Group Dynamics

If you’re like me, you’ve probably wondered why people sometimes struggle with decisions as individuals or in groups. Group dynamics are very interesting to me and individual behavior that seems to be fueled by fear or embracing life/opportunity is equally intriguing. Regrettably, you will see in certain groups that people will move in the direction of fear-based living. That being said, this is a short list of behavior terms that psychologists/scientists use to describe what goes on with people when making decisions. It’s part of the research I have been doing. When you’re having a bad day because someone did something that made no sense or “the group” is being strange, perhaps one of these terms will give you some short term comfort. Humans seem to do the same things over and over again – they just attach different names to it.

Adjustment Heuristic – When people tend to rely on specific information or a value and can focus so heavily on this that they ignore other valuable information. For instance, an individual may be looking at buying an enterprise application and focus so heavily on its initial price that they ignore its performance or return on investment.

Availability Heuristic – People predict the likeliness of an event based on how easily an example comes to mind instead of actual statistical probability. For instance, if a friend of mine buys a specific car and I hear his harrowing story about how the gas line broke, I ignore all other data and his story becomes my representative of the whole rather than a single instance. In short, the buyer ignores data that might point out this particular car as being the safest on the road from a statistical standpoint.

Bounded Awareness – When people fail to...

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...them unarmed. Whether they know it or not, they are constantly battling some aspects of these issues. Marketing must remain an active participant in helping the salespeople assist the buyer in navigating their way to a superior decision.

The provider needs to understand these influences on decision-making by the buyer. Some psychological and social influences can short circuit the best of efforts by providers to help buyers. By anticipating them, the provider can create the proper response in order to keep a buyer on track. Since there seems to be too much information in the world, humans have come up with shortcuts to speed up decision-making. The provider’s job is to help the buyer use their critical thinking abilities when they are tempted to act too quickly. The provider also has to address the buyer’s emotional side to soothe their trust concerns.