Social facilitation and imitation in group risk-taking

Abstract

The role of social facilitation and imitation in group risk-taking was explored in two experiments. The first experiment tried to determine if individual risk preferences can be changed by the mere presence of others and if these changes can account for shifts toward risk. Subjects predicted which of two differentially probable stimulus events would occur in a series of 360 trials. Expected value of the choices was held constant by varying the payoff inversely with the frequency of the two events. After 180 trials alone, subjects were put into one of four conditions, Control, Audience, Coaction, and Group. In the two social facilitation conditions, Audience and Coaction, there was an enhancement of dominant responses (i.e., conservative choices). But the Group condition showed a change in the risky direction, indicating that social facilitation processes cannot account for risky shifts. Experiment II replicated the social facilitation effects found in Experiment I, but failed to find pronounced tendencies of individuals to make their choices consistent with those of others. These weak imitation effects were found for a situation in which only knowledge of others' choices was accessible to the subject and in a situation in which both this knowledge was accessible and others were actually present. The implications of these findings for theories of risky shift were discussed.