Social psychology Flashcards
Theory of mind
The ability to represent the beliefs and desires of other people, especially when their thoughts and beliefs differ from your own
Brain regions for ToM
right temporal-parietal junction and mirror neurons
Right temporal-parietal junction (rTPJ)
selectively active when we think about the thoughts of others or when reading stories about people’s thoughts but NOT about their sensations
Mirror neurons
active when either we ourselves are performing an action or somebody else is doing the same action
Attribution
An inference about the cause of a person’s behavior, either (a) disposition/personality or (b) situation they are in, by attending to 3 types of information: consistency, distinctiveness, and consensus
Consistency, Distinctiveness, and Consensus
High consistency=disposition and low consistency=situation; high distinctiveness=situation and low distinctiveness=disposition; high consensus=situation and low consensus=disposition
Fundamental attribution error
General tendency for people to make dispositional (internal) attributions of others, even when there are readily available situational (external) factors; stronger in individualistic cultures
Actor-observer effect
General tendency for people to make situational attributions of ourselves (even when we make dispositional attributions for others in the same situation); A self-serving bias/attribution
Affective forecasting errors
Our estimations of future happiness are not very accurate because we overestimate the influence of some factors (with little relevance) and underestimate the influence of others
Social norms
Culturally-specific expectations of appropriate vs. inappropriate behavior of which everybody in the culture is supposed to act in accordance with
Persuasion
Process of deliberately attempting to change a person’s attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors towards a person, thing, idea etc.
Beliefs
enduring knowledge about an object, person, or event; Can be true or false given the state of the world
Attitudes
semi-enduring feelings that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events; Can be positive, neutral, or negative
Behaviors
consequences of our beliefs and attitudes (most often combined)
Implicit attitude
automatically activated associations often learned through repeated exposure to a person, place, thing, or issue; harder to change
Explicit attitude
those we explicitly report that we feel or believe about a person, place, thing, or issue
3 components that successful persuasion requires
Message source, message content, message target
Source monitoring
Process of attempting to remember where and when we learned a particular message or fact
Source amnesia
we reevaluate the message on our own without considering whether the source was good or bad
`Cognitive dissonance
Highly negative feeling we experience when our attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors conflict and contradict with each other
Post-decision dissonance
when we have to forgo an option that we have a positive attitude toward
Effort justification
people sometimes develop positive attitudes toward activities that are objectively aversive or require a lot of effort
Ways to reduce cognitive dissonance
discount belief/attitude, change belief/attitude, change future behaviors
Discount belief/attitude
deciding that some set of beliefs/attitudes is actually not something you care about anymore
Change belief/attitude
deciding to drop one of your conflicting beliefs/attitudes in order to remove the conflict
Change future behavior
making a promise to yourself not to act in inconsistent ways in the future
Elaboration likelihood model
Model of persuasion (i.e. kind of content) that argues that people can be influenced through of of two routes: systematic and heuristic
Systematic (central) route to persuasion
Uses content full of reason, logic, sound and straightforward arguments, effortful and time-consuming, primarily targets beliefs, target must have motivation to listen and ability to think about content
Heuristic (peripheral) route to persuasion
Appealing to target’s emotions, habits, or even implicitly, Indirectly exploits associations and social norms we all carry with us, usually targets attitudes and behaviors
Foot-in-the-door technique
make a small request first and make a bigger one once the person complies
Door-in-the-face technique
make an impossible large request then make a smaller one when the person declines
Social proof
pointing out long list of other people who have complied to increase compliance
Scarcity principle
people tend to place higher value on things that are in short supply
Implicit priming
Method of persuasion that implicitly brings up an association for a participant who then automatically transfers it to their subsequent behavior/attitude
Intimidation
Psychological process of (attempting to) change somebody’s behavior through appeals to authority, dominance, threats, or harm to the target itself
Direct intimidation - Milgram
target knows they are being unwillingly forced into a situation where they have to behave in a way they normally would not
Indirect intimidation - Zimbardo
sources can rely on creating dissonance that appeals to social schemas or roles in order to manipulate behavior without the target recognizing it as intimidation
Doubts of authority (experimenter)
Obedience rates drop moderately
Increased probability of blame (for teacher)
obedience rates drop strongly
Intimacy between teacher and learner
either emotionally or physically, obedience rates most significantly drop
Social group
A collection of individuals who interact with one another, share similar goals and a sense of unity
Ingroup positivity
people feel greater sense of belonging and safety within ingroup
Outgroup negativity
seeing outgroups as possessing more negative traits, more homogenous, and having a dispositional attribution
Social facilitation
Situations in which groups of people perform better together than any single individual within the group would perform alone by: combining effort, specialization, passing down knowledge over time
Diffusion of responsibility
Tendency for individuals in a group to feel diminished responsibility for their actions (stronger the larger the group)
Social loafing
tendency for people to exert less effort in a group than they would on their own, likely when there is no way to record effort
Bystander effect
people are less likely to help a victim when others are around (the more people, the lower tendency)
Group think
Groups reach consensus on a decision not because it is correct or best, but because they have reached consensus
Group polarization
Tendency for groups to make decisions that are more extreme or polarizing after discussing it with like-minded people
Deindividuation
Individuals becomes less aware and concerned about their own values but more with their group’s values (even if it conflicts their own)
Conformity
Frequent consequence of deindividuation where people have the tendency to do what others do because they belong in the same group
Informational social influence
kind of conformity in order to behave correctly (desire to be right) or gain an accurate understanding of the world
Normative social influence
To gain approval from others or avoid disapproval, to fit in
Social norms
Patterns of behavior, traditions, beliefs, and preferences that are accepted and reinforced by others and influence our behavior
Stereotype
beliefs about typical behaviors and traits of a certain group or category of people or things
Prejudice
attitudes about people or things that belong to a certain group or category
Discrimination
behaviors that are influenced by prejudice towards a certain group or category
Generalizations
An inference (based on previous experiences) that a certain phenomenon will share properties or traits with the broader category to which it belongs
Schemas
Impressions or mental representations that organize the associated pieces of information we know about a person
Transference
tendency to assume same traits between new person we meet and someone we know
Impression management strategies
self-promotion (competent), ingratiation (likable), exemplification (dedicated), intimidation (dominant), supplication (needy)
Confirmation bias
Tendency for people to seek out and notice evidence that agrees with their beliefs, desires, and stereotypes
Positive hypothesis testing
tendency to only seek out evidence that confirms what you believe, rather that evidence that may falsify it
Distrust of alternatives
tendency to come up with reasons not to believe evidence against your current views even when it’s provided to you
Implicit prejudice
how stereotypes can affect you without awareness, often leading to overt discrimination
Stereotype awareness
affecting your own behavior (self-discrimination) even without your awareness
Implicit associations test (IAT)
Psychological test that measures the degree of implicit and automatic stereotyping
Implicit bias training
workplace training aimed at helping individuals recognize implicit bias and finding ways to counteract it through policy changes and self-monitoring
Contact hypothesis
best possible intervention; interacting and cooperating with people from other groups, including shared goal and social support
Aggression
Any behavior with the intention of physically, socially, or mentally hurting or killing any being who doesn’t want to be harmed
Allospecific aggression
directed toward members of another species
Conspecific aggression
directed toward members of one’s own species
Hostile aggression
intention to physically harm someone that is spontaneous and unplanned
Instrumental aggression
goal-directed aggressive behavior intended to acquire an object, person, or social status with premeditation (planned, may be physical)
Relational aggression
intention to hurt someone’s social status and is not physical
Situational reasons for conspecific aggression
Dominance, eliminate competition, protect resources
Culture of honor
many cultures have a social norm whereby any insult to one’s honor must be responded to with aggression
Cooperation
The behavior of two or more individuals who work together for mutual benefit
Immediate/short-term cooperation
two or more agents work together on the same problem at the same time to increase the chance of success for everyone
Delayed/long-term cooperation
one agent cooperated without immediate benefit to oneself in order to increase the survival of the group or get a benefit later on
Tit-for-tat strategy
Conspecifics initially cooperate but retaliate the very moment someone cheats against them and until they correct their behavior
Outcomes of prisoner’s dilemma
Both stay silent (cooperation) = one month in jail each; A stays silent and B confesses and betrays A = B is free while A goes to jail for a year (non-cooperative); Both confess and betray = three months in jail each
Prosocial behavior
Actions aimed at assisting others towards their goals
Kin selection
Evolved or adaptive strategy of assisting those who share one’s genes, even at personal cost, as a means of increasing genetic survival
Norm of reciprocity
People agree to help others who have helped them in the past or might help them in the future
