Chapter 16

1. Chapter 16 Social Behavior

2. When an observer is biased in favor of making internal attributions in explaining others' behavior, the observer is making

3. When an individual has a tendency to attribute his/her success to personal factors and his/her failure to situational factors, the individual is demonstrating

4. ANSWERS: • D • C

5. Social Psychology • Person perception • Attribution processes • Interpersonal attraction • Attitudes • Conformity and obedience • Behavior in groups

6. Person Perception: Forming Impressions of Others • Effects of physical appearance • Cognitive schemas – age, profession, ethnicity • Stereotypes – learned • Prejudice and discrimination-attitude vs. action • Subjectivity in person perception • Evolutionary perspectives • stereotypes separate friend from foe • spotlight effect • illusion of asymmetric insight

9. Attribution Processes: Explaining Behavior • Attributions • Internal vs. External • Biases in attributions • Fundamental attribution error • Defensive attribution – blaming the vicitim • Self-serving bias • Cultural influences • individualistic - self-serving and fundamental att. err. • collectivistic

10. Figure 16.1 Causes of Success and Failure: Attribution

13. In regards to interpersonal attraction, which of the following sayings is most accurate?

14. Which of the following is not one of the major components of an attitude?

15. A person experiences an unpleasant state of tension when related attitudes or beliefs are inconsistent or contradict each other according to

16. ANSWERS: • D • B • C

17. Learning To Love Eating Grasshoppers • Zimbardo, Weisenberg, Firestone, and Levy (1965) demonstrated that “nice guys” as sources for persuasive messages can be less persuasive than “nasty guys.” The study involved ROTC students, military reservists, and college students. They were told that the study was about survival skills needed for the "new mobile military." A key survival skill needed was to experience and develop a taste for novel foods (specifically, grasshoppers.) There were two major conditions in the study: A ‘Nice Guy’ condition and a ‘Nasty Guy’ condition. The ‘Nice Guy’ entered the room with a warm greeting, pleasantly interacted with the other people in the room, and expressed sensitivity for the participant’s discomfort. The ‘Nasty Guy’ startled the people in the room with an abrupt and demanding entrance. He was gruff and rude in demeanor and he went out of his way to berate the ‘assistants’ in the room. • In the end, the people in the ‘Nasty Guy’ condition professed much greater liking for grasshoppers as food than the people in the ‘Nice Guy’ condition. Some even took extra grasshoppers home to share with their friends and family. • WHY?

18. With the ‘Nice Guy’ the dissonance produced between disliking grasshoppers and eating them could be reduced by thinking that they ate the grasshoppers because the speaker was such a nice guy. Therefore, there was no need to change their feelings about the grasshoppers. • With the ‘Nasty Guy’ the dissonance produced between disliking grasshoppers and eating them could NOT be reduced by thinking that they ate the grasshoppers because of the speaker: he was a jerk. The only way to reduce the dissonance was to change their attitudes about eating grasshoppers to be consistent with their grasshopper eating behavior. • Zimbardo, P. G., Weisenberg, M., Firestone, I., & Levy, B. (1965). Communicator effectiveness in producing public conformity and private attitude change. Journal of Personality, 33, 233-255.

20. Close Relationships: Liking and Loving • Key factors in attraction • Physical attractiveness • Matching hypothesis • Similarity • Reciprocity - self-enhancement • Romantic Ideals • Proximity • Perspectives on love • Hatfield & Berscheid – Passionate vs. Companionate love • Sternberg - Intimacy and commitment fig. 16.4 • Hazen & Shaver – love as attachment fig. 16.5 • Evolutionary perspectives • Mating priorities – reproductive fitness

21. Social Relations- Attractiveness • Proximity Geographic nearness– perhaps the most powerful indicator of friendship. Proximity provides opportunities for aggression, but much more often it breeds liking. People are most likely to like, and even to marry, those who live in the same neighborhood, who sit nearby in class, who work in the same office, who share the same parking lot.

22. Social Relations- Attractiveness • Mere Exposure Effect • repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of them • Conceptions of attractiveness vary by culture

23. Social Relations- Attractiveness • Similarity We are likely to become friends with other who are similar to us in attitudes, intelligence, age, and economic status. Similarity breeds content.

24. Social Relations • Passionate Love • an aroused state of intense positive absorption in another • usually present at the beginning of a love relationship • Companionate Love • deep affectionate attachment we feel for those with whom our lives are intertwined

25. Figure 16.4 – Sternberg’s view of love over time Figure 16.5

26. Attitudes and Attitude Change • 3 components • cognitive, affective, and behavioral • Factors in changing attitudes • source, message, and receiver • two sided arguments and fear arousal are effective • Theories of attitude change • Learning theory - classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning. • Cognitive Dissonance theory • Self-perception theory - people infer their attitudes from their behavior • Elaboration likelihood model – central route to persuasion

31. Yielding to Others: Conformity • Conformity – Solomon Asch (1950s) • Classic experiment • Group size – larger groups increase conformity • Group unanimity – one dissenter makes subject less likely to conform

32. 50% 40 30 20 10 0 Difficult judgments Conformity highest on important judgments Percentage of conformity to confederates’ wrong answers Easy judgments Low High Importance Social Influence • Participants judged which person in Slide 2 was the same as the person in Slide 1

34. Yielding to Others: Obedience • Obedience – Stanley Milgram (1960s) • Controversial landmark experiment • “I was just following orders” • Milgram found that 65% of the men administered all 30 levels of the shock, even though they displayed considerable distress at shocking the learner.

35. Obedience Obedience • compliance of person is due to perceived authority of asker • request is perceived as a command • Milgram interested in unquestioning obedience to orders Stanley Milgram

36. Stanley Milgram’s Studies Basic study procedure • teacher and learner (learner always confederate) • watch learner being strapped into chair • learner expresses concern over his “heart condition”

37. Stanley Milgram’s Studies • Teacher goes to another room with experimenter • Shock generator panel – 15 to 450 volts, labels “slight shock” to “XXX” • Asked to give higher shocks for every mistake learner makes

38. 120 150 300 330 “Ugh! Hey this really hurts.” “Ugh! Experimenter! That’s all. Get me out of here. I told you I had heart trouble. My heart’s starting to bother me now.” (agonized scream) “I absolutely refuse to answer any more. Get me out of here. You can’t hold me here. Get me out.” (intense & prolonged agonized scream) “Let me out of here. Let me out of here. My heart’s bothering me. Let me out, I tell you…” Stanley Milgram’s Studies • Learner protests more and more as shock increases • Experimenter continues to request obedience even if teacher balks

40. 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Percentage of subjects who obeyed experimenter The majority of subjects continued to obey to the end Moderate (75-120) Very strong (195-240) Extreme intensity (315-360) XXX (435-450) Danger severe (375-420) Slight (15-60) Strong (135-180) Intense (255-300) Shock levels in volts Obedience

42. Explanations for Milgram’s Results • Abnormal group of subjects? • numerous replications with variety of groups shows no support • People in general are sadistic? • videotapes of Milgram’s subjects show extreme distress

43. Follow-Up Studies to Milgram

44. Critiques of Milgram • Although 84% later said they were glad to have participated and fewer than 2% said they were sorry, there are still ethical issues • Do these experiments really help us understand real-world atrocities?

45. Social Relations • Ingroup Bias • tendency to favor one’s own group • Scapegoat Theory • theory that prejudice provides an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame • Just-World Phenomenon • tendency of people to believe the world is just • people get what they deserve and deserve what they get\ • explains ‘blaming the victim’

46. Social Thinking • Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon • tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request • Role • set of expectations about a social position • defines how those in the position ought to behave

47. Behavior in Groups: The Influence of Other People • The bystander effect - Darley and Latane (1968) • Kitty Genovese • Diffusion of responsibility • Group productivity and social loafing • Decision making in groups • Polarization • Groupthink • Deindividuation • loss of self-awareness and self-restraint in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity

48. Social Influence • Some individual resist social coercion

49. Social Facilitation

50. Groupthink • Eight warning signs of groupthink: • The illusion of invulnerability • Belief in the inherent group morality • Rationalization of group views • Stereotyping of out-groups • Self-censorship • Direct pressure on dissenters • Self-appointed mindguards • The illusion of unanimity • Four key preventative strategies: • Establish an open climate • Avoid the isolation of the group • Assign the role of critical evaluator • Avoid being too directive