Social behaviour 2 Flashcards
Social influence
the way people affect each others behaviour
group living
- part of evolutionary history
- increased safety
- working with others to complete hard tasks
- raising children
group
collection of 2 or more people who interact with each other
-interdependent/ rely on each other
social facilitation
presence of others improves performance on easy tasks
decreases performance on hard tasks
seen in animals; humans, chimps, birds, and cockroaches
Triplett’s test
noticed that he rode his bike faster when he rode with others
tested the idea that the presence of others improves performance
asked kids to wind a fishing reel as fast as they could
tested them when alone and when in groups of kids doing the same thing
wound faster when other kids were present
improvement in performance in the presence of others occurs for tasks that are easy/we know well/we can perform well
presence of other people creates ______ which is responsible for _____
presence of other people creates arousal which is responsible for social facilitation
Performing a task for others is ___ from performing a task with others
differennt
when engaged in a group activity, sometimes individual performance cannot be separated from other group members
ex:when you and 5 friends work together to push a car out of a snow bank, individual contribution cannot easily be distinguished from anybody else’s
Social loafing
when the presence of others causes one to slack off if individual effort cannot be evaluated
when the presence of others causes individuals to relax their standards and slack off
more likely if individual effort cannot be separated from group
if you are singing in a choir and there are a bunch of other voices supporting yours, you are less likely to sing your heart out
you alone are not responsible for the sound, so the spreading of responsibility alters your behaviour (you loaf)
if singing a solo, you would belt it out, all responsibility rests on your shoulders
Social norms
rules about acceptable behaviour imposed by society
influenced by culture/cultural context
ex: boys don’t cry, don’t pick your nose in public, don’t be a sore loser
burping at dinner table is rude in Canada but in some parts of East Asia, belching is seen as a compliment to the chef
Conformity
occurs when people adjust their behaviour to what others are doing
or when people adhere to the norms of their culture
Informational social influence
occurs when people conform to the behaviour of others because they view them as a source of knowledge about what they are supposed to do
following what others do based on their knowledge of something
if fire alarm went off during lecture and most people went out the door at the back room, might think that they knew the fasted way out and decide to follow
this is informational influence, follow the group because they have important information
chimps look to other chimps to learn how to use unfamiliar tools
Normative social influence
occurs when people go along with the behaviour of others in order to be accepted by them
ex: peer pressure: when people engage in certain behaviours (drinking or drugs) in order to be accepted as a member of their social group
ex: emerge from the theatre after going to movie with friends, not sure if you liked the movie or not
everyone else in group loved the movie and is talking about it
end of the night, you might also start talking about what a good movie it was, convinced yourself that it was great
not always aware of how other people shape our behaviour
Solomon Asch
studied perception
specifically that perception is not a direct function of the physical properties of stimuli
ex: found that our perceptions of the angle of a line can be influenced by the frame around it
wondered whether the social world might also shape our perceptions
Solomon Asch’s Study: the power of normative social influence
assembled several groups of 6 to 7 people
one real participant in a group of confederates (people who worked for experiement)
told them he was measuring visual acuity
showed participants two cards- one with a standard line, other with 3 lines of different length
participant’s job was to pick the one line out of the 3 that matched the standard line
repeated 18 times, sometimes participants gave their answers out loud
the one real participant didn’t know that the rest of the participants were confederates (people who actually worked for the experimenter)
one real participant was always seated in the last chair and heard the judgements of all the other group members before making a choice
first 6 trials, every gave the obvious and correct answer
on the 7th trial, confederates started giving the wrong answer
first rigged trial, first confederate would glance at the cards and confidently say, “The answer is line 1” when it clearly wasn’t
Next confederate would nod in agreement and say “Yes it is line 1”
After 5-6 people gave wrong answers, it was real participants turn
76% real participants went along with the group at least once when the group was clearly wrong
On average, participants answered incorrectly 37% of the time
When left alone to do the task, participants made errors less than 1% of the time
lack of ambiguity in the task makes it a normative social influence test
judging the length of the lines is really easy, no need to look to others for information about the right answer
When participants worked alone, rarely made mistakes
when confederates gave all wrong answers, many participants conformed to give the wrong answer
Groupthink
situation when the thinking of the group takes over so much that group members forgo logic or critical analysis in the service of reaching a decision
major factor in countless disasters (Pearl Harbour, Titanic, Ontario contaminated water crisis)
proposed by Irving Janis
based his theory on careful analysis of historical examples of irrational decision making
Groupthink Conditions
The group is: close-knit and cohesive insulated from outside influences under the direction of a strong, directive leader under pressure to reach a decision
Australian study
cohesiveness improved decision making when group members were friends
did not improve/hampered decision making when group members were strangers
cool
Collectivist cultures:
groups matter more than the individual
group-preserving behaviour (conformity) is valued and encouraged
ex: Japan, company that someone worse for is considered their family, expected to make personal sacrifices for the company to preserve group unity
people are more likely to conform than people in individualistic cultures
Parts of brain involved in conformity
when people find out their beliefs are different from most people, brain region in reinforcement learning when we make an error becomes active
brain signals as though we made a mistake when we deviate from the group opinion
Obedience
type of conformity in which a person yields to the will of another person
when people yield to the social pressure of an authority figure
giving into another person
research emerged in response to aftermath of WW2
2 participants, told they were participating in a study on the effects of mild punishment on memory
real participant teacher, confederate learner
every time learner made a mistake, receive an electric shock
more mistakes, shocks increase in intensity, told that they had to continue
15 volts= mild shock, 15 volt increments, 375 volts= danger:severe shock, 450 volts= XXX
15 volts= mild shock, 15 volt increments, 375 volts= danger:severe shock, 450 volts= XXX
Psychiatrists predicted only 30% would give shocks as high as 150, less than 4% goto 300 volts, only 1 person goto 450 volts
150 volts= learner yells “Get me out!”= drop in obedience (from 100%-83%)
26/40 participants (65%) went all the way up to 450 volts, men and women equally
less than 2% regretted the study after
showed how powerful situations can make reasonable people do cruel deeds
learner is strapped in for the study
Variations- Jerry Burger
when participants began to protest, they were told to continue rather than told that they had to continue
once participants passed 150-volt, experiment stopped
were able to pass the ethics board/American Psychological Association
2/3 participants obeyed the authority figure and continued to give shocks after the learner began protesting
Stanford Prison Study
Philip Zimbardo
participants recruited to spend 2 weeks in a simulated prison in the basement of Stanford University
participants were all college students, pre-screened to be healthy and average
all participants knew the situation was make believe and they were being monitored by experimenters
at first, guards treated prisoners well
after few days, guards started to abuse the prisoners
Prisoners locked in closets, food withheld
after 6 days, behaviour of guards to prisoners got so bad that Zimbardo had to call off the experiment
illustrated that role-playing, even if temporary and artificial, can strongly influence behaviour
showed that good people can commit evil acts when faced with powerful social situations, to point where situation can override individual personality and morality
in-group/out-group bias
showing positive feelings toward people in our own group and negative feelings toward those in other groups
rivalry between two schools (in group= everyone at your school, out group= everyone at other school)
out-group homogeneity
tendency to see all members of an out-group as the same
categorizing everyone that went to the other school as “them”
Focusing on group differences/multiculturalism creates a social dilemma
Mcgill interviewed Canadians from different backgrounds
tried to see the association between perceived similarity and willingness to associate with others based on their ethnicity
Participants asked to rate similarity of their own ethnic in-group to other ethnic out-groups
asked how they would feel about becoming affiliated with an out-group member (marriage, neighbour, work colleague)
ratings of perceived similarity correlated with willingness to affiliate with ethnic out-groups
should focus on similarities of ethnic groups
Brain Regions Activated by Social pain
exclusion from ball tossing game increased blood flow to same areas of brain activated by physical pain
increased activity in anterior cingulate cortex and right from section of prefrontal cortex
When raised without social contact, cockroaches show
cockroaches show behavioural deficiencies, poor mating skills and reduced willingness to interact with others and impaired foraging
Prejudice
a biased, negative attitude toward a group of people/individual of a group based on generalizations about what members of that group are like
biased, negative attitude based on an individual’s group membership
stems from stereotypes
based on insufficient information
learned early in life
attitudes become automatic even if abandoned later in life
can operate outside conscious awareness, sometimes are the opposite of one’s conscious beliefs
Recognizing group members may have evolved to preserve group harmony, cohesion, and close alliances—> increase survival
racism
prejudices based on race-ethnicity
sexism
- prejudices based on sex
ex: male not considering highly qualified female for high level job because he is convinced women are not capable of leading a company
Discrimination
negative behaviour towards another based upon group membership
the result of prejudicial attitudes
can also result from institutionalized rules, such as requirement that firefighters be a certain height, discriminates against women and some ethnic groups
ex: not offering women interview even though she’s the best qualified
Jane Elliot’s Experiment with Children
divided students into groups based on eye colour
On first day, told them that blue eyed people were superior to brown eyed people, more intelligent, nicer, trustworthy, less wasteful
gave blue eyed kids special privileges, extra time at recess
brown eyed children were made to wear collars and not allowed to use playground, only given one serving at lunch
blue-eyed children taunted brown-eyed kids, looked at them in disgust
next day, Elliot reversed the roles- brown-eyed children had special privileges while blue eyed children didn’t
Same results as previous day
Children treated each other differently
Academic performance on math and reading tasks was much poorer on the day they were labelled inferior
turned into documentary :Indecently Exposed
cool
Aggression
the violent behaviour that is intended to cause psychological or physical harm, or both, to another being
is deliberate/intentional
provoked by anger, but not always
