Social Psychology Experiment
Content
From: Nicholas Woyshner, Independent Researcher/Experiment Designer To: Nicholas Zuppelli , Independent Researcher/Experiment Coordinator/ Co-Designer PART I: A Brief Introduction to our Study on Group Dynamics and Social Psychology “The Mr.Brain Wash Street Art Experiment” Task: Form a small to Moderate sized cohesive Group (What do we want this group to do?) (Perhaps Create Street Art?) (What Psychological Concepts will be employed in this experiment and how?)
We will intentionally dress in “Uniform” style clothing to create an illusion of authority to fit into a model of obedience and to separate us from the other members of the group. This may sound bizarre but we have to wear matching or at least similar outfits for the most powerful effect.. To achieve the effect of normative social influence we will have peers of our subjects talking to us and when and if they eventually approach us, we will announce we are a group.(Side note* In a theoretical model we could take kids from a different town and move them into our district and appear to be the popular kids and the concept of informational social influence would drive them to us.). In this all members, will stand no less than 18in away from each other when possible, to achieve a sense of interpersonal closeness and bonding. We , the researchers, will maintain a distance of 18in to 4ft when possible. As the leaders of the group , the subjects and cohorts will assume less responsibilities of group activities and be more likely to involve themselves in out of character behaviors, subconsciously thinking they have someone to blame if something goes wrong (I will call it “The ringleader effect”) . For this specific experiment of putting together a group of street artists, it would be greatly beneficial to use a perceived reference group to influence group conformity, in this case a good artist (perhaps our acquaintance Mr.************) would be ideal. We will also apply, to those afraid of legal troubles, “The foot in the door technique by reinforcing them that we have been doing street art for a long time, have never been caught, and that the penalties for their actions would be mild even if they did get caught, and then persuading them into a small initiation task such as spraying a small stencil form. This is said to make them feel trapped and set up for later requests. Disobedience must not be tolerated and be voiced as socially awkward to the entire group until conformity is reached. We will make use of deindivduation in that all the other members of the group will start wearing similar clothing or have to wear similar accessories, to accentuate on actual “street missions” they will refer to each other by a code name and be given ranks. They will be sent out in two teams, one of which will be lead by the reference group/group leader. Condition Groupthink will play a role when the strongly cohesive group and its members striving for unanimity in decision making will feel pressured to silence their objections to risky behaviors, will not try to develop an alternative plan, discuss with other members of the group outside of the ‘main’ group, will not reappraise rejected alternatives. These group members will also have a selective bias in processing information , and not make attempts of their own volition to find relevant information pertaining to the decision making process. I will come up for some original inspirations for street art from my Sociology textbook.1
1
Understanding Social Problems- Mooney, Knox, and Schacht's 2nd edition
Copyright pending, Nicholas Woyshner, April 22, 2011.
We will intentionally dress in “Uniform” style clothing to create an illusion of authority to fit into a model of obedience and to separate us from the other members of the group. This may sound bizarre but we have to wear matching or at least similar outfits for the most powerful effect.. To achieve the effect of normative social influence we will have peers of our subjects talking to us and when and if they eventually approach us, we will announce we are a group.(Side note* In a theoretical model we could take kids from a different town and move them into our district and appear to be the popular kids and the concept of informational social influence would drive them to us.). In this all members, will stand no less than 18in away from each other when possible, to achieve a sense of interpersonal closeness and bonding. We , the researchers, will maintain a distance of 18in to 4ft when possible. As the leaders of the group , the subjects and cohorts will assume less responsibilities of group activities and be more likely to involve themselves in out of character behaviors, subconsciously thinking they have someone to blame if something goes wrong (I will call it “The ringleader effect”) . For this specific experiment of putting together a group of street artists, it would be greatly beneficial to use a perceived reference group to influence group conformity, in this case a good artist (perhaps our acquaintance Mr.************) would be ideal. We will also apply, to those afraid of legal troubles, “The foot in the door technique by reinforcing them that we have been doing street art for a long time, have never been caught, and that the penalties for their actions would be mild even if they did get caught, and then persuading them into a small initiation task such as spraying a small stencil form. This is said to make them feel trapped and set up for later requests. Disobedience must not be tolerated and be voiced as socially awkward to the entire group until conformity is reached. We will make use of deindivduation in that all the other members of the group will start wearing similar clothing or have to wear similar accessories, to accentuate on actual “street missions” they will refer to each other by a code name and be given ranks. They will be sent out in two teams, one of which will be lead by the reference group/group leader. Condition Groupthink will play a role when the strongly cohesive group and its members striving for unanimity in decision making will feel pressured to silence their objections to risky behaviors, will not try to develop an alternative plan, discuss with other members of the group outside of the ‘main’ group, will not reappraise rejected alternatives. These group members will also have a selective bias in processing information , and not make attempts of their own volition to find relevant information pertaining to the decision making process. I will come up for some original inspirations for street art from my Sociology textbook.1
1
Understanding Social Problems- Mooney, Knox, and Schacht's 2nd edition
Copyright pending, Nicholas Woyshner, April 22, 2011.
