lecture 8

Question 1

the prisoner dilemma originates from ____

Answer 1

game theory

Question 2

what predicts cooperation between people and groups

Answer 2

• situational determinants
• construal processes
• culture
• evolution

Question 3

what is reputation

Answer 3

the collective beliefs, evaluations, and impression people hold about an individual within a social network

Question 4

in the language of the prisoners dilemma, we judge people as being one of two things:

Answer 4

• cooperators (2 points)
• defectors (6 points)

Question 5

people are more likely to cooperate in the game with someone they’ve been told is ____

Answer 5

helpful

Question 6

one of the primary reasons we gossip is to share information about other people’s ___

Answer 6

reputations

Question 7

what is the mechanism we need for sharing information about others cooperation habits

Answer 7

gossip

Question 8

the “threat” of reputation harm through gossip serves to keep people ___ and subtly encourage cooperation over defection

Answer 8

in-check

Question 9

construal and cooperation study

Answer 9

• primed participants with hostile or meaningless words (subliminally)
• participants who saw hostile words = more likely to defect

Question 10

T/F your major in university is a culture

Answer 10

true

Question 11

economic majors vs. others

Answer 11

economics = belief in rational thought
- competition should produce the best result for each individual
- each individual should act in their own interest
- less likely to cooperate in the prisoner’s dilemma game
- even economics professors are more likely to defect

Question 12

Robert Axelrod developed a contest to determine

Answer 12

the most effective method of playing the prisoners dilemma game

the assumption is that the most effective solution for the game would be the one most favoured by evolutionary process

Question 13

what is the tit-for-tat strategy

Answer 13

choose the cooperate strategy in the first round then repeat whatever the opponent does the following round infinitely.

doesn’t will every game but wins the most often

Question 14

how does tit-for-tat work (5 factors)?

Answer 14

it is:
1.) cooperative
(encourages cooperation)
2.) not envious
(partner will do just as well by following the same strategy)
3.) not exploitable
(can’t take advantage of it)
4.) forgiving
(it will cooperate again at the very first sign of cooperation)
5.) easy to read/learn
(should not take the opponent long to figure out how it works)

Question 15

rules to live by via prisoner dilemma

Answer 15

1.) be nice
2.) be loyal and reliable
3.) don’t be a push over
4.) be forgiving
5.) be clear

Question 16

what are attitudes

Answer 16

a long held belief that guides our social interactions

Question 17

the ABCs of attitudes

Answer 17

A = Affect
(how does someone feel towards something)
B = Behaviour
(how does someone act on their belief)
C = Cognition
(what is the belief? what knowledge do you have about the subject)

description = cognition
feeling = affect
frequency = behaviour
together = attitude towards ___

Question 18

why do we have attitudes

Answer 18

they can useful in helping to guide our behaviour
good feeling = approach
bad feeling = avoid

Question 19

how do we measure attitudes

Answer 19

1.) self report
(likert scales - strongly disagree to strongly agree)
2.) implicit association tests
(method of assessing attitudes without the participant knowing that attitudes are assessed)
3.) physiological measurements
(skin conductance – sweat –, heartbeat, brain activity)

Question 20

skin conductance:

Answer 20

electrodermal activity/galvanic skin response

Question 21

can our attitudes predict our behaviour

Answer 21

sometimes:

you feel more positively towards something, you’re more likely to indulge in it

Question 22

what is attitude consistency

Answer 22

the notion that for any given attitude, the ABCs of that attitude will usually be in line with each other:

ex. ice cream
Affect = I like it
Behaviour = I eat it
Cognition = I think it’s great and delicious

Question 23

T/F attitudes are always in sync

Answer 23

false: sometimes our affect and cognition are out of sync therefore the behaviour will depend upon which factor is stronger in the given situation

Question 24

Strong attitudes predict —-> _______

Intention —> _________

Answer 24

Strong attitudes predict —-> strong intentions (of acting on attitudes)

Intention —> predicts actual behaviour

ex. it’s easier to throw batteries out
- but if you have a particularly strong attitude about recycling, it will increase your intention to recycle
- increases your recycling behaviour
- even if it a costly behaviour

Question 25

T/F a situation can also influence whether attitudes will predict beahviour

Answer 25

true:
attitude strength may differ by situation, attitude might be relevant in one situation, behaviour might occur in a different situation

Question 26

situational context of the attitude vs behaviour

Answer 26

ex. teenage smoking
attitude = smoking is bad
intention = i won’t smoke

attitude –> around parents, family, teachers
behaviour –> around peers

behaviours will be consistent with attitudes when the behaviour occurs in the same situation where the attitude is expressed

Question 27

general vs specific attitudes and predicting behaviour

Answer 27

is it important to have safer-sex? (general)

the next time you have sex, will you take precaution to make sure it’s safer sex? (specific)

Question 28

how are we targets of other peoples attempts to persuade us

Answer 28

• advertising
• fake news
• propaganda
• recuitment

Question 29

dual process approaches to persuasion

Answer 29

1.) the elaboration likelihood model (ELM)
- Petty and Cacioppo
- how likely is it that people will elaborate on this argument and give it “elaborate” thought and consideration
2.) Heuristic- systematic model (HSM)
- Chaiken

BOTH USE 2 ROUTES:
(1) systematic/central route
* occurs when we think carefully and deliberately about the content of a persuasive message
* consider all evidence
* look at strengths of all arguments
* only the quality and logic of the argument will persuade us

   (2) heuristic/peripheral route * heuristic = mental shortcuts that ease the cognition load of making a decision/processing a piece of information * paying attention to who is delivering the argument/how many people agree * occurs when people only pay attention to the peripheral aspect of the message (easy to process elements)

Question 30

in an ideal world, we would only use the ____/____ route to persuasion

Answer 30

central/systematic

Question 31

what determines which (persuasion) route we will use in an given situation

Answer 31

MOTIVATIONAND ABILITY
- do you have the energy to put the effort required to carefully consider the argument
- is the topic of personal interest (therefore intrinsic motivation)
- does the outcome impact you personally?
- even if you have the motivation, do you have the ability to do so?
- do you have previous knowledge
- do you have the time, cognitive ability (state – lack of cognitive ability right now/trait – lack cognitive ability in general)

Question 32

Yale study says persuasive messages can be evaluated based on three components

Answer 32

1.) who
- source of the message
what matters:
* attractiveness
* credibility
* certainty
2.) what
- content of the message
what matters:
* message quality (high quality messages are more persuasive – especially in central route)
* vividness (summaries, conclusions, take-away messages – colourful, memorable, emotional, interesting)
* fear (instructions on how to quit smoking, induce fear about dangers of smoking, induce fear and provide instructions)
3.) whom
- target of the message
what matters:
* need for cognition (how much does the target audience like to think deeply about things)
* mood (can serve as construals)
* age (younger = more likely to be persuaded)
* audience size + diversity (larger audience = more arguments to persuade)

Question 33

people with a high need for cognition vs low need

Answer 33

HIGH
- best persuaded by central/systematic route
- elaborate attention to detail
LOW
- more easily persuaded through peripheral/heuristic
- “ooooo shiny”

Question 34

abstract points

Answer 34

• can be interpreted in multiple ways
• might hit home with more than one person for various reasons