1. Have you ever… - accepted a free sample and then bought something you really didn’t need? - done something silly or dangerous with a group of friends that you would never have done while alone? - seen a stranded motorist while driving down a busy highway and not stopped to help? - made negative remarks about members of another group after a member of that group got a job, a spot on a sports team, or a scholarship you wanted?

2. Social Psychology: How do other people* and social situations* affect individual behavior*, attitudes, perceptions and motives? * Ordinary people * Social variables * Everyday behavior Power of situation - but social situations sometimes “blend” into background.

3. Birds of feather flock together -Similarity - in trivial stuff (same b-day) -In more important stuff (political view)

4. Birds of feather flock together OR Opposites attract? Usually similarity wins, although in some traits (dominance), complementary would make us happier Categorization: How similar to me is she? - ‘Us’ vs. ‘them’

5. Categorization: ingroup: group which we identify with outgroup: group with which we do not identify minimal groups: meaningless groups formed by grouping strangers on the basis of trivial criteria (paintings) Results: –I like ‘us’ better, –I share more of my money

6. 1) We like members of our in-group better and are nicer to them than members of out-groups. sororities - not so highly respected groups especially likely to put down out-group members. 2) out-group homogeneity: perception that members of out-group are all alike-- more similar to each other than they really are, and more similar to each other than members of the in-group are to each other. Also, more likely to recall distinguishing information about members of our in-group

7. stereotype: generalization about a group of people -Frenchmen are good lovers -Chinese are good at math

8. Stereotype threat - concern among members of a negatively stereotyped group about confirming a negative stereotype.

9. contact hypothesis: prejudice will be reduced if different groups have a chance to interact with each other. conditions under which contact works: - equal status (white supervisor, black worker) - personal interactions (not just TV) - cooperative activities - social norms in favor of reducing prejudice