Social Psychology 360 Fall 2014 Review sheet for Exam 2 Basking in reflected glory Increasing self esteem by associating with others who are successful Cialdini study school sweatshirts and team victories o Those who failed are more likely to share teams victory by saying things like we won Fans associating themselves with team Beaman et al 1979 Left alone to help themselves to candy but some had a full length mirror behind the bowl and others did not 34 broke rule with no mirror versus 12 broke the rule when there was a mirror Berglas and Jones 1978 Cover Story Drugs and Intellectual Performance IV Soluble or insoluble problems on Aptitude test DV Choice of drug before next round Drug A helps intellectual performance Drug B inhibits intellectual performance Results Soluble Problem Insoluble Problem Helps 87 30 Inhibits 13 70 can blame next bad score on drug think they lucked out Self handicapping the social self notes Cognitive dissonance theory What it is how it works implications that follow from it inconsistency among a persons thoughts sentiments and actions create an aversive emotional state dissonance that leads to efforts to restore consistency dissonance is aroused whenever people experience inconsistency between two cognitions about their own behavior behaviors implication is that people will try to change their cognitions to make it more consistent with their ex after placing a bet on a horse bettors will reduce the dissonance associated with all of the negative features of the horse and all the positive features of the other competing horses making hard decisions triggers dissonance which triggers rationalization process that make us more comfortable with our choices relates to induced forced compliance where people are forced to behave in a manner against their values and a way to cope with this is for people to change their original values attitudes Cultural differences in self construals independent self construals in western societies people are concerned about their individuality freedom and self expression the self is an autonomous entity that is distinct and separate from others identity is social the self is fundamentally connected to other people and fitting in is ME matters interdependent collectivist construals emphasized disapproves of egotism WE matters Defensive pessimism Downside to high self esteem Strategy in which person expects the worse and works harder because of this expectation People with inflated more egotistical high self esteem react volatilely to threats to their self esteem using violent action to reassert their feelings of superiority and to dominate those who challenge them Further suggesting a link between certain forms of high self esteem and violence people who report elevated self esteem and grandiosity also report greater aggressive tendencies Comparing ourselves to people who are worse off than we are on a particular trait or ability ex I got a C on my exam but my roommate got a D people reduce dissonance by justifying the time effort or money they have devoted to something that has turned out to be unpleasant or disappointing Downward social comparison Effort justification Elaboration likelihood model 2 Routes of Persuasion 1 Central Systematic processing of information 2 Peripheral Heuristic processing or non cognitive factors Central Route Peripheral Route Relies on analysis of the strength of the arguments People are not always motivated to process carefully or unable to do so Using info other than the relative strength of the arguments superficial cues Source Variables Familiarity Likeability Credibility Physical Attractiveness halo effect Similarity Fear appeals Part of message variables of persuasion Initially thought to backfire if too strong Not known to be effective even with strong fear under certain conditions Target believes danger is serious Target believes danger is probable Message includes prescriptive info how to avoid danger Target believes recommended precautions will be effective Target believes she has behavioral control recall TpB Festinger and Carlsmith 1959 Insufficient Justification Participants perform very dull tasks asked to lie to incoming participant and say that it was Independent Variable actually interesting group no reward no lying 1 00 dissonance or 20 00 no dissonance reward for lying or control Dependant Variable Result paid 1 who had insufficient justification for lying thought the task was somewhat enjoyable Participants in control group and 20 group rated the task as boring The participants who Reported enjoyment of task Functions of attitudes focus on identity expressive function knowledge function and ego defensive function Identity expressive function Attitudes facilitate expression of central values or beliefs Fleming and Petty 2000 Students high or low in gender group identification Presented new snack product IV described as men s favorite snack food or women s favorite snack food DV Liking for product Results For people low in gender group identification description made no difference For people high in gender group identification liking was higher when product described as favored by own gender group Knowledge function Helps organize and structure knowledge about the world Attitudes aid in the interpretation of new stimuli enables rapid responding to attitude relevant info Rapid evaluative judgments good or bad approach or avoid Ego defensive function Protecting the self from unwelcome or unflattering views Gender and self concept social bonding Cross and Madson 1997 marshaled evidence indicating that women in the U S tend to construe the self in more interdependent terms than men do in terms of connection to others Men in the U S tend to prioritize difference and uniqueness construing the self in more Women generally emphasize their relationship while men generally emphasize their uniqueness independent terms Hostile media phenomenon refers to the finding that people with strong biases toward an issue partisans perceive media coverage as biased against their opinions regardless of the reality Kitayama Snibbe Markus and Suzuki 2004 Is Dissonance Universal Japanese and Canadian participants to choose between 2 CD s In one condition the standard condition investigators have used for nearly 60 years participants were asked after ranking a large number of CD s to choose between two of the middle ranked CD s In the other condition participants were also asked to rank the presumed