Behind Situational Bias
Let's get right into it.
Situational Bias. What is it? It the tendency to attribute a behavior, seen often in an external event, and less to a person's inter characteristics. All over the world, this concept has been studied to determine how it influences a person's actions in a given situation. Through several articles and reports, I have found that situational bias is highly seen with a group of people. This study has shown various examples in the change of human behavior. For instance, if your teacher asks you or one of your classmates to answer a question, and no one raises their hand, very few will feel obligated to raise their hand. Due to the fact that no one raises their hand, a group demonstrating the same reaction to a situation highly influences the behavior of others. Does this have to do with a person's incapability of specific character traits, or the environment one is in that influences their decisions?
I think that your example about hand raising is mostly due to the classroom environment. As well as being situational bias, this is a strong example of normative influence. Because everyone else is not raising their hands, most people are afraid of speaking out and doing something "abnormal." On the other hand, some people are just shy or prefer to keep to themselves - it's kind of a mixture of both.
ReplyDeleteI think it is the environment rather than personal characteristics that are the cause for this behavior. Because if that person was alone in the classroom situation, they would not only feel obligated to respond but would want to more. In this specific situation, everyone feels the pressure to raise their hand and say something because an authority figure is telling them to do so, but they assume someone else will do it because only one person has to. They think that because there are other options of who will do it, then they shouldn't have to. In this specific situation, some people could just be shy, but in most other situations this type of behavior is just because people want to go along with what everyone else is doing as well.
ReplyDeleteI believe the environment plays a bigger role in this. I have experienced this when I have tried to get help from a teacher. This one time in math a teacher was helping me, and the teacher got the wrong answer, immediately I corrected the teacher. However when it was the entire class I once again noticed the teacher wrote an incorrect answer, but because no one else seemed to notice/care I did not correct the teacher.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Natalie and Jose that the environment is the reason that people did not raise their hand in your example. I see this exemplified in many other examples as well. For example, from personal experience I know that I can act differently according to which people I am with. I act differently when I'm with different groups of friends, and also when I'm with my family rather than my classmates. I also act differently according to which class I'm in because there are some classmates and teachers that I feel more comfortable with than others. Therefore, I definitely think that the environment plays a bigger role in a person's actions.
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