Social Psychology
The branch of psychology that studies
how people think, feel, and behave in
social situations
Two Main Areas of Study
• Social Cognition--making sense of the
social environment
• Social influence--how behavior is
affected by situation and other people
Physical Attractiveness
• Implicit cultural message is “beautiful is good”
• Attractive people are perceived as more intelligent,
happier, and better adjusted
• Really no difference between attractive and less
attractive people having these characteristics
• Attractive people are more likely to attribute other
people’s approval of their accomplishments to looks
rather than effort or talent.
Attribution
• Process of inferring the causes of people’s
behavior, including one’s own
• The explanation given for a particular
behavior
Attribution Bias
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•
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Fundamental attribution error
Actor-observer discrepancy
Blaming the victim (just-world hypothesis)
Self-serving bias
Fundamental Attribution Error
• Tendency to blame the person and not focus
on the situation.
• Blaming the victim- the tendency to blame
an innocent victim of misfortune for having
caused the problem or for not taking steps
to prevent it.
Fundamental Attribution Error
• Just world hypothesis- the assumption the
world is fair and therefore people get what
they deserve and deserve what they get.
• Actor-observer discrepancy- “I slipped on
ice, you’re a klutz”
• *We attribute our own behavior to the
situation and others to them.
Fundamental Attribution Error
• Self-serving bias- the tendency to attribute
our own successful outcomes to internal
causes and …
• Unsuccessful outcomes to external causes.
Using Attitudes as Ways
to “Justify” Injustice
• Just-world bias
– a tendency to believe that life is fair, e.g., it would
seem horrible to think that you can be a really good
person and bad things could happen to you anyway
• Just-world bias leads to “blaming the victim”
– we explain others’ misfortunes as being their fault:
– e.g., he deserved to be mugged, what was he doing
in that neighborhood anyway?
In Class Exercise
Give Example
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•
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Fundamental Attribution Error (elevator)
Blaming the victim (they caused it)
Just world hypothesis (world is fair)
Actor-observer bias- (I slipped, you’re a
klutz)
• Self-serving bias- (success internal, failure
external).
Attitudes
What is an attitude?
– predisposition to evaluate some people, groups, or
issues in a particular way
– can be negative or positive
– Has three components
• Cognitive—thoughts
• Affective—feelings or emotions
• Behavioral—your actions
Prejudice
A negative attitude toward people
who belong to a specific social group
Prejudice
Prejudice affects all of us -- majority
group members as well as minority
group members.
Prejudice
Prejudice is dangerous, fostering
negative consequences from lowered
self-esteem to genocide.
Prejudice
Over the past 30 years, blatant
discrimination has been reduced;
however, prejudice still exists in
subtle -- and sometimes blatant -forms.
Prejudice
• Prejudice and Self-Esteem
Being a member of an oppressed group
can lower a person’s self-esteem.
Prejudice
• A Progress Report
Real progress has been made for women
and minorities in the last few decades.
However, it would be a mistake to think that
prejudice is no longer a serious problem
in the United States.
Prejudice, Stereotyping and
Discrimination
• Prejudice: The Affective Component
Prejudice is a hostile or negative attitude
toward a distinguishable group of people,
based solely on their membership in that
group.
Prejudice, Stereotyping and
Discrimination
• Stereotypes: The Cognitive
Component
A stereotype is a generalization about a
group of people in which identical
characteristics are assigned to virtually all
members of the group, regardless of actual
variation among the members.
Prejudice, Stereotyping and
Discrimination
• Discrimination: The Behavioral
Component
Discrimination is an unjustified negative or
harmful action towards a member of a
group, simply because of his or her
membership in that group.
Social Categories
• In-group—the social group to which we
belong
– In-group bias—tendency to make favorable
attributions for members of our in-group
• Out-group—the social group to which you
do not belong
– Out group homogeneity effect—tendency to
see members of the out-group as more similar
to each other
Social Influence
How behavior is influenced by the social
environment and the presence of other
people
• Conformity
• Obedience
• Helping behaviors
Conformity
• Adopting attitudes or behaviors of others
because of pressure to do so; the pressure
can be real or imagined
• 2 general reasons for conformity
– Informational social influence—other people can
provide useful and crucial information
– Normative social influence—desire to be
accepted
as part of a group leads to that group having an
influence
Asch’s Experiments
on Conformity
• All but 1 in group
was confederate
• Seating was rigged
• Asked to rate which
line matched a
“standard” line
• Confederates were
instructed to pick the
wrong line 12/18
times
1
Standard lines
2
3
Comparison lines
Asch’s Experiments
on Conformity
• Results
– Asch found that 75% participants conformed to at least one
wrong choice
– subjects gave wrong answer (conformed) on 37% of the
critical trials
• Why did they conform to clearly wrong
choices?
– informational influence?
– subjects reported having doubted their own perceptual
abilities which led to their conformance – didn’t report
seeing the lines the way the confederates had
When Do People Conform?
• Group size (5)
• Difficult to be a minority
of one
• Cohesion- more bound
together, more power it
has over members
• Status- high status more
impact
• No previous commitment!
©PhotoFest
Why Conform?
• People conform
because they want to
be liked (normative)
• People conform
because they want to
be right.
(informational)
© Ken Lambert/ The Washington Times Photo Agency
Who Conforms?
• According to Kurt Lewin, every psychological
event depends on the person and the
environment
• Asch’s study crosses cultures, except Zimbabwe
which frowns on conformity
©Mark Peterson/SABA
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’s Studies
Basic study procedure
– teacher and learner (learner
always confederate)
– watch learner being
strapped into chair
– learner expresses concern
over his “heart condition”
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
• If teacher protested, ‘the experiment
requires that you continue”
Stanley Milgram’s Studies
• Learner protests
more and more as
shock increases
• Experimenter
continues to request
obedience even if
teacher balks
120 “Ugh! Hey this really hurts.”
150 “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.”
300 (agonized scream) “I absolutely
refuse to answer any more.
Get me out of here. You can’t hold
me here. Get me out.”
330 (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…”
Obedience
• How many people would go to the
highest shock level?
• 65% of the subjects went to the end,
even those that protested
• When asked to predict results
professionals and college student
predicted wrong!
Obedience
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
– Some quit at the 315volt level…
Explanations for
Milgram’s Results
• Obedience framework--subjects volunteered
and accepted payment
• Context--prestige and “advancement of
science”
• Experimenter self-assurance and acceptance of
responsibility
• Separation of learner and experimenter
• New situation and no model of how to behave
Follow-Up Studies to Milgram
• 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
Percentage of subjects administering
the maximum shock (450 volts)
70
What Breeds Obedience?
• Emotional distance of
the victim
• Closeness and
legitimacy of the
authority
• Institutional authority
• The liberating effects
of group influence
© Stanley Milgram, 1965,
From the film Obedience, distributed by the Pennsylvania State University
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?
Why Don’t People Always
Help Others in Need?
• Latané studies
– several scenarios designed to measure the
help response found that
• if you think you’re the only one that can hear or
help, you are more likely to do so
• if there are others around, you will diffuse the
responsibility onto others
• Kitty Genovese incident
Kitty Genovese incident
• Led to research on altruism and prosocial
behavior (Lantane and Darley)
Why Don’t People Always
Help Others in Need?
• Diffusion of responsibility
– presence of others leads to decreased
help response
– we all think someone else will help,
so we don’t
• Bystander effect--the greater the number of
people present, the less likely each person is
to help
Factors that Increase Likelihood of
Helping
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Feel good do good effect
Feeling guilty
Seeing others willing to help
Perceiving person as deserving of help
Knowing how to help
Personalized relationship with person
Factors that Decrease Likelihood of
Helping
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Presence of other people
Being in a big city or small town
Vague or ambiguous situation
When personal costs or helping
outweigh the benefits
• Prosocial behavior--any behavior that helps
another person regardless of underlying
motive
• Altruistic behavior--helping another person
without expectation of personal reward or
benefit
Would you help?
• You are in a moderately crowded swimming
pool and you see someone under water;
close to the side of the pool, who has not
moved for a minute or so.
Would you help?
• You are driving down the road and see a
very old woman struggle to change a flat
tire on her car.
Would you help?
• You see a child knock a younger and
smaller child to the ground and then jump
on and pound the younger and smaller
child.
Would you help?
• You are about to enter a 7-11 when you see
someone holding a knife on the clerk.
Would you help?
• As you walk through your neighborhood,
you see an adult who has fallen off a bicycle
and is bleeding. You do not know the
person.
Why Do We Help?
• Gaining rewards, avoiding punishment
– Social exchange- we are most likely to help
someone who approval we desire
– We weigh the cost and benefits of helping
– Internal rewards
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•
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Guilt
mood
Feel good, do good
Rewards can also be external
Persuasion
Lets see how good you are at persuasion…
Class Exercise
• 1. Pedro is running for office. You want
someone to put a huge sign that says, “Vote
for Pedro” in their front yard. How?
• You have a job as a used car salesman. You
need to sell a 1992 Saturn for $3400. You
meet a man who wants to spend $3000.
How do you get him to agree?
Does Behavior Determine
Attitudes?
• The foot-in-the-door phenomenon- People are
more likely to do big favor if you first get them
to agree to a small favor…small sign
• Low-ball technique- Get person to agree to price
then add on $.
© Phil Zimbardo
Return the favor…
We feel obliged to return favors, even those
we did not want in the first place
– salesperson gives something to customer with idea
that customer will feel compelled to give
something back (buying the product)
– even if person did not wish for favor in the first
place
Defense against Persuasion
Techniques
• Sleep on it—don’t act on something right
away
• Play devil’s advocate—think of all the
reasons you shouldn’t buy the product or
comply with the request
• Pay attention to your gut feelings—if you
feel pressured, you probably are being
pressured