Differences in accuracy of public and private judgments.

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to compare accuracy of judgmental behaviour when Ss responded before an audience of attentive but non‐communicating peers, which was regarded as a condition of incidental group pressure, and when they responded alone. In a sample of twenty‐five college students a highly significant increase in accuracy of response was found for both verbal and drawn estimates of the length of a line when there was incidental group pressure. It was suggested that incidental group pressure functions as a preliminary stage of communication.