Social Psychology

1. Social Psychology Myers Chapter 16

2. Social Psychology • How we think about, influence, & relate to one another • We construct our social reality • Our social intuitions are often powerful, but sometimes perilous • Social influences shape our behavior • Personal attitudes and dispositions also shape our behavior • Social behavior is biologically rooted • Social psychology’s principles are applicable in everyday life

3. Attribution Theory • We tend to give a causal explanation for someone’s behavior • Internal disposition • External situation

4. Fundamental Attribution Error • Our tendency to overestimate personality influences and underestimate situational influences when evaluating others’ behavior • Can lead to unwarranted conclusions about others’ personality traits • Effect is reversed when perspective is reversed

5. Attitudes • Feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events

6. Attitudes Affect Actions

7. Attitudes Affect Action • Central route to persuasion: occurs when interested people focus on the arguments and respond with favorable thoughts • Naturally analytical people • Person involved in the issue • When attitude is • Stable • Specific to the situation • Easily recalled

8. Attitudes Affect Action • Peripheral route to persuasion: occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker’s attractiveness • When issues don’t engage systematic thinking • Snap decisions • Less durable than the central route • Less likely to influence behavior than central route

9. Attitudes Affect Action

10. Attitudes Affect Action • Other factors also influence behavior • External situation • Strong social pressures weaken connection between attitudes and action

11. Actions Affect Attitudes • Attitudes follow behavior • Foot-in-the-door • Role-playing • Cognitive dissonance

12. Actions Affect Attitudes • Foot-in-the-door phenomenon: the tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request • A trivial act makes the next, bigger, act easier • People will act against their attitudes & violate their moral standards

13. Actions Affect Attitudes • Role-playing affect attitudes • Stanford Prison Study (Zimbardo, 1972) Role: a set of expectations (norms), about a social position, that defines how those in the position ought to behave

14. Actions Affect Attitudes • Cognitive dissonancetheory: the theory that we act to reduce the discomfort we feel when two of our thoughts (cognitions) are inconsistent (dissonant) (Festinger) • When actions and attitudes clash, we change our attitudes to align them more closely with our actions If I choose to do it (or say it), I must believe in it.

15. Actions Affect Attitudes • Hard efforts to achieve a goal make the goal more attractive than the same goal with no effort • Fraternity hazing

16. Social Influence • Mimicry: unconsciously mimicking others’ expressions, postures, and voice tones helps us feel what they are feeling; chameleon effect • Mood linkage (Totterdell et al., 1998) • Related to prosocial behavior (Van Baaren, et al., 2004) • Flexible and strategic (Lake, Chartrand, & Arkin, 2008) • Most eager to fit in are more susceptible • More empathic mimic more

17. Social Influence • Group pressure & conformity • Conformity: adjusting one’s behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard • Asch, 1955

18. Social Influence • Conditions that strengthen conformity • One is made to feel incompetent or insecure • Group of at least 3 people • Group is unanimous • Group is admired for status and attractiveness • One has made on prior commitment to a response • Others in the group observe • One’s culture encourages respect for social standards

19. Social Influence • Reasons for conforming • Normative social influence: influence resulting from a person’s desire to gain social approval or avoid disapproval • Respecting social norms • Informational social influence: influence resulting from one’s willingness to accept others’ opinions about reality • Uncommon for an individual to never listen to others • Rebecca DuntonAfter she was arrested, the court heard that Denton told police she thought all the other drivers had been on the wrong side of the road. BBC

20. Social Influence • Openness to informational influence on tough, important judgments (Baron, 1996)

21. Social Influence • Obedience occurs when you comply with an order • Milgram (1963, 1974)

22. Social Influence • Obedience rates highest when • Person giving orders is legitimate authority figure • Authority figure supported by prestigious institution (Yale) • Victim depersonalized or at a distance • No role models for defiance

23. Group Influence • Social facilitation: stronger responses on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others (Triplett, 1898)

24. Group Influence What you do well, you are likely to do even better in front of an audience, what you normally find difficult may seem all but impossible when you are being watched. Myers, page 687

25. Group Influence • Social loafing: the tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable • Across cultures • Most prominent in men of individualized cultures • Why? • Feel less accountable • View contribution as dispensable • Not when highly motivated and identified with group

26. Group Influences • Deindividuation: abandoning normal restraints to the power of the group • Less restrained and less self-conscious • Occurs when group participation makes people feel aroused and anonymous

27. Group Influences Group Polarization

28. Group Influences • Group polarization: the enhancement of a group’s prevailing inclinations through discussion within the group • Initial differences tend to grow • Benefits • Reinforces the resolve of those in a self-help group • Strengthens terrorist mentality

29. Group Influences • Groupthink: the mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives (Janis) • Contributing factors • Overconfidence, conformity, self-justification, group polarization

30. Group Influences • Groupthink Prevention • Various opinions welcomed by leader, expert critique is welcomed, personal accountability for specific areas of concern • One or more members should be assigned role of devil’s advocate • Occasionally subdivide the group and reconvene • After consensus, have “last-chance” meeting to air any misgivings • Call in an outside expert to challenge group views • Members bring deliberations to outsiders and return with reactions

31. Group Influences • Group wise(Surowiecki, 2004) • Diversity • Decentralized - noone at top dictating • Way of summarizing into one collective verdict • People need to be independent so they pay more attention to their own information

32. Social Relations • Prejudice: “prejudgment;” a negative attitude that consists of • Beliefs - often overgeneralized and called stereotypes • Emotions - hostility, envy, or fear • Predispositions to action - discriminate

33. Social Relations • Overt prejudice: explicitly stated or demonstrated prejudicial feelings

34. Social Relations • Subtle prejudice • Verbal support is not backed up by personal preferences or choices • Can be indicated by facial muscle response and amygdala activation • Implicit Attitudes Test (IAT)

35. Social Relations • Factors that contribute to prejudice • Blaming the victim • Ingroup bias • Ingroup: those with whom we share social characteristics • Outgroup: those whose social characteristics differ from our own

36. Social Relations • Scapegoat theory: prejudice offers an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame • Boost our own sense of status by denigrating others

37. Social Relations • Cognitive processes and prejudice • Category formation • Other-race effect / Own-race bias / Cross-race effect • Vivid cases • Estimate frequency of events associated with a group • Just-world phenomenon • The world is just • People get what they deserve • People deserve what they get • Hindsight bias

38. Social Relations • Aggression: any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy • More precise than everyday meaning

39. Social Relations • Biological influences on aggression • Genetic • Twin studies • Animal breeding • Neural • Stimulating specific areas inhibits or produces aggression • Biochemical • Testosterone • Alcohol

40. Social Relations • Frustration-Aggression principle: blocking of an attempt to reach some goal creates anger, which can generate aggression • Especially in the presence of an aggressive cue

41. Social Relations • Aggressive reactions • Social scripts: mental tapes for how to act • Observational learning • Media • Video games increase aggressive thoughts, emotions, and behaviors

42. Attraction • Proximity • Physical attractiveness • Similarity of attitudes and interests

43. Attraction • Proximity • Mere-exposure effect: repeated exposure to novel stimuli enhances liking of them

44. Attraction • Physical attractiveness stereotype: what is beautiful is perceived as good • Healthier • Happier • More sensitive • More successful • More socially skilled • Not more honest or compassionate • Influences men and women, babies, even the blind • Society rewards those who are good looking in many ways

45. Attraction • Attractiveness unrelated to self-esteem and happiness • Few people view themselves as unattractive • Less attractive are more likely to attribute positive feedback to efforts, not looks

46. Attraction • Judgments are relative • Beauty is in the eye of the beholder • Average/symmetrical is attractive • Positive traits increase attractiveness

47. Attraction Average is attractive (Perrett, 2002)

48. Social Relations Reward theory of attraction: we will like those whose behavior is rewarding; cost-benefit analysis • Similarity • Opposites retract • More alike, more liking endures • Being liked: we like those who like us

49. Romantic Love • Passionate love: an aroused state of intense positive absorption in another • Usually present in the beginning of a love relationship

50. Romantic Love • Two-factor theory of emotion: • Emotions have two ingredients • Physical arousal • Cognitive appraisal • Arousal from one source can enhance one emotion or another • Depends on interpretation • Capilano Suspension Bridge(Dutton & Aron, 1974, 1989)