Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior
Altruism
 Altruistic behaviors are behaviors that lower the fitness of the individual but increase the fitness of another.
 Meerkats stand sentry, exposing themselves to potential predators but alerting other members to potential
predators.
 This seems like a very selfless behavior. Is it?
Personal and Inclusive fitness
 Evolutionary success genetically means leaving behind as many copies of yourself as possible
 Personal fitness
o is the number of offspring that an individual begets (regardless of who rescues/rears/supports them)
 Inclusive fitness
o is the number of offspring equivalents that an individual rears, rescues or otherwise supports through its
behavior (regardless of who begets them)
 “Offspring equivalents”: Your biological offspring has ½ your genes. The offspring of your sibling has ¼ your
genes. 2 offspring of your sibling is genetically equal to 1 offspring of your own.
o Thus, connecting in the concepts of altruism and game theory, it can be more beneficial for an individual
to raise a sibling’s offspring than attempt to raise some of its own.
 Altruism and the selfish gene theory
 Selfish Gene Theory:
o the more two individuals are genetically related, the more sense (at the level of the genes) it makes for
them to behave selflessly with each other
 In social insects such as bees, wasps, ants, and termites, sterile workers in these societies take
care of the queen because they are closely related to it, and as the queen has offspring, she is
passing on genes from the workers indirectly. Thus, it is of fitness benefit for the worker to
maintain the queen without having any direct chance of passing on its genes due to its sterility.
The lowering of individual fitness to enhance the reproductive fitness of a relative and thus
one’s inclusive fitness evolves through kin selection.
Attitudes: an introduction
 An attitude is a positive, negative, or mixed evaluation of a person, place, thing or event. They consist of 3
components: Affect, Behavior, and Cognition.
o A—Affective (feelings)
o B—Behavioral
o C—Cognitive (Thoughts/beliefs)
 Attitudes: the ABC’s
 All attitudes, both positive and negative, rely on the stereotypes we have acquired over time.
o Mixed or negative attitudes can manifest as Prejudice and Discrimination.
 A—Affective = Prejudice
 Negative, unjustified feelings toward a group based solely on their group membership
 B—Behavioral = Discrimination
 Negative or harmful behavior based solely on someone’s group membership
 C—Cognitive = Stereotypes
 Thoughts/beliefs that associate groups of people with traits
Attitudes and behavior
 The attitudes we have unsurprisingly give rise to behaviors based on those attitudes (e.g. having a positive
attitude about a class will make you more likely to study for that class), but sustained behaviors can also change
our attitude about things.
 Foot-in-the-door:
o Compliance tactic that involves getting a person to agree to a large request by first setting them up by
having that person agree to a modest request
 Role-playing:
o When people are assigned a "social script" in which they are told how to behave in a particular social
situation, they begin to adopt the attitude of the person they are mimicking.
 Famous example: Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment
 Conflicting Attitudes
 Sometimes, we come across information which challenges our Cognitive component of attitudes.
o For example, maybe you have a positive attitude towards a certain celebrity, but then learn about illegal
or distasteful actions that they have committed. This can cause you to feel Cognitive Dissonance:
 Mental stress or discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory
beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time.
Stereotype to prejudice to discrimination
 Prototypes lead to stereotypes (prototype = exemplar)
 Stereotypes themselves are your brain’s natural attempt to categorize the entire world around it, based on what
it has been exposed to via direct or indirect observation (eg media portrayal).
o (“The French are romantic”)
 But stereotypes can easily become prejudices when you begin to exhibit unjustified feelings towards a group.
o (“I don’t trust French people because they are all unfaithful”)
 When we act upon our prejudice, THAT is discrimination (“That dude on Tinder looks French. Swipe left.”)
Stereotypes are cognitive
 Stereotypes in themselves are neither positive nor negative.
o They are generalizations we make innately in the brain for a number of reasons.
 As we encounter novel stimuli, we form generic categories and generic assumptions.
o The more information we acquire, the more narrowed we are able to make those categories, and update
our stereotypes.
 A very young girl learning animals might have the stereotype that “furry things with 4 legs and a tail are dogs.”
So she might call a cat, cow, or horse a “dog.”
 We don’t just form stereotypes in childhood. We continue to stereotype in everyday life at every age.
 Our brains are powerful but that’s because they utilize stereotypes to make assumptions about the world so the
brain doesn’t have to waste precious resources trying to process every little detail. Recall the memory task to
the right from the Attention & Memory Lecture. We use our stereotype of what attributes an office has to form
a prototype. Our brain uses this prototype in making decisions and assumptions.
 The stereotype itself is neither good nor bad, but can become paired with an unjustified belief (prejudice) to
cause harmful behavior (discrimination)
 We can’t help but form stereotypes.
o The brain develops expertise very early on, and for everything else the brain develops less
representation for, and relies more on stereotypes.
 Stereotypes aren’t always accurate to what actually exists in the world.
o They are accurate to what we are EXPOSED TO. People might have different stereotypes of homosexuals
as a factor of the information they were presented as being reared in a conservative or liberal home.
 Biases in the media, upbringing, or social circle will also affect the quality of information we utilize to form
stereotypes about any subject.
 Confirmation Bias can cause us to unjustly apply stereotypes and become prejudiced or discriminate against
others.
 We need to remember that none of us have a full picture, nor all the information, about any other group of
people. Keep an open mind, even if it challenges your beliefs.
Implicit Associations Test: How it works
 The IAT relies on our tendency to be faster at processing congruous information than incongruous information.
 Over the years, the IAT has received vast amounts of criticism for potentially not being VALID. That is, scientists
argue that the IAT is actually measuring familiarity or cultural knowledge.
 The IAT also receives criticism for inferring that all implicit stereotypes will manifest as prejudice or
discrimination.
o Example: IAT being used to justify the termination of employees
 Other example: Neal taking the IAT
Discussion: when does stereotype become prejudice?
 Highest rates of myopia in the world are currently in Singapore (just over 80%)
o “My stereotype of an individual from Singapore is that they are often myopic”
 Statistically true Justified
o “Asians have bad eyesight” Statistically true, but discussion: is this a stereotype or prejudice?
 “Asians are bad drivers”
o Statistically untrue (same rate of deaths compared to most other ethnic groups)
Individual vs Institutional Discrimination
 Individual Discrimination refers to the negative or harmful behaviors that ONE person has towards members of
another group.
o E.g. A police officer who beats suspects who are a certain minority
 Institutional Discrimination refers to policies that institutions may have, and the behavior of the individuals who
implement these policies.
o Before the Women's Armed Services Integration Act (1948), women weren’t allowed to serve as a
permanent part of the military.
o Housing market can employ mortgage discrimination, or value houses more or less highly solely based on
racial makeup of the surrounding neighborhood.
 Hypothetical scenario:
o An airline is reviewing applicants to be a pilot and decides not to consider an applicant who is cortically
blind (cannot be corrected through any current means).
 Is this Discrimination against the blind?
 Should it be allowed?
 Consider the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, which basically states that if a person with disabilities is
able to perform the essential functions of a job—with or without reasonable accommodations– you must give
them consideration during the hiring process.
 A pilot applicant who is cortically blind would be unable to perform several essential functions of this job, even
with reasonable accommodations.
 Hypothetical scenario:
o A baker refuses to make a nazi-themed cake for a customer who is a white supremacist, because the
baker has a deep personal conviction that nazi ideology is appalling, so they don’t want to contribute to
its endorsement and celebration.
o Should it be allowed?
 Hypothetical scenario:
o A female patient rejects her male gynecologist and requests a female one.
 Should it be allowed?
 Should we be allowed to choose (or choose against) doctors based solely on group identifications
such as gender or ethnic background?
 To what extent should the patient’s gender or ethnic preferences factor into these decisions (assuming the
doctors are all equally qualified)?
Closing thoughts on discrimination
 Talk it out! (or think it out)
o It’s a difficult subject, but if we attempt to understand WHY we may have our prejudices or
discriminatory behaviors, it may help us to broaden our understanding of ourselves and others.
o Think about the prior scenarios and your reactions. What makes discrimination seem more justified in
some scenarios than others? Should this be the case?
 Keep an open mind
o As mentioned in an earlier slide, remember that none of us have all the information. Remember we are
always utilizing unconscious inferences to fill in the many gaps in said information.
o Acknowledging that we do not know the full story, maybe even seek out knowledge. Seek to understand
others.
 As a scientist, doctor, or any intelligent consumer of information, we are always acquiring new knowledge as to
how the world works (e.g. Updating the DSM, medicinal breakthroughs…). Be open to change because our
understanding of our world is always changing.
Does implicit bias affect you as (future) doctors?
 This is a tricky question, with a thus far incomplete answer. While medical doctors have been shown to score
the same on the IAT as the general population, research is conflicting as to whether these implicit biases affect
clinical decision making.
For life in general:
 Social Influence
o What things make us likely to obey? What things make us likely to resist obeying something we
shouldn’t?
 Deindividuation
o Being in a group can be healthy, but can also cause you to lose your sense of individuality.
o Remember how to counter the Bystander Effect
 Prejudice and Discrimination
o Stereotypes are natural, neutral and useful. People mistakenly use the word “stereotype” when they
mean “prejudice”!
o But stereotypes can easily become prejudices (and discrimination) if the generalized thoughts become
UNJUST.
o Prejudice by definition is UNjustified. Having the stereotype of zombies as heartless killing machines is a
stereotype, but it is a justifiable one. There may be some zombie out there who doesn’t want to eat your
brains, but this doesn’t mean we’re prejudiced against zombies!
o Be wary of your own confirmation biases in reinforcing your beliefs about certain people.
o Try to understand others and keep an open mind. Remember we do not have all the information about
anyone or any group of people.
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