chapter 12
Conformity
The altering of one's behaviors and opinions to match those of other people or to match other people's expectations
Normative influence
The tendency for people to conform in order to fit in with the group
Informational influence
The tendency for people to conform when they assume that the behavior of other represent the correct way to respond
Social Norm
Expected standard of conduct that influence behavior
Autokinetic effect
The power of conformity in social judgment
People have no frame of reference and therefore cannot correct for small eye movements, in a dark environment
Factors affecting conformity
People tend to conform to social harm
Obedience
Following the orders of a person of authority
Ordinary people may do horrible things when ordered to do so by an authority
Aggression
Any behavior that involved the intent to harm another
associated with several situational factors
When people feel socially rejected
Biological Factors
Aggression is caused by a blend of social, situational, and biological
social and cultural factors
Cultures of honor
prosocial behaviors
Action that benefits others, such as doing favors or helping
Altruism
Providing help when is needed, without any apparent reward for doing so
Inclusive fitness
an explanation for altruism that focuses on the adaptive benefit of transmitting genes such as through kin selection, rather than focusing on individual survival
Bystander intervention effective
the failure to offer help by those who observe someone in need when there are people present
Diffusion of responsibility
Bystanders expect other bystanders to help
social blunders
inadvertent violations of normative standard of behaviors
mere exposure effect
The idea that greater exposure to a stimulus leads to greater liking for it
attitude accessibility
refers to the ease or difficulty that person has in retrieving an attitude from memory
explicit attitudes
attitudes that a person can report
implicit attitudes
Attitudes that influence a person's feeling and behavior at an unconscious level
Insufficient Justification
one way to get people to change their attitudes is to change their behaviors first, using as few incentives as possible
post decisional dissonance
Motives the decision
Cognitive dissonance
to the unpleasant feeling that arises when there is a discrepancy between our attitudes and our behaviors
persuasion
The active and conscious effect to change an attitude through the transmission of a message
elaboration likelihood model
the idea that a persuasive message leads to attitude changes in either of two way:
1. via the central route
2. Via the peripheral route
compliance
The tendency to agree to doing things requested by others
Foot-in-door technique
If people agree to small request, they become more likely to do large request
Door in the face
If you refuse a large request, you are more likely to do small request
Low-balling
you agree to buy a product for a certain price you are likely to comply with a request to pay more for the product
Non verbal behavior
The facial expressions, gestures, mannerisms. and movement by which one communicates with others
Attibutions
People's explanations for why events or actions occur
Personal attributions
explanation of people's behavior that refers to their internal characteristics such as abilities traits moods or efforts
Situational attributions
explanation of people's behaviors that refer to external events such as the weather, luck, accidents or other people's actions
Fundamental attribution error
In explaining other people's behavior, the tendency to over emphasize personality traits and underestimate situational factors
Actor/Observer discrepancy
the tendency to focus on a situation to explain one own behavior but to focus and distortions to explain other people's behavior
illusory correlations
a result of directed attention and memory biases
subtyping
when people encounter someone who does not fit a stereotype, so they put them in a category
Stereotype threat
Fear or concern about confirming negative stereotypes related to one's own group which in turn impairs perform a on a task
perspective taking
Actively contemplating the psychological experiences of other people
perspective giving
In which people share their experiences of being targets of discrimination
Ingroups
Those groups to which particular people belong
Outgroups
Those to which they do not belong
Reciprocity (how do people organize themselves)
People treat others as others treat them
Transitivity
People generally share their friends' opinions of other people
Outgroup homogeneity effect
The tendency to view outgroup members as less varied than in-group members
EXAMPLE: I see white people as they are all the same, but that's because I'm not white while I see Hispanics as different
Social Identity Theory
The idea that ingroup consists of categories and experience pride through their group membership
EXAMPLE: pride for my school
Ingroup favoritism
The tendency for people to evaluate favorably and privilege members of the ingroup more than members of the outgroup
Prefrontal cortex
The middle of the pre-frontal cortex is important for thinking of other people
active with ingroup members less active with outgroup members
Risky-shift effect
Groups often make risker decisions than individuals do
Group polarization
The process by which initial attitudes of groups become more extreme over time
Group think
The tendency of a group to make a bad decision as a result of preserving the group and maintaining its cohesiveness, especially likely when the group is under intense pressure, is facing external threats, and is based in a particular direction
Social facilitation
The idea that the presence of others generally enhances performance
Social loafing
The tendency for people to work less hard in a group than when working alone
Deindividuation
A state of reduced individuality reduced self-awareness and reduced attention to personal standards