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Similarities And Differences Of Social Systems

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Tony
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Similarities of Social Systems Most of the social systems in our lives are seemingly independent to each other. However, many of them function similarly since their functioning all has strong relation to human behaviors and human mind. In other words, the existence of human beings contributes to the similarity of those social systems. Traffic and small groups are two good examples for this idea. In “Committees, Juries, and Teams: The Columbia Disaster and How Small Groups Can be Made to Work”, James Surowiecki acknowledges that sometimes collective knowledge can fail and suggests that groups are correct only under specific circumstances. His goal is to understand how to foster those circumstances. In “Shut Up, I Can’t…show more content…
Even though the identity of group leader has no correlation with high ability but talkativeness, “people who imagine themselves as leaders will often overestimate their own knowledge and project an air of confidence and expertise that is unjustified” (Surowiecki 480). Most of time, a small group functions undoubtedly with a leadership structure which gives the leader the priority to talk and the authority to conclude. That means the leader usually dominates a small group. The leader’s possessing of leading role often polarizes the leader’s mind, creating the inflation of self-confidence, unless leader is experienced enough to adapt the identity moderately. Thus, leaders may have lots of decision bias. Someone may say that group members can probably be the antidotes to the polarization of leader’s mind. Surely, sometimes it is true not only in small groups but also in traffic since “the passenger has a more neutral view” (Vanderbilt 490). “More neutral view” implies that drivers, like group leaders, have more extreme view. In other words, a driver often considers only his or her own conditions rather than other drivers’, and convince himself or herself it is reasonable for him or her to do something offending when regarding others’ offending behavior as improper driving. For example, a driver who jumps a queue at an exit ramp for an urgent meeting would consider his or her behavior reasonable while other drivers may see the behavior as
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