Social Psychology Flashcards

Question

How do you avoid cognitive dissonance?

Answer 1

One way in which we can protect our attitudes from being influenced by cognitive dissonance is to avoid the dissonance People are motivated to avoid information which might conflict with their attitudes to avoid feeling bad Frey and Rosch (1984) Asked PPT to read about a manager and then recommend termination or not They were given the chance to gather information about either 1 - how good the manager was or 2 - how bad the manager was Decision was reversible = Looked at both the good and bad information Decision was irreversible = Only looked at the information that confirmed their decision (e.g. bad if they recommended to terminate the employee)

Answer 2

Grawonski and Strack (2004) Conducted two studies where they induced cognitive dissonance in participants They found that explicit attitudes changed to reduce dissonance, and implicit attitudes were unaffected

Answer 3

Limit ourselves to speaking about persuasion as a targeted attempt to change someone else’s attitude Elaboration likelihood model of persuasion Most well-established models for understanding persuasion Petty and Cacioppo (1986) distinguish between “central” and “peripheral” routes of persuasion Central route of persuasion is elaborated but the peripheral route is not Receive a message Central route → Consider the quality of the argument carefully Peripheral route → Attend to cues associated with the message Route taken determined by time and motivation

Answer 4

Asked male PPT about their attitudes towards a new razor Manipulated whether it would be sold in their hometown or another city (involvement high or low) Manipulated whether strong or weak arguments for quality of razor was provided Manipulated whether the razor was supported by a celebrity or not Does high = explicit and low = implicit? A seductive alignment of ideas In general = psychological models make this alignment (E.g. APE model) However, evidence is mixed. It appears to generally be correct, but is highly qualified

Answer 5

Changing explicit attitude will allow you to pair the object with good or bad things more readily - over time changing the associative network However, requires effort - If you change an attitude you barely use, it won’t have an effect So might not be most effective way to change implicit attitudes (better to target them directly)

Answer 6

Group is two or more people who interact with and influence one another and perceive one another as “us” (Myers et al., 2010)

Answer 7

Intergroup relations are the ways in which people who are members of groups think about, feel about, perceive and act towards members of other groups (Graf et al., 2014) Ingroup member vs outgroup member E.g. age, nationality, gender and preferences Group distinctions are not always clear - Advantaged and disadvantaged groups describe historical and current power and status of different social groups, relative to one another (Majority/Minority groups) Intergroup relations are often conflictual Include prejudice, discriminaton and stereotypes

Answer 8

People are cognitive misers (Fiske & Taylor, 1991) Limited capacity (WM) to process social information Use of shortcuts and rely on simple rules (heuristics) Category accentuation Cognitive distortions/error based on categorisation Categorization accentuates the differences between groups and similarities within groups Tajfel and Wilkes (1963) study - Perception of lines changes when grouped - replicates idea of social categorisation when people are in certain groups Outgroup homogeneity effect “They all look the same to me” Outgroup homogeneity effect - Quattrone & Jone,1980 People more familiar with their ingroup members People use category-level information when judging outgroup members Related to other-race effect (Meissner & Brigham, 2001) - Better recognition of faces from own race than those of other races Illusory correlation effect Exaggerated perception that a behaviour is more frequently displayed by a minority than a majority group (Fiedler, 2004) Distinctive behaviours capture our attention Majority group members have limited contact with minority group members Undesirable behaviours are less common than desirable behaviours (more distinctive)

Answer 9

Personality variables (high on these traits - more likely to display prejudice) Dogmatism (Rokeach, 1956) - close-minded Personal need for structure (Neuberg & Newsom, 1993) Need for cognitive closure (Kruglanski, 2006)

Answer 10

Right-wing authoritarianism Authoritarianism (Adorno et al., 1950) → Altemeyer (1981, 1998) Authoritarian submission, authoritarian aggression, conventionalism Authoritarian submission: Tendency to yield to authorities (e.g., government and military leaders, police and other civic officers, and religious officials) Authoritarian aggression: Support aggression towards those who defy social conventions Conventionalism: Adhere to traditional social values endorsed by established authorities (e.g., such as those concerning patriotism, marriage, and sex) Higher levels of RWA associated with greater endorsement of prejudice Social dominance orientation (SDO) Measures people’s preference for hierarchy within any social system (Pratto et al., 1994), and namely desire that in-group dominates outgroups “To get ahead in life, it is sometimes necessary to step on other groups” Higher SDO associated with support for meritocracy, racism, death penalty, war Related but distinct from RWA

Answer 11

Realistic group conflict theory: Perceived competition for finite resources Prejudice towards immigrants Sherif et al. (1961) - Robbers Cave study 22, 12 year olds at summer camp in US Phase 1: Engaged in activities (formation of friendships) Phase 2: In-group formation (boys randomly assigned into two groups that split up friendships) Phase 3: Intergroup competition (isolated from each other and competition activities with rewards if they won – such as tug-of-war and baseball; named themselves Eagles and Rattlers; exchanged verbal insults, conducted raids on the other's cabin, burned each other flags) Phase 4: Intergroup harmony (via superordinated goals – i.e. desirable goals that could only be achieved with intergroup cooperation) Findings Competition for scarce resources produced intergroup hostility and fierce competition between the groups which generalised to situations outside the organised activities Ingroups formed despite the fact that friends were outgroup members Introduction of superordinate goals improved intergroup relations (simple contact was not enough) Degree of latent ethnocentrism with inter-group formation (i.e. in absence of competition) Social identity theory (social-cognitive and motivational explanation): We enjoy belonging to a group - can lead to prejudice to stay in the group Minimal group paradigm (Tajfel et al., 1971)

Answer 12

Stereotype → Generalization about the thoughts, motives, feelings and/or behaviours of a group of people (Wright & Taylor, 2003) Social cognitive approach to stereotyping as a component of prejudice A stereotype is a generalisation about the characteristics of a group A stereotype is a knowledge structure It is not a goal, memory, or a perception (although it might influence these)

Answer 13

Personality (Adorno & colleagues - 1950s to 60s) Meaning-making (Tajfel & Turner, 1970s to 90s) Social cognitive approach Purpose of stereotypes is to help us simplify the world around to navigate it better Categorization (core process behind stereotyping) By placing someone in a category and having a general set of beliefs about that category we can greatly simplify the mental labour we have to expand

Answer 14

Bottom-Up I know that someone belongs to a group, so I imbue the group with characteristics of the individual Find an individual; form i) an impression and ii) categorise them; and assume all other members of that category have those characteristics Top-down I know that a group has certain characteristics, so I imbue the individual with the characteristics of the group Form an impression of a group of people; encounter a member of that group; stereotype becomes “active” by being applied to the real world

Answer 15

Shown by three classic studies Macrae et al. (1994): Stereotypes help us save cognitive energy Research question: Does using stereotypes save us cognitive energy? 24 participants asked to perform two tasks concurrently: Task 1: Look at personality traits describing four persons (Nigel, Julian, John, and Graham Task 2: Listen to information about Indonesia The information (personality traits and information about Indonesia) was always the same, however ➢ half of the participants received category labels (Nigel: doctor; Julian: artist; John: skinhead; Graham: estate agent) ➢ half of the participants received no labels Participants asked to recall the traits of the four persons and complete a multiple choice questionnaire about Indonesia (to examine how much information they could recall) Prediction: When present the labels would simplify the information processing task and thus saving processing resources and thereby enhancing the performance on recalling the traits Results:

Answer 16

Research question: If stereotypes save cognitive energy are we more likely to use them when we lack energy? 98 participants asked to remember a person (John Smith) Condition 1: Man described as a priest Condition 2: Man described as a skinhead The information was always the same, however ➢ 1/3 was positive (priest consistent) ➢1/3 was negative (skinhead consistent) ➢1/3 was neutral 24 hours later, participants were shown a set of words containing the target words plus stereotypic and non-stereotypic fillers Half were under high cognitive load (remember a 8-digit number) Half were under low cognitive load DV: How many stereotypic words they misremembered Or: how much they relied on stereotypes when remembering

Answer 17

Stereotypes make it easier to process the world around us It is easy to process within a category Category membership helps us detect, process, and remember information about people Research question: If stereotypes are designed for cognitive efficiency, then we should be faster to think along category membership (stereotype consistent) lines Participants completed a lexical decision task using woman, Chinese, control words, and non-words

Answer 18

We have more energy for other things (Macrea et al., 1994) We can use them when we are short on energy (Sherman et al., 1999) We can use them to rapidly process information (Macrea et al., 1995)

Answer 19

Despite the benefits of speed and ease, stereotypes are generalisations and these will be inaccurate We will encounter multiple people who violate our stereotypes So how are stereotypes maintained in the face of counterstereotypical information and counter-stereotypical individuals?

Answer 20

Stereotypes bias: What we see; they change how we learn about the world What we recall; they change how we remember the world What we speak about; they change how we communicate with others

Answer 21

Stereotypes interfere with our ability to learn stereotype inconsisteni information (Wigboldus et al., 2003) 42 Dutch students were presented with stereotype consistent or inconsistent descriptors of action They timed how quickly participants were able to reject the trait associated with the action

Answer 22

Stereotype consistent information is simply better recalled than stereotype inconsistent information Strangor et al (1992) conducted a meta-analysis on 54 studies of memory and stereotyping, finding that people display superior recall for information which fits their stereotypes

Answer 23

Kashima (2000) examined the “serial reproduction” of information about an individual Participants played a game of “broken telephone” where they had to communicate with each other about an individual The information they initially received was either stereotype consistent or inconsistent

Answer 24

We have noted that stereotypes can be accurate or inaccurate, positive or negative But do they directly influence the lives of stereotyped groups (or is that just prejudice)? One common stereotype in the US is that African Americans – particularly African American men – are aggressive Could this stereotype of aggression alter the way African American men are perceived? In a series of studies, Keith Payne (2006) investigated this They exposed participants to pictures of African American or White American males and followed these with pictures of guns or tools Participants had to decide as quickly as possible if they saw a gun or tool

Answer 25

Stereotypes change how we see others but…we also know stereotypes about ourselves For example, African Americans and women may both be aware that they are stereotyped as being stupid, particularly as being bad at maths Being seen as stupid is obviously undesirable. Members of this group may fear confirming this stereotype, and their preoccupation with it can hamper actual performance

Answer 26

Stereotype threat: Steele and Aronson (1995) tested this idea by asking Black and White participants to sit a standardised verbal IQ test In Study 1: * Half of participants are told it is an IQ test * Half are not told this In Study 2: * Half of the participants identified their race * Half of the participants wrote nothing Knowing a stereotype can preoccupy us and make us more likely to confirm it Ironically and sadly, in worrying about resisting the stereotype, disadvantaged group members can actually generate support for it

Answer 27

Intergroup contact Categorization-based approaches Values-based approaches Media and real world conflict Collective Action

Answer 28

Most studied method for reducing prejudice Contact hypothesis (Allport, 1954) Contact between different social groups reduces prejudice and discrimination Optimal contact - optimal conditions for contact to reduce prejudice (Allport,1954) Equal status of the groups in the situation (unequal status contact is more likely to confirm stereotypes and forming prejudices) Common goals and intergroup cooperation (as shown by Sherif's summer camp studies ) Support of authorities, law or custom (by creating a climate that enables tolerant social practices to emerge) Situational conditions Substantial body of research that supports the contact hypothesis

Answer 29

Tropp et al. (2017): Study 1 How contact quality and exposure to intergroup conflict predict attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours relevant to intergroup reconciliation Two surveys with Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland (study 1), and Black and White people in South Africa (study 2) Effect of contact quality among Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland Survey with questions about: Quality of contact: How positive, friendly, cooperative, equal in status everyday contact with outgroup is Exposure to personal intergroup conflict and intergroup conflict in the neighbourhood Trusting the outgroup Attitudes towards the outgroup Perceived outgroup intentions towards peace Active engagement in reconciliation Results: For both Protestants and Catholics, higher contact quality predicted significantly greater trust, more positive intergroup attitudes, more positive perceptions of outgroup members’ intentions in working toward peace and greater engagement in reconciliation efforts Even when taking into account reported exposure to violence (= controlling exposure to violence) Same findings found among black and white south africans

Answer 30

Meta-analysis conducted by Pettigrew & Tropp (2006) showed that contact reduces prejudice even when the optimal conditions are not all present Applicable to intergroup relations based on race and ethnicity, age, disability, mental illness, and sexual orientation What if contact does not exist or is not possible? Extended contact effect (Paolini et al. 2004) Imagined contact effect (Crisp & Turner, 2009) By imagining contact between the self and member of outgroup may reduce attitudes What about negative contact? Post-negative contact symmetry Negative contact is stronger than positive contact at influencing prejudice

Answer 31

Categorization is key in influencing prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination Also key in undoing these outcomes Decategorization (Miller & Brewer, 1984) Can improve intergroup relations by promoting personalised interactions (e.g. asked friends to make friends with other groups)

Answer 32

Common ingroup identity model (Gaertner & Dovidio et al., 2000) Categorization-based approach to prejudice reduction asserting that a common ingroup identity will improve intergroup attitudes Via re-categorization of themselves as members of the same group (“we”) Which can be facilitate by making salient existing common superordinate identities or introducing a common goal that is perceived to be shared by both group members Problem - There is the dual identity approach (Dovidio, Gaertner & Saguy, 2007) Asks people to think about themselves as having a common identity and superordinate identity

Answer 33

Values are beliefs and related to goals that transcend actions and situations (Schwartz,2012) Facilitating and making salient certain values might improve intergroup relations Values such as tolerance, multiculturalism and egalitarianism

Answer 34

Multiculturalism - Belief that diversity should be acknowledge and celebrated Colour blindness - belief that differences between groups should be downplayed Multiculturalism is a better policy for reducing bias (Richeson and Nussbaum, 2004) Similar tension to tension between common in-group identity model and dual identity approach

Answer 35

Example by Paluck (2009) 1994 genocide - 10% of population and 85% of Tutsi ethnic minority were killed Mass media culpable in the genocide Could mass media be used to reduce intergroup prejudice and promote reconciliation between ethnic groups 10 years after the conflict? Two groups Listeners of NGOs radio soap opera Listeners of health radio soap opera (control group) Radio soap opera created by NGO with messages on Mistrust and lack of interaction between the groups in two fictional Rwandan communities Trauma created by genocide Ways of reducing genocide Behavioural observations, individual interviews and surveys, and focus group discussions Results: Exposure to radio soap opera did not influence listeners’ personal beliefs(e.g. intermarriage causes tensions; how violence emerges; role of bystanders) but influenced their perceptions of social norms and behaviours (i.e. changes in social norms and behaviours with respect to intermarriage, open dissent, trust, empathy, cooperation, and trauma healing) (compared to control group)

Answer 36

Any action taken to improve the conditions of a social group and/or achieve social change (e.g. protesting and signing petitions) - Wright et al., 1990 Why do people participate? (Predictors of collective action) Social identity model of Collective Action (SIMCA) - Van Zomeren, Spears and Postmes, 2008) Identify - as someone who participates in collective action (as belonging to disadvantage group or supporting the cause) Perceive - That the issue is unfair and feel angry about the unfairness Perceive that engaging in collective action will help social change

Answer 37

Advantage group members also participate in CA for disadvantaged group (e.g. men who participate in feminist movement) Allies can be helpful at improving social change and intergroup relations Tensions can arise in political movement if they are not genuinely interest in improving the status of disadvantaged group (Radke et al., 2020)