A study in the 1970s show that people in groups tend to make riskier decisions and take more extreme views than they would alone . Here ’s how to defuse that group dynamic when it ’s not on your side .
In 1970 , psychologists David Myers and George Bishop round up several groups of bookman . They require to see what happened to a grouping of individuals when they discussed the topics of the day , but the radical they pick out were not created to nurture balanced public debate . They were divided by their attitude on subspecies . The student were given a test call up “ The Multifactor Racial Attitude Inventory ( MRAI ) ” , which was create in 1967 and include such interrogation as , “ I would not take a Negro to eat up with me in a restaurant where I was well - recognize . ” base on their scores , the psychologists assort the students into groups of people with highly racist views , ones without racist views , and ones who take the midway priming .
The groups discussed interrogative sentence such as school busing , integration , and lodging covenants . ( Housing covenants are provisions on a title to a house which state that the house can not be trade or hire to a sure mathematical group of people . If the proprietor does trade or rent to that group , they forfeit the place . ) After the discussions the student took the MRAI again . As the research worker forebode , the students evinced more extreme attitudes than they had before . Those who were reformist were more so after they discussed the issue with other progressive mass . Those who were racist were more so after their discussion . The “ bad ” opinions that they had held going into the discussion were validate and made to look like the average , and so they felt well-off taking even more risks .
Like all technique , it can be used for dear or for evilness . No one can argue that restrictive trapping compact or separatism are virtuously satisfactory . Still , this shows how to suffocate free conversation and the airing of eyeshot without appearing to do so . Even brief prefatorial input get people recognise that , if they convey a unlike opinion they are take a risk . That knowledge will deter them from read further risks .
[ ViaDiscussion Effect on Racial Attitudes , Encyclopedia of Psychological Assessment ]
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