From Hans Lobstein
How does being part of a group affect individual behaviour (l4 April, p 42)? Some 30 years ago I ran a group workshop for the Open University summer school at York.
Eighty students were divided into four groups. I asked each group to find an identity for themselves, to give themselves a name. After that I asked them to discuss ways and means to relate to other groups and how they felt about that.
I recorded their conversations and discussions, which I later played back to them. They were amazed to hear themselves, their hostility to the other groups, their difficulties in making any kind of peaceful contacts, and the arguments that followed between the ones that wanted to make contact and others that vehemently did not.
One group went so far as to kidnap someone from another group, much to their delight and entertainment. One young woman, a pacifist by conviction, persuaded her group to relate by peaceful means. The group’s energy visibly dropped: they had no idea how to deal with that.
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Brighton, UK
