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Social Psychology (CONFORMITY (Social Psychology) (Studies (Groupthink…

- - - - Participants in dark room asked to estimate how far a point of light had moved
        
        Alone in room: considerable variation in estimates (Range from 1 inch to 8 feet)
        
        In room with confederate: less variation (Participant’s judgements more similar to confederates)
      - Limitation: judgements were inherently ambiguous
      - MuzaferSherif(1930s)
        
        Autokinetic effect: perceptual phenomenon in which a stationary point of light appears to move when viewed in a totally dark environment
    - - occurs when people place more importance on maintaining group cohesiveness than on assessing the facts of the problem with which the group is concerned
      - 1912 – not enough lifeboats on the Titanic
      - 2010 –Deepwater Horizon oil explosion
      - 1986 – known faulty part on the Challenger
      - Minimizing groupthink
        
        Leaders should remain impartial
        
        Group should seek opinions of people outside the group
        
        Vote by secret ballot (rather than show of hands)
    - - Solomon Asch (1950s)
        
        Task: determine which comparison line is same length as standard line
        
        Results
        
        Participants went along with confederates on over 1/3 of trials
        
        3/4 participants gave incorrect response at least once
        
        One naive participant in room with several confederates
      - Conformity decreases when:
        
        One confederate gave correct answer
        
        Participants didn’t have to say answer out loud
  - - - members involved in a group discussion tend to take somewhat more extreme positions and suggest riskier actions when compared to individuals who have not participated in a group discussion
      - Example: positions of jurors become more extreme after deliberation
        
        Favor mild punishment before →favor even milder punishment after
        
        Favor severe punishment before →favor even more severe punishment after
        
        Due to normative and informational social influence
    - - Social facilitation
        
        positive influence of others on performance
        
        Associated with easy tasks
      - Social impairment
        
        Associated with difficult tasks
        
        Social loafing: people who are lazy tend not to do as well when others are also working on same task
        
        Reduced responsibility
        
        Cultural factors
        
        negative influence of others on performance
    - - Groups or crowds can offer a sense of anonymity
      - Stanford prison study
        
        Philip Zimbardo (1971) Recruited students to participate in study
        *Study had to be ended early due to guards’ cruelty
      - a lessening of one’s sense of personal identity and personal responsibility
- - - - asking for a large commitment and then, after being refused, asking for a smaller commitment
    - - getting a commitment from a person and then raising the cost of that commitment
      - common in the world of sales
    - - asking for a small commitment and, after gaining compliance, asking for a bigger commitment
      - the first small request acts as an opener
- - - - Participants = “teachers”
      - Confederates = “learners”
    - - Prediction: no one would administer 450-volt shock
      - Result: 65% of participants did
- - - - impression formation the forming of the first knowledge a person has about another person
      - includes assigning the other person to a number of categories and drawing conclusions about what that person is likely to do
      - SOCIAL CATEGORIZATION
        
        is mostly automatic and occurs without conscious awareness of the process
        
        When the characteristics used to categorize the person are superficial* ones that have become improperly attached to certain ideas, such as “red hair equals a bad temper,” social categorization can result in a stereotype
      - IMPLICIT PERSONALITY THEORIES
        
        people place others are based on something
        
        sets of assumptions that people have about how different types of people, personality traits, and actions are all related and form in childhood
    - - the process of explaining one’s own behavior and the behavior of others
      - Attribution theory
        
        Situational cause: cause of behavior attributed to external factors
        
        Dispositional cause: cause of behavior attributed to internal factors
      - Attributional Biases
        
        Fundamental attribution error
        
        he tendency to overestimate the influence of dispositional causes while underestimating situational causes
        
        Occurs when making judgments about others’ behavior
        
        Actor—observer bias
        
        the tendency to overestimate the influence of situational causes while underestimating dispositional causes
        
        Occurs when making judgments about own behavior
        
        Less common in collectivistic cultures
      - Social Groups
        
        In-groups
        
        social groups with whom a person identifies
        
        Members perceived as “us”
        
        Out-groups
        
        ocial groups with whom a person does not identify
        
        Members perceived as “them”
        
        Which group is the in-group vs. out-group is relative to individual person
    - - Often poor predictors of behavior Unless they’re very specific or very strong
      - Attitudes are learned, not innate
      - tendency to respond positively or negatively toward a certain person, object, idea, or situation
      - Components
        
        Affective (emotional) component
        
        Feelings
        
        Example: I love dogs and find them adorable
        
        Behavioral component
        
        Actions
        
        Example: I’m going to adopt a dog as soon as I can
        
        Cognitive component
        
        Thoughts
        
        Example: I think dogs are among the best possible pets
      - ATTITUDE FORMATION
        
        Direct Instruction
        
        Interaction With Others
        
        Direct Contact
        
        Vicarious Conditioning (Observational Learning)
      - ATTITUDE CHANGE: THE ART OF PERSUASION
        
        Persuasion is not a simple matter.
        
        There are several factors that become important in predicting how successful any persuasive effort at attitude change might be
        
        Source: The communicator
        
        Target Audience: The characteristics of the people who are the intended target of the message
        
        Message: The actual message
        
        Medium: The form through which a person receives a message