Download Diffusion of Responsibility

Social Psychology
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Study social influences that help explain why
people behave the way they do in various
situations
How do we explain other people’s behavior?
How come we conform?
How do people get us to do things?
How do we explain behavior?
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Internal (dispositional) vs external
(situational) explanation
Stable vs unstable explanations
Fundamental Attribution Error =
focusing on dispositional characteristics
and disregarding situational
characteristics when we explain others
behavior
Do attributions matter?
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Does this effect how
we explain mental
illness? Poverty?
Stable
Success?
How do we explain
high performance?
Unstable
Gender bias
External
Internal
Lucky
Smart
Easy test
Hard
Worker
What comes first our attitude or
our behavior?
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Attitudes = beliefs and feelings that
predispose our reactions to people, objects
and events
Sometimes behavior predicts our attitudes
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Example: parents and allowing kids to watch tv
Foot in the door-once someone agrees to
something small will more likely comply with
a bigger request!
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First ask someone to donate a small amount and
then follow it up with a larger request
Why do we sometimes change
our attitude to match our
behavior?
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We may feel motivated to justify our actions!
Cognitive dissonance theory says
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we want to relieve the tension that we feel
bring attitudes in line with actions
Research indicates that if you get someone to
do something (with little external justification)
they will tell you they like it more)
Asch’s Conformity Experiments
Social Influence
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Behavior is contagious- we have a
tendency to follow norms, copy others,
and change our behavior
Asch’s classic study on conformity
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Had to identify correct line (from 3 other
lines)
Less than 1% were wrong when alone
About 1/3 conformed when in group
situation
Why do we conform?
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Normative reasons: sensitivity to social
norms; we want to be accepted
Informational social influences: we look
to others for the correct answer when
we are not sure
Obedience
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Classic Milgram studies on obedience
Confederate and participant told they were
participating in a learning experiment
Participant had to “shock” the learner every
time a wrong answer was given
If they resisted, were told they had to go on
Complaints from “learner”
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At 120, shouts were heard
at 150 learner shouted, “get me out of here”
At 330, learner refused to answer
How long would you keep going?
Milgram’s Obedience Experiment
What did we learn from
obedience studies?
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People are more likely to conform when
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Authority figure is close by
Victim was depersonalized
No other dissenters were present
Authority figure was “prestigious”
People who do undesirable (even “evil”)
things are not necessarily evil!
Situations are extremely influential
Altruistic Behavior
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Altruism = unselfish regard for the
welfare of others
Bystander intervention effects
Research demonstrates, we are more
likely to help:
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Notice the incident
Interpret it as emergency
Assume responsibility
Responses to a Simulated Physical
Emergency
Social Psychology has taught
us…
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Sometimes our behavior influences our
attitudes!
People do conform!
Social situations are powerful- we are
influenced by norms and expectations
We can transform situations-enemies
can become friends, etc.