Social influence - Deliberate social influence - Group decision making

4 important questions on Social influence - Deliberate social influence - Group decision making

What three main explanations for the effect of group polarization (the tendency to make more extreme decisions than the average of the group members' positions)?

  1. Persuasive arguments
  2. Social comparison
  3. Self-categorization

The persuasive arguments approach, also the informational approach, says that persuasion via arguments leads to polarization, since they (if taken the same stance) allow for renewing, reiterating and convincing a group member of their already established opinion. This approach argues that polarization is based on what type of social influence in these arguments: normative or informational social influence?

Informational social influence

According to the social comparison approach to what causes polarization, why does a group member shift to an even more extreme position after learning others' positions (which are in the same direction)?

They compare themselves with their group members and wish to be different from them in a socially desirable direction (and so their original position becomes more extreme)
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According to the self-categorization approach to what causes group polarization, why does a group member shift to a more extreme position than their original, in the direction of the consensual group members' positions?

Polarization is caused by the tendencies to widen the gap between ingroup and outgroup membership: accentuating similarities with group members, differentiating from outgroup members

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