Day 150 MCAT Practice Question

Individuals often behave much differently in large crowds–or even in

small groups–than they would if they were alone. For this reason, there are a variety

of sociological phenomena that are used to describe group-related behavior,

including the four phenomena listed above.

Of the options listed, the phenomenon that is least likely to be involved in this

scenario is group polarization. Group polarization occurs when a group is faced

with a task to complete, a discussion to hold, or a decision to make, and individuals

in that group adopt opinions that are much more radical or extreme than they

would otherwise hold if they were alone. For example, a group of teachers might

meet to discuss what kinds of punishments are appropriate in school, and due to

the group nature of the conversation, some of them who previously would have

only suggested a few minutes of silent detention will begin to advocate for hours

of manual labor in the hot sun. Although it is possible that group polarization

might occur in this situation if the crowd began to discuss what to do about the

unresponsive man, for example, or decided to initiate CPR and work together as

a group to resuscitate him, there is no evidence from the vignette that group

polarization has specifically occurred, while there are clear indications that

deindividuation, social loafing, and the bystander effect are occurring. For this

reason, Answer C is correct.