Chapter 9Social Psychology

2 of 26

Social Psychology: Scientific study of how we influence one

another’s behavior and thinking.

Social Psychology

3 of 26

Topics to Explore

1. How others influence our behavior

2. How others influence our thinking

Part 1How Others Influence

Our Behavior

5 of 26

Social Influence: Changes in a person’s behavior induced

by the actions of another person. (Someone else influences

your decision)

Conformity: A change in behavior and/or belief to conform

to a group norm as a result of real or imagined group

pressure

Social Influence

6 of 26

The Sherif Study

Participants in dark room asked to estimate how far a point of light moved. The light actually did not move, but due to the autokinetic effect, it appeared to.

When participants were alone, the estimates differed greatly. However, when participants were in a group, the estimates came to agree.

Informational social influence: Influence stemming from the need for information in situations in which the correct action or judgment is uncertain.

7 of 26

The Asch Study

People were tested in groups, one test participant and several confederates. Each was asked to judge which of three comparison lines was the same length as the standard line. The test participant was asked last, after the confederates had answered.

8 of 26

The Asch Study, continued

75% of participants conformed to confederates’ judgments at least some of the time.

Overall, 37% of judgments conformed.

Normative social influence: influence stemming from our desire to gain the approval and to avoid the disapproval of others.

9 of 26

Situational Factors in Conformity

• Unanimity of the group: It was easier for participants not to conform if just one other person disagreed with the group.

• Mode of responding: More participants disagreed when judgments were given by secret ballot than given out loud.

• Status: greater conformity was shown by participants of lower status than the other group members or participants who wants to be part of the group.

10 of 26

Compliance: acting in accordance with a direct request from

another person or group.

Foot-in-the-door technique: compliance to a large request

is gained by preceding it with a very small request.

Door-in-the-face technique: compliance is gained by

starting with a large, unreasonable request that is turned

down, and then following it with a smaller, more reasonable

request.

Why We Comply

11 of 26

More Compliance Techniques

• The low-ball technique: compliance to a costly request is gained by first getting compliance to an attractive, less costly request but then reneging on it (introductory offers)

• The that’s-not-all technique: compliance to a planned second request with additional benefits is gained by presenting this request before a response can be made to a first request (Ron Popeil)

12 of 26

Obedience: Following the commands of a person in authority.

Classic Milgram study: Volunteer told to teach another

person (actually an accomplice in the experiment) word pairs

by applying an electric shock each time the learner was

wrong. The learner also told the volunteer that he had a heart

condition.

65% obeyed by going all the way to 450 volts on the “shock

machine” even though the learner eventually could not answer

any more questions.

Obedience to Authority

13 of 26

Results of Milgram’s Study

14 of 26

Situational Factors in Obedience

Obedience to authority was lowered by:

• increased personal contact with victim

• social support of others (e.g., two volunteers working together)

• “Authority figure” appearing more disreputable

• Disagreement between 2 authority figures

15 of 26

Group Influence

• Social Facilitation: the presence of others leads to heightened arousal, in which our performance of simpler, familiar tasks is improved and our performance of more difficult, unfamiliar tasks is adversely affected.

• Social loafing: tendency to exert less effort when working in a group toward a common goal than when individually working toward the same goal.

• Diffusion of responsibility: the lessening of a sense of individual responsibility for a task when responsibility is shared among members of a group.

16 of 26

Group Influence, continued

• Deindividuation: the loss of self-awareness and self-restraint in a group situation that fosters arousal and anonymity

• Group polarization: the strengthening of a group’s prevailing opinion about a topic following group discussion about the topic.

• Groupthink: a mode of group thinking that impairs decision making because the desire for group harmony overrides a realistic appraisal of the possible decision alternatives.

• Bystander effect: the probability of a person’s helping in an emergency is greater when there are no other bystanders than when there are bystanders.

17 of 26

Offering Help: Decision Tree

18 of 26

Number of Bystanders & Offers of Help

Part 2How Others Influence

Our Thinking

20 of 26

Attribution: the process by which we explain our own

behavior and that of others. We can attribute behavior to:

• External Causes (situational): Ones that lie outside of a

person

• Internal Causes (dispositional): Ones that lie within a

person

Attribution Theory

21 of 26

Attributions We MakeAbout Ourselves

• Actor-observer bias: the tendency to overestimate situational influences on our own behavior, but to overestimate dispositional influences on the behavior of others

• Self-serving bias: the tendency to make attributions so that one can perceive oneself favorably

• False-consensus effect: tendency to overestimate the commonality of one’s opinions and unsuccessful behaviors (but not successful behaviors)

• False uniqueness effect: tendency to underestimate the commonality of one’s abilities and successful behaviors

22 of 26

Attributions We Make About Others

• Fundamental attribution error: the tendency as an observer to overestimate dispositional influences (internal causes) and underestimate situational influences (external causes) upon others’ behavior

• Just world hypothesis: the assumption that the world is just and that people get what they deserve

• Primacy effect: information gathered early is weighted more heavily than information gathered later in forming an impression of another person (I.e., first impressions count!)

• Self-fulfilling prophecy: our behavior leads a person to act in accordance with our expectations for that person

23 of 26

Cognitive Dissonance (Festinger): discomfort caused by

inconsistencies between attitudes and behavior

• We need to have consistency in our thoughts, perceptions,

and images of ourselves

• Underlies attempts to convince ourselves we did the right

thing

Justification: Degree to which one’s actions are justified by

rewards or other circumstances

Cognitive Dissonance

24 of 26

Example of Cognitive Dissonance

25 of 26

Bem’s Self-Perception Theory

• Self-Perception Theory: a theory which assumes that when we are unsure of our attitudes, we infer them by examining our behavior and the context in which it occurs

• According to Bem, people don’t change their attitude because of their behavior (Festinger’s position), but rather use their behavior to infer their attitude.

26 of 26

Social Role: Patterns of behavior expected of people in various

social positions (e.g. daughter, mother, teacher, President (!)).

Ascribed Role: Assigned to a person or not under personal

control

Achieved Role: Attained voluntarily or by special effort:

teacher, mayor, President

Role Conflict: When two or more roles make conflicting

demands on behavior

Role-playing: When taking on a role, we tend to take on the

attitudes and behaviors associated with that role. (Zimbardo’s

prisoner study)

Social Roles