It is proved that if a compact manifold admits a smooth action by a compact, connected, non-abelian Lie group, then it admits a metric of positive scalar curvature. This result is used to prove that if <sup> <i>n</i> </sup> is an exotic<i>n</i>-sphere which does not bound a spin manifold, then the only possible compact connected transformation groups of <sup> <i>n</i> </sup> are tori of dimension [(<i>n</i>+1)/2].