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WHY IT MAY BE BETTER NOT TO BE IN A GROUP

The preps’ treatment of the twins may be rooted in a phenomenon called group polarization, a tendency for groups to form judgments that are more extreme than individuals’ personal opinions. Experts have theorized that polarization occurs for three reasons: individual members (1) are exposed to the group’s rationale during discussions, (2) may feel pressure to conform to the group’s opinion, and (3) may take even more extreme positions than the group average in an attempt to get the rest of the group to like them better. Irene was meaner to the twins than the rest of the preps because she probably was desperate for the preps’ approval.

Group polarization occurs among adults as well. For example, juries whose individual members sway toward guilt as a group are more likely to recommend a harsher sentence than would each member alone. Even federal judges can succumb to group polarization. A study of civil liberties decisions in U.S. district courts in the 1960s revealed that in more than 1,500 cases in which a person claimed a violation of constitutional rights, the single judge sided with the plaintiff only 30 percent of the time. In cases in which three-judge panels presided, however, the percentage jumped to 65 percent.

In an experiment on group polarization in France, researchers asked individual high school students about their feelings toward the United States and toward General Charles de Gaulle. Then the students participated in a group discussion on those topics. The researchers again surveyed the students individually. After the discussion, they felt more positive toward de Gaulle and more negative toward the U.S. than before the discussion. Other studies have found that group polarization can make students feel more negatively about their school, push students’ evaluations of faculty to either extreme, and lead already prejudiced high school students to adopt even more racist attitudes.

Polarization is just one of many ways group membership can change an individual. Perhaps the most striking effect of group membership is that it can modify individuals’ perceptions of themselves. Unable to separate their personal introspection from the ways they believe other people perceive them, teenagers may have what psychologists call an “imaginary audience,” meaning they believe that other people are just as attuned to their appearance and behavior as they are (cue any pimple cream commercial). These perceptions can affect various aspects of their lives. For example, psychologists found that when Asian girls were subtly reminded about their Asian identity, they performed better on math tests. When they were subtly reminded about their gender, however, they performed worse.

Students can come to see themselves as they believe their groupmates see them. It’s one thing for parents and teachers to influence children’s self-views, but when a child sees herself through the prism of her peer group, the resulting self-image can be distorted. She might suddenly believe that she’s too heavy (Danielle and Whitney), too serious (Noah), too foreign (Joy), or too eccentric (Eli). It may be no coincidence that when Blue’s friends told him that they couldn’t take him seriously, he stopped taking himself seriously as well; his descent into hopelessness could not be blamed solely on his relationship with his mother. Eli didn’t feel badly about not going to parties until Raj called him strange for not wanting to. Students usually don’t refer to themselves as nerds until someone else accuses them of being one.

Many students think that to be accepted, they have to fulfill the role their group has imposed on them. A California sophomore accustomed to being excluded was pleased when upperclassmen on her Model UN team took her under their wing. But their fellowship came with a price. “My older friends called me the ‘happy freshman’ and I felt obligated to keep sad feelings to myself,” she said.