Social Psychology Flashcards

The tendency to overestimate personality factors and underestimate situational factors when explaining others' behavior. Example: assuming a rude cashier is a bad person rather than having a bad day.

Attributing your successes to internal factors (skill, effort) and your failures to external factors (bad luck, unfair test). Protects self-esteem.

People conform to group pressure even when the group is clearly wrong. About 75% of participants conformed at least once on an obvious line-length judgment task.

About 65% of participants obeyed authority to the point of delivering what they believed were dangerous electric shocks to another person. Obedience increased with proximity to the authority figure.

The discomfort felt when holding two contradictory beliefs or when behavior conflicts with beliefs. People reduce it by changing their beliefs to match their behavior (Leon Festinger).

When the desire for group harmony overrides realistic evaluation of alternatives. Leads to poor decisions because dissent is suppressed. Example: Bay of Pigs invasion (Irving Janis).

The tendency to exert less effort when working in a group than when working alone. More likely in larger groups and when individual contributions are not tracked.

Loss of self-awareness and self-restraint in group situations that promote anonymity. Explains why people in crowds sometimes act in ways they would not act alone.

The more people present during an emergency, the less likely any individual is to help. Caused by diffusion of responsibility and pluralistic ignorance (Darley and Latane).

The belief that people get what they deserve. Leads to blaming victims for their misfortune to maintain the belief that the world is fair.

Prejudice: negative attitude toward a group. Stereotypes: generalized beliefs about a group. Discrimination: negative behavior toward a group. Think: feel, believe, act.

Repeated exposure to a stimulus increases liking for it. We prefer things we have seen before, even without conscious awareness (Robert Zajonc).

The tendency to perform better on simple tasks and worse on complex tasks when others are watching. Arousal from an audience helps well-practiced skills but hurts new ones.

A persuasion strategy where a small request is made first, followed by a larger request. People who agree to the small request are more likely to agree to the bigger one.

A persuasion strategy where an unreasonably large request is made first (expected to be refused), followed by a smaller, more reasonable request. The contrast makes the second request seem small.

Demonstrated how situational roles can influence behavior. College students assigned as guards or prisoners quickly adopted their roles, with guards becoming aggressive. Showed the power of social situations over individual personality.

Unselfish concern for the welfare of others. Debate exists over whether true altruism exists or whether helping always has some self-benefit (like reducing personal distress).

The tendency to favor members of your own group over members of other groups. Even arbitrary groupings (like shirt color) can trigger this bias.

The tendency to let one positive trait (like physical attractiveness) influence overall impressions of a person. Attractive people are often rated as smarter, kinder, and more competent.

Central route: persuasion through strong arguments and evidence (lasts longer). Peripheral route: persuasion through superficial cues like attractiveness or celebrity endorsement (less durable). From the Elaboration Likelihood Model.