Social Psych

u16
Unit 16
 m55 – Social Thinking
 How do we explain people’s behaviors? How do
we explain attitudes?
 m56 – Social Influence
 What are the invisible social threads that bind and
pull us?
 m57 & 58 – Social Relations
 What makes us harm or help or fall in love with
others?
Social Thinking
m55
Social Norms
 Standards of behavior that a group has
informally agreed upon.
 For example: you’re not supposed to lie ...

4
Attribution Theory
 Things to do on an elevator…
 Swat at flies that don’t exist
 Greet everyone with a handshake and tell them to call you
“Admiral”
 Meow occasionally
 Say, “Ding!” at each floor.
 Bring a camera and take pictures of everyone “for security
purposes”
 Yell, “GROUP HUG!” and then enforce it
Attribution Theory
 Things to do on an elevator…
 Swat at flies that don’t exist
u ld
o and tell?them to call you
w
Greet everyone withaathandshake
“Admiral” Wh


in k …
p le th

e o
Meow occasionally
p
 Say, “Ding!” at each floor.
 Bring a camera and take pictures of everyone “for security
purposes”
 Yell, “GROUP HUG!” and then enforce it
Attribution Theory
 Fritz Heider (1950)
 Dispositional Attribution
 People act because that’s what they are like.
 e.g. “He’s driving so crazy – what a jerk!”
 Situational Attribution
 People act in a certain way because of the situation.
 e.g. “I wonder what is making him drive so
dangerously?”
 Fundamental Attribution Error
 We are most likely to interpret out-group members’
behavior according to disposition.
What are the cops thinking about the protesters?
What are the protesters thinking about the cops?
Attribution Theory
 Philip Brickman’s (1982) Model of Helping
 Who is responsible for the problem?
 Who is responsible for the solution?

 e.g. Poverty? Unemployment? Drug addiction?

Rape?
Attribution of Control
 Locus of Control, review
 Illusion of Control
 False belief that chance events subject to human
control (Ellen Langer, 1975).
 Sometimes a positive motivator
 High self-efficacy
 “I can do it!”
 Mostly negative
 Failure to adapt, improvise, and overcome
Attribution Theory (misc)
 Two ego defense mechanisms:
 Self-serving Bias
 “I failed the quiz because Castro sucks.”
 Self-handicapping
 “I’m stupid – I’m totally going to fail this quiz”
 Just World Theory
 “Some day Castro’s going to get hit by a car!”
 Less stress …
 Does this account for faith-based longevity?
Attitudes and Actions
 An attitude is a belief and feeling that
predisposes one to respond in a particular way
to objects, people, and events.
 What are some beliefs and feelings that you have
that control your behavior?
 My beliefs & attitudes:
 Chocolate tastes good
 Lazy people deserve what they get
Attitude and Actions
 Attitudes will guide our actions, if –
 Outside influences on what we say and do are minimal;
 The attitude is specifically relevant to the behavior; and
 We are keenly aware of our attitude.
Actions and Attitudes
 Attitudes follow behavior too.
 Foot-in-the-door phenomenon
 start small and build
 Role
 Set of expectations about a social position
 Defines how those in the position ought to behave.
 People made to play a role come to hold the
attitudes that support the role.
Actions and Attitudes
 Philip Zimbardo’s (1971) Prison Experiment
 24 students volunteered to be part of the prison
experiment. Each was paid $15 to either be assigned the
role of guard or prisoner.
 Less than 36 hours into the experiment, one prisoner was
released for psychological health reasons.
 After six days (not the planned two weeks) the study was
called off.
 Conclusion: role-playing changes minds
Actions and Attitudes
 When our actions, our cognition, and our
behaviors are not aligned, we experience
cognitive dissonance, or discomfort.
 Something has to give; usually our attitudes
change more easily than behaviors.
 Festinger and Carlsmith (1959)
Social Influence
m56
Conformity and Obedience
 To conform is to adjust your thoughts or
actions to a norm.
 To obey is to do as an authority figure
commands regardless of personal preference.
 To comply is to come to an agreement about a
course of action.
Conformity
 Solomon Asch (1955)
studied conformity to
see if people would
conform to an
obviously wrong
opinion.
 1/3 of participants went
along with the
obviously incorrect
consensus.
Conformity
 Which person in Slide
2 is the same as in
Slide 1?
 75% conformed with
“difficult judgments” as
opposed to 37% for
“easy judgments”
Conformity
 Participants on Asch’s experiment conformed
because of the normative social influence.
 They did not want to stand out from the group
and face possible ridicule; they wanted to be part
of the in-group.
 Informational social influence is when you
alter your opinion based on the belief that
your opinion is incorrect.
Obedience
 Stanley Milgram’s
(1965) experiment on
obedience shocked the
world.
 Milgram was interested
in the unquestioning
obedience that was
apparent in the
Nuremburg Trials.
Obedience
 Teacher and learner.
(learner always
confederate.)

 Teacher watched learner be

strapped into chair and
electrodes attached; hears
learner complain of pre-
existing heart condition.

 Teacher asked to increase

electrical shock after each
incorrect response.
Obedience
Obedience
 What percent of people would go to the
highest shock level (450 volts)?
Obedience
 What percent of people would go to the
highest shock level (450 volts)?
 65% of subjects went to the end, even those who
protested.
 Obedience

Percentage 100
of subjects 90
who obeyed 80
experimenter 70
60
50
40 The majority of
30 subjects continued
20 to obey to the end
10
0
Moderate Very Extreme XXX
Slight (75-120) Strong strong Intense intensity Danger (435-450)
(15-60) (135-180) (195-240) (255-300) (315-360) severe
(375-420)
Shock levels in volts
Obedience
 Explanations for the Milgram results:
 Authority of Yale University
 The value of Science
 Experimenter self-assurance and acceptance of
responsibility
 Proximity of learner and experimenter
 New situation and no model of proper behavior
Obedience
 Original study

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Percentage of subjects administering
the maximum shock (450 volts)
Obedience
 Original study

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Percentage of subjects administering
the maximum shock (450 volts)
Obedience
 Original study
 Different building

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Percentage of subjects administering
the maximum shock (450 volts)
Obedience
 Original study
 Different building
 Teacher with learner

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Percentage of subjects administering
the maximum shock (450 volts)
Obedience
 Original study
 Different building
 Teacher with learner
 Put hand on shock

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Percentage of subjects administering
the maximum shock (450 volts)
Obedience
 Original study
 Different building
 Teacher with learner
 Put hand on shock
 Orders by phone

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Percentage of subjects administering
the maximum shock (450 volts)
Obedience
 Original study
 Different building
 Teacher with learner
 Put hand on shock
 Orders by phone
 Ordinary man orders

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Percentage of subjects administering
the maximum shock (450 volts)
Obedience
 Original study
 Different building
 Teacher with learner
 Put hand on shock
 Orders by phone
 Ordinary man orders
 2 teachers rebel

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Percentage of subjects administering
the maximum shock (450 volts)
Obedience
 Original study
 Different building
 Teacher with learner
 Put hand on shock
 Orders by phone
 Ordinary man orders
 2 teachers rebel
 Teacher chooses shock
level 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Percentage of subjects administering
the maximum shock (450 volts)
Group Influence
 Social Facilitation
 When it is an easy or well-learned task, or a task
that one has been successful in previously, having
an audience improves performance.

 Social Inhibition
 When it is a difficult task or one without previous
success, an audience decreases quality of
performance.
Group Influence
 When working in a group for a common goal,
social loafing is the rule, not the exception.
 When working in a group, members find
themselves “going along” with the flow –
that’s group think.
 e.g. Bay of Pigs – nobody spoke up that it was a
bad idea.
Group Influence
 Group polarization is when the group’s
attitude and behavior is more extreme than
any one of the individuals’ on their own.
 e.g. A Republican is more conservative when
around other conservatives.
Group Influence
 People are able to do things in a group that
they ordinarily wouldn’t do because of
deindividuation – they are anonymous and
usually more aroused.
 e.g. KKK and their hoods
Group Influence
 Minority Influence
 Simply being an example of objection is
sufficient to encourage others to do the same.
 Gandhi objecting to British rule.
 “12 Angry Men”
 Asch’s experiment when group not unanimous.
 Prison experiment ended after 1 (out of 50 outsiders)
pointed out the inhumanity.
 Milgram’s results when Teacher saw previous Teacher
refuse.
Social Relations
m57 & 58
Everyone is a prisoner of his own
experiences. No one can eliminate
prejudices — just recognize them.
– Edward R. Murrow,
television broadcast, December 31, 1955

37
Prejudice
 An unjustifiable attitude toward a group and
its members. Prejudice generally involves
stereotyped beliefs, negative feelings, and a
predisposition to discriminatory actions.
Prejudice
 Institutional Prejudice?
 A fire department requires that applicants for the position
of fire fighter be 5’8” or taller.
 A Caucasian actor is chosen to play the part of an Asian
man.
 A corporation decides to fill a position “in house” rather
than to advertise.
 Children of alumni receive preference for admission.
 Persons who cannot afford bail are imprisoned and thus
appear in court dressed in prison clothes.
Prejudice
 Jane Elliott (1968) divided her third-grade
class into blue eyes and brown eyes.
 Brown eyes were favored for three days.

 Highlights in-group and out-group bias.

 Prejudice on a grand scale is ethnocentrism.

 Members of the in-group view all others with
an out-group homogeneity bias.
Prejudice
 Results in scapegoating.
 For example, unemployed middle-American
workers blaming the “foreigners.”
 How does prejudice develop?
Prejudice
 Social Factors
 Social inequalities encourage perceptions that
justify discriminatory beliefs and treatment.

 The in-group bias causes us to favor arbitrarily

those we perceive to be like us.

 Scapegoating suggests that our frustrations are

reduced when we can blame someone else for our
problems.
Prejudice
 Cognitive Factors

 Categorization encourages us to simplify the

world by making people and events as predictable
as possible. Categorization sometimes produces
stereotypes that offer the illusion of predictability.

 Vivid cases determine those instances in which

we are likely to overgeneralize from a few
exceptional cases to a group expectation.
Culturally-influenced self-belief

45
Aggression
 “Any physical or verbal behavior intended to
hurt or destroy.”

 Aggression can come from biological

impulses, neural influences, biochemical
influences, or frustration and anger.

 Frustration-aggression principle holds that

frustration leads to anger which leads to
aggression. e.g. increased crime rates during heat
waves.
 Conflict
Person 1  A perceived
Choose A Choose B incompatibility of
Optimal
actions, goals, or
Choose A

outcome ideas.

 The game matrix

Person 2

shows a non-zero-
Probable sum game.
Choose B

outcome
 Cooperation is the
best all-around
solution, but …
Conflict
 Garret Hardin (1968) published a ground-
breaking article in Science discussing the
tragedy of the commons.
 It is a social trap where one’s long-term self-
interest is best supported by cooperation, but
people often end up competing, to the detriment
of all.
Conflict
 Enemies are often viewed with mirror-image
perceptions, we see them just as they see us.
 When we see them as untrustworthy, we act as if
they are untrustworthy; they see this and do not
trust us.
 Self-fulfilling prophecy.
• When you are sad - I will help you get drunk and plot revenge against
the sorry bastard who made you that way.
• When you are blue - I will try to dislodge whatever is choking you.
• When you smile - I will know you've finally had sex.
• When you are scared - I will tease the crap out of you about it every
chance I get.
• When you are worried - I will tell you horrible stories about how
much worse it could be and to stop your bloody whining.
• When you are confused - I will use only little words.
• When you are sick - Stay the hell away from me until you are well
again, I don't want whatever you have.
• When you fall - I will point and laugh at your clumsiness.

Remember:
• A good friend will help you move.
• A really good friend will help you move a body.
Attraction
 The two keys to attraction are similarity and
proximity.
 Opposites do not stay together.

 Absence does not make the heart grow fonder.

Attraction
 Physical attraction is a neurologically powerful
motivator; stimulates the pleasure centers of the
hypothalamus
 Other findings:
 Attractive papers are scored better

 Attractive defendants are judged guilty less often than

unattractive

 Physical deformities are interpreted as reflecting an inner

flaw (ie Captain Hook’s prosthetic, Cinderalla’s ugly step-
sisters)
Attraction
 There mere exposure effect is based on the
idea that we have more positive feelings about
things we are frequently exposed to.
 You like the music that your parents listened to in
high school.
 “Vote for Honorable Pulvapies” (1972)
 Oregon State University and the “black bag kid”
Attraction
 Eros (items 1-4) - passionate
 Ludus (items 5-8) – love as a game
 Storge (items 9-12) – caring, concern
 Pragma (items 13-16) – shopping for a mate
 Mania (items 17-20) – possessive, dependent
 Agape (items 21-24) – all-giving, selfless
Attraction
 Robert Sternberg’s
(1986) Triangular
Theory of Love
argues that
consummate love
is made up of
passion, intimacy,
and commitment.
Altruism
 Altruism is the unselfish regard for the
welfare of others.
Diffusion of Responsibility
 There were so many witnesses, each assumed the
other would call for help = Bystander Effect.
 Diffusion of responsibility.
 e.g. Kitty Genovese
Yes Interprets Yes Yes
Notices Assumes Attempts
incident as
incident? responsibility? to help
emergency?
No No No

No No No
help help help