Info. Pressure & Social Influence

Information Pressures & Social Influences

Negatives implications:

• Deferring all of the answers to a few people, instead of hearing the thoughts of the entire group can be a big mistake
• People influence each other and even though the answer might not be the correct one, others will not speak-up against it due to information and social pressures
• Leads people to not say what they believe is right and to not share their knowledge with the group
• Cascade effects
• Group polarization

Positives implications: 

• Some people should not express their opinions because what they say is untrue
• They allow people with bad ideas to be silenced and therefore allowing those who know better to do all of the talking
• It can help lead people in the right direction by avoiding "bad signals" (Sunstein, 216)

Even with all of these various positive and negative implications that are tied to social influences, as well as information influences, the members of the group will be the determining factor of how the group 'unit' works or fails. Depending on the space they are using to accomplish their goal, the goal itself, and those involved, many different and unpredictable results can take place.