1. PLEASE DO NOW! Why do you obey some rules & disobey others at school? Have you ever been convinced by friends to do something you knew was wrong? … To do something you knew was right? Do you consider yourself a conformist? Nonconformist? Why?

2. Social Psychology : -“We cannot live for ourselves alone; our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads.” –Herman Melville -Social psychologists explore these connects by scientifically studying how we think about, influence & relate to one another. -Social psychology is different from sociology bc it considers how individuals interact with each other & society at large. -Sociologists explore the behavior of groups & cultures as they interact internally & externally.

3. SOCIAL THINKING: Attributing Behavior to Persons or to Situations Fritz Heider (1958) proposed an attribution theory after studying how people explain others’ behavior; People attribute others’ behavior either to: – their internal dispositions…or – their external situations …we explain someone’s behavior by crediting either the situation or the person’s disposition. Fundamental Attribution Error: tendency for observers, when analyzing another’s behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation & to overestimate the impact of personal disposition.

4. The Effects of Attribution Our attributions – to individuals’ dispositions or to their situations-should be made carefully. They have a real consequences. – Happily married couples attribute spouse’s snarky remark to a temporary situation (“She must have had a bad day at work”). Unhappily married couples attribute the same remark to a mean disposition (“Why did I marry such a hostile/mean person?”). – Managers’ attributions in evaluating employees, they are likely to attribute poor performance to personal factors, such as low ability or lack of motivation.

5. Attitudes & Actions Attitudes: feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people & events. *If we believe people are mean, we may feel dislike for the person and act unfriendly. Central route persuasion: attitude change path in which interested people focus on the arguments & respond with favorable thoughts; occurs mostly when people are involved with the issue at hand i.e. global warming Peripheral route persuasion: attitude change path in which people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker’s attractiveness; i.e. endorsements by respected people – Central route is more thoughtful & less superficial, it’s therefore more durable & more likely to influence behavior.

6. Actions Affect Attitudes Foot-in-the-door phenomenon: tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request. – To get people to agree to something big, “start small and build.” – Have you ever negotiated a later curfew by asking for a slightly later curfew first instead of an extremely later curfew? – Have you ever told your parents about a slightly bad thing before telling them about something they’d view as being really bad? Role-Playing Affects Attitudes: Role: a set of expectations (norms) about a social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave. – Zimbardo prison study (1972)

7. Cognitive Dissonance: Relief from Tension – Theory that we act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) we feel when two of our thoughts (cognitions) are inconsistent. i.e. when our awareness of our attitudes & of our actions clash, we can reduce the resulting dissonance by changing our attitudes. – College hazing techniques perpetuated by cognitive dissonance; “digging own grave”, “drinking games”, etc. – Abu Bhraib Prison Other techniques influencing actions & attitudes: – Low-ball technique: asked to participate in lab experiment @ 7am 24% came; students agreed to participate w/out knowing time & then told time 53% showed up; brainwashing techniques, write-it-down technique (customer fills out sales agrmnt = commit)

8. Social Influence Conformity & Obedience: adjusting one’s behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard – Behavior is contagious… Cluster of people stand gazing upward, & passersby pause & do likewise Street musicians “seed” their tip containers to suggest others have given One person laughs, coughs, or yawns – We are natural mimics – the chameleon effect: unconsciously mimicking others’ expressions, postures & voice tones helps us feel what they’re feeling; mood linkage

9. Group Pressure & Conformity : – Conformity: adjusting one’s behavior or thinking to coincide w/ a group standard. Asch’s Conformity Study (1955) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYIh4MkcfJA Conditions that Strengthen Conformity: – One is made to feel incompetent or insecure – Group has at least 3 people – The group is unanimous (dissent of just 1 other person greatly increases social courage) – One admires the group’s status & 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 – Normative Social Influence: influence resulting from a person’s desire to gain approval or disapproval. – Informational Social Influence: resulting from one’s willingness to accept others’ opinions about reality

10. Obedience: – Stanley Milgram’s ( a student of Solomon Asch) famous obedience study… How far would you go? – In later experiments, Milgram discovered that subtle details of a situation powerfully influence people. When he varied the social conditions, the proportion of fully compliant participants varied from 0 to 93%. Obedience was highest when: Person giving orders was close at hand & perceived to be a legit authority figure Authority figure was supported by a prestigious institution; compliance was somewhat lower when Milgram dissociated his experiments from Yale Univ. Victim depersonalized or at a distance No role models for defiance; no other participants were seen disobeying the experimenter Can you think of other examples where this has happened?

11. Group Influence Social facilitation: stronger responses on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others. – After a light turns green, drivers take about 15% less time to travel the 1 st 100 yds when another car is beside them at the intersection than when alone. – Cyclists’ racing times faster w/ other cyclists next to them rather than just racing a clock.. *What you do well you are likely to do even better in front of an audience; what you normally find difficult may seem all but impossible when you’re being watched.

12. 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. – Think about the last group project you did… Deindividuation: loss of self-awareness & self- restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal & anonymity. – Participating in a food fight in the caf or a riot, screaming at a ref, vandalism…

13. Effects of Group Interaction Group polarization: occurs when people within a group discuss an idea that most of them either favor or oppose; discussion strengthens the group’s prevailing opinions; talking over racial issues increased prejudice in a high-prejudice group of high school students and decreased it in a low- prejudice 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. – fed by overconfidence, conformity, self-justification & group polarization