Group Polarization: The Jury

The Jury
Social psychologists define group polarization as the tendency for a group to make more extreme decisions than any of its members’ initial inclination (Yardi & Boyd, 2010). Hence, group polarization is significant as it forms the basis of explaining group behavior when people are faced with real-life situations. On the other hand, groupthink is the psychological phenomenon that transpires in a group of people whereby their desire for conformity or harmony leads to irrational decisions (Baron, 2010). Baron (2010) also explains that social influence entails the impact of others on one’s behavior, opinion or emotions. In the case of a local politician charged with bribery attempts, group polarization, group think and social influences

The most important thing the attorney needs to know about group dynamics is that members tend to compare their thoughts with those of the rest of the group and evaluating what the group prefers. Equally importantly, it is imperative to note that group polarization, groupthink and social influence occur within legislatures and on juries and are key factors as to why many groups take on extreme directions (Forsyth, 2010). Therefore, as the jury exchanges opinions amongst themselves, their individual partialities are checked and their perspectives will most likely widen, which will result in them seeing things from the perspective of other as their own views are limited. In the absence of group polarization, groupthink and social influence, each member may share their knowledge and make the whole the sum of the individual members. However, polarization makes them more reluctant to share information they perceive may contradict the budding group consensus. The outcome will inadvertently be a biased discussion whereby the group does not have the opportunity to take into consideration all the facts since individual members are not raising them (Schafer & Crichlow, 2010). The ultimate result will be that every item contributed by the members only serves to reinforce the move towards group consensus as opposed to relevant information that will fuel constructive