Glossary K, L, & M

Question 1

A theory suggesting that a key goal for all
organisms—including human beings—is getting our genes into the next generation; one way in which individuals can reach this goal is by helping others who share their genes.

Answer 1

kin selection theory

Question 2

Involves setting the group’s agenda and influencing others to act in ways that will achieve those goals.

Answer 2

leadership

Question 3

The fact that offering individuals small
rewards for engaging in counterattitudinal behavior often produces more dissonance, and so more attitude change, than offering them larger rewards.

Answer 3

less-leads-to-more effect

Question 4

A procedure in which witnesses to a crime are shown several people, one or more of whom may be suspects in a case, and asked to identify those that they recognize as the person who committed the crime.

Answer 4

lineup

Question 5

Aspects of speech apart from the meaning of the words employed.

Answer 5

linguistic style

Question 6

The unpleasant emotional and cognitive state based on desiring close relationships but being unable to attain them.

Answer 6

loneliness

Question 7

A combination of emotions, cognitions, and behaviors that often play a crucial role in intimate relationships

Answer 7

love

Question 8

A technique for gaining compliance in which an offer or deal is changed to make it less attractive to the target person after this person has accepted it.

Answer 8

low-ball procedure

Question 9

A technique for gaining compliance in which
individuals are first asked to do something they find appealing and then, once they agree, are asked to do something they dislike.

Answer 9

the Lure effect

Question 10

Thinking involving assumptions that don’t hold
up to rational scrutiny—for example, the belief that things that resemble one another share fundamental properties.

Answer 10

magical thinking

Question 11

The tendency for individuals in a romantic relationship to be similar to each other in terms of physical attractiveness.

Answer 11

matching hypothesis

Question 12

By having seen before, but not necessarily remembering having done so, attitudes toward an object can be formed

Answer 12

mere exposure

Question 13

A linguistic device that relates or draws a comparison between one abstract concept and another dissimilar concept.

Answer 13

metaphor

Question 14

Fleeting facial expressions lasting only a few
tenths of a second.

Answer 14

microexpressions

Question 15

When we are categorized into different groups
based on some “minimal” criteria we tend to favor others who are categorized in the same group as ourselves compared to those categorized as members of a different group

Answer 15

minimal groups

Question 16

Refers to systems in the brain that appear to provide a neural foundation for our capacity to experience empathy

Answer 16

mirror neurons

Question 17

More subtle beliefs than blatant feelings of superiority. It consists primarily of thinking minorities are seeking and receiving more benefits than they deserve and a denial that discrimination affects their outcomes.

Answer 17

modern racism

Question 18

The fact that we are more likely to store or remember positive information when in a positive mood and negative information when in a negative mood.

Answer 18

mood congruence effects

Question 19

The fact that what we remember while in a given mood may be determined, in part, by what we learned when previously in that mood.

Answer 19

mood dependent memory

Question 20

No longer seeing sanctioning as necessary for perpetrating harm that has been legitimized.

Answer 20

moral disengagement

Question 21

A focus on understanding the cultural and ethnic factors that influences social behavior.

Answer 21

multicultural perspective