When voluntary accommodation gives strength to act: Consequences of feeling of oneness with a group
Research project objectives
We proposed also three more specific goals related to exploration of relationships between distinct facets of group experience (i.e. feeling one with group members), and: 2) psychological variables related to the perceived self-efficacy and agency; 3) perceived self-concept clarity and self-certainty; 4) perception of outgroups as more prone to cognitive biases (i.e. more irrational).
Research methodology
The participants’ will be recruited from different groups of various occupations, levels of education, age and group affiliations. For the data analysis, programs such as SPSS, Statistica, and AMOS will be used. Specific methods of data analysis, including correlation and regression analyses, analyses of variance (ANOVA and MANOVA), factor analysis, and mediation analysis based on a bootstrapping procedure, will be adjusted to specific research goals. In total 17 studies will be conducted with at least 3000 participants, and we would like to test our predictions in correlational, experimental and longitudinal studies. In years 2015- 2016 in cross-cultural setting two big studies will take place (in 7 countries: Poland, USA, India, Sweden, Spain, Turkey, New Zealand). Study 1 will be correlational one, and study 2 experimental. Studies 3-7 will be conducted among participants of music festivals, to analyze proposed psychological mechanisms during actual mass gatherings. In 2016 we will also conduct correlational studies 8-12, among people strongly engage in their social groups (i.e. football fans, participants in mass gatherings of bicycle users, activists engaged in political demonstrations, active employees in various companies, volunteers working for charity foundations and activists engage in NGO’s organizations. In 2017 we will conduct experimental studies 13-17, which allow us to analyze proposed relationships w more controlled, experimental settings.
Research project impact
Project allows for integration of the results form experimental studies with analyses of attitudes and behaviors of actual crowds’ participants. This will extend generalisation of the proposed psychological mechanisms and will concerns not only over-studied psychology graduate. Conducted researches allow also for exploration of the relationship between feeling of oneness with group and voluntary accommodation to the group and its norms, with perceived agency and self-efficacy. This exploration will be us full in testing if “first line of defense” in social situations, as voluntary accommodation could be called, is helping people to develop sense of individuals agency (despite accommodation being a communal, relational experience). On a general level of reasoning, our project will contribute to understanding behaviors of people in mass gatherings, and to better description of functions of strong group adherence.
Principal Investigator: Tomasz Besta
Project supported by Polish National Science Centre, SONATA BIS call.
You can check the outputs of the project here on the National Science Centre website.