Social Psychology

1. Social Psychology

2. Not quite Sociology • Social Psych looks at the behavior of individuals in social situations – how we think about, influence, and relate to others • Sociology looks at the behavior of groups and cultures as they relate to each other and themselves

3. Attribution THeory

4. Fritz Heider noticed that people attribute others’ actions to either their personality (internal disposition) or their surroundings (external situation)

5. Fundamental Attribution Error • Most people overestimate the importance of personality and underestimate the importance of situations when judging others • Most people attribute their successes to their own personalities and their failures to situations

6. The Fundamental Attribution error occurs more strongly in Western countries, about recent behavior, and about strangers

7. Research • When people were told that a woman’s actions were purely situational for the purpose of the experiment, they still attributed her warm or cold behavior solely to her personality • People exhibit the error less strongly when they watch a film from another person’s perspective

8. Practical Applications • Why is someone snapping at you? Are the aggressive? Did you do something? Are they hungry? • What is to blame for poverty? Laziness? Low minimum wage? • Why are students failing the new state tests? Because teachers don’t know what they’re doing? Because the tests are invalid? Because students don’t study?

9. Attitudes What comes first, thinking or doing?

10. Attitudes influence actions • People often act in support of ideas they like • Attitudes influence behavior most when the idea is stable, specific, memorable, and social influences are few • Therefore, persuading someone to change their ideas can cause them to change their behavior

11. Persuasion • Central route persuasion happens when people are encouraged to directly analyze and think through an issue • Is long-lasting and more likely to influence behavior • Peripheral route persuasion happens when people make quick judgments based on incidental cues

12. Actions influence attitudes • When people begin a new social role (college student, spouse, businessman) they often feel like they are acting • Eventually, their attitudes usually shift to fit their roles • Philip Zimbardo and the Stanford Prison experiment

13. Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon • Most people will agree to small demands, and once they have, are more likely to agree to larger demands • Chinese used this to brainwash Americans during the Korean War: prisoners wrote a series of essays that were progressively more anti-American until they believed them

14. Cognitive Dissonance Theory • Leon Festinger says that when people’s actions don’t agree with their attitudes, they will experience tension and change their attitudes to match what they did • More likely to happen if we feel responsible for our actions • People may revise their memories of events to avoid dissonance

15. Examples of Cognitive Dissonance • Hazing may increase some people’s opinions of sororities/fraternities because “the group must be worth it” • People changed their initial reasons for supporting the war in Iraq when no WMDs were found

16. The Asch Line Test Social Psychology and Perception

17. Test 1 • Which line is the same length as the Red line? A B C

18. Test 2 • Which line is the same length as the Red line? A B C

19. Test 3 • Which line is the same length as the Red line? A B C

20. Conformity

21. Chameleon Effect • WE use our mirror neurons to mimic other people’s posture, behavior, and moods • Tied to ability for empathy • People mimic more when they want to fit in • Mimickers are liked more than people who do not mimic

22. Asch’s Line test • When 5-6 confederates of the researcher reported the obviously wrong answer, 1/3 of participants went against their beliefs to conform to the group

23. Things that Increase Conformity • The person feels insecure • The group has at least 3 members • The group is unanimous • The person admires the group’s status • The person has not made a prior commitment to a response • Others in the group watch the person make the decision • The person is from a culture that emphasizes following social norms

24. Following Social norms • Norms are (generally unwritten) social rules • Ex: face the door of an elevator • Normative Social influence happens when people want to fit in to gain approval or avoid rejection

25. Informational Social Influence • Sometimes groups provide useful information and it makes sense to do what everyone else is doing • We are more likely to conform if the task seems important and we are not sure of ourselves

26. Obedience

27. Stanley Milgram’s Studies • Milgram had research participants act as “teachers” who administered electric shocks to “learners” (actually research partners) who gave wrong answers • Teachers were instructed to increase the shock each time despite protests from the learner

28. Results • 63% of participants obeyed and went up to the highest switch marked “XXX Danger,” despite appearing to feel distress

29. Obedience was highest when… • The person giving orders was nearby and appeared to have authority • The authority figure represented a prestigious institution • The victim was depersonalized or separated from the teacher • The teacher did not witness anyone else disobeying

30. Most people who participate in group evil (i.e., the holocaust) are not barbaric, they are following orders • Authority figures using the foot-in-the-door effect are most successful at gaining compliance

31. Prejudice

32. Prejudice Vs. Discrimination • Prejudice is an attitude that comes with beliefs (stereotypes), emotions (usually hostility, fear, or envy) and predispositions toward action • Discrimination is behavior

33. Prejudice can be… • Overt – as in KKK • Subtle – Most think interracial marriage is fine, few want to do it • Implicit – people may not even be aware of it and may not want to be prejudiced at all

34. Prejudice can be based on…. • Race • Ethnicity • Age • Gender • Sexual orientation • Socioeconomic class • Religion • Attractiveness • weight

35. Why does Prejudice exist?

36. Social Theory • Inequality between groups causes both the “Haves” to rationalize their situation • Often use stereotypes to justify keeping the “Have-Nots” down

37. Ingroups and Outgroups • Our social identity comes from belonging to groups, so we split people into • our ingroup – “Us,” people who have things in common with us • And our outgroup– “them,” people who are somehow different

38. Ingroup bias is showing favoritism to members of your own group • We often dislike outgroups that are similar to ourselves the most - think English vs. Scottish

39. Emotional reasons for Prejudice • Fear (as in after 9/11) • Anger – “scapegoat theory” says people more willingly direct their anger at an outgroup target • Scapegoat effect is intensified when people are frustrated economically or socially

40. Cognitive Reasons for Prejudice • Categorization – grouping things in categories simplifies life • We often perceive outgroups as being more homogenous than they really are (other-race effect, aka own-race bias) • This applies to outgroup members’ perceived personalities, attitudes, experiences, and even appearance - leads to stereotypes

41. Can you tell the penguins apart? No? That’s the other-race effect

42. Vivid cases – one extreme example can influence our perception of an entire group • Ex: your crazy grandpa makes you think all old people are crazy

43. Just-World Phenomenon – We like to think that the world really is just and people get what they deserve (ex: Disney movies) • Leads to blaming the victim - rape victims or AIDS patients deserved their fate for being promiscuous

44. Group Influence

45. Social Facilitation • We tend to do better on easy or well-learned tasks when we have an audience or competition • Home teams w0n roughly 70% of basketball games in the 1970s • Runners run faster when they run with someone else

46. We do worse than normal on difficult tasks when we are in the presence of a group • Having observers causes stress + arousal , so the Yerks-Dodson Law applies

47. We also experience emotional responses more intensely in the presence of others: People laugh more at comedy shows when they are in a full room than in an empty one

48. Social Loafing • When working with others towards a common goal, people tend to do less than they would have if they were working alone • Group members feel less responsibility and think their contribution is not needed

49. Deindividuation • Sometimes, being in a group allows people to feel less responsible for their actions while simultaneously promoting arousal • Feeling anonymous allows people to do things they would not normally do

50. Examples: • Tribal warriors achieve deindividuation by painting their faces • The KKK wore hoods