“I wouldn’t fall for that!” Exploring social influence and group decision making

This single-class activity augments the popular desert island activity to include a secret insider who aims to influence their group covertly. The motivation for this augmented activity is twofold: (1) to highlight and dispel notions of invulnerability to groupthink and (2) to provide an opportunity to engage in small-group decision making. To facilitate these goals, this paper presents an experiential learning activity that makes tangible several theoretical constructs of persuasion and decision making in small groups. Examining how people within groups influence one another is vital to understanding how decisions are made. Courses: This single-class activity is grounded in the theoretical orientation of social influence within small groups and is therefore suitable in persuasion, small-group communication, and any other course that discusses group decision making, group conformity, groupthink, and/or compliance gaining. Objectives: Working in small groups to solve a problem, students will apply, evaluate, and comprehend concepts of social influence, group decision making, and groupthink. In completing this activity and a subsequent debriefing, students will demonstrate their learning by debating and justifying their individual choices, formulating their group decision, and discussing and identifying the impact of groupthink on decision making within small groups.