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Group Decision as a Technique for Obtaining Compliance: Some Added Considerations Concerning How Altruism Leads to Callousness
Author(s) -
Baron Robert Steven,
Sanders Glenn
Publication year - 1975
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.1975.tb00681.x
Subject(s) - compliance (psychology) , altruism (biology) , psychology , social psychology , group decision making
Bennett (1955) reported that a critical condition for producing Lewin's (1958) classic group discussion‐decision effect (is., high compliance with a request from an authority figure) was a group consensus strongly favoring compliance. This finding prompted investigation of variables potentially affecting such a consensus. A first study found that group consensus is significantly less likely to favor compliance if subjects are allowed to make a majority rather than an individual decision. Group size had no significant effects on decision‐making. A second study replicated this effect and investigated several explanations for it. These results suggest that, at least when compliance is not in the subjects' best interest, the Lewinian group discussion‐decision effect will be less likely to be found if a majority decision role is followed as opposed to an individual decision rule. The implication of these data for social engineering is discussed.