Editing Group polarization (section)

{{Short description|Tendency of a group to make more extreme decisions than the inclinations of its members}}
{{redirect|Polarization (psychology)|other uses|Polarization (disambiguation)#Social sciences}}
In [[social psychology]], '''group polarization''' refers to the tendency for a group to make decisions that are more extreme than the initial inclination of its members. These more extreme decisions are towards greater risk if individuals' initial tendencies are to be risky and towards greater caution if individuals' initial tendencies are to be cautious.<ref>{{cite book|last=Aronson|first=Elliot|title=Social Psychology|url=https://archive.org/details/Social_Psychology_7th_edition_by_Elliot_Aronson_Timothy_D._Wilson_R_M._Akert|year=2010|publisher=Prentice Hall|location=Upper Saddle River, NJ|pages=[https://archive.org/details/Social_Psychology_7th_edition_by_Elliot_Aronson_Timothy_D._Wilson_R_M._Akert/page/n304 273]}}</ref> The phenomenon also holds that a group's [[attitude (psychology)|attitude]] toward a situation may change in the sense that the individuals' initial attitudes have strengthened and intensified after group discussion, a phenomenon known as '''attitude polarization'''.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Myers|first=D.G.|author2=H. Lamm|title=The polarizing effect of group discussion|journal=American Scientist|year=1975|volume=63|pages=297–303|pmid=1147368|issue=3|bibcode = 1975AmSci..63..297M }}</ref>