 Social Psych: the scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another We cannot live for ourselves alone, our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads. ~Herman Melville

 Attribution Theory: Fritz Heider (1958) suggested that we have a tendency to give causal explanations for someone’s behavior, often by crediting either the situation or the person’s disposition.  A teacher may wonder whether a child’s hostility reflects an aggressive personality (dispositional attribution) or is a reaction to stress or abuse (a situational attribution). Fritz Heider

 Fundamental attribution error: the tendency for observers, when analyzing another’s behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition  Effects of Attribution  Attribution effects the way you explain ideas and concepts  Point to Remember: Our attributions, to individuals dispositions or to their situations, should be made carefully. They have real consequences.

 Attitudes and Actions  Attitudes: feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events

 Attitudes affect actions  Central Route of Persuasion: attitude changes path in which interested people focus on the arguments and respond with favorable thoughts  Occurs when people are naturally analytical or involved with the issue  Peripheral Route of Persuasion: attitude change paths in which people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker’s attractiveness

 Actions affect attitude  Foot-in-the-door phenomenon: the tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply with a larger request  Start small and build  In the Korean War, Chinese communists solicited cooperation from US army prisoners by asking them to carry out small errands. By complying to small errands they were likely to later comply to larger ones.

 Role Playing Affects Attitudes  Role- set of expectations (norms) about social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave  Stanford Prison Experiment  Zimbardo (1972) assigned the roles of guards and prisoners to random students and found that guards and prisoners developed role- appropriate attitudes.

 Cognitive Dissonance Theory  The theory that we act to reduce the discomfort we feel when two of our thoughts are inconsistent.  For example, when our awareness of our attitudes and our actions clash, we can reduce the resulting dissonance by changing our attitudes U.S. Offensive Against Iraq Becomes Operation Iraqi Freedom

 Social Influence  Conformity and Obedience  Behavior is contagious  We are natural mimics- the chameleon effect  Unconsciously mimicking others expressions, postures, voice tones helps us feel what they are feeling.  Conformity: adjusting one’s behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard  Solomon Asch (1955)

An influence resulting from one’s willingness to accept others’ opinions about reality. William Vandivert/ Scientific American

 Reasons for Conforming  Normative Social Influence: Influence resulting from a person’s desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval  Informational Social Influence: Influence resulting from one’s willingness to accept others’ opinions about reality They can't put anything on the Internet that isn't true.

 Conditions that Strengthen Conformity  One is made to feel incompetent or insecure  The group has at least three people  The group is unanimous  One admires the group’s status and attractiveness  One has made no prior commitment to any response  Others in the group observe one’s behavior  One’s culture strongly encourages respect for social standards

People comply to social pressures. How would they respond to outright command? Stanley Milgram designed a study that investigated the effects of authority on obedience. Stanley Milgram ( )

 Group Influence  Social Facilitation: Stronger responses on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others  Ex.: light turns green  15% less time to travel first 100 yards if another car is beside you at the intersection  Point to Remember: what you do well, you are likely to do even better in front of an audience and what you normally find difficult may seem impossible when being watched

 Social Loafing: tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable  Feel less accountable  Deindividualization: the loss of self- awareness and self restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity

 Effects of Group Interaction  Can have similarly good and bad effects  Group Polarization: The enhancement of a group’s prevailing inclination through discussion within the group  Good and Bad results  Groups enhance spiritual experiences  High prejudice students discuss racial issues, they become more prejudiced  Politics  Terrorist seem to group together around a common bond and that leads to growth in the group

 Group think: the mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives  Attack on Pearl Harbor  Bay of Pigs  Vietnam Escalation  List goes on and on  All of these were fed by overconfidence

The power of social influence is enormous, but so is the power of the individual. Non-violent fasts and appeals by Gandhi led to the independence of India from the British. Gandhi Margaret Bourke-White/ Life Magazine. © 1946 Time Warner, Inc. Control over the mind alone is necessary, and when that is attained, man is free, like the king of the forest, and his very glance withers the enemy.

 Cultural Influence  Culture: the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values, and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next  Norms: an understood rule for accepted and expected behavior  Norms prescribe “proper” behavior  Norms vary across cultures

 Other Terms:  Mere exposure effect: the phenomenon that repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases linking of them  Passionate Love: an aroused state of intense positive absorption to in another  Companionate Love: deep affectionate attachment we feel for those with whom our lives are intertwined

 Alturism: unselfish regard for the welfare of others  Bystander effect: the tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present  Social exchange theory: theory that our social behavior is an exchange process, the aim of which is to maximize benefits and minimize costs  Reciprocity norm: expectation that people will help, not hurt, those who have helped them

 Mirror image perceptions: mutual views often held by conflicting people as when each side sees itself as ethical and peaceful and views the other side as evil and aggressive  Self-fulfilling prophecy: belief that leads to its own fulfillment  GRIT: Graduated and Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension Reduction; a strategy designed to decrease international tension