Deindividuation, Groupthink and Group Polarization

Group dynamics studies groups and group processes. A group is defined as two or more people interacting with one another and having an effect on one another.

Deindividuation is a mental state whereby people lose their individual identities and feel immersed in a group. Deindividuation tends to increase the occurrence of unacceptable behaviour.

I came across this article entitled ‘Girls behaving badly’ in the Straits Times website.

The article reported that young girls in Singapore appear to be becoming wilder and getting into trouble with the law more frequently. These girls get arrested for inflicting injuries on others as well as rioting. Experimentation with sex also occurs much earlier and many join gangs.

According to the authors, it appears that parents are unable to control their children .The internet has led to development of rampant cyber bullying among girls as well as an avenue for advertising for sexual services. It was also reported that many of these girls do not feel guilt over selling their bodies in return for money.

One particular case mentioned in the article mentioned a video on the internet that showed a group of girls abusing a girl. ‘It showed four girls laughing gleefully as they punched, slapped and stripped their 13-year-old victim at an HDB staircase landing. They stopped only when onlookers gathered.’

When reading this article I was quite surprised that the girls would dare commit such a terrible and obscene act in a public place. Even more surprising was that they let someone film the whole thing and post it online.

After reading the textbook chapter on group dynamics, I feel that the girls’ behaviour might be attributed to the state of deindividuation that occurs when a group acts together. When acting as a group, the young girls tend to feel less responsibility for committing the act. They feel much less personal responsibility as they feel that it is the group and not themselves that is at fault.

Another possible explanation for their behaviour might be that even though the girls knew that their behaviour was wrong, groupthink (a way of thinking that leads to poor decisions and a skewed vision of options due to the pressure to agree) might have caused the girls to conform to decisions made by the other group members even though they initially didn’t want to commit the act. They might have been afraid that if they did not conform, they would be kicked out of the group.

Group polarization (tendency for group discussion to strengthen the initial opinions of the group) might also have caused the other group members to agree to commit the act. Some of the members might have disagreed to commit the act, however, after discussing this with the group, the rest of the group presented a convincing argument and the members who initially disagreed to go through with the act conform due to the pressure to conform to the view of the majority. This topic has helped me to understand the mentality of gangs better and has better equipped me with knowledge on how to avoid making the same mistakes in a group situation.

References
Chew, J., Chia, M.L, He, Y. Y., & Ong, D. L. (2008, March 22). Girls behaving badly. The Straits Times. Retrieved March 22, 2008, from http://www.straitstimes.com/Free/Story/STIStory_219266.html.