In social psychology studies, group polarization refers to a phenomenon where the opinions and decisions of individuals in a group setting make decisions that are more extreme than their initial privately held beliefs.
In psychology, there are three principal theories of how group polarization occurs with all of them having the same cause much. Any particular group that tries to make a decision are all likely to have an initial preference towards a particular direction. Individuals who initially don’t agree with that particular decision are more likely to change their minds in order to be in agreement with the majority. The processes involved in group polarization are
a. Comparison: in this setting, people are more likely to change their minds in order to conform with the group’s norms especially if the norms are socially desirable.
b. Persuasion: in this setting, people tend to change their minds because of rational arguments that have been presented by others.
c. Differentiation: this is a variation on comparison where individuals change their minds in order to fit in with the decision made by the group that they are in.
Shift to extreme
Many studies around the world have shown the anomaly of group polarization in operation. In a more practical setting, deliberations and debates tend to shift individuals of a given group towards a more extreme preference in the direction as indicated by their personal judgments and pre-deliberations. For instance, after a group debate, individuals who are opposed to the issue of minimum wage are more likely, after discussing with each other, to still be more opposed. Another example is of individuals who tend to support the issue of gun control, are more likely after debating, to support the control of use of guns with much enthusiasm or a group of individuals who believe that the effects of global warming are impulsive, are more likely, after deliberating, to insist or present severe measures to put global warming in check.
Typically, group polarization or the move towards the extreme has many implications for religion, the government, commerce as well as the justice system. Group polarization helps explain radicalization, cultural shifts, extremism and the behaviors posed by religious organizations and political parties. In short, group polarization is as a consequence of group deliberation.
There are two principal mechanisms that underlie group polarization. One principal mechanism points out to social influence on behavior while the second one emphasizes on minimal argument pools and the directions that they lead group members. An understanding of the said mechanisms provides an in depth insight on the political and legal issues while at the same time they give very little or no confidence at all that group thinking makes things better than worse. While in fact, some serious questions have been raised about the issue of group thinking and its effects on the country’s political system. Group thinking has shown to push a group of people towards more extreme directions than its original tendency. It has also shown to fatally affect the process of decision-making and cause people to make wrong decisions within a group setting.
Today, the phenomenon of group polarization is very evident the political system of America. As the country becomes more extreme in its beliefs, democrats and republicans find it almost impossible to cooperate and cope with each other. Each party seems to exercise power to benefit their groups forgetting the people they were elected to represent and serve. Each party in the system comes up with an opinion and for one party to win then the other party has to lose. Group polarization and group thinking have caused a big gap and distrust of the key players in the country’s political system.
