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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Asymmetrical Social Influence In Freely Interacting Groups Discussing The Death Penalty: A Shared Representations Interpretation, Christine M. Smith, Amanda Dykema-Engblade, Angela Walker, Tammi S. Niven, Thomas Mcgough
Asymmetrical Social Influence In Freely Interacting Groups Discussing The Death Penalty: A Shared Representations Interpretation, Christine M. Smith, Amanda Dykema-Engblade, Angela Walker, Tammi S. Niven, Thomas Mcgough
Peer Reviewed Articles
Past research has shown that minorities arguing in favor of the majority opinion within a given population (i.e. the ‘Zeitgeist’) are more powerful sources of social influence than minorities arguing against the normative population opinion (i.e. Clark & Maass, 1988a and b; Paicheler, 1977). We studied the Zeitgeist effect within the context of freely interacting groups discussing the death penalty. In direct contrast to past research, minorities arguing against the death penalty Zeitgeist were more powerful sources of social influence than those arguing in favor of it. Analyses of conversation content and thought-listing data suggest that minorities arguing against the …
Investment Decisions By Individuals And Groups In 'Sunk Cost' Situations: The Potential Impact Of Shared Representations, Christine M. Smith, R. S. Tindale, Linda Steiner
Investment Decisions By Individuals And Groups In 'Sunk Cost' Situations: The Potential Impact Of Shared Representations, Christine M. Smith, R. S. Tindale, Linda Steiner
Peer Reviewed Articles
Past research has shown that individuals prefer to continue investing resources into a failing endeavor once a considerable investment has been made, even when abandoning the project would be more rational economically. This phenomenon has been labeled the sunk cost effect (Arkes & Blumer, 1985). Since investment decisions are often made by groups, we compared individual and group propensities for falling prey to the sunk cost effect. we also varied whether or not individuals and groups needed to justify their investment decision to a superior. Both individuals and groups showed the sunk cost effect. Group process analyses showed that error-prone …