Social Psychology Chapter 14

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Social Psychology

Chapter 14

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Social Psychology

Social Thinking The Fundamental Attribution Error

Attitudes and Actions

Social Influence Conformity and Obedience

Group Influence

Lessons From the Social Influence Studies

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Social Psychology

Social Relations Prejudice

Aggression

Attraction

Altruism

Conflict and Peacemaking

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Social Psychology

Social psychology is the scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one

another.

“We cannot live for ourselves alone.”Herman Melville

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The Fundamental Attribution Error

When analyzing another’s behavior, there is a tendency to overestimate the influence of personal traits, and underestimate the effects of the situation

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• Experiment: Even when students were informed that a young woman had been instructed to act icy or warm, they still attributed her behavior to her personal traits (Napolitan & Geothals, 1979)

• Cultural differences– People in East Asian culture tend to be more sensitive

to the power of situations

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• When we explain our behavior, we are sensitive to situational influence– Also for people we have seen in many contexts

• We are more likely to commit the F.A.E. when we disapprove of the stranger’s behavior

• Taking the stranger’s point of view can help decrease incidence of the F.A.E.– Reflecting on our past self also switches our

perspective

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Political Effects of Attribution

• How to explain poverty or unemployment?– Political conservatives often blame the

personal traits of the poor and unemployed– Social scientists are more likely to blame past

and present situations • Poor education, lack of opportunity, discrimination,

etc.

Our attributions have real consequences

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Attitudes and Actions

• Attitudes are feelings, based on our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events

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Attitudes affect Actions• Particularly when external influences are

minimal, and attitude is stable, specific, and easily recalled

• Experiment: people given vivid information changing their attitude – Informed them about tanning, linking it to skin

cancer – had lighter skin a month later compared to a

group not having their attitude influenced

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Or: Actions affect Attitudes

• Cooperative actions can build an attitude of team loyalty

• Attitudes follow behavior– Foot-in-the-door phenomenon– Role-playing– Cognitive dissonance

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Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon

• In the Korean War, Chinese communists solicited cooperation from US army prisoners by asking them to carry out small errands.

• People who have first agreed to a small request are more likely to comply later with a larger request

• To get people to agree to something big, start small and build

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Role-Playing Affects Attitudes

• In many life stages, we take on new roles – sets of behavioral expectations about a social position

• May feel phony at first, as if “acting” the role– “Fake it until you make it”

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Role-Playing Affects Attitudes

• Zimbardo (1972) assigned the roles of guards and prisoners to random students. Guards and prisoners developed role-appropriate attitudes.

• Individual differences – not everyone gave into the situation

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Why do actions affect attitude?Cognitive dissonance theory: We feel discomfort when beliefs don’t match with our actions or other thoughts. To relieve this tension, we may change our beliefs and attitudes to fit our choices– If we have chosen to support a party or president, we

will change our understandings to fit the policies

– Foot in the door: if I have taken a small action to help someone, I decide I must have wanted to help, and then it’s easier to get me to help more

– Fake it till you make it: Make yourself act kindly, and kind intentions will grow.

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Social Psychology

Social Influence

Conformity and Obedience

Group Influence

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Conformity and Obedience

• Chameleon effect: we take on the emotional tones of those around us, imitating others’ expressions, postures, and voice tones

• When students worked beside people who rubbed their own faces or shook a foot, the students tended to do so too (Chatrand & Bargh, 1999)

• Automatic mimicry helps us empathize, to feel what others feel

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Group Pressure and Conformity

• Conformity: adjusting our behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard

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Group Pressure and Conformity

• Solomon Asch (1955) asked “which line is the same length as the standard?”– Before subject’s turn to answer, confederates say

“Line 3” – More than 1/3 of subjects conformed to wrong answer

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Group Pressure and ConformityWe are more likely to conform when we– Are made to feel incompetent or insecure– Are in a group with at least three people– Are in a group in which everyone else agrees– Admire the group’s status and attractiveness– Have not already committed to any response– Know that others in the group will observe our

behavior– Are from a culture that strongly encourages

respect for social standards

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Why Do We Conform?

• To avoid rejection or gain approval– Responding to social norms

• Because we are open-minded and were convinced by new information from the group

• Whether conformity is perceived as good or bad depends on our values

• Conformity rates are lower in individualistic cultures like the U.S.

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Obedience

• People give into social pressures. What about outright commands?

• Stanley Milgram (1963) investigated the effects of authority on obedience

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The Milgram Experiment

• You, as the “teacher”, must shock the “learner” if he gives a wrong answer

• With each wrong answer, increase the voltage• The “learner” appears in pain, the experimenter

says you must continue

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Milgram Experiment: Results

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More Milgram Obedience Results• In later experiments, Milgram found that obedience

was highest when– The person giving orders was close at hand and

perceive to be a legitimate authority figure– The authority figure was supported by a respected,

well-known institution– The victim was depersonalized or at a distance

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Lessons from the Conformity and Obedience Studies

• Social influences can make people conform to falsehoods or give in to cruelty

“I was only following orders.”– Adolf Eichmann, Director of Nazi deportation of Jews to

concentration camps

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Group Influence

• One of the first social psychology experiments (Triplett, 1898): – Adolescents would wind a fishing reel faster in the

presence of someone doing the same thing

• Group Influences– Social Facilitation– Social Loafing– Deindividuation

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Social Facilitation• Social facilitation: stronger responses on

simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others

• What you do well, you are likely to do even better in front of an audience

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Home Team Advantage

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Social Loafing

• When performing a task as a group, people tend to exert less effort toward a common goal

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Social Loafing

• People acting as part of a group feel less accountable, worry less about what others think of them

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Deindividuation

• Group situations that foster anonymity may lead to a loss of self-restraint– Have we seen a loss of self-restraint among

the Occupy Wall Street protestors?– How about the mob in Lybia that captured

Khadfi?

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Group Polarization

• Group polarization: strengthening of a group’s preexisting attitudes through discussions within the group

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Groupthink• In a deeply cohesive group, members may try to

reach consensus without critically evaluating ideas– Fraternities and sororities

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Social Psychology

Social Relations Prejudice

Aggression

Attraction

Altruism

Conflict and Peacemaking

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Prejudice

• An unjustifiable and usually negative attitude toward a group and its members

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How Prejudiced Are People?

• Open prejudice has waned

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Ingroup and Outgroup• We have a need to belong and have a group

identity– Ingroup bias: we have a tendency to favor our own

group

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Emotional Roots of Prejudice

• Scapegoat theory: prejudice offers an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame

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Cognitive Roots of Prejudice

• Forming categories– When we categorize people into social or

ethnic groups, we overestimate their similarities

– The other-race effect: tendency to recall faces of one’s own race more accurately than faces of other races (Irving Teranishi and me)

• Emerges during infancy (between 3 and 9 months)

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• Remembering vivid cases– Violent cases are readily available to our

memory and feed our stereotypes• James Byrd Jr., black man who dragged to death

in Texas in 1998• Matthew Shepard, gay man who died tied to barb

wire fence in Wyoming

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• Believing the world is just– People have a tendency to justify their

culture’s social systems.• Sitting in the back of the bus

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Aggression

• Aggression: any verbal or physical behavior intended to hurt or destroy

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The Biology of Aggression

• Genetic Influences

• Neural Influences

• Biochemical Influences

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The Biology of Aggression

• Biochemical Influences– Testosterone circulates in the blood, and

influences neural control of aggression

– Alcohol also unleashes aggressive responses to frustration

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The Psychology of Aggression

• Psychological factors that trigger aggression– Frustration or rejection– Learning that aggression is rewarding– Observing models of aggression

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Frustration-aggression principle:• Frustration creates anger, which can generate

aggression

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• Learning that aggression is rewarding– Children whose aggression successfully

intimidates other children may become more aggressive

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The Psychology of Aggression• Observing models of aggression

– We often imitate what a model says and does

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• Observing models of aggression– X-rated films and women-hating song lyrics

can teach aggressive behavior• How does that affect men’s beha

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Other Social Psychology Issues

• Attraction and Romantic Love

• Altruism

• Bystander Psychology

• Conflict and Cooperation

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Psychology of Attraction

Ingredients for attraction:

– Proximity

– Physical attractiveness

– Similarity

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Proximity

• People are most inclined to like (and marry) those who are nearby

• Mere exposure effect:– A Taiwanese man wrote 700+ letters to his

girlfriend proposing marriage. She married the mailman.

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Proximity/Familiarity

• People prefer the candidate whose image had been (secretly) blended with their own

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Physical Attractiveness

• Physical appearance most important factor in first impressions

Men Women

Canada 18% 20%

USA 17% 27%

Mexico 40% 45%

Venezuela 47% 65%

“I constantly think about my looks”

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In the Eye of the Beholder• Youthful physical features appear to be

universally considered attractive, at least for females

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Similarity

• Lasting friends and couples are likely to share attitudes, beliefs, and interests, among other factors

• We also like those who like us

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Romantic Love

Passionate LoveAroused state of

positive absorption in another

Companionate LoveDeep affectionate

attachment for those with whom our lives

are intertwined

Nothing

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Passionate Love

• Two-factor theory of emotion: Many emotions are an arousal state plus a label

• Studies show: Men getting their heart rate up by any means, from exercise to erotica, felt more attracted to a woman they met while still stirred up, attributing their arousal state to the attraction

• Passionate love may be physical, as misattributed, and temporary

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Romantic Love

• Transition to companionate love is adaptive– Shift focus to family and parenting

• Key ingredients for lasting relationships– Equity: both partners receive in proportion to

what they give– Self-disclosure: revealing intimate aspects of

yourself to others– Romance? Overvaluing this increases divorce

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Altruism

• Altruism is the unselfish concern for the welfare of others

Wesley Autrey jumped onto subway tracks to save a fallen stranger from oncoming train

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Bystander Intervention

• In 1964, Kitty Genovese was raped and murdered as 38 neighbors heard but did nothing

• Was this simply the opposite of Altruism, or is something more complex going on?

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Bystander Intervention:Deciding whether to Intervene

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The Bystander Effect• Study: participants

heard a crash and yell in the next room

• Results showed the Bystander effect: any given bystander is less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present

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Conflict

• Conflict: a perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas

• Mirror-image perceptions: mutual views often held by people in conflict– Each side sees itself as ethical and peaceful,

and the other side as evil and aggressive

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Cooperation

• Superordinate goals: shared goals that override differences among people and require their cooperation

• Members of interracial groups who form teams and work together come to feel friendly toward one another

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Social Psychology Chapter 14