Social Psychology: How do we think about others? Flashcards
Attribution
Assigning a cause to someone else’s behaviour/action; “making sense” of a situation.
Dispositional (i.e., Internal Attribution)
The behaviour is caused by something WITHIN the person we observe.
Situational (i.e., External Attribution)
The behaviour is caused by something OUTSIDE the person we observe.
Biases in Attribution
Fundamental Attribution Error
Explaining someone else’s behaviour.
The tendency to associate someone’s negative behaviours to dispositional attribution, and someone’s positive behaviours to situational attribution.
Masuda & Nisbett
The study indicates FAE affects individualistic countries (ex. America) moreso than collectivist countries (ex. Japan).
Self-Serving Bias
Explaining one’s own behaviour. The tendency to associate your negative behaviours to situational attribution, and someone’s positive behaviours to dispositional attribution.
Attitudes
A belief that includes an emotional component. It focuses on how we change our behaviours according to social cues or situation.
Low Self-Monitor
Less sensitive to social cues; “be themselves”. Their attitudes are consistent throughout every situation, and are easy to predict.
High Self-Monitor
More sensitive to social cues; “try to fit in”. Their attitude changes throughout various situations, and are not easy to predict.
What influences our attitudes?
- Personality
- Social Context
- Recognition Heuristic
- Messenger’s Characteristics (Implicit Egotism Effect)
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
A feeling of discomfort or tension caused
by an inconsistency between attitude/belief and action.
How to reduce cognitive dissonance?
Changing an action to justify an attitude, or changing attitude to justify an action.
Insufficient Justification
The person cannot justify an already completed action without modifying attitude.
Festinger & Carlsmith
Participants were asked to complete a boring task. Each group needed a justification for lying. Result? The group who received $20 had a sufficient external justification, thus enabling them to lie. The group who received $1 continued to feel discomfort as they had no external justification, forcing them to deceive themselves.
Justifying Effort
Alter attitudes to justify suffering.
Example: If I spent a lot of time/money on something, I’m more inclined to like it more than if I had spent very little time/money on that same outcome.
Justifying Difficult Decisions
Rationalize difficult decisions by exaggerating the positive features of the chosen & the negative features of the unchosen.
Stereotypes
“People w/ pink hair are mean.”
Overgeneralized beliefs about the attributes possessed by members of a social group (i.e., Assuming every individual w/in that group carries that trait).
Why are stereotypes inaccurate?
Confirmation Bias
The tendency to selectively search for and
consider information that confirms our beliefs.
- ex. Not seeking out objective facts.
- ex. Interpret information to support our beliefs.
- ex. Remembering details upholding our beliefs.
- ex. Ignoring information that challenges our beliefs.
Illusory Correlation
A perception of a relationship between two variables that does not really exist.
Ultimate Attribution Error
Explaining a group’s behaviour.
The tendency to associate someone’s negative behaviours to dispositional attribution, and someone’s positive behaviours to situational attribution.
What are the levels of stereotypes?
Public
What we say to others about a group.
Private
What we consciously think about a group, but don’t say to others.
Implicit
Unconscious mental associations guiding our judgments and actions without our conscious awareness.
Implicit Association Test (IAT)
A psychological tool designed to measure the strength of a person’s automatic association between mental representations of objects in memory. It is often used to assess implicit stereotypes individuals hold unconsciously. The test typically involves quick categorization tasks to reveal the strength of associations between different concepts.
For example: In favour of their own race, 24% immediately reacted in a way that put their own race in a positive light.
Are we able to suppress stereotypes?
No
Ironic Rebound Effect
The more you tell yourself not to think about something, the more that thought remains in your mind.
Prejudice
“I don’t like people w/ pink hair.”
The feelings felt towards members of an out-group. It’s typically negative, and not based on reason/evidence.
In-group Bias
The tendency to favour individuals inside our group relative to members outside our group.
For example: You are “cheering” your country’s soccer team, while “booing” the opposing team. Although you have no financial stake or close to the player, the home team is your tribe.
Out-Group Homogeneity
The tendency to view out all people outside of our group as highly similar.
For example: You assume all other races share at least one undesirable characteristic—like greediness or laziness. As a result, you don’t bother getting to know them.
What are the roots of prejudice?
Scapegoat Hypothesis
The tendency to blame out-groups for in-group misfortunes.
Just-World Hypothesis
The tendency to perceive the world as fair—to believe that all things happen for a reason.
Conformity (i.e., Following the group.)
Evolutionary Past
Explains that some people exhibit high levels of prejudice against a wide variety of out-groups.
Discrimination
“I’m not going to let anyone w/ pink hair sit next to me at lunch.”
Negative behaviour toward members of out-groups.
Elliot’s Blue Eye—Brown Eyes Demonstration
How can we combat stereotypes, prejudices, and discrimination?
Contact Hypothesis
The idea of reducing stereotypes, prejudice,
and discrimination by ensuring direct contact between members of rival groups.
Robber’s Cave Experiment (“We’re all in this together”)
To cure prejudice, the Eagles and Rattlers engaged in activities that required cooperation to achieve an over-arching goal.
Jigsaw Classrooms
Teachers assign children separate tasks that need to be fitted together to complete a project.
