Menu
Article: Why Some People Don’t Speak Up in Small Groups
By Dr. Victor Schueller | Relationships health family business friends community culture work school life blogs blogging
By Dr. Victor Schueller | Relationships health family business friends community culture work school life blogs blogging
This article asks, ” Have you ever clammed up at a party or found yourself tongue-tied at a meeting for fear of saying something stupid…?” If you are answering yes, you’re not alone. Check out this article for clues as to why:
Virginia Tech Carilion Research Explains Why Some People Don’t Speak Up in Small Groups – WSJ.com.
Session expired
Please log in again. The login page will open in a new tab. After logging in you can close it and return to this page.
I see this as a variation/ extension of Asch’s Human Group Conformity Experiment.
As well as conforming to wrong answers (as in the Asch’s experiment) people undoubtedly have a tendency to conform to their (perceived) role within a group (smarter/ dumber etc). In a group situation cues such as age, gender, dress, status and appearance may determine everyone’s place before anyone has even said anything etc.
And I’d say it works both ways too, compelling stupid people to speak up and act with confidence, because that’s what is expected of them based on their age, gender, dress, status, appearance etc.
This explains a lot about the ‘mad’ world (I’m being polite) that we see all around us.
Very interesting…I can see what you mean in regard to people acting/ dressing to conform to a group…That makes perfect sense. I hadn’t heard about this experiment, so I am glad you brought it to my attention. Thanks for the feedback!