文章基本信息

标题：Evidence for a two-step model of social group influence
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作者：Emiel Cracco ; Ulysses Bernardet ; Robbe Sevenhant 等
期刊名称：iScience
印刷版ISSN：2589-0042
出版年度：2022
卷号：25
期号：9
页码：1-13
DOI：10.1016/j.isci.2022.104891
语种：English
出版社：Elsevier
摘要：SummarySocial group influence plays an important role in societally relevant phenomena such as rioting and mass panic. One way through which groups influence individuals is by directing their gaze. Evidence that gaze following increases with group size has typically been explained in terms of strategic processes. Here, we tested the role of reflexive processes. In an ecologically valid virtual reality task, we found that participants were more likely to follow the group’s gaze when more people looked, even though they knew the group provided no relevant information. Interestingly, participants also sometimes changed their mind after starting to follow the gaze of the group, indicating that automatic imitation can be overruled by strategic processes. This suggests that social group influence is best explained by a two-step model in which bottom-up imitative processes first elicit a reflexive tendency to imitate, before top-down strategic processes determine whether to execute or inhibit this reflex.Graphical abstractDisplay OmittedHighlights•Groups influence human behavior in two stages•First, groups elicit a reflexive tendency to imitate•Second, strategic processes decide to execute or inhibit this reflex•Social group conformity may be more automatic than previously thoughtBiological sciences.