Aman Pandya
11481
Mentor: Prof Amitabha Mukerjee
Effect of Fear of Social Isolation
Motivation:
As social animals, it is very important for human beings to seek acceptance among his or her peers. This act of matching attitudes, beliefs and behaviour to group norms is called conformity (as defined on Wikipedia). This phenomenon depends on various factors like the desire to seek admittance into the group, social status and group size. Solomon Asch pioneered experiments on social conformity in 1950s where he conclusively determined that around 75% of subjects gave into social pressure and gave an obviously wrong answer at least once during the span of experiment. Asch’s work has led to several experiments in a variety of fields like political science and mass communication to the present date.
Literature:
The spiral of silence theory was propounded by German political scientist Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann. This theory was in repose to the results of Asch’s experiments. This theory describes the process by which one opinion becomes dominant as those who perceive their opinion in minority do not speak up because they fear isolation from the society (again, from Wikipedia).
Hypotheses:
1. The more a person fears negative evaluation, the less discrepancy there will be between the person’s opinion and the perceived dominant opinion.
2. The more a person fears negative evaluation, the less likely he or she will be to discuss a minority opinion.
Methodology:
Subjects will be asked to fill out a form comprising of the following details on a scale of 1 to 5 (Likert scale)-
Individual opinion: Should the option of euthanasia be legally provided?
Perception of the predominant opinion: Thinking about the people you normally socialize with, what would be their opinion on the subject?
Willingness to express individual opinion: If you were at a social gathering and people there were discussing the mentioned issue, how likely would you be to enter the conversation if views are different from your own?
Fear of social isolation: Following items would also be asked to be placed on Likert scale-
1. I worry about seeming foolish to others.
2. I worry about what people think of me even when I know it doesn’t make any difference.
3. I become tense and jittery if I know someone is sizing me up.
4. Other people’s opinion of me does not bother me. (Reverse coded)
5. When I am talking to someone, I worry about what they may be thinking of me.
6. I often worry that people who are important to me won’t think very much of me.
From the weighted value of the responses recorded, we provide a mathematical framework that conclusively supports our hypotheses.
References: