Group Discussion Effects on Conflict Behavior and Self-Justification

Abstract

Although most social conflicts involve opposing groups of people, experimental research on conflict behavior has almost exclusively utilized individual participants. The present research compared the conflict behavior of individuals and groups using an expanded prisoner's dilemma matrix cast in the language of an economic (gas war) simulation. There was no difference in the conflict behavior of individual and group players, both being highly noncooperative. But on post-experimental scales assessing subjects' evaluations of their own and opponent's behavior, individuals tended to justify their own behavior and groups were even more inclined toward self-justification. This result confirms the group polarization hypothesis and supports the contention of Janis (1972) that in situations of intergroup conflict, intragroup communication is likely to strengthen the group's perception of the inherent morality of its actions.