole influences the individuals. I've watched one TV show, then a psychologist made an experiment which tests group pressure. He made a fake exam, and made a subject take the exam with his co-workers. The subject regarded the co-workers as people who came to take the exam. During the test, jet-black smoke leaked into the room, so the subject were embarrassed a lot, but co-workers didn't care about it, just took the exam. The subject thought that there was a fire, an emergence situation occurred, but he didn't take a step to stop the fire because others didn't care. According to this experiment, we know that group pressure have a lot of effect in groups, and the members are strongly influenced by it. So I believe that the group as a whole may be more influential than the individuals in groups.

I think maybe everyone has experienced ‘Crowd Psychology’ before. Of course, individuals make their own opinions at first, before they belong to a group, but usually they are pursued by group’s opinion. It can be a natural thing, because group members can have better opinions then individuals. Usually people who belong to a group follow the group’s opinion, not their own opinion, because when they belong to a group, they don’t or can’t express their own opinion due to the group pressure. That is the more important reason. The power of group pressure is very strong enough to affect individuals, but individuals are not strong enough to block that pressure.

In my opinion, except the time when the group form, the group alaways influences individuals. At first, the group's leader or rule is determined by its members. But as time passes, people should follow the rule and power though they are not right.
For example, we can choose our president by our own will, vote. But after the vote, it's hard to stop the president's polict even if it is wrong. Sometimes there are some law which was seemed like a very fair law to former generation, but not for the latter generation like the caste system in India or 호주제. We couldn't resist these law for a long time because of the older generation's pressure. Every rule changes into authority in the end, and it regulates its group memebers daily life.

Children want to throw away their opinion because they really want to hang up with their friends. We can experience that kinds of crowd psychology while playing with friends. In my experience, I wanted to play together including a girl who was being bulled, but I couldn't because of crowd psychology. I was afraid of being bulled like her. It is not only my experience but also everyone's experience.
We can see this kinds of crowd psychology from many adults. Adults need to hide their opinion for their livelihood. They know that their company's system has problems but they can't produce new ideas. They can be fired or shunted off. Supposing that company is a small crowd, our society is a big crowd. If we get a small amount of crowd psychology from company, we can get a big amount of crowd psychology. Crowd psychology is a really terrifying thing. We all know that if we want to advance much more, we have to be opposite side of majority. It is hard but we have to try for better future.

i've always though that each indivisuals should not lose their colour, and contribute in building the charateristic of the group. however, a lot of societies or groups do not satisfy me. because many groups in korea are ignoring the minorities idea, and pose pressure on minorities to discard their features, and follew the majority. under the name of democracy, this is just shameful. democracy does have meaning of following the majority's opinion, however, it also contains the meaning of accepting, and listening to the minority's opinion.

the more i write, the more i get off the topic so hahaha i must quit here

Well I think it's the group that influences people, not the individuals.
First, people makes group for their own purposes, gathers opinions for that purposes, and makes their position. If one individual wants to be in that group, he or she has to agree with that group’s opinion and follow it. So, whether he or she has better idea or not, the first thing that he or she must do is agree with that group’s position.
Second, as many experiments and researches showed, there are always “Group Pressures”. Even though the individual has his or her own thought and idea, if the majority of the group has different opinion, then the individual will just follow what the majority said. It’s really hard for people say or insist something which is different from others, and people usually don’t want to attract others’ attentions.

I strongly believe that the crowd psychology take lots of effect to people who is in a group. First of all, we are belonging to specific groups and we don't want to be isolated or separated from the others in group. To satisfy them and get along with them more, we tend to follow other's idea. Majority has much stronger power than minority commonly. As result, it is more safe to support majority's thinking.
A few years ago, I saw an interesting advertisement related to crowd psychology. The questioner asked which one is better between A or B, the last answering man followed previous people who answered A is better. As this experiment, we can realize that crowd psychology has a huge influences to individuals.

Do groups of people act in certain ways because the group as a whole influences the individuals, or because the individuals are making their own choices?

I think that group influences the individuals. Because people tend to agree with their groups to feel a sense of belonging. As Group pressure or peer pressure is well known psychological penomenon, it seems clear that group influences the individuals. I also feel group pressure when I make some dicisions. It is a natural thing because desire to be involved in group is human nature.
But group is a gathering things with individuals, then who make groups' dicision? I think groups' opinion is influenced by one or a few people who instigate some thinking. So I don't think whole people influece by the groups.

Interesting study

조영미 2-2 wrote: Do groups of people act in certain ways because the group as a whole influences the individuals, or because the individuals are making their own choices?

About this topic, l remembered an really interesting show. That is a documetary about crowd psychology in EBS. This documentary shows “the law of 3”, often mentioned in psychology filed.
In the sidewalk, a man stands alone. He is pointing out something of the sky as there are some strange things. But nobody concentrates (on) his act and just ignore. And it is also same result as a 2 man stands. But people act completely different from the former situation, when 3 people stand and act same thing. People wonder what they do and surround the 3 men and try to find the subject.
Like this there is a many situation that the individuals are influenced by group. And we commonly meet these at daily life. People are social men and they want to be a part of strong group to survive. I think that make a group is primitive desire of people to live. We can't not live without society and we want to be a real member of group. So we can't not avoid from power of majority and intention of group. So it might be even evitable phenomenon that group influences the individuals.

Do groups of people act in certain ways because the group as a whole influences the individuals, or because the individuals are making their own choices?

I strongly believe that group influences the individuals. We can see this in many cases. For example, at one experiment, One person showed the 3 lines to people. And then show them one another line which is same length with second line. But every people except one chose first line. In this experiment, Everyone except one person knew that this situation was an experiment so they conspired with themselves to choose the wrong answer. Finally, the last person chose first one as an answer even if he knew the real answer. This is like a 'Group pressure' and this case also means group influences the individuals. Individuals can't live without a group. So they wanted to remain in their group. Finally they follow group's opinion. So, it might be natural phenomenon that group influences the individuals.

There are many different cases for each situation. But most cases, I think that groups influence individuals more. Because they don't want to far away from each others and then more, they want to feel bond of sympathy. There was an faked-experiment distinguish which rope is longer, researchers and people except one coordinated their stories that left one is longer than right. In experiment, they were asked which is longer, first replied left, second replied left, all replied left and finally that the last subject replied also left even though right was longer exactly. It is good example for group pressure and crowd psychology. In this experiment we can guess groups influence individuals enough.

[quote="JesseTeacher"]According to the handout,
"There is still a great deal of controversy about whether groups of people influence the individual or whether acting collectively is the result of choices made by individuals."

What's your opinion about this. Do groups of people act in certain ways because the group as a whole influences the individuals, or because the individuals are making their own choices
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I strongly believe that groups of people influence the individual more. Because if there are already widely perceived ideas or opinions, it is hard for the individual to suggest the other view. It is so-called 'group pressure'. I'm not saying that the individual never can change the atmosphere of the group or just have to follow what most of people do. I mean, it doesn't happen that often.
Let me give you my own experience related to this situation. When I was middle school student, I went to the theater to watch a new-realized movie with my friends. Waiting in the line, we were talking about what movie we are going to watch. Finally, two movies were left that we were allowed to enter and wanted to watch. I loved both of them, too. However, one of the movies was what i've already seen. Nevertheless, because most of my friends preferred to watch the one that i've seen, I had to follow their choice. (even though we probably could watch the one that I haven't seen.) Therefore, from my own experience, I strongly believe that groups of people influence the individual than acting collectively is the result of choices made by individuals.

A group is made by the members of it. When more the group is creative, more the power will be given to them. I think 'a good group' is the group that doesn't lose charater of each individual.
Imagine the time we got in to GIMFL. At that moment, we knew what we will do. It may not be very concrete thoughts, but we realized how our daily lives will go on. So we choose the way to live in this school and each students made the circumstance of now.
Therefore, groups of people act in certain ways because the individuals are making their own choices.

In my opinion, people tend to be influenced by the group in which they involved. People can not have inherent creativities. They can only imitate other people or products that are created by others. Accordingly, individuals involved in the group affect each other mutually so that members in the group act in certain ways because of the group. Humans are social animals that decide their own behaviors from other people. It is impossible for humans never to be aware of the way other people behave. Also, individuals are afraid of being isolated so they don’t want to act like that other people can look him/her strangely. In conclusion, most people are affected by the group as a whole and they can’t think or behave independently.

Many animals as well as people organize group, but especially people are called very social creatures. We need to feel a sense of belonging. So it is important to keep the run of many people. Also, it is the reason of making the group. Many people think there are interplay between group and members but I believe that group influences the individuals.
First of all, Reinhold Niebuhr, who is American theologian and a critic on civilization, said that each individual is not selfish, but they can be more selfish when they are in groups. We can experience this theory in daily life and it shows that group influences the individuals a lot.
Secondly, the group is usually made of the similar in personality, hobby and so on. If a member is very distinct from the group, he/she will be able to leave out. Then the member tried to assimilate his/her way of many things to that of the group people. This situation can be seemed easily around us.
Therefore, I believe the groups of people affect the individuals.

Most people tend toward following majority's action by crowd psychology. One research is showed that if only three people do same behavior, the near person also follow that same doing.We are usually affected by crowd psychology. For example, at a quiet lecture, we study other's face to ask a question in a loud voice. Through this, it seems that an individual is affected by majority or crowd to act.

However, when we do very personal or trivial things and decide important things, it seems that personal opinion and will affect rather than majority. For instance, when we just want to go toilet or drink water, we follow personal desire not crowd psychology. Also, when we face with important task, finally individual make decision of that not majority, althogh they take advices.

The result is that I think the last decision and act is occured by individual's opinion and will.

Topic: Do groups of people act in certain ways because the group as a whole influences the individuals or because the individuals are act their own choices.

In my opinion, that phenomenon happens because group affect individuals to act in certain way. Humans are a social animal, so they have a habit to join in group. It’s easy to find evidences of this. According to history, people formed a community from the start. People feel safety, or comfortable when they belong to group and they become brave when there are some supporters who think in a similar way. During the discussion, usually minority people change their opinion to majority one even though it’s not their real decision.
So, I think there should be a rule to protect this. People should not think discussion in two ways-winning or loss. People tend to judge result of discussion as their winning or loss. If we presume 10 people are participate in discussion and 7 of them think A, 3 of them think B. Then 7 people want to make A as a result, because they want to win this discussion so they press the other people. Finally, to prevent all individuals act in certain ways, we should change people’s mind first.

<Do groups influence individuals?>

I believe that groups can change individuals. We can commonly see the two sides of human character : a kind and real person in 'one by one meeting' and the other person who is belong to a group. In this sentense, I want to talk about the person who is controlled by the 'group'. People tend to adapt themselves to their group, so act like their group members do. We can say that phenomenon is 'Group preesure'. Even sometimes people follow group decision without their willings because they don't want to be an outsider.(Cause it might be scared. Do you want to be an outsider? You might answet "Nope!") That's the problem. We people have a right to tell their opinion and suggest something to their group. but their group members don't allow they talk despite they also have an idea. To overcome 'Group pressure', we have to make atmosphere of the group free to talk. There is no person like captin who only have a right to talk.