Social Effects on Behavior Flashcards
Psychological arousal
Alertness and readiness to respond
Social facilitation
People perform tasks better in a group setting where psychological arousal is higher (must be because presence of others)
Social loafing
people tend to work less hard in a group setting due to the belief others will pick up the slack
The bystander effect
People tend not to offer help to someone if other bystanders are present
Deindividuation
Loss of sense of self-awareness in a large group due to high psychological arousal
Three factors that play into Deindividuation
Anonymity
diffused responsibility
group size
Group polarization
A group will arrive at final opinions that are more extreme than the initial positions of the individual members
Factors that contribute to group polarization
people in a group tend to express their opinion to agree with the dominant one
our desire to be socially accepted
Groupthink
Irrational decisions made within a group due to pressures towards harmony and individual conformity
Characteristics of group think
- illusion of invulnerability- belief no serious harm will come
- illusion of morality- ignore consequences
- illusion of unanimity- assume group is unanimous 4. self-censorship- members who disagree don’t speak
pressure of dissenters- members feel pressure to not go against group - pressure on dissenters- members feel pressure to no contradict majority
- collective rationalization- group finds reasons to ignore warnings and avoid reconsidering their actions or assumptions
- excessive stereotyping- outside viewpoints are viewed as negative
- Mind guard- members of group filter out info that could destabilize consensus
Conformity
When someone’s behavior, belief, or thinking changes to line up with perspective of others
Convergence
Someone’s beliefs and behaviors already line up with the group
Congruence
Pre-existing overlap
Compliance (in regards to conformity)
When the person conforms but internally dissents
Identification
A person’s beliefs change only in the presence of the group
Compliance
Responds to requests from someone with no power to enforce that request
foot-in-the-door
making a small request followed by a larger request
Door-in-the face
making a large request you know will be rejected, only to follow up with a smaller, more reasonable request
low-ball
offering a low price, only to raise it at the last minute
Obedience
a change in behavior in response to a direct request from someone with power to enforce that request
Social norms
Unspoken or spoken rules that regulate behavior, beliefs, etc
Social control
the way norms are taught, enforced, and perpetuated
Deviance
not following social norms
Formal norm
Encoded somewhere, with specific penalties for violations
