Risky Shift

Risky shift is a phenomenon that occurs when people get into large groups and take part in behaviors and acts that the individual would not do alone. Some examples of this behavior are flash mobs, riots, drinking, doing hard drugs, and more.

In the class, I felt that Tyler Lobb described how groupthink is associated to risky shift the best. The post goes:
"Groupthink can be explained as a collective conscious opinion toward a specific subject or idea. Coworkers can get a lot of positive and productive work done with a collective conscious. Groupthink  has the possibility to get a lot of work done. However, Groupthink also has the possiblility to become incredibly hateful and in consequence harmful. Many times people can get entirely false opinions about a racial or ethinic group,about a sports team, or even something as simple as the living enviroment around the University of Idaho. There three characteristics that the book explains sociologist tend to see, and that is the illusion of invulnerability, false negative impressions of people antagonists, and discouragement of dissenting opinion. An example that i i will give that i brought up earlier is the living conditions at the University of Idaho. Fraternities are dense enviroments of groupthink. Many times I hear about serious  house rivalries, that involve hateful and demeaning remarks. The reason that groupthink can have a risky shift is because they get the feeling of invulnerability, and sometimes get passionate about something and in turn make risky decisions. There is power in numbers especially when the group feels that they are invincible (Lobb)."


 Here are links to two different scholarly articles on risky shift.

1) "A classification of hypotheses concerning the ‘risky-shift’ phenomenon was suggested, which was based on three broad approaches. In order to determine which of the three main explanations of the phenomenon is most likely, an experiment was designed to counteract the effects of individual persuasion within the group situation (Ellis)."

It is very interesting to see that risky behavior can be picked up by just listening and not actively being involved in the group.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.2044-8260.1969.tb00624.x/abstract

2) "The extremity-influence explanation of risky and cautious shifts is examined in two ways. First, mathematical models based on the assumption that extreme initial responders have more influence than moderates are derived from congruity theory (Myers)."

This one shows how one person can cause the risky shift with extreme behaviors.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.2044-8260.1972.tb00790.x/abstract

This is a video that demonstrates Risky Shift behavior and the group dynamic behind it. The girl in the video would not have ever struck up a conversation with the boy in the grocery store had she been alone.

-This website also gives useful information on risky shift and helps define what it actually means.
http://www.pm4girls.elizabeth-harrin.com/2012/06/group-think-and-risky-shift/

-The website below basically summarizes everything that has been discussed.
http://mikeclayton.wordpress.com/2010/08/19/groupthink-abilene-and-risky-shift/

This is a news clip about "flash mobs." Typically a flash mob is happy and there is singing and dancing, but recently they are being used to spark all out violent riots.