Social Thinking

1. Social Thinking • Social Psychology • scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another • Attribution Theory • tendency to give a causal explanation for someone’s behavior using the situation or the person’s disposition

2. Social Thinking • Situationism • judging behavior overestimate environmental conditions and underestimate personal disposition • Fundamental Attribution Error • judging behavior underestimate environment and overestimate personal disposition • Attitude • Predisposed feeling affecting response

3. Internal attitudes External influences Behavior Social Thinking • Our behavior is affected by our inner attitudes as well as by external social influences

4. Tolerant reaction (proceed cautiously, allow driver a wide berth) Situational attribution “Maybe that driver is ill.” Negative behavior Unfavorable reaction (Speed up and race past the other driver, craning to give them a dirty look) Dispositional attribution “Crazy driver!” Social Thinking • How we explain someone’s behavior affects how we react to it

5. (1) Does Susan regularly get angry in traffic jams? (2) Do many other people get angry in traffic jams? (3) Does Susan get angry in many other situations? YES NO YES NO NO YES No personality or situational attribution Situational attribution: traffic jams make people mad Personality attribution, general Personality attribution, particular Kelley’s Attribution Logic

6. Automatic Attribution Controlled Attribution Observer’s goal Revision: could be a funny show Person: Joe laughs easily What kind of person is Joe? Situation: the TV show is funny Revision: maybe Joe laughs easily How funny is the TV comedy? Two-stage Model of Attributions Book example: Joe laughs hysterically while watching a TV comedy. What can we conclude?

7. Social Thinking • Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon • Once you agree to a small request, more likely to complete a large request • Role • Rules set that dictate situational or personal behavior • Norms • Expectations of what is appropriate

8. Social Thinking • Cognitive Dissonance Theory • we act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) we feel when two of our thoughts (cognitions) are inconsistent • example- why smokers rationalize the habit; why after buying a Prius you listen to the Prius pros in commercials rather than the news of faulty manufacturing practices

9. Social Influence • Conformity • adjusting one’s behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard • Group Influences for Conformity • Size of the majority • Size of the discrepancy • Presence of a partner who dissented

10. More likely to Conform • Judgment task is difficult or ambiguous • Responses are public • Group members perceived as competent • When majority is unanimous video: Asch ex, adolescent conform, psych experiment, today solomon

11. Social Influence • Informational Social Influence • influence resulting from one’s willingness to accept others’ opinions about reality • Normative Social Influence • influence resulting from a person’s desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval

12. 3 1 2 Standard lines Comparison lines Asch Effect • A group majority influences individual judgments

13. 50 40 30 20 10 0 Percentage of conformity to confederates’ wrong answers Difficult judgments Easy judgments High Low Importance Slide 1 Slide 2 Social Influence • Participants judged which person in Slide 2 was the same as the person in Slide 1

14. 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Percentage of subjects who obeyed experimenter The majority of subjects continued to obey to the end Slight (15-60) Moderate (75-120) Strong (135-180) Very strong (195-240) Intense (255-300) Extreme intensity (315-360) Danger severe (375-420) XXX (435-450) Shock levels in volts Obedience to Authority • Milgram’s experiment • Getting Good people to do Bad things

15. Social Influence • Testing facilitated communication

16. Social Influence • Social Facilitation • improved performance when in small groups than alone • occurs with simple or well-learned tasks • Social Loafing • people in a group exert less effort than when individually accountable • Deindividuation • Loss of sense of responsibility when in a group

17. Home Advantage in Major Team Sports Sport Games Home Team Studied Winning Percentage Baseball 23,034 53.5% Football 2,592 57.3 Ice hockey 4,322 61.1 Basketball 13,596 64.4 Soccer 37,202 69.0 Social Facilitation

18. Social Influence • Group Polarization • Within a group not similar ideas get more extreme and pronounced…politics • Social Reality • Subjective reality determined by what we find attractive, threatening, whom we seek/avoid

19. +4 +3 +2 +1 0 -1 -2 -3 -4 High High-prejudice groups Prejudice Low-prejudice groups Low Before discussion After discussion Social Influence • If a group is like-minded, discussion strengthens its prevailing opinions

20. Social Influence • Culture • behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by a large group • Passed on by generations • Personal Space • buffer zone we like to maintain around our bodies

21. Social Influence Percentage agreeing “The activities of married women are best confined to home and family” • Gender Role • a set of expected behaviors for males and for females 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Percentage Men Women 1967 ‘71 ‘75 ‘79 ‘83 ‘87 ‘91 ‘95 Year

22. Social Relations • Prejudice • an unjustifiable (and usually negative) attitude toward a group and its members • involves stereotyped beliefs, negative feelings, and a predisposition to discriminatory action • Stereotype • a generalized (often overgeneralized) belief about a group of people

23. 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Would you vote for a woman president? Do whites have a right to keep minorities out of their neighborhoods? 1936 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 Year Social Relations • Americans today express much less racial and gender prejudice Percentage answering yes

24. Social Relations • In-group Bias • favor one’s own group • Scapegoat Theory • outlet for anger by providing blaming someone else; often based on stereotype/prejudice • Just-World Phenomenon • to believe the world is just • You get what you deserve and deserve what you get

25. Social Relations • Aggression • any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy • Frustration-Aggression Principle • principle that frustration – the blocking of an attempt to achieve some goal – creates anger, which can generate aggression (Road Rage) attempt to get to somewhere

26. 8.0 7.5 7.0 6.5 6.0 Murders and rapes per day in Houston, Texas 40-68 69-78 79-85 86-91 92-99 Temperature in degrees Fahrenheit Social Relations • Uncomfortably hot weather and aggression

27. Sexual promiscuity Coerciveness against women Hostile masculinity Social Relations • Men who sexually coerce women

28. Social Relations • Conflict • perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas • Social Trap • a situation in which the conflicting parties, by each rationally pursuing their self-interest, become caught in mutually destructive behavior (Cold War, parent/child fight)

29. Person 1 Choose A Choose B Optimal outcome Person 2 Choose B Choose A Probable outcome Social Relations • Social trap • by pursuing our self-interest and not trusting others, we can end up losers

30. Social Relations- Attractiveness • Proximity • mere exposure effect- repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of them • Physical Attractiveness • youthfulness may be associated with health and fertility • Similarity • friends share common attitudes, beliefs, interests

31. Attractiveness • Worldwide, men prefer youth and health, women prefer resources and social status

32. Social Relations • Passionate Love • an aroused state of intense positive absorption in another • usually present at the beginning of a love relationship • Companionate Love • deep affectionate attachment we feel for those with whom our lives are intertwined

33. Social Relations • Equity • a condition in which people receive from a relationship in proportion to what they give to it • Self-disclosure • revealing intimate aspects of oneself to others • Altruism • unselfish regard for the welfare of others

34. Notices incident? Interprets incident as emergency? Assumes responsibility? Yes Yes Yes Attempts to help No No No No help No help No help Social Relations • The decision-making process for bystander intervention

35. 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Percentage attempting to help 1 2 3 4 Number of others presumed available to help Social Relations • Bystander Effect • tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present

36. Social Relations • Social Exchange Theory • social behavior is an exchange; maximize benefits and minimize costs • Superordinate Goal • Goal that supercedes individual goals causing cooperation

37. Social Relations • Graduated and Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension-reduction (GRIT) • Psych. strategy to decrease international disputes • one group recognizes of mutual interests and gives a conciliation opening door for other group to reciprocate