Do we all have a reference group with which we share our free time, work?In fact, it is essential for us to thrive as people, the power of the group gives us security, strength and helps us to feel comfortable with ourselves. How many times have we not been sure to do anything, but we have ended up succumbing to inertia and comforting ourselves by repeating that others have acted in the same way?
The group guides our thoughts and behaviors. In secondary socialization, it is one of the most important elements in learning social norms. The group helps us face adversity, but it is also the shield with which we protect ourselves from the evil we do. The problem comes here, when we justify, our actions because ‘others too’.
The power of the group gives us security, but it also conditions us
Since we are born we are part of a community: society, we are members of a community that includes many people, however, as we grow, we do not identify society as our group, but we consider ourselves another individual. That’s why we spend much of our lives looking for a reference, someone we feel comfortable with.
In our personal and moral development, the group shapes our identity and in adolescence becomes very important, parents are no longer our guides and are relegated to the background, we look for other sources of knowledge and it will be in the group of so we will eventually consolidate our personality.
Linked to the above, individual identity becomes a group identity, we do not see ourselves as a unique subject with self-awareness, but as an integral part of several groups, that is, we lose some of our self-awareness. and sometimes we get carried away by what others do, the fruit of the power of the group.
This is a disadvantage in itself, as we delegate the criterion and responsibility of our actions to others, but this problem multiplies when acts are antisocial and do not conform to Community standards.
Dedividuization appears as a loss of self-awareness in which the individual escapes his identity as his own subject, so responsibility is not related to the actions we perform as individuals, but as members of the collective to which we belong.
To understand: we share responsibility among all members. ” I did wrong, but the others did what I did. “Thus, the action is devalued and considered less offensive, since the consequences it generated were not just for us.
This phenomenon increases when, in addition to going in groups, we are covered, physical anonymity hinders our recognition, remaining in a state of invisibility to the world, so responsibility is also diluted and it is more difficult to feel guilty for what we have. After all, no one knows who we are.
The power of the situation is the first principle to explain the change in behavior, despite the thoughts of the individual, the context in which we find ourselves will guide the way we behave.
A very representative example is the experiment conducted by Asch, in this document a group of people was exposed to a test in which they had to respond to what they considered right as a solution to a problem. The members were “combined” and should have given a clearly false answer to the eyes of others. A high percentage of people who participated in the survey and were not?indicated the wrong answer? If they didn’t know the answer from the others, they would have chosen another one.
This shows that we care what the rest of us think of us and adapt our behavior to the imbalance of the group, we act on what we believe the rest of our colleagues expect from us, many interviewees were convinced that the answer they gave was not correct, but they preferred to make mistakes and be accepted?to get it right.
The group is part of us, it changes us and we influence it: we share interests, we improve our ability to relate, etc. However, the pressure of the group is diluted by the perception of evil that we are doing. The philosophy that comes from it is simple: “if you fall, everyone falls. “