This demonstration illustrates principles of group dynamics and dynamic social impact and can be used in classes in social psychology or group dynamics. Students discuss their answers to multiple-choice questions with neighbors and answer them again. Discussion consistently leads to the consolidation (reduced diversity), clustering (spatial-self-organization), correlation (emergent linkages), and continuing diversity of responses. “Truth” does not necessarily win, showing that the social reality of the group may be more important than objective reality.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BarrerasR. E.HartonH. C.RichardsonD. R. (1996, June). Distributed classroom discussions: Focused interactive learning. Poster session presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Society Institute on the Teaching of Psychology, San Francisco, CA.
2.
HartonH. C.LatanéB. (1997). The social self-organization of culture. In SchweitzerF. (Ed.), Self-organization of complex structures: From individual to collective dynamics (pp. 355–366). London: Gordon & Breach.
3.
LatanéB. (1981). The psychology of social impact. American Psychologist, 36, 343–356.
4.
LatanéB. (1996a). Dynamic social impact: The creation of culture by communication. Journal of Communication, 46, 13–25.
5.
LatanéB. (1996b). The emergence of clustering and correlation from social interaction. In HegselmannR.PeitgenH. O. (Eds.), Order and chaos in nature and society (pp. 79–104). Vienna: Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky.
6.
LatanéB. (1997). Dynamic social impact: The societal consequences of human interaction. In McGartyC.HaslamA. (Eds.), The message of social psychology: Perspectives on mind and society (pp. 75–87). Oxford, England; Blackwell.
7.
LatanéB.L'HerrouT. (1996). Social clustering in the conformity game: Dynamic social impact in electronic groups. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 1219–1230.
8.
LatanéB.NowakA. (1997). Self-organizing social systems: Necessary and sufficient conditions for the emergence of consolidation and clustering. In BarnettC.BosterF. (Eds.), Progress in communication sciences: Persuasion (pp. 123–145). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
9.
NowakA.SzamrejJ.LatanéB. (1990). From private attitude to public opinion: A dynamic theory of social impact. Psychological Review, 97, 362–376.