Behaviour Change Flashcards
Posteriority
Things that you spend a lot of time doing that may delay goal achievement
Clark & Hatfield (1989)
- Asking for love
- Good chance for date for both sexes
- Better chances for women who ask for apartment or bed
Similarity effect
- Just plain folk
- Increases liking and compliance
Burder et al. (similarity and liking)
- Asked participants to describe themselves with adjectives and then shown a list by a second participant that was similar or not and then rate them
- Similarity increased liking and compliance
Pique technique
Being specific
Santos et al. (asking for money)
Asking for the specific amount increases likelihood of getting it
Placebic information: Langer, Black & Chonowitz (1978)
Placebic information has same effect as sufficient information and better than none
Underestimating compliance (Flynn & Lake, 2008)
People seeking help don’t appreciate the social costs of rejecting (i.e. reciprocity) a request for help (predicted was always more than actual)
Underestimating the discomfort of help-seeking (Bohns & Flynn, 2010)
Those in a position to help underestimate the role of embarrassment in deciding to ask for help
War propoganda uses:
- Subjective norms
- Attitudes
- Personalization
- “You”
Torches of freedom
- Edward Bernays
- Smoking and women’s liberation at Easter Sunday Parade
Self-efficacy theory (Bandura, 1977)
Strength of one’s belief in one’s ability to complete a task or goals
• Seize good opportunities
• Engage with role models
• Internal locus of control
Theory of reasoned action (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980)
Attitudes or subjective norms > intention > actions
Theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen, 1991)
Attitude or norms or perceived behavioural control > intentions > actions
Six components of Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura, 1986)
- Reciprocal determinism
- Behavioural capability
- Observational learning
- Reinforcements
- Expectations
- Self-efficacy
Availability heuristic (Tversky & Kahneman, 1973)
Proposes that the ease of retrieval of an event is an indicator of its relative frequency in the environment and hence its importance
• Variety of research using alphabets, self-ratings on personality traits and risk assessment
Yale attitude change approach (Holland, 1953)
- The Source
- The Message
- The Audience
Elaboration likelihood model
- Central route (controlled)
- Peripheral route (automatic)
Reasoned argument structures:
- Sequential pattern
- Problem-solution pattern
- Topical organization
- Two-sided pattern
- Refutational vs. non-refutional
Operant conditioning
- Learning with reinforcement and punishment for behaviour
- Through operant conditioning, an association is made between a behavior and a consequence for that behavior
Operant vs. Classical
Operant conditioning= control problem
- What to do to maximize reward?
- Learning what behaviour to do
Classical = prediction problem
- What is going to happen?
- Learning of a relationship (not necessarily a required behaviour for the situation to take place)
Operant conditioning: Which responses to make?
- Shaping
- Discovery schedules
Operant conditioning: How much to respond?
Matching law
Operant conditioning: When to respond?
Timing
Limitations of conditioning
- Instincts
- Goals
- Habits
Deficit model of science
Think telling people scientific data will change their behaviour
Information proliferation
Wealth of information creates poverty of attention
Concreteness of American English (Hills & Adelman, 2015)
- Concrete words are more easily recalled and more readily learned
- Become more concrete
Forces of information selection: Belief Consistent
Leads balanced information to support increasingly polarized views
- Lord, Ross & Lepper (1979): Presented neutral information about capital punishment which actually made readers more polarized rather than more neutral
Forces of information selection: Negative Information
Amplifies information about downside risks and crowds potential benefits
- Loss Aversion (Tversky & Kahneman, 1991)
- Social risk amplification (Moussaid et al., 2015): Chinese whispers study with Triclosan information
- Extension (Jagiello & Hills, 2018): Reintoducing balanced information later doesn’t help
Forces of information selection: Social Information
Drives herding, impairs objective assessments, reduces exploration for solutions to hard problems
- Advice (Engelmann et al., 2009): Turn off pre-frontal cortex when getting advice
- Knowing others’ choice (Salganik et al.): Increasing strength of social influence increased both inequality and unpredictability of success
- Network connectivity (Mason et al., 2008): Modulates exploration/exploitation: more connections good for easy problem but not for hard
Forces of information selection: Predictive Information
Drives overfitting, replication crisis, risk seeking
Social Proof/Consensus
- Conformity (Asch, 1955)
- Bystander Effect
- Pluralistic ignorance
Reciprocity
- Social norms
- Gift giving
- Reciprocal altruism
- Gillette Model
Authority
- Messenger
- Obedience
- Power
Liking
Mere exposure effect
Scarcity
- Limits
- Censorship fails
Consistency/ commitment
Foot-in-the-door
Vicarious trial and error (Tolman & Gleitman, 1949)
Animal stops at choice point and chooses safe side
Simulation theory of cognitive function (Hesslow, 2002)
Brain automatically constructs responses
Piano study (Lotze et al., 2003)
- Brain activation during real and imagined piano performance is in similar areas (however less activation in the imagined)
- Amateurs also have overall more activation in both than professionals
Neural noise
Distance between channels or things interfering with it in one neuron
Executive control (Baddeley et al., 1998)
Having a parallel task adds redundancy to production of random digits task (introduction of randomness is effortful)
Naive inhibition model
Actual animal (Inhibition) > q-self (Simulation) > q-self (Removal of inhibition) > Actual animal
Self-actuating model
- Added p-self
- Clone and merge
p-self
- Need not be an enduring ‘narrative’ self but could be an ‘enduring self’ if we create a model meta self
- Reality monitor
Self-perception theory of attitudes (Bem, 1972)
Reverse view of causality: Behaviours cause attitudes
Decision Field Theory (homunculus free stopping)
Outcomes are drawn from memory with evaluative (striatal) information (past determines threshold)
Self-fulfilling prophecy (Merton, 1947)
Definitions of a situation become an integral part of the situation and thus affect subsequent developments
Dunbar’s number
Neocortex (thinking part of brain) size as a constraint on group size in primates
- Correlation between size of neocortex relative to rest of brain and average group size
Ingroup bias
People tend to favour/praise/prefer their own group relative to other groups (even when the group definition is basically arbitrary)
Social Identity Theory (Tajfel, 1981)
Part of the self-concept derived from group membership
- Minimal group paradigm with artists (Tajfel et al., 1970)
Robbers Cave Experiments (Sherif et al., 1954)
- Group formation
- Group conflict
- Conflict resolution
Social Identity Maintenance Model (Turner & Pratkanis)
Group self-categorization > Positive group image (arrow from collective threat) > Identity protection > Defective decision making
Groupthink (Janis, 1972) symptoms
Psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people in which desire for conformity or harmony results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome
- Illusions of invulnerability
- Unquestioned beliefs
- Rationalizing
- Stereotyping
- Self-censorship
- Mindguards
- Illusions of unanimity
- Direct pressure
The Manded Altercast (Miller et al., 1975)
- Stop littering
- Attribution worked better than persuasion (we wouldn’t do that vs. don’t be a litterbug)
Cheating (Bryan & Adams, 2013)
When people were told “please don’t cheat” they were more likely to claim more money than those who were told “please don’t be cheater”
Social contagion
- Obesity (Christakis & Fowler, 2007)
- Smoking (Christakis & Fowler, 2008)
Base rate fallacy
If presented with base rate information (i.e. generic, general information) and specific information (pertaining to a certain case), one tends to ignore the former and focus on the latter
False positive paradox
- People are inclined to say that probability for having a disease is 100% if you test positive even if the test has a 20% false positive rate and population base rate is 1%
- False positive tests are more probable than true positive tests (occurs when overall population has a low incidence of a condition and the incidence rate is lower than the false positive rate)
DRD4 gene
- 7R allele associated with novelty seeking and extraversion (Ebstein, 2006)
- Ancestors who moved further away from Africa had 7R instead of 4R
Frequency-Dependent Selection
Advantages of low frequency strategies
Hawk-Dove Game
The hawk-dove game is a game theory situation where an individual can choose to play hawk or dove and then reveal what they are playing to the other person (who also chooses)
Producer-Scrounger Game
- Producers bear the costs associated with searching for food
- Scroungers benefit from the work of producers
- Better to be one or the other depending on what/ how many others are
Humanity is more civil- Pinker’s argument
One of the reasons for this is increased efficiency in book production which enables better perspective thinking empathy and theory of mind
Intergroup Contact Theory
Direct contact between hostile groups will reduce prejudice (Allport, 1954)
Social distance
Concreteness decreases with more social distance
What is negotiation?
- Group decision making
- Probabilistic
- Try to maximize outcomes
Good negotiators:
1. Understanding of value
How you and others value things
- BATNA: best alternative to a negotiated agreement
- ZOPA (Zone of possible agreement): The differences between your reservation price and the other party’s
Good negotiators:
2. Patience
Time pressure impairs ability to use what you know, makes it harder to understand and seek alternatives
- Ask questions and build trust
Good negotiators:
3. Honesty
Relies on trust
Zero sum fallacy
A mathematical representation of a situation in which each participant’s gain or loss is balanced by the losses or gains of the other participants
Things to remember when negotiating
- Contrast effect
- Disaggregate the gains
- Frequency trumps quality
- Door-in-the-face
- Try to avoid escalation
- Negotiating from a position of weakness
- Negotiation isn’t always about the obvious
How mental systems believe (Gilbert, 1991)
- Something is believed if: its meaning is represented, coded or symbolized in a mental system and is treated as true
- Cartesian belief: COMPREHENSION > ACCEPTANCE OR REJECTION
- Spinozan procedure: COMPRHENSION AND ACCEPTANCE > CERTIFICATION OR UNACCEPTANCE
Implementation intentions and goal achievement (Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006)
Goal implementation (if-then plans; self instructions) helps by promoting goal realization: setting the when, where and how of goal striving
a. Identify a response that will promote goal attainment
b. Anticipate a suitable occasion to initiate that response
The Dark Side of Information Proliferation (Hills, 2018)
- Belief consistent: Leads balanced information to support increasingly polarized views
- Negative: Amplifies information about downside risks (social risk amplification) and crowds potential benefits
- Social: Drives herding, impairs objective assessments, reduces exploration for solutions to hard problems
- Predictive: Drives overfitting, replication crisis, risk seeking
Influencing behaviour: The MINDSPACE way (Dolan et al., 2012)
- Messenger
- Incentives
- Norms
- Defaults
- Salience
- Priming
- Affect
- Commitments
- Ego
Neurocognitive Free Will (Hills)
- Hard determinism
- Hard indeterminism
- Compatibilism
- Libertarianism
Dominant design features of free will:
- Generation of alternative possibilities
- Regulation of behavior via higher-order volition (goals & plans)
- Role of deliberation in producing and valuing choices in relation to the self
