Social Perception, Self-Knowledge, and Conformity Flashcards
(112 cards)
1
Q
If we get someone to do a favor for us, how will they feel about us after performing the favor?
A
The participants asked to do the favor specifically for the experimenter liked him the most over all the other conditions. They convinced themselves the experimenter was a good person, and that was why they decided to give the money upon request.
- this is called the Benjamin Franklin Effect
- doing a favor for someone makes you like them better
2
Q
Is social cognition motivated more by the desire to be accurate or to be liked?
A
Social cognition is motivated largely by the desire to be accurate in our judgments.
3
Q
Ben Franklin Effect
A
The Benjamin Franklin effect refers to the sensation of liking another person more after doing a favor (or agree to do a favor) for them. When we do a favor for someone else, we like that person more.
4
Q
Naïve realism
A
The human tendency to believe that we see the world around us objectively, and that people who disagree with us must be uninformed, irrational, or biased.
5
Q
How do we perceive other people?
A
To form impressions of and make inferences about other people, we use 3 general types of info:
Nonverbal communication
Verbal Communication
Physical appearance
6
Q
How do physical characteristics of others affect our evaluation of them?
A
If a person is beautiful, we apply the schema “that beautiful is good.” If they are not beautiful, we assume less of their character or traits. In general, physical characteristics can activate certain biases and schemas.
7
Q
How do nonverbal cues affect our evaluations of others?
A
Nonverbal cues relay the following info:
Express emotion
Convey attitudes
Communicate personality traits
Facilitate/modify verbal communication
These affect our evaluations of others by redirecting where we should focus our attention and by giving us meaningful context about someone’s behavior.
8
Q
How do the words people use shape our perception of them?
A
Different words can relay info about personality, traits, and etc. Pronouns and word choice can convey how depressed or happy they might be, if they are honest or not, if they are precise, if they are goal-oriented, and status.
- Words > 6 letters = education, social class
- First person singular pronouns (I, me, mine) = depressed, honest, low social class
- First person plural pronouns (We, us, our) = detached, high status, socially connected to group
- Future tense = goal orientation
- Prepositions = concern with precision
- Negations = inhibition
- Swear words = aggression, informality
- Exclusive (but, without, exclude) = cognitive complexity, honesty
9
Q
How accurate are our perceptions of other people?
A
When schemas are applied to people, they are called stereotypes. Generally-speaking, stereotypes are inaccurate depictions/understandings of another person. Like all schemas, while some info gleaned from stereotypes can be correct, it can also be misguided and too narrow an interpretation.
- When someone is close to us, we can guess w/ .27 accuracy
- When someone is an acquaintance, we can guess w/ .05 accuracy
- Or: we do not know others particularly well
10
Q
What schemas do we use in social perception?
A
Stereotypes.
11
Q
The Halo Effect
A
A type of cognitive bias in which our overall impression of a person influences how we feel and think about his or her character. Essentially, your overall impression of a person (“He is nice!”) impacts your evaluations of that person’s specific traits (“He is also smart!”).
12
Q
How much do first impressions really matter?
A
They are often wrong and have low validity, but they are also long-lasting and can have a dramatic effect on how we are treated by others.
13
Q
How have social psychologists studied the importance (or unimportance?) of first impressions?
A
In one study, when participants watched a person take an oral exam, they were more likely to rate the test-taker as smart if they started out well as opposed to started out poorly. The first impression of seeming intelligent caused them to evaluate the individual better even though the test-taker got the same amount wrong in both conditions.
- American participants rated the faces of Canadian political candidates and their first impression ratings correlated with election results. The more powerful a candidate looked, the more likely they were to have won their election and the warmer they looked the less likely they were to have won.
- Students rated a professor on just a 10 second silent video clip of them teaching and their ratings correlated to the end of the year evaluations of student who took the professor’s’ course.
14
Q
When do we make internal vs. external attributions?
A
Internal attribution – when there is high consensus, high distinctiveness, and high consistency (according to Kelley’s covariation model).
External attribution – when there is low consensus, low distinctiveness, and high consistency (according to Kelley’s covariation model).
15
Q
What kinds of information do we use in deciding whether someone’s behavior was due to internal vs. external factors?
A
Consensus: whether others behave in the same way as our actor did.
Distinctiveness: whether the same actor behaves in same way given different stimuli/situations.
Consistency: whether the behavior b/w our actor and the same stimuli/situation is the same across time and contexts.
16
Q
Kelley’s Covariation Model
A
- Examination of multiple behaviors from different times and situations to form an attribution about what caused a person’s behavior.
- How people decide to make internal vs. external attributions.
1. Uses consistency (the frequency with which the observed behavior between the same actor and same stimulus occurs across time and circumstances)
2. Consensus (how other people behave toward the same stimulus)
3. Distinctiveness (how the persons whose behavior we are trying to explain responds to other stimuli)
17
Q
Why do we commit the fundamental attribution error?
A
We commit the fundamental attribution error b/c of actor-observer effects. Actors notice the situation around them and how they are affected by the situation, but observers do not.
18
Q
What study demonstrated the actor-observer affect?
A
One study showed this when two assistants faced each other for a conversation, and participants—two observers on each side of the assistants—watched them.
Observers made more attributions to the dispositions of the conversationalist they were facing (e.g., “he didn’t talk b/c he is shy”)
Conversationalists made many more situational attributions about themselves (e.g., “I didn’t talk much b/c I was nervous about the camera”)
19
Q
What are self-serving biases?
A
The tendency to perceive ourselves as competent, morally good, innocent, deserving, and worthy.
20
Q
Who is prone to using self-serving biases?
A
People with high or normal self-esteem.
21
Q
Who is less likely to exhibit self-serving biases?
A
People who are depressed, anxious, or have low self-esteem and thus little reason to perceive themselves positively.
22
Q
Why do people often blame victims?
A
They blame victims b/c of defensive attributions, which is a type of self-serving attributional bias that assumes that good things happen to good people. If bad things happen to good people, it creates a psychological tension.
This results in internal attributions for people who experience negative outcomes, or blaming the victim.
23
Q
What is Self-handicapping?
A
An attempt to literally create an external attribution that can explain our failures. This is specifically doing some act in advance that could sabotage an outcome and thus provide an explanation for why we failed.
- “to hinder your own performance in advance of a competition or test”
- If someone does poorly, circumstances can be blamed instead
- If they do well in spite of the handicap, they earn bonus points in self-esteem (e.g., “she must be really smart, she stayed out all night and still aced the exam!”)
24
Q
What is the bias blindspot?
A
The tendency to think that other people are more susceptible to attributional biases in their thinking than you are.
25
What are defensive attributions?
Explanations for behavior that avoid feelings of vulnerability and mortality.
26
How do we know things about ourselves?
We know ourselves based on the content of our self-concept, which is organized into many self-schemas.
27
What are self-schemas?
Mental structures that people use to organize their knowledge about themselves and what influences they noticed, think about, and remember about themselves.
28
How accurate are we in knowing ourselves?
We generally know ourselves the best in comparison to others, but we still make mistaken inferences and misunderstand our behaviors.
- We are not good at explaining our own behaviors, b/c we can often be aware of the result of our thinking process w/o being aware of the process itself
- Introspection is sometimes inaccurate, b/c we do not rely on it as much as we assume, and even if we do introspect, the actual reasons for our behaviors can still be hidden from conscious awareness
29
What is introspection?
The process whereby people look inward and examine their own thoughts, feelings, and motives.
30
What is self-awareness theory?
The idea that people focus their attention on themselves and evaluate and compare their behaviors to their own internal standards/expectations.
31
How is self-focus adaptive?
Self-focus can manifest either positively or negatively depending on context:
- Spirituality
- Religious expression
- Reminding you of your sense of right and wrong
- Reminding you of your shortcomings or failures
- Reminding you of your successes
32
What is reasons-generated attitude change?
Attitude change resulting from thinking about the reasons for one’s attitudes; people assume that their attitudes match the reasons that are plausible and easy to verbalize.
33
What is self-knowledge?
Knowledge or understanding of one's own capabilities, character, feelings, or motivations.
34
Are other people more accurate in their knowledge of our attitudes, behaviors, and personalities than we are?
No, they do only as well or are typically worse at assessing our attitudes, behaviors, and personalities. Accuracy of their knowledge about our own sense of self is only about .27.
35
Who tends to predict our attitudes, behaviors, and personalities best? Ourselves OR our friends, siblings, parents, romantic partners, or random strangers in the laboratory? How might this vary across domains?
1. Others – compare us at .27% accuracy if they are close to us.
2. Ourselves – understand ourselves at .27% accuracy.
3. Strangers – only a 0.05% accuracy when assessing other’s behaviors.
We are most able to predict our attitudes, behaviors, and personalities. However, others (and strangers) can sometimes better assess our behavior in areas that we do not regularly think about, like how quiet we are or etc. In general, they can be have greater accuracy on external behavior than we do.
36
How do social and personality psychologists study how accurate we are in our self-knowledge?
Empirical experimentation that follows the self-perception theory (e.g., assesses our behavior based on physiological and mental reactions), social comparison theory (e.g., assesses our behavior based on the upward and downward comparisons that we make to judge ourselves against others), and the two-factory theory of emotion (e.g., that our behavior is inferred from our physiological responses in certain contexts).
37
How do social and personality psychologists study how accurate we are in our self-knowledge?
Empirical experimentation that follows the self-perception theory (e.g., assesses our behavior based on physiological and mental reactions), social comparison theory (e.g., assesses our behavior based on the upward and downward comparisons that we make to judge ourselves against others), and the two-factory theory of emotion (e.g., that our behavior is inferred from our physiological responses in certain contexts).
38
What is the self-concept?
A picture or mental understanding/image of who “you” are, or what schemas constitute your sense of self. This consists of:
```
Roles we play
Social identities
Comparisons w/ others
Successes and failures
How we are judged by others
Culture we live in
```
39
What is the working self-concept?
The set of self-conceptions that we are aware of at any given point. The result of priming, motivation, and chronic versus temporary beliefs/actions/environments.
40
What is a “self”?
Self-knowledge: our beliefs about who we are and the way in which they formulate and organize information
Self-control: the way in which we make plans and execute decision
Impression management: how we present ourselves to other people
Self-esteem: way we feel about ourselves
41
How do we determine whether someone has self-recognition?
Using the mark test. Animals (or young humans) realize that the image in the mirror belongs to them after someone alters their appearance. They know that the alteration makes them look different from how they previously looked.
42
How do we develop our self-concepts? How do we define “who I am”?
We develop our self-concepts by drawing from the information around us and the experiences that impact us (and, by association, how we perceive ourselves). These include the following factors:
1. Roles we play
2. Social identities
3. Comparisons we make w/ others
4. Successes and failures
5. How we are judged by others
6. The culture we live in
43
How do we use other people as sources of information to learn about ourselves?
We evaluate our abilities and opinions in comparison to others through social comparison theory. We do these comparisons when objective standards are absent or uncertain, and we do not know how to best evaluate ourselves in response to some stimuli.
44
What is an upward social comparison?
Comparing ourselves to people who are better than we are in regard to a particular trait or ability.
45
What is a downward social comparison?
Comparing ourselves to people who are worse than we are w/ regard to a particular trait or ability.
46
What is social comparison theory?
In the absence or uncertainty of absolute objective standards, we will compare ourselves to others to assess our own abilities and opinions. This is motivated by:
- Desire to be accurate (or know how to measure our abilities against others)
- Desire to be liked (or to know how our opinions line up w/ others)
47
What is the over-justification effect?
The tendency for people to view their behavior as caused by compelling extrinsic reasons, making them underestimate the extent to which it was caused by intrinsic reasons.
48
When do we use others as sources of information about ourselves?
When standards of behavior or ability are either uncertain, unknown, or completely absent.
49
What is impression management?
The attempts by people to get others to perceive them in the ways that they want to be perceived.
50
What is ingratiation?
The process whereby people flatter, praise, and generally try to make themselves likable to another person (who is often of high social status).
51
How do self-concepts vary across cultures?
Self-concepts vary across cultures in terms of being independent or interdependent in relation to others. Western cultures cultivate an independent view of the self, whereas Asian and other non-Western cultures result in an interdependent view of the self.
52
Independent vs. Interdependent Self
```
Independent Self View
1.) Self is stable
2.) Goal is to be unique
3.) Promotes own goals
Happiness -> superiority, effectiveness
```
```
Interdependent Self View
1.) Self is flexible
2.) Goal is to belong
3.) Promotes group goals
Happiness -> connectedness
```
53
What is an independent view of the self?
Defining oneself in terms of own internal thoughts, feelings, and actions and not in terms of the thoughts, feelings, and actions of others. Less self-critical.
54
What is an interdependent view of the self?
Defining oneself in terms of own relationships to other people, and recognizing that one’s own behavior is often influenced by the thoughts, feelings, and actions of others. More self-critical.
55
Are there differences in the content of men and women’s self-concepts?
Yes, but these differences are not particularly exaggerated. In general, men and women have similar ideas of self-concepts but have separate ways of expressing it or unique interests when compared to each other.
- Women are more collective, or interdependent. Focus on others and their close relationships.
- Men are more relational, or independent. Focus on their membership in larger groups, such as fraternities or sports.
56
Is self-esteem good or bad?
Self-esteem can be good or bad depending on both the circumstances and the individual. High self-esteem predicts initiative, resilience, and improved mood. Low self-esteem predicts depression, drug usage, and delinquency. Neither of these are absolute predictors of positive or negative behaviors, but they do occasionally indicate certain traits in the average person.
- High self-esteem + social rejection leads to aggression (e.g., bullies, terrorists, and supremacists)
- High self-esteem can also result in narcissistic personality disorder, where people show persistent patterns of grandiosity, lack of empathy, and need for admiration
57
How does arousal affect our experience of emotion? Do we ever make mistakes in explaining our emotions based on situational factors? When might we make mistakes?
1. Arousal can cause us to make inferences about our thoughts based on our physical states or behaviors. We assume explanations for our behaviors based on physiological reactions.
2. Yes, we do. Just b/c we demonstrate certain physiological responses does not mean that our exact interpretation is internally or externally motivated. For example, people who found an experimenter attractive on a swaying bridge were more likely to assume they were romantically interested b/c of the fearful response invoked by the situation rather than actual attraction.
3. We can make mistakes when we misattribute our arousal to an outside stimulus or factor rather than just the effects of our physiological reactions.
58
What is Schachter & Singer’s 2-factor theory of emotion?
The theory that emotional experience results from the following two factors:
1. People experience physiological reactions beforehand (e.g., sweating, elevated heartrate, etc.)
2. They then seek an appropriate explanation to understand their physical responses
59
Who is Amy Cuddy and what does she teach us about self-concept?
1. Cuddy has studied the origins and outcomes of how people judge and influence each other. She has done experimental and correlational research on stereotyping and discrimination, the causes and consequences of feeling ambivalent emotions, nonverbal behavior and communication, and hormonal responses to social stimuli.
2. That new roles may feel inauthentic and uncomfortable. If we roleplay ourselves acting out these new roles, eventually they become reality and we adopt it as part of our self-concept.
60
How do rewards and punishments affect our motivation?
Rewards and punishments affect our motivation by framing whether we view our behavior as intrinsically or extrinsically motivated.
1. Intrinsic – performing behavior for its own sake
2. Extrinsic – performing behavior for results or b/c of outside circumstances
This changes how we choose to interpret and express different behaviors. If we are rewarded, we might attach a certain behavior to extrinsic factors and only do it if we receive the reward. If we are punished, we can choose to attach the result of the punishment to intrinsic or extrinsic factors; if we internalize the punishment, we stop doing the behavior but we do not if we feel the situation justified our actions.
61
Why in the world do we do what other people do?
We do so b/c of social influence, or the effect that the words, actions, and presence of others has on our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. This can be split into 3 types.
62
What is compliance?
Changing our behavior in response to a direct request.
63
What is public compliance?
Conforming to other people’s behavior publically without necessarily believing in what the other people are doing or saying.
64
What is private acceptance?
Conforming to other people’s behavior out of a true belief that what they are doing or saying is right.
65
What is conformity?
Changing our behavior due to the real or imagined presence of others.
66
What is obedience?
Changing our behavior in response to an order from an authority figure.
67
When do we comply with other people’s requests?
When the request is either explicit (e.g., being asked directly) or when it is implicit (e.g., our behavioral response is suggested/implied).
Is the result of the following factors:
- Reciprocity
- Consistency
- Social validation
- Liking
- Authority
- Scarcity
68
What is reciprocity in compliance?
If someone does us a favor, we feel obligated to repay it. Motivated by social approval; maintains relationships, encourages cooperation, increases fondness, but can be harmful if misused (e.g., preferential treatment).
69
What is the door-in-the-face strategy in compliance?
A large request followed by smaller, more reasonable requests; target feels obligated to reciprocate the smaller requests.
70
What is the free gift strategy in compliance?
When target receives a free gift, they feel obligated to give something back.
71
What is the that’s-not-all strategy in compliance?
Target feels obligated to reciprocate better deal.
72
What is the unequal exchange strategy in compliance?
Target feels obligated to repay the favor, even if the request asked of them is not equal in size or effort to what they did.
73
What type of heuristic is consistency?
Manages self-concept; person does things to reflect that they feel that they “act in a way that is consistent with their commitments.”
- Repeated actions through commitments (both big and small) lead to consistency of behavior
74
What is the foot-in-the-door strategy in compliance?
The target does a small request and then is later asked to a larger, but related favor.
75
What type of other strategies we mentioned are related to consistency in the overall theory of compliance?
Bait-and-switch
| Lowballing
76
What is the even-a-penny-would-help strategy in compliance?
Stems from the desire to see ourselves as helpful; even if we have to give a small or large amount, we feel like the smaller the request, the more obligated we are to do it in order to feel that we are helpful.
77
What is social validation?
A heuristic where we look to the others to determine appropriate ways to behave; the goal is accuracy and social relationships or social approval.
78
When are we more likely to follow the behaviors of others?
They seem sure of themselves or confident
They are similar to yourself
The “right” behavior is interpreted as ambiguous
79
How do taglines (e.g., “largest growing, fastest selling”) mimic social validation in compliance?
We assume that everyone is doing X, like donating or buying the product, and so it must be the correct thing for us to do, too.
80
How do petition lists reflect social validation in compliance?
The more people on the list, the more likely we are to comply and/or to sign it.
81
How does salting the tip jar reflect social validation in compliance?
The more money in the tip jar, then the more likely we are to also tip.
82
How do lines for night clubs reflect social validation in compliance?
The longer the line, then the more likely we think it is to be fun or worth going to.
83
What social experiment confirmed these effects of social validation?
When people staying at a hotel were told that 75% as opposed to 35% of other visitors reused their towels on a hanging door sign, the likelihood of any random participant also choosing to reuse their towels increased.
84
What is liking in relation to compliance?
A heuristic that we should help our friends and the people that we like; the goal here is social approval and to gain/maintain relationships w/ others.
85
Who do we like by default?
Physically attractive people
People similar to us
People who compliment us
People who cooperate with us
86
What is authority in relation to compliance?
A heuristic that it is good to follow the advice of a legitimate authority who has knowledge, talent, or fortune; the goal is be accurate and to do the right or best behavior we think is available to us.
87
What are some ways that professionals use authority to influence our behavior?
Taglines – “Fashionable men’s clothing since 1841”
Actors and celebrities as spokespeople
Symbols (e.g., lab coat, suit and tie, doctor’s tools)
Con artists
88
What is scarcity in relation to compliance?
A heuristic where opportunities are more valuable when they are less available; the goal is seeking accuracy and to get what we think is good or better.
89
What are the 2 reasons we follow scarcity as a social cue?
1. Rare is considered good
2. Loss of freedom/Reactance theory; “we react against scarcity by wanting and trying to possess the item more than we might have before”
90
When do we do what other people do, even if nobody asks us to do what they’re doing?
When conforming/responding to social conditioning.
91
When do we obey orders?
We obey orders when:
1. There is no communication b/w us and the person affected
2. When we see other people following authority figure’s orders
3. When authority figures continue to engage in the behavior that they are ordering us to do
4. When we feel more emotional or physical distance from the people affected or suffering from our actions
5. When we feel less personally responsible for our own actions
6. When we want to do what is considered the social norm (i.e., following the crowd)
92
When do we disobey?
We disobey orders when:
1. We are aware of the suffering we cause to others
2. We feel personally responsible for our actions
3. We observe others who disobey authority
93
What does Cialdini tell us to do if we want to get what we want from others?
Follow the 6 psychological principles, which are reciprocity, consistency, social validation, friendship/liking, authority, and scarcity.
94
What motivations underlie social influence?
There are 3 basic motivations that underlie social influence:
1. Seeking accuracy, or making sure that our behavior is effective.
2. Building and maintaining relationships, or seeking social approval.
3. Manage self-concept or seeking consistency in our behavior/sense of self.
95
What is Normative Social Influence?
The pressure to behave as other people do out of fear they that will reject or criticize us. Often the motivation is to feel liked or for social approval.
96
What is Informational Social Influence?
The idea that we see others as a source of information and take from their guidance. Often motivated by the need to be accurate.
97
Does social influence affect our visual perception?
Not exactly. However, it can affect how we interpret visual stimuli and what we think is happening (or what the “ideal” answer to a quantitative question about our visual perception is).
- When Sherif did the autokinectic study, people originally reported the dot as moving whatever amount they actual perceived. Since the dot is moving only due to an illusion, this could vary considerably b/w participants.
- After hearing the other participant’s guesses at how much it moved, all their perceptions converged at the amount of movement that seemed the most reasonably in relation to the others’ guesses.
98
When are we most likely to conform?
1. Informational social influence:
Situation is ambiguous
Situation is a crisis
When other people are experts and show initial confidence in their opinions
2. Social Normative:
Conditions are uncertain
Source is similar
When concerned about the relationship with or to the source
“The most salient or important norm will have the greatest impact on behavior”
99
What is the motivation driving informational social influence?
The need to be accurate.
100
When are people most susceptible to informational social influence?
1. Situation is ambiguous or novel
2. The situation is a crisis
3. Other people are experts and show initial confidence in their opinions
101
How do we resist informational social influence?
1. We ask ourselves if others are more informed than ourselves
2. We seek out our own information
3. We understand how informational social influence works can help you resist
102
What is the motivation driving normative social influence?
Social approval or to be liked by others.
103
When are people most susceptible to normative social influence?
1. Conditions are uncertain
2. When source is similar
3. When we are concerned about our relationship to the source
104
How do we resist normative social influence?
1. Be aware it is operating
2. Have an ally/someone who supports your view
3. Conforming most of the time gives you the right to deviate occasionally (a.k.a., idiosyncrasy credits)
105
Does a larger group size increase conformity?
Only to a point. After 3 or + people in a group, there is little noticeable impact of group size on dissent. The effect of conformity is not amplified by more people.
106
What does informational social influence result in?
Private acceptance of own opinions, thoughts, or beliefs.
107
What does normative social influence result in?
Public compliance w/ the group.
108
What is minority influence?
The case where a minority of group members influence the behavior of the majority.
109
When is minority influence most effective?
The key is consistency of their behaviors and beliefs.
- People w/ minority views must express the same views over time
- Different members of the minority must agree w/ one another’s views
110
What are injunctive norms?
People’s perceptions of what behaviors are approved or disapproved of by others.
111
What are descriptive norms?
People’s perceptions of how people actually behave in given situations, regardless of whether or not the behavior is approved of by others.
112
In what ways do we use others as sources of info?
- social comparison
- adopting other people's views
- affective forecasting (knowing our future feelings)
