Read the passage and answer the following questions:
It is generally seen that important decisions are taken by groups and not by individuals alone. For example, a decision had to be taken regarding corruption charges against an employee. Johnson was an employee working as an Assistant Manager in a pharma company. He joined this company in 2020 and has proven his mettle by his performance and commitment. One day he was caught red-handed by a senior official of the company while he was taking bribes from a client for some favor. This news spread like fire in the company. A high level committee consisting of 5 members was set up to look into the matter. There had been precedence when demotion was awarded as a punishment in similar cases. Initially, when the inquiry was set up, every member was of the view of downgrading his current rank. But one member shared his/her view about his termination. Over the discussions, it was found that every member developed an opinion about Johnson's termination from the services. It is a general tendency that when one's view is favoured by others, the person feels like his view is validated by the public. In this matter, the committee finally announced his termination.
Select the correct statement regarding group polarisation:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Groups are more likely to take extreme decisions than individuals alone.
Option (1) Groups are more likely to take extreme decisions than individuals alone. — Correct. This is the finding behind group polarisation: whatever the group’s initial position, it becomes much stronger as a result of discussion, so the group may go from a mild to a very strong decision, as Johnson’s committee did.
Option (2) People put less individual effort. — Incorrect. Putting in less effort in a group is social loafing, which happens when each member’s output is pooled with the others’ and cannot be evaluated separately. It is about effort on a task, not about extreme decisions.
Option (3) People perform better in the presence of the audience. — Incorrect. Better performance in the presence of others is social facilitation: the presence of others raises arousal and can improve the performance of a person who is already good at the task.
Option (4) Making the efforts of each member identifiable minimises the group polarisation. — Incorrect. Making each person’s effort identifiable is a way of reducing social loafing, because a member whose work can be seen cannot hide behind the group. Polarisation comes from like-minded discussion, and identifying individual efforts does nothing to stop it.
NCERT (2025-26): “Group Polarisation … Groups show another tendency referred to as ‘group polarisation’. It has been found that groups are more likely to take extreme decisions than individuals alone. Suppose there is an employee who has been caught taking bribe or engaging in some other unethical act. Her/his colleagues are asked to decide on what punishment s/ he should be given. They may let her/ him go scot-free or decide to terminate her/his services instead of imposing a punishment which may be commensurate with the unethical act s/ he had engaged in. Whatever the initial position in the group, this position becomes much stronger as a result of discussions in the group.…” “Social Loafing … Social facilitation research suggests that presence of others leads to arousal and can motivate individuals to enhance their performance if they are already good at solving something. This enhancement occurs when a person’s efforts are individually evaluated. What would happen if efforts of an individual in a group are pooled so that you look at the performance of the group as a whole? Do you know what often happens? It has been found that individuals work less hard in a group than they do when performing alone. This points to a phenomenon referred to as ‘social loafing’. Social loafing is a reduction in individual effort when working on a collective task, i.e. one in which outputs are pooled with those of other group members.…” “Social Loafing … Social loafing may be reduced by:
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