Social Psychology Scientific study of the way in which people s thoughts feelings and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people Allport 1985 1 Conformity a Def The tendency to do what others do simply because others are doing it i Are Americans rugged individualist A Informational social influence a Informational Conforming due to the need to be accurate i Best sellers lists on websites ii Leads to private acceptance you actually believe the new information B Normative social influence a Normative conforming due to the need to be liked i Leads to public compliance but you don t actually believe it b Informational vs normative would you conform if you were certain the was wrong 1 Line segment study a Six confederates one participant b Estimating line lengths c The importance of unanimity i When even one confederate disagrees with the majority participants were less likely to conform d Normative influence as a force for good i 75 of our guests use their towels more than once guests will then reuse their towels 2 Social Roles Definition Shared expectations about how certain group members should behave i Ex Traditional marital roles A Benefits a Efficiency i Social roles facilitate interpersonal coordination ii Division of labor b A clear identity can be comforting i Too much choice can be disconcerting B Costs a Loss of freedom and individuality b People may behave in accord with their role rather than their values C The Stanford prison experiment a People began to be in real life what they were in the experiment 3 Obedience Tendency to do what powerful people tell us to do Will people do terrible things just because someone tells them to A WW2 Eichmann Trial a Only followed orders from higher up people B Could it be that Eichmann and his million accomplices in the Holocaust were just following orders Coul we call them all accomplices a Quote by Stanley Milgram C Stanley Milgram s Shock Experiment a Will everyday people obey even if it means severely hurting someone b Psychiatrist poredicted that only 1 of the people would go all the way c Reality 65 went all the way d Good people sometimes do bad things e This doesn t absolve anybody of personal responsibility IV Dissonance A Cognitive Dissonance a An unpleasant stat that arises when a person recognizes the inconsistency of his or her actions attitudes or beliefs B The boring Task study a After completing a boring task all Ps were asked to lie and tell next person task was fun b paid 1 to lie paid 20 to lie c How much did you like task Those paid 1 changed attitude more than those who were paid 20 i Insufficient justification if individuals do something for no reason no external attribution to make they will make up an internal attitude C Hazing Study a Why does hazing breed loyalty Why do we like something more when we have hat to work hard for it i Liking it resolves the dissonance b Women applied to join a discussion on the psychology of sex i Control group immediately joined the group ii Experimental group had to read uncomfortable pornographic passages to a strange man first iii The discussion was actually very boring but women in the experimental group thought it was more interesting than women in the control group V Stereotyping and Prejudice A Stereotypes A process by which we draw inferences about others based on knowledge a Stereotypes can be useful why do we ask gas station attendants for directions b But they can also be terribly inaccurate which is why we typically encourage people not to rely on them i The illusory correlation a false impression that two variables correlate 1 The joint occurrence of two distinctive events minority member distinctive event negative behavior probably attracted more attention and caused faulty impressions ii White americans over estimate the arrest rate of African Americans 1 African americans minority 12 6 of the US population 2 Arrest rate Distinctive event iii When both occur it provokes and ah ha reaction and we are more likely to notice it c Self fulfilling prophencies tendency to cause what you expect to see i Expectations action toward another person other person s response confirms original expectation ii Act towards certain people because of the way we think about them B Prejudice a positive or negative evaluation of another person based on their group membership a People have a strong tendency to like their own groups and dislike other groups even when the groups are invented on the spot i How many dots do you think were on the screen 1 Over estimators or underestimates ii How much will participants help in group vs outgroup members iii Results for these minimal group tasks 1 People identify more with their own estimation group than members of the other group 2 People report liking members of their own group more 3 People help members of their own group more 4 People give more money to members of their own group b Lasting conflict between grops can breed prejudice but it isn t necessary to create prejudice i I m on of us not one of them ii