 The Fundamental Attribution Error
 Attitudes and Actions
 Conformity and Obedience
 Group Influence
 Lessons From the Social Influence
Studies

 Prejudice
 Aggression
 Attraction
 Altruism
 Conflict and Peacemaking

“We cannot live for ourselves alone.”
Herman Melville
Social psychology is the scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another.

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

• 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

• 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

• 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

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

• 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

• Cooperative actions can build an attitude of team loyalty
• Attitudes follow behavior
– Foot-in-the-door phenomenon
– Role-playing
– Cognitive dissonance

• 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

• 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”

• 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

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.

 Conformity and Obedience
 Group Influence

• 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

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

• 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

We 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

• 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.

• People give into social pressures. What about outright commands?
• Stanley Milgram (1963) investigated the effects of authority on obedience

• 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

• 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, wellknown institution
– The victim was depersonalized or at a distance
– There were no role models for defiance (like this protester)

• 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
• A consistent and persistent minority voice can still have a powerful 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

• The presence of others raises arousal levels, intensifies performance and responses (the
‘faster reeling’ study)
• 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
• Comedy routines seem funnier in a densely packed room
• However, if the task is hard or new: being observed worsens performance

• When performing a task as a group, people tend to exert less effort toward a common goal
– Especially common in individualistic cultures

• People acting as part of a group feel less accountable, worry less about what others think of them
• Group members may not believe their individual contributions make a difference
• People who are not highly motivated, who don’t identify strongly with the group, may free-ride on others’ efforts

• Group situations that foster arousal and anonymity may lead to a loss of selfawareness and self-restraint
• Experiment: People dressed in a KKK hood delivered twice as much shock to a victim as uncovered people did

• Over time, differences between groups of college students tend to grow
• Group polarization : strengthening of a group’s preexisting attitudes through discussions within the group

• In a deeply cohesive group, members may try to reach consensus without critically evaluating ideas
• Fed by overconfidence, conformity, selfjustification, and group polarization
• Involved in a number of politically dangerous situations
– Bay of Pigs invasion
– Escalation of Vietnam war
– Chernobyl meltdown
– Challenger explosion
– Iraq War

 Prejudice
 Aggression
 Attraction
 Altruism
 Conflict and Peacemaking

• An unjustifiable and usually negative attitude toward a group and its members
• A three-part mixture of:
– Beliefs ( stereotypes )
– Emotions (hostility, envy, fear)
– being likely to act on the beliefs ( discrimination )

• Open prejudice has waned
• Subtle prejudice lingers – many people still feel uncomfortable with other races

• Social Inequalities
– Many people believe that the world is just and therefore they get what they deserve, and deserve what they get (the just-world phenomenon )
– Stereotypes may be used to rationalize inequalities

• We have a need to belong, and have a group identity, that goes back to our stone age ancestors
– We evolved to make instant judgments about strangers
• Ingroup bias : we have a tendency to favor our own group

• When threatened, people cling more tightly to their prejudices
• Scapegoat theory : prejudice offers an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame
– High levels of prejudice among economically frustrated people
– In experiments, temporary frustration increases 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
• Emerges during infancy (between 3 and 9 months)

• Remembering vivid cases
– Violent cases are readily available to our memory and feed our stereotypes

• Believing the world is just
– People have a tendency to justify their culture’s social systems.
– We’re inclined to think that the way things are is the way they ought to be. This makes it hard for us to visualize a need to change inequalities.

• Aggression : any verbal or physical behavior intended to hurt or destroy
• As we’ll see on upcoming slides, aggression emerges when biology interacts with experience

• Genetic Influences
• Neural Influences
• Biochemical Influences

• Genetic Influences
– Animals may be bred for aggressiveness
– Having a “violent temper” can be influenced by genes
• Neural Influences
– No one spot in the brain controls aggression
– Certain brain stimulations can either inhibit or produce aggression
– Violent criminals may have diminished frontal lobe activity

• Biochemical Influences
– Testosterone circulates in the blood, and influences neural control of aggression
Muscular young males tend to have higher levels of testosterone, and be more aggressive
– Alcohol also unleashes aggressive responses to frustration

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

Frustration-aggression principle :
• Frustration creates anger, which can generate aggression
• Feelings of being socially excluded can lead to aggressive responses
• These factors were at work in various school shootings

• Learning that aggression is rewarding
– Children whose aggression successfully intimidates other children may become more aggressive
– Animals that have successfully fought to get food or mates become more ferocious

• Observing models of aggression
– We often imitate what a model says and does
– Aggression Replacement
Training (Goldstein) works with juvenile offenders and gang members and their parents, teaching new ways to control anger 
Youths became less likely to offend (commit violent acts) again

• Observing models of aggression
– Repeatedly watching on-screen violence makes us less sensitive to cruelty, and primes us to respond aggressively when provoked
• Teaches us social scripts : culturally modeled guides for how to act in various situations
– X-rated films and women-hating song lyrics can teach aggressive and misogynistic sexual scripts

• Attraction and Romantic Love
• Altruism
• Bystander Psychology
• Conflict and Cooperation

• Special sorts of attachments – close friendships and romantic love – help us cope with other relationships
• What is the psychological chemistry that binds us together?

Ingredients for attraction:
– Proximity
– Physical attractiveness
– Similarity

• People are most inclined to like (and marry) those who are nearby
• Mere exposure effect : repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of them
– A Taiwanese man wrote 700+ letters to his girlfriend proposing marriage. She married the mailman.
– We are more comfortable with a mirror image of ourselves than a regular photo

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

• Physical appearance most important factor in first impressions
• Behavior toward and attitudes about others influenced by their physical attractiveness – for both men and women
“I constantly think about my looks”
Men Women
Canada
USA
18%
17%
20%
27%
Mexico
Venezuela
40%
47%
45%
65%

• Conceptions of beauty vary with culture and time
• Youthful physical features appear to be universally considered attractive, at least for females

• Lasting friends and couples are likely to share attitudes, beliefs, and interests, among other factors
• We also like those who like us
• Reward theory of attraction : We like those whose behavior is rewarding to us, and continue relationships that offer more rewards than costs

Passionate Love
Aroused state of positive absorption in another
Companionate Love
Deep affectionate attachment for those with whom our lives are intertwined
Nothing

• 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

• 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

• Altruism is the unselfish concern for the welfare of others
Wesley Autrey jumped onto subway tracks to save a fallen stranger from oncoming train

• 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?

• 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
• If others ignore the crash, maybe I’m supposed to ignore it

• 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

• 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