The influence of social valence on predicting group members' behaviors: The role of group norms and individual preferences
YIN Jun1 SUN Miao-yan1,2 SUN Hong-li1 AI Dan-feng1 LIN Jing1 GUO Xiu-yan3
1.Department of Psychology, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China; 2.School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China; 3. Fuda Institute On Ageing, Shanghai 200433, China
Abstract:Individuals are predicted to share behaviors and attributes with associated group members, even without knowledge of these particular members. However, behaviors can have different valences (i.e., positive and negative), and the current study explored whether and how predicting group-consistent behaviors is influenced by the valences of behavior. When group members performed negative behaviors (i.e., hindering), a new individual associated with this group was predicted to be less likely to follow them than when group members performed positive behaviors (i.e., helping). Furthermore, the perceived group norms under which all group members approved of to-be-predicted behaviors, instead of the perceived individual preferences in which the predicted individual preferred to implement to-be-predicted behaviors, statistically mediated this influential relation (Experiment 1). Importantly, the influences of behavior valence in predicting group-consistent behaviors were more pronounced when individuals formed a loose group than when they formed an entitative group, and such influence was still mediated by the perceived group norm; moreover, as group entitativity loosened, the group norm was perceived as being weakened, which thereby decreased the likelihood of predicting group-consistent negative behaviors (Experiment 2). Hence, predicting behaviors based on group membership is largely driven by perceived group norms and is accordingly valence dependent. This implies that the extent to which people hold group norms varies with valenced group-consistent behaviors, at least for helping and hindering behaviors, and people flexibly utilize group-related situations to predict behaviors.
尹军,孙淼燕,孙鸿莉,艾丹枫,林静,郭秀艳. 社会效价对预测群体成员行为的影响:群体规范和个人偏好在其中的作用[J]. 应用心理学, 2023, 29(6): 522-.
YIN Jun,SUN Miao-yan,SUN Hong-li,AI Dan-feng,LIN Jing,GUO Xiu-yan. The influence of social valence on predicting group members' behaviors: The role of group norms and individual preferences. 应用心理学, 2023, 29(6): 522-.