Social Psychology The scientific study of the ways in which the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of one individual are influenced by the real, imagined, or inferred behavior or characteristics of other people Today’s class: –How you think about people –How you explain their behavior –Why you like them

Social Cognition: How you think about people? Impression Formation – how do you construct your social cognition? –Primacy effect Early information about someone weighs more than later information in forming impressions We are “cognitive misers” –Self-fulfilling prophecy A person’s expectations about another elicits behavior from the other person that confirms the expectations “Hostile” partners continued to be more hostile Randomly identified “bloomers” made greater gains –Schemata –Stereotypes

Impression Formation Schemata –Ready-made categories –Allow us to make inferences about others (good for cognitive misers) –Also plays a major role in how we interpret and remember information –We will remember characteristics of our schema that weren’t there

Impression Formation Stereotypes – A set of characteristics believed to be shared by all members of a social category –It is usually unfair –Most often applied to sex, race, occupation, physical appearance, place of residence, membership in a group or organization –Can become the basis for self-fulfilling prophecies

Self-fulfilling prophecy (Snyder, Tanke & Berscheid, 1977) Attractiveness Stereotype – sociability and socially savy Men received “background” information about a woman they were about to talk with on a phone, info included a photo. Women received same info, but no photo. IV: Photo of woman either attractive or unattractive DVs: 1) Men’s expectations about the woman 2) Observers’ ratings of the woman’s behavior Results: When men expected that the woman was attractive, she was judged as friendly, warm, and more animated than when men believed they were talking with an unattractive woman. (self-fulfilling prophecy)

Attribution: Why did he do that? Attribution Theory: tries to explain how people make judgments about the causes of other people’s behavior Three criteria used to judge behavior –Distinctiveness: Is this how the person treats everyone or are you different? –Consistency: Has the person always treated you this way or is this different? –Consensus: Do other people do this same thing or is this really different?

Attribution: Why did he do that? Bob walks past you without saying hi. –Distinctiveness: Your explanation as to why Bob did this will be different if he does this to everyone in the hall or just you –Consistency: Your explanation as to why Bob did this will be different if he always says hi to you or if you don’t really know each other. –Consensus: Whether you’re in New York vs. a college of 600 will change how you explain Bob’s behavior.

Biases in Attribution: The errors to which your guesses will succumb Actor-Observer Effect: attribute actions of others to internal factors and the actions of yourself to external factors –Fundamental attribution error: the tendency to overemphasize personal causes for others’ behavior and underemphasize personal causes for our own behavior Defensive attribution –Self-Serving Bias: Tendency to attribute our successes to our own efforts and our failures to external factors –Just-world hypothesis: Assumption bad things happen to bad people and good things happen to good people Attribution across cultures varies dramatically

Effects of Attribution How we explain someone’s behavior affects how we react to it.

Interpersonal Attraction Attraction is closely linked to 1.Proximity 2.Physical attractiveness 3.Similarity 4.Exchange 5.Intimacy

Psychology of Attraction 1.Proximity: Geographic nearness is a powerful predictor of friendship. Repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases their attraction (mere exposure effect). A rare white penguin born in a zoo was accepted after 3 weeks by other penguins just due to proximity. Rex USA

Proximity leads to liking Moreland & Beach, 1992 IV: Four female confederates attended large class 0, 5, 10, or 15 times DV: How much liked slides of confederate at end of semester Results: The more times confederate attended the class, the more she was liked.

Proximity leads to liking

Psychology of Attraction 2.Physical Attractiveness: Once proximity affords contact, the next most important thing in attraction is physical appearance. Hatfield et al. (1966) Couples randomly paired at “computer dance” Assessed personality, aptitude, physical attractiveness Results: Only physical attractiveness predicted liking and wanting to see the person again. (True for men and women.)

Physical attractiveness Bias to like children who are attractive Dion (1972) IV: mild vs. severe misbehavior IV: attractive or unattractive photo of child DV: Rate typicality of behavior Results: Severe misbehavior rated more typical when performed by an ___________child than an __________child.

Is attractiveness objective? Arguments for Objective Standard High consensus across countries, race/ethnicities –Agree on attractiveness of faces and body types (F: hourglass; M: v-shaped) Particular features are associated with attractiveness –F: large eyes, prominent cheekbones, small nose, wide smile –M: broad jaw, large eyes, prominent cheekbones, wide smile Babies look longer at faces rated as attractive by adults. (less likely to be affected by cultural standards

Is attractiveness subjective? Arguments for Subjective Standard Cross-cultural differences in ways to look beautiful –Face painting, plastic surgery, scarring, piercings, etc. –Variations in preference for female body size

Subjective? Standards of beauty within a culture change over time

Attractiveness Standards Probably both universal and variable components of attractiveness Overall, physical attractiveness predicts more positive evaluations (true in childhood and later in life)

Psychology of Attraction 3.Similarity: Similar views among individuals causes the bond of attraction to strengthen.  Finding others who agree with us strengthens our convictions and boosts our self-esteem  Opposites don’t attract – they don’t even meet  Complementary Traits – you complete me

Psychology of Attraction 4. Exchange: The give and take of a relationship. Social Exchange theory explains how we feel about a relationship with another person as depending on our perceptions of: –The balance between what we put into the relationship and what we get out of it. –The kind of relationship we deserve. –Contrast Effect – seeing something ‘better’ makes us temporarily devalue what we’ve got

Psychology of Attraction 5. Intimacy: closeness and trust achieved through communication Must be mutual Can’t be too much too soon

Pairing Game Matching Hypothesis or Similarity Principle Contrast Effect Social Exchange Theory Commitment can override the preference for alternatives.

Matching in physical attractiveness People tend to pair with partners who are about as physically attractive as they are. Predicts success of relationship (more similar in attractiveness, more likely to stay together) However, women who marry less attractive men are shown to rate their marriage as more satisfying.