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Social Psychology
Chapter 13
• “People who need people are the luckiest
people in the world.”
Barbra Streisand
• “Hell is other people.”
Jean-Paul Sartre
Social Psychology LOBJ 13.1
• Social psychology is the scientific study of how the
individual is influenced by the thoughts, feelings,
and behaviours of other people
Attitudes
• Attitudes are feelings and
beliefs about other people,
ideas, or objects that are
based on a person’s past
experiences, and shape
future behaviour
LOBJ 13.2
• The cognitive dimension of
an attitude consists of
thoughts and beliefs
• The emotional dimension of
an attitude involves
evaluate feelings (such as
like or dislike)
• The behavioural dimension
of an attitude involves how
beliefs and evaluations are
demonstrated
WAR? ABORTION? GAY MARRIAGE?
Does Behaviour Determine Attitudes?
• It is possible that behaviour
• Within days, “guards” were
shapes attitudes
• A dramatic demonstration
of this was the “Stanford
Prison Experiment” in
which well-adjusted college
students were asked to act
and dress as prisoners or
guards
harassing “prisoners” and
prisoners were caving in
and becoming obedient
• The study showed a person
may quickly adopt attitudes
consistent with one’s roles
Phillip Zimbardo
Persuasion: Changing Attitudes LOBJ 13.3
•
Carl Hovland was one of the first social
psychologists in the 1950s to identify the key
components of attitude change (politics &
marketing)
1.
The Communicator
2.
The Communication
3.
The Medium
4.
The Audience
Persuasion: Changing Attitudes
The Communicator
• To be persuasive, the
communicator must show
integrity, credibility, and
trustworthiness
• Perceived power, prestige,
prominence, modesty,
celebrity, and attractiveness
are also extremely
important
• Shared characteristics
The Communication
• The means by which a communication is presented
is called its “medium”
– Mass media sources
• Openness to attitude change is related in part to
age and education, intelligence, self-esteem
– The audience
• Change is far more likely if the person doing the
persuading is a friend
Techniques to Change Attitudes LOBJ 13.4
• Foot-in-the-Door
Technique
– Start small
• Door-in-the-Face
Technique
– Start BIG
• Ask-and-You-Shall-beGiven Technique
– Timing is everything
See page 457
• Lowballing Technique
– Get you to commit, then
raise the bar
• Modelling
– Do as I do
• Incentives Technique
– $$$
Coercive Persuasion
• Physical or emotional
distress
• One simple explanation
• Unconditional love,
acceptance, and
attention
• New identity is created
• Entrapment
• Information access is
controlled
Cognitive Dissonance
LOBJ 13.5
• Cognitive dissonance is a state of mental
discomfort that arises from a discrepancy
between two or more of a person’s beliefs, or
between beliefs and behaviour
– Vegan who is wearing leather, hmm???
• Leon Festinger believed that people try to
reduce cognitive dissonance by changing
one’s attitudes or behaviours
Figure 13.3 Cognitive Dissonance
Assessing the World Using Nonverbal
Communication (Social Cognition) LOBJ 13.6
• Impression formation often begins with
nonverbal communication, the
communication of information by physical
cues or actions, facial expressions, body
language, and eye contact
Facial Expressions
•
LOBJ 13.8
Across cultures, six basic emotions are
distinguished in facial expressions
– Anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness,
surprise
•
When a person smiles, both the muscular
activity around the eyes and the smile help
determine if the person is happy, or
masking another feeling
Body Language LOBJ 13.8
• Information about moods and attitudes is
conveyed through body language
• Gestures and aspects of body language have
different meanings in different societies
Eye Contact LOBJ 13.8
• The eyes convey a surprising amount of
information about feelings
• People tend to judge others based on the eye
contact they engage in
Nonverbal Communication: Flirting
Concept Check
• Send a nonverbal
message to the person
sitting next to you.
• KEEP IT CLEAN!!!
Inferring the Causes of Behaviour: Attribution
• Attribution is the process by which a person
infers other people’s motives or intentions
• Attribution must take into account internal as
well as external causes of behaviour
• This is how we try to explain WHY someone
did what they did. We make attributes.
LOBJ 13.9
Why People Make Attributions
• People use attributions to maintain a sense of
control over their environment
– Allows you to understand and predict
• Knowledge about the causes of events helps
predict and control similar events in the future
LOBJ 13.9
Errors in Attribution LOBJ 13.9
• Errors or bias can
occur in making
attributions about the
behaviour of others
• Sometimes errors
occur because people
use mental shortcuts
that are not accurate
• For example…
#1: The Fundamental Attribution Error
• When people commit the fundamental
attribution error, they assume people’s
behaviour is caused by their internal
dispositions and situational influences are
underestimated
• “She’s a bitch.” (what if she had a bad day?)
• “That idiot can’t drive.” (birthday cake on the
seat?)
#2: The Actor-Observer Effect
• The actor-observer effect is
the tendency to attribute
the behaviour of others to
internal causes
• Dispositional: that’s the way
they are.
They got an F on the exam
because they aren’t very
smart.
• One’s own behaviour is
attributed to situational
causes
• Situational: I acted like this
because of the
circumstances.
I got an F because I was
sick that day and didn’t
perform well on the exam.
The Self-Serving Bias
•
•
The self-serving bias
is the tendency for
people to feel their
positive behaviours
are due to their
internal traits (I’m good!)
At the same time, they
blame their failures
and shortcomings on
external, situational
factors (You messed me up.)
Social Influence
• Social influence refers to the ways people alter
the attitudes or behaviours of others
– Conformity: going along with the crowd
– Obedience: doing what you are told to do.
What is the name of the researcher most often
associated with studies of conformity? Hint: it’s in
your book.
Conformity
LOBJ 13.12
• When a person changes her or his attitudes
or behaviours so they are consistent with
those of other people or norms, the person is
exhibiting conformity
Conformity
• Solomon Asch found that
people in a group adopt its
standards
• Seven to nine people were
asked to judge which of
three lines matched a
standard line
• Only one group member,
the “naïve” participant, was
really unaware of the
purpose of the study
• The other “participants”
deliberately gave false
answers (confederates)
• Asch found some naïve
participants would go along
with the group, even when
the answer they gave was
obviously wrong
Asch & Sharif
Conformity and Independence
How Do Groups Cause Conformity?
• One factor that leads to
• Another important variable
conformity is the amount of
information available when
a decision is made
• When people are uncertain
of how to behave in an
ambiguous situation, they
seek the opinions of others
is the relative competence
of the group
• Conformity increases if
people feel other group
members are more
competent
How Do Groups Cause Conformity?
• Position within a group
also affects behaviour
• The more secure one’s
status, the more
independently one will
behave
• The public nature of
behaviour also
determines behaviour
• People are more likely
to make decisions
inconsistent with the
group if decisions are
private
Remember the video?
Why Do People Conform?
• The social conformity
approach states that
people conform to avoid
the stigma of being
wrong or deviant
• Attribution also explains
conformity
– When a person can
identify causes for group
behaviour they disagree
with, conformity
decreases
Why Do People Conform?
• Independence can
explain conformity (or
lack of it)
– But, independence can
be risky, and be seen as
deviant
• Conformity can be due
to expediency
– It is efficient to go along
with people one trusts
Not Conforming
• Dissenting opinions help
counteract group
influence and conformity
– A consistent opposing
voice can exert subtle
influence (12 Angry Men)
– It can foster a sense of
liberation, even when the
opposition has little status
or power
Obedience
•
Obedience is compliance with
the orders of another person
or group
•
Classic studies of obedience
were performed by Stanley
Milgram
•
Milgram told participants they
would be participating in a
study of the effects of
punishment on learning
Obedience Study - Milgram
LOBJ 13.12
Obedience
• Their task was to
administer electric shock
to a “learner,” but in
reality, the “learner” was
a confederate
• Milgram found that 65%
of all participants could
be coaxed to deliver
every level of shock
– 450 volts max
No one really got shocked!
Figure 13.7 Milgram’s Obedience Study
Explaining Milgram’s Results
• Milgram may have found high obedience because
his participants were volunteers
• Other researchers found that obedience to
authority is not specific to Western culture, and that
it applies to men and women, and younger and
older individuals
• Authority – changed results
• Peer Behavior – changed results
Ethical Issues
• Milgram’s study raised
ethical issues
• To ensure that there are no
long-lasting ill effects from
participating in a study,
participants are debriefed
• Debriefing means informing
participants about the true
nature of a study after its
completion
The Bystander Effect
• The bystander effect is that
as the number of people
present at an emergency
increases, people often
watch, but do not help
• Latané and Darley found
that before deciding to help,
people must decide if there
is actually an emergency
The Bystander Effect
• People may also
Kitty’s street
experience diffusion of
responsibility (feeling
they cannot be held
responsible for not
helping)
– E.g. Kitty Genovese
Murder
Kitty Genovese
Latane` and Darley
Relationships and Attraction
• Interpersonal attraction
is the tendency of one
person to evaluate
another in a positive
way
LOBJ 13.17
Proximity
• Decades of research
show that the closer
people are
geographically, the
more likely they will
become attracted to
one another
– You like what you have
access to.
Interpersonal attraction
Physical Attractiveness
•
Many studies show that
people are romantically
attracted to those they find
physically attractive
•
People assume attractive
individuals have more positive
traits and characteristics
•
More power, status, and
competence is ascribed to
physically attractive
individuals
Attitude Similarity and Attraction
• If you perceive
someone’s attitudes as
similar to your own, the
probability of liking that
person increases
Intimate Relationships and Love
•
Intimacy is a state in which
each person in a relationship
is willing to self-disclose and
express important feelings
and information to the other
person
•
The process of disclosure
makes each person feel
valued and cared for
Intimate Relationships and Love
• Men tend to be more self-disclosing with
a woman than another man
• Men are less likely to be self-disclosing
and intimate
What is love?
The night has a thousand eyes,
And the day but one;
Yet the light of the bright world dies
With the dying sun.
The mind has a thousand eyes,
And the heart but one;
Yet the light of a whole life dies
When love is done.
Francis William Bourdillon