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Dynamic social impact in electronic juries: The emergence of subgroup clustering through small group communication

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Date Issued:
1995
Summary:
Testing a new theory of dynamic social influence, 39 mock juries in two studies deliberated student honor court cases by electronic mail. After reading about each case, participants sent and received messages to a spatially coherent or random subset of jurors on each of five sessions. Individuals appeared to take their role of juror seriously and were responsive to each others' arguments; one-third changed their verdicts after receiving two out of two opposing messages and just over half changed in the face of four of four opposing messages. Polarization toward the majority verdict was common in both studies; however, consistent with a key prediction of dynamic social impact theory, unanimity was suppressed among the spatial compared to random juries by the emergence of spatially distinct subgroups. Clustering and polarization were prevalent even among juries passing as few as two messages per juror each round, providing strong evidence that DSIT applies even to important issues.
Title: Dynamic social impact in electronic juries: The emergence of subgroup clustering through small group communication.
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Name(s): Jackson, Craig Campbell
Florida Atlantic University, Degree grantor
Latane, Bibb, Thesis advisor
Charles E. Schmidt College of Science
Department of Psychology
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Issuance: monographic
Date Issued: 1995
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, FL
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 65 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: Testing a new theory of dynamic social influence, 39 mock juries in two studies deliberated student honor court cases by electronic mail. After reading about each case, participants sent and received messages to a spatially coherent or random subset of jurors on each of five sessions. Individuals appeared to take their role of juror seriously and were responsive to each others' arguments; one-third changed their verdicts after receiving two out of two opposing messages and just over half changed in the face of four of four opposing messages. Polarization toward the majority verdict was common in both studies; however, consistent with a key prediction of dynamic social impact theory, unanimity was suppressed among the spatial compared to random juries by the emergence of spatially distinct subgroups. Clustering and polarization were prevalent even among juries passing as few as two messages per juror each round, providing strong evidence that DSIT applies even to important issues.
Identifier: 15230 (digitool), FADT15230 (IID), fau:12002 (fedora)
Degree granted: Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1995.
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Charles E. Schmidt College of Science
Subject(s): Social psychology
Small groups
Communication in small groups
Group decision making
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/15230
Sublocation: Digital Library
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.