Groupshift

Groupshift is the tendency for the initial individual opinions or risk preferences held by members of a group to become more extreme, in whatever direction those opinions were already leaning, after the group discusses the issue together, so that a group that initially leaned toward caution becomes more cautious as a group, and a group that initially leaned toward risk becomes more risk-seeking as a group. A 1970 study by the psychologists David Myers and George Bishop found that students who began a discussion with relatively prejudiced racial attitudes became more prejudiced after group discussion, while students who began with relatively unprejudiced attitudes became more accepting, illustrating how discussion amplifies a group's starting position rather than moderating it. Groupshift is discussed alongside groupthink, a related pattern in which a group's desire for unanimity leads it to avoid a realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action.