Social Psych Ch 12
More on noise
- Children regularly exposed to noise had lower reading, math and problem solving skills - Children who went to school near an airport showed lower scores than people who went to school further from the airport >> this is a correlation study (could be a 3rd variable such as different school district) >> poorer people tend to live near airports and they tend to usually have lower education levels which is then passed onto they children - Children on lower floors in NYC had low auditory discrimination abilities - Devices are availability to reduce or mask unpredictable noise with soothing more regular sounds like rain or waves >> Masks the unpredictable noise bc it makes everything predictable
Cultural Differences in Territoriality (US vs. Greece) - Worchel & Lollis, 1982
- Dropped litter in the front yard of someone's personal home (primary territory in both countries) and experimenters measured the mean speed (how long it takes) until litter was removed - Dropped litter on side walks and street curbs (public territories in Greece and secondary territories in the US) and measured mean speed until litter was removed Removal of litter was slower in Greece than in the US in general When litter was placed in front yard, there was little difference in the mean speed of litter removal. Cultural differences emerged when litter was placed on sidewalk or curb or street, as Americans were more likely to remove the litter Bigger cultural difference when litter is on side walk or curve than for litter in front of yard some cultures don't care as much or see it as their responsibility so therefore it will take them longer to remove the litter
Standard Time in Britain 1840
- England was the first nation to create the idea of standard time >> they did it to improve train scheduling - By 1855 most public clocks in Britain set to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) - standard time zones in US and Canada on November 18, 1883 again by the railroads - The US standard Time Act of 1918 brought standard time to the people
Elizabeth Loftus, 1992
- False memories: when someone recovers a memory in therapy that never actually happened - Implanted memories - Recovered memories - False Memory Syndrome
International relations with time and personal space
- People need to be informed about space and time issues when cultures deviate - Otherwise misattribution may occur - People might take it personally and might form hostile attributions
The Role of Media in Fallacies and Biases in the Legal System
- The media are sometimes deliberately used by prosecutor to manipulate public opinions and thus the jury (the persecutor is the guy who represents the states who is motivated to find you guilty) - The media's focus on the negative (negativity bias) makes us think crime is more common than it is >> Availability heuristic - The public assumes the accused is guilty
To increase eyewitness testimony:
- use blank-lineup control (suspect not included) - show the line up one person (sequential) at a time rather than a group - encourage witnesses to give unbiased first impressions
There are differences in need for personal space even in our own culture
- violent prisoners may have larger needs behind rather than in front - If interactions are positive, increased proximity is positive, but if interactions are negative, an increase in proximity might be threatening - we tolerate more closeness from people we like - The mood we are in affects how much space we need - If we are in a negative mood or don't like a person, we are gonna need more space
Time as an artifact
- we created the concept of time to keep track of change and to allow us to predict "future" events - We imagine a timeline from the distant past into the distant future. We learn from the past and plan for the future, barely focusing on the present - other cultures recognize that it is always now - time is relative to the earth's rotation
Attorneys, judges, jurors, defendants
1.) Attorneys are bias (bc they want their case to win) 2.) Judges are human 3.) Jurors and Defendants - 33% of jurors decide before case begins -Selective attention, Confirmation bias - Pretrial Publicity is illegal in Canada
Hall's Situational Differences in America
1.) Intimate distance = 0 - 1.5 feet >> kissing, hugging, sex 2.) Casual Personal distance = 1.5 - 4 feet >> talking to a friends 3.) Impersonal Social distance = 4 - 12 feet >> talking to people you don't know 4.) Public distance = 12+ feet >> when in public
Factors that make police interrogations subject to fallacies and biases
1.) Leading questions influence memory (Elizabeth Loftus and implanted memories) 2.) Strong emotion reduces accuracy (guns) 3.) Witnesses want to help 4.) Time reduces accuracy 5.) Police line ups (sequential vs. simultaneous)
Consequences of crowding
1.) Negative emotional state 2.) We like others less 3.) We help others less 4.) Physiological effects - increase in heart rate, blood pressure, adrenaline, stress and even illness - relation is correlation - Possible 3rd variable linking crowding and illness may be poor sanitation 6.) Aggression increases - it's curvilinear like heat Gender effect: females bothered less than males >> females are more accustomed in childhood to interact in a closer way so they tend to be more comfortable w crowds on average Culture differences: Asians less bothered than Westerners - We tend to model the emotions of the crowd - If you are in an emotional state and someone does something you don't like, you are more likely to be aroused or misattribute your feelings toward them - crowds can affect our mood
Solutions to prevent false identifications
1.) Police need to be trained 2.) Instructions to witness need to be neutral 3.) Lineups should be sequential, if possible
3 Types of Territory
1.) Primary Territory 2.) Secondary Territory 3.) Public Territory
Eye Witness >> Fallacies and Biases
1.) Witness desire to help: - Witnesses want to help, but sometimes they don't know enough to be helpful, so they will lie just to tell the police something or they will tell them what they want to hear (acquiescence bias). 2.) Time reduces accuracy: - The best time to get an eye witness testimony is immediately 3.) Research since the 1800s say that eye witness testimonies are often not very accurate 4.) Studies show that there is no correlation between certainty and accuracy - Just because a person is certain doesn't mean they are more accurate However, there are SOME people who are good eye witnesses
Police Interrogations: Fallacies and Biases
A lot of police are not well trained in interrogating. They think that if they can extract a confession out of somebody then that will prove they are guilty. Psychologists find that people will often confess to something they didn't do if the interrogation isn't handled in the right way
The Drive Theory of Social Facilitation >> Zajonc, 1965
Appropriate >> Facilitation ⬆️ Others Arousal >> Dominant response ⬇️ Not Appropriate >> Inhibition - dominant response refers to the behavior we are most likely to perform in a given situation - When an individual performs a task, the effect of an audience is to increase the individuals arousal, which in turn increases the emission of dominant responses - If the task is simple or well learned by the individual (they're skilled), the the dominant responses are likely to be most correct and the audience effects results in an improvement or enhancement of performance (facilitates performance) - If the task is difficult or inadequately learned, then wrong responses are likely to result and the effect is an impairment of performance (inhibition of performance)
Air pollution and Ions
Bad smells can cause negative affect and less friendly social interactions Pleasant smells have the opposite effect Aroma Therapy and marketing - using aroma compounds to improve psychological or physical well-being Positive Ions, caused by dry winds, increase arousal level and thus dominant response >> More suicides, industrial accidents, some crimes Negative Ions from thunderstorms lead to positive affect and improve performance (Baron, 1987)
Glass, Singer, & Friedman, 1969 - Noise, Predictability, and Control
Experiment 1: 48 female students at Hunter College - Researchers induced frustration of female participants by giving them an unsolvable puzzle and then repeatedly exposing them to noise. Their stress levels and performance were measured. - Study had 3 conditions: 1.) Unpredictable noise 2.) Predictable noise 3.) No noise (control group) Results: - Noise resulted in lower tolerance for frustration and impaired performance after noise was terminated - Predictable noise was less disruptive than unpredictable noise >> people made more mistakes when there was an unpredictable noise - Predictable noise was no different from no noise Experiment 2: 18 female students from 3 NY colleges - In the second study, they wanted to give participants the illusion of control - Loud noises were paired with reading tasks and having control - two groups: no button vs button (illusion of control) - no button group was told a large noise was going to occur - button group was told they could push the button if the noise was too loud or painful results: - "no button" group missed 42.44% of the errors in the paper while proof reading - "button" group missed only 28.22% of the errors - the people in who decided to deal with the noise tended to do better than those who felt they actually had control and kept trying to stop it - believing that you had control significantly reduced error
Pozzulu & Dempsey, 2006
Experiment procedure: 1.) Children and adults watch a video of a staged crime where a purse is stolen 2.) Simultaneous lineup of photos is shown to subjects 3.) Subjects are either given neutral instructions or bias instructions - Neutral: child/adult is told the criminal may or may not be in the photos - Bias: child/adult is told the criminal is in the lineup (but in reality, the guilty party was not in the lineup) Two independent variables: 1.) Age >> Child vs. Adult 2.) Type of Instructions >> Neutral vs. Bias Results: 1.) Bias Instructions: Both children and adults are more likely to identify an innocent person falsely when given bias instructions >> nearly the same results - This is an example of leading the witness (leading the witness to the wrong answer) 2.) Neutral: The children way out performed the adults when given neutral instructions >> adults were more likely to falsely identify an innocent person when given neutral instructions; no children falsely identified an innocent person under these instructions - perhaps the adults feel more pressure to do what the police want because of social pressures 3.) There is an interaction between the two variables on the graph: on the bar graph, the line that runs across the top of each bar is not parallel
Gender differences in personal space
Females interact closer women are more likely to build barriers to their sides whereas a man is more likely to build barriers in front or behind them
Jones, 1988 The Social Psychology of Time
Future Time Perspective (FTP) - Cultures that are focused on the future - you are planning for the future, and delaying gratification - not focused on present needs - more focused on saving the future Present Time Perspective (PTP) - cultures that are more likely to be focused on the present moment - They think they are superior to the FTP cultures bc they believe that they are enjoying themselves more
The Prime Meridian
GMT line
Munsterberg, 1907 - Eye Witness Testimony
He claimed the idea that eye witness testimonies are not the most accurate
Bornstein 1979 population density and time
He suggests 4 explanations for why life is faster when population is more dense 4 explanations: 1.) Social Facilitation (Zajonc 1969) 2.) Economics (rent is high) - In a city like Manhattan, rent is expensive, therefore time is money >> This means you have to be very efficient and bc the rent is high it makes you more conscious about making money and driven to make money quickly 3.) Cognitive Factors ("time is money") -economic factors translate into cognitive factors >> people think time is money 4.) Modeling - when you come into an environment and see everyone running around and going fast, you are going to do the same thing in order to keep up and imitate your surroundings
Implications from Levine's A Geography of Time
Health effects: - Levine looked at heart disease by country - Italy was least FTP and had the lowest heart disease - Japan was most FTP, but also low heart disease. Other factors are involved - FTP is associated w higher stress, extreme individualism, loss of community, and anti social behavior - PTP might reduce some stress, but often infrastructure is poor, lower ambition to succeed, apathy about future - A blend or synthesis between FTP and PTP might be healthiest / best
Appearance Matters
If you look more presentable you are less likely to be found guilty There are psychologists who devote themselves to dressing people so that they will be less likely to be found guilty (Miami Herald article) - Ex: Lawyers of Carlos Lehder understood this concept
The Legal System (Forensic Psychology)
It is a social system; therefore, it is subject to all fallacies and biases
Primary Territory
It is your territory >> your apartment or house
Saul Kassin & Kiechel, 1996 - False Confession Study
Kassin and Kiechel completed a study that showed that innocent people will confess to doing something they did not do under the right conditions Experiment: - Male college students participated in study - Female assistant read letters while male participants typed them on keyboard - Told not to press the ALT key bc it would crash the program and delete all the data - Upset experimenter rushed in accusing participant of ruining everything - Subjects divided into 4 groups based on 2 contributing variables: the presence of false evidence (false witness) or not and the pace of the interrogation 1.) subject is accused in a slow interrogation and female assistant doesn't agree with the accusation (no witness) 2.) subject is accused of crime in a fast paced interrogation and female assistant doesn't agree with the accusation (no witness) 3.) subject is accused of crime in a slow interrogation and female assistant agrees with the accusation (false witness) 4.) subject is accused of crime in a fast interrogation and female assistant agrees with the accusation (false witness) - Percentage of people who actually confess either by compliance, internalization, or confabulation is measured 2:2:3 study >> 2 independent variables by 2 independent variables by 3 dependent variables Independent Variables: - no witness vs. witness - slow pace vs. fast pace 3 Dependent Variables: 1.) % compliance = the person agrees to confess / they say they did it 2.) % internalization = the person believes they did it 3.) % confabulation = the person "remembers" details of the crime they did not commit / they not only believe they did it, but they make up additional false details Results: - as pressure to make a false confession increased, the % of participants who confessed sharply increased - Being in a fast pace interrogation and being accused by a false witness resulted in the most confessions - With both factors, false evidence provided and fast paced interrogation, 100% of participants will comply, 65% will internalize, and 35% will confabulate
Levine, 1997 A Geography of Time
Levine went around the world to different cities and measured several dependent variables Dependent Variables: - Walking speed - Bank Clock Accuracy - Post Office Transaction - Launch Consumption Some conclusions: - Japan was the most FTP of all - US was second on clocks and post office - England was 1st on walking speed - Indonesia was worst on clocks and slowest in walking - Italy had the slowest post offices
Causal attributions can be quite negative (pushy and rude vs. slow and backward)
PTP people (American are typically FTP) tend to find Americans as pushy and rude, but we tend to find them as lazy and self centered >> Ultimate Attributional Error
Mischel, 1985 Trinidad Study of delayed gratification
People in Trinidad were more likely to wait longer but receive a larger amount of money People in Africa were more likely to take the money right away Greater cities tend to be further from the equator bc they have to spend more time preparing for the future, whereas cities closer to the equator don't experience winter so they have the insurance for food year round therefore they spend less time having to prepare for the future which leads to lead things like universities and libraries ( this isn't 100% valid)
Cultural differences in personal space
People tend to be closer in the Middle East, France and Greece and further away in N America, England, and Scandinavia
Eye Witness Testimony
Researchers have found that: - Witnesses are not very reliable >> Accounts are often distorted by fear, misleading information - eyewitness confidence is falsely equated with accuracy - A discredited witness is more convincing than no witness at all
Police Line Ups: Sequential vs. Simultaneous
Sequential: when you show one person at a time and the witness looks at one person and then they go away and then next person is brought out >> Tends to be more accurate Simultaneous: When multiple people are shown next to each other in one line all at once >> Usually the kind we see on TV; less accurate
Environmental Psychology
Social psychologists, working w architects, biologists, geographers, economists, and environmental scientists study the interrelationships between the physical and social environment and their impact on behavior
What makes us feel crowded?
Stimulus overload - Not unlike noise, heat, or light - People tend to leave or "tune out" by avoiding eye contact to feel less crowded (hence the lack of eye contact in big cities) Loss of control - People might feel helpless, their control and freedom are limited Ecological factors - scarcity of resources - feeling like the line is too long meaning there is more competition to get what it is your are waiting for Focus of attention - If you focus on all the people, you'll feel crowded - If you focus on your friends, or the game, you won't
Strong Emotions >> Fallacies and Biases
Strong emotions reduce accuracy If your life was threatened, if a gun was present, etc. you are going to be less likely to remember what someone or something looked like
Cultural differences in focus on time
The culture we are raised in or come to live in affects many things including how we relate to time one major distinction made by social science is the following: 1.) Collectivistic cultures place a moral emphasis on the group 2.) Community, society, and nation are valued about the individual 3.) Individualistic cultures place that moral emphasis on the individual 4.) independence and self-reliance are valued
The perception of time
The earliest psychologists, who studied consciousness, considered our experience of time and now it is coming back we are conscious of time "time flies" you're perception of time seems to alter when you're having fun Time doesn't actually go faster or slower, it is just your perception of time that changes
Population density and time
The more crowded, the more hurried when you get further out of a city and into more rural areas, life is slower Borstein 1979 suggests 4 explanations for this
Leading Questions >> Fallacies and Biases
They influence memory and often make people confess for something they didn't do due to the way police interrogate. They can result in implanted memories, an idea by Elizabeth Loftus, or false confessions, an idea by Saul Kassin. Police ask these to get you to respond in a certain way >> false confession
Markers
Used to establish a territory / something you make or leave in a spot to mark a territory Ex: - if you leave a spot to grab something you leave a one of these (book, cup, etc) to indicate the territory is yours - having a fence indicates what is your property and what is your neighbors property - a sign - a wall - a coat - your keys
Implanted memories; Elizabeth Loftus 1992
When a memory is implanted into a witness to change the way the witness may have seen something to change the truth of the event It is essentially the same concept as Kassin's idea of false confessions. In the legal system, they are often formed when police ask leading questions during interrogations Loftus focused her career on memory problems, specifically within the legal system
False Confessions; Saul Kassin, 1997
When conditions are right, innocent people will confess to doing something they didn't do They are common The criminal justice system does not adequately protect the innocent >> you are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, but often times people are assumed to be guilty - EX: Police should not be able to say they have your finger print on a gun if they don't >> they shouldn't be allowed to lie to the accused just to extract a confession
Secondary Territory
You don't own it , but you use it / you use it on a regular basis but you know you share >> assigned seating
Public Territory
You know it's not yours, but it it is yours while you're sitting there / occupying it >> seat in a food court
Forensic Psychology
helps to eliminate bias and influence accuracy but sometimes they still use it to manipulate the system and work to find information for only one side of the trial
Temperature
hot temperatures lead to hostile affected thoughts and to physiological arousal Examples: 1.) In 1862 major league baseball games, as temperature increases, more batters hit by pitchers (Reitman 1991) 2.) Murders and rape in 2 large cities increased with temperature (Anderson and Anderson 1984) 3.) Burglary and car theft are related to temperature 4.) W very high temp, aggressive behavior decreases, but Negative Affect remains high (curvilinear) 5.) Accidental forms of aggression occur more when temperature is hotter
Crowding
is how an individual perceives a given number of people in a particular place it is a PHYSIOLOGICAL concept >> how you feel, how the person perceives the number of people
Density
is the purely physical and spatial aspects of the number of people per spatial unit it is a PHYSICAL concept >> they actual number of people per spatial unit
Crowding and Health, a field study - Paulus, McCain, & Cox 1978
looking at the negative impacts of crowding correlation study a study that examined the death rates of inmates in a psychiatric prison over a 16 year period documented a closer correspondence between prison population and death rate strong correlation
Factors that influence eye witness testimony
mug-shot induced bias - exposure to mug shots of a suspect increases the likelihood that the witness will later choose that suspect in a lineup postevent information - eyewitness testimony about an event often reflects not only what the witness actually saw, but information he or she obtained later on alcoholic intoxication - alcohol intoxication impairs an eyewitness's later ability to recall persons and events cross-race bias - eyewitnesses are more accurate when identifying members of their own race than members of other races weapon focus - the presence of a weapon impairs an eyewitness's ability to accurately identify the perpetrators face Child suggestibility - young children are more vulnerable than adults to interviewer suggestion, peer pressure, and other social influences
Blank lineup
presenting a lineup where the police know that the guilty party is not there
Personal Space (Proxemics)
we tend to have a greater need for personal space in front of us Differences in personal space preferences: - gender differences - cultural differences - situation differences
