Social Psychology Test #3

If an executioner were to be questioned about how he could live with himself after taking someone's life, one likely response (according to the authors of your text) is

"I'm just following orders"

Carla has just written out a check for $13,999 to pay for her new car. Although the salesperson had initially accepted her check, she is now told that there was a mistake and that the final total should really be $14, 250. Carla writes another check for $251 to cover the difference so that she can drive out with her new car. Carla has just fallen prey to a questionable sales practice called

"Lowballing"

Recall that Festinger and Carlsmith (1959) paid participants either $1 or $20 to tell someone else that a tedious, boring task was really interesting. Participants paid ________ modified their original attitudes because they had ________ for lying.

$1; Little external justification

Who would be least likely to remember sound and well-founded arguments against smoking?

A person who has never smoked

Aronson and Mills (1959) performed an experiment in which college women were invited to join a discussion group about sex. In order to join the group, participants had to undergo either a severe initiation, a mild initiation, or no initiation. Which of the following best describes this study's findings? Women who underwent ________ initiation enjoyed the discussion the ________.

A severe; Most

Just after the tragic events of September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush's performance ratings soared from a low of 50 percent to a high of 82 percent, only to fall back to 53 percent a month later. This phenomenon suggests that

Although relatively stable, attitudes can and do change

Imagine that before a test, the professor told Jake that if he is caught cheating, he will be expelled. Imagine that the professor told Amanda that, if caught cheating, her only punishment will be to write a short paper about why cheating is wrong. If both students don't cheat, what would dissonance theory predict?

Amanda will feel more honest than Jake will

According to the tenets of cognitive dissonance theory, people are most likely to change their attitudes when they have ________ justification for an attitude-discrepant behavior.

Ample internal

Cross-cultural research on the changes in standards for physical attractiveness has found that Japanese women

Are less satisfied with their appearance than American women and face higher rates of eating disorders as they try to make their already-thin bodies even thinner.

Imagine that you have just moved into a house with four other people. One of your housemates, Tony, doesn't seem to like you all that much. If you were to make use of the Ben Franklin effect, what can you do to increase Tony's liking for you?

Ask Tony if he could give you a ride to the grocery store

Politicians often preface their remarks with such statements such as "I know that my opponent will try to tell you that I'm weak on crime." This strategy is an example of

Attitude inoculation

In the "Johnny Rocco" studies conducted by Schachter (1951), he found that when a confederate stubbornly deviated from the opinion of the rest of the group, the confederate then was more likely to

Be voted out of the group

Why would people be less likely to engage in dissonance-reducing behaviors in a collectivist culture?

Because they would be focused on group harmony rather than self-justification

In experiments on counterattitudinal advocacy, people change their attitudes more the lower the external incentives. This finding is inconsistent with the ________ approach to psychology.

Behaviorist

According to the authors of your text, what is one way people can begin to learn from their mistakes?

By recognizing the tendency to justify our actions

Recall that in experiments presented in your text (Leippe & Eisenstadt, 1994; 1998), when white participants experienced dissonance after writing essays in favor of doubling scholarship funds for minority students, how did many of them relieve the dissonance?

By showing lower prejudicial attitudes

Not all members of the radio audience of Orson Welles' War of the Worlds broadcast panicked immediately. Indeed, some didn't panic until they looked out of the window and saw empty streets; others didn't panic until they saw streets full of traffic. It was after checking out the situation that these citizens decided that the Martians had indeed invaded Earth. This example illustrates that contagion

Can result when people look to others for the interpretation of ambiguous situations

The reason that forewarning tends to prevent attitude change is that it

Causes people to pay more attention to their preexisting attitude

Armando is listening carefully to a persuasive communication and thinking about the arguments. He is using the ________ route to persuasion.

Central

Corey and Jennifer engage in a debate in speech class. Corey goes first and Jennifer goes second. Most students thought that Corey did a better job in the debate. Assuming that the quality of the arguments and presentation by the two speakers was equally good, this would be an example of a(n) ________ effect.

Central Route

Of the four people presented below, which one would feel the least regret about altering her appearance, based on information in your text about cognitive dissonance?

Cheryl, who just got a tattoo

Claude had an unpleasant experience during his last visit to Dallas, Texas. He was approached by two men with strong Texas accents who wielded a sharp knife, roughed him up, cracked a rib, and stole all his money. Ever since Claude was mugged, he has taken an instant dislike to anyone who speaks with a Texas twang. Claude's negative attitude toward Texas accents is most probably a result of

Classical Conditioning

If Little Joey gets punished every time he plays with matches, Joey may develop a negative attitude toward matches. What would best explain Joey's negative attitude toward them?

Classical conditioning

George thinks of himself as an honest person until his brother reminds him that he's been known to keep extra change given to him by a cashier and to stock his home office for a sideline business with supplies taken from his job. George is now probably feeling a sense of discomfort known as

Cognitive dissonance

Researchers (Bond & Smith, 1996) conducted a meta-analysis of 133 Asch line-judgment studies conducted in 17 countries. They found that conformity was higher in ________ cultures because normative social influence ________.

Collectivistic cultures; Promotes harmony

According to the authors of your text, why do young people often fail to use condoms every time they have sex?

Condoms are inconvenient, unromantic, and remind people of death and disease

Noor is in a study similar to Baron et al. (1996). She has been asked to select the person she saw in a series of photos. If she's told that her decision is not very important, she will

Conform less than when the decision is very important

Complete the following analogy: explicit attitude is to implicit attitude as

Controlled behavior is to unconscious behavior

Recall that Aronson and his colleagues designed experiments to remind students of their own hypocrisy when it came to using condoms during sex. Participants who made videotaped speeches in which they talked about the difficulties they had using condoms actually changed their attitudes and behaviors related to condom use. These experiments are actually variations on the phenomenon of the ________ paradigm.

Counter attitudinal Advocacy

When people state publicly an opinion that is at odds with their own private attitudes, they are engaging in

Counter-attitudinal Advocacy

What is the broad message or theme about the processes of self-justification and the need to enhance self-esteem? Humans are

Creative in their attempts to justify their actions and maintain self-esteem

Solomon Asch (1951, 1956) embarked on a series of studies in which participants were asked to estimate the lengths of lines that clearly differed in length. Asch originally undertook these experiments to

Demonstrate that in ambiguous situations, people would rater be "liked" than "right"

Lisa and Marcie have a really tough exam in anthropology. Both women are considering cheating on the exam. Based on what you read about cognitive dissonance, Lisa, who ________, is likely to later report that all cheaters should be punished severely, and Marcie, who ________, is likely to report that cheating really is no big deal because there are no victims.

Did not cheat; Did not cheat

Research by Rudman and her colleagues (2007) suggests that implicit attitudes are rooted in ________ experiences, whereas explicit attitudes are based in ________ experiences.

Emotional; Cognitive

Chaiken (1987) and other proponents of the heuristic-systematic model of persuasion assert that emotions often signal us as to our true attitudes. By this they mean that

Emotions often inform our "How do I feel about it?" heuristic

Ying just purchased a rather expensive wristwatch. She had debated for weeks about the merits of two different styles before making her final decision. It's now likely that Ying will

Emphasize all of the positive aspects of the chosen watch

"Live fast and die young, that's what I always say," Rosie pronounces, as she stuffs down three more Ding-Dong snack cakes and opens another pint of high-fat ice cream. Rosie knows that her diet is unhealthy and harmful, of course. To reduce her dissonance, Rosie is

Engaging in self-affirmtion to combat cognitive dissonance

A Japanese psychologist by the name of Sakai observed participants partaking in dissonance-reducing behaviors. Sakai also had a fellow group member of the participant observe the dissonance-reducing behavior. The observer then indicated how enjoyable he or she thought a boring task was. These results suggest that Japanese observers

Experience dissonance on behalf of fellow members of their group

When it comes to informational social influence processes, we are more likely to conform with experts' ideas and behaviors than with nonexperts' because

Experts are viewed as more credible sources of information

Research by Leventhal and his colleagues (1967) was described in the text. In the experiment, the researchers showed one group of smokers a film depicting the ravages of lung cancer, gave another group of smokers a pamphlet with instructions on how to quit smoking, and exposed a third group to both the film and the pamphlets. People in the last group reduced their smoking significantly more than people in the other two groups because

Fear was aroused and they were provided a means to reduce that fear

Imagine that you are on the Olympics Planning Committee. Nine out of ten of the committee members hold the same opinions. However, one member, Laura, consistently deviates from the group's opinion. How is your group most likely to act toward Laura to bring her in line with the group's opinion? The group will

First increase communication with Laura. When that doesn't work, the group will ignore and punish Laura

Anderson and her colleagues (1992) analyzed what people in fifty-four cultures considered to be the ideal female body: a heavy body, a body of moderate weight, or a slender body. They found that in cultures where ________, the ________ body was preferred.

Food supplies were unreliable; heavy

You're designing an activity for your social psychology class and you want to maximize conformity. What should you do to make that happen?

Have the group size be four or five

Jay just found out that he was not accepted into his dream college. Based on information from the authors of your text about impact bias, which of the following best reflects how Jay will react?

He will get over it rather quickly

Recent findings that ________ tend to have similar attitudes is the strongest evidence suggesting that attitudes are in part genetic.

Identical twins reared apart

Charlene typically goes along with what her group of friends wants and asks of her. However, one day she refuses to meet them for smoothies after class. Chances are, Charlene will face little retribution for this as long as she has enough

Idiosyncrasy Credits

The concept of social norms refers to

Implicit or explicit rules a group has for acceptable beliefs, values, or behavior

If you wanted to resist an influence attempt, social impact theory (Latané, 1981) suggests that you should

Increase the distance between yourself and the group

Bill has been deprived of human contact for long periods of time. He will tend to experience

Insanity

When preschoolers were forbidden to play with a very attractive toy, some received mild threats of punishment, and others received severe threats of punishment should they disobey (Aronson & Carlsmith, 1963). Because they had ________ justification, children in the mild threat condition experienced ________ dissonance, and changed their rating of the forbidden toy.

Insufficient external; More

After filing your ballot for an election, you are more convinced than you were before filing the ballot that you voted for the best candidate. This example illustrates the idea that when decisions are _______, individuals engage in a greater amount of dissonance reduction.

Irrevocable

Anita spent two months trying to decide whether to buy a PC or a Macintosh. She finally decided on a Mac. Now, Anita most likely

Is certain she made the right decision

Recall that Brehm (1956) asked women to rate the desirability of a number of appliances, and then allowed them to choose one of those appliances as a gift. Twenty minutes later, all women re-rated the same appliances, including the one they chose. According to his findings, which of the following (fictitious) participants would rate the toaster lower than she had originally?

June, who chose the waffle iron instead

People tend to fall subject to the impact bias (and not understand that they will usually successfully reduce cognitive dissonance) because reducing cognitive dissonance is

Largely unconscious

The authors of your text explain that when political leaders get caught up in a cycle of self-justification, it can have particularly dangerous consequences. What is their advice for avoiding such a cycle in your own life?

Learn to evaluate your behavior critically and dispassionately

In a persuasion study conducted by McGuire (1964), participants exposed to weak arguments that contradicted common knowledge or beliefs were _______ likely to be persuaded by ________ two days later.

Less; Stronger arguments

The central route to persuasion is to ________ as the peripheral route is to ________.

Logical arguments; Surface characteristics

Who is most likely to convince him- or herself that he or she believes in the behavior he or she is performing?

Loren, who turns down the radio because his mother says it interferes with her concentration

All of the following processes except ________ are motivated by the need to preserve or maintain self-esteem.

Making upward social comparisons

If you were to compare women's magazine ads starting in the 1950s showing people in various stages of undress, what trend would you notice?

Men are more likely to be shown undressed, while the percentage has stayed stable for women

Who is most likely to enjoy a boring and lackluster rock and roll concert performed by washed-up, fifty-something "has beens"?

Mick, who waited in line all night for tickets

Emile just ditched a friend at a party to spend time with a pretty woman. Emile feels uncomfortable but he tells himself it's because the woman is so hot and not because he treated his friend badly. The way he's feeling is dissonance, but he tells himself it's sexual attraction. This describes which of the following?

Misattribution of arousal

George is trying to decide which of two used cars to buy. He test drives each, listening to the radio while he does so. While he is test driving the Honda, his favorite song comes on the radio. George tells his friend, "I know the Toyota is a bit better of a deal, but somehow the Honda just feels better to me." If the reason that the Honda feels better is that George liked the song that he heard while driving it, his decision is being influenced by

Misattribution of emotion

Reza and Eyad are both salesmen. Eyad is more persuasive than Reza. According to research the Yale Attitude Change approach he's probably ________ than Reza.

More Attractive

According to Latané's (1981) social impact theory, as group size increases from two to three members, the impact will increase ________ if a group increases from twenty-nine to thirty members.

More than

Milgram surveyed both a panel of Yale undergraduates and a panel of psychology professors before he conducted his original experiment. In these surveys, he found that

Most people predicted that less than 1% of participants would go to 450 volts

If you wanted to make use of the concept of insufficient punishment, how would you discipline your child when she's misbehaving? Give the child a stern look and tell her

Nothing else if she stops the forbidden behavior

All things being equal, it would generate the most dissonance to decide which of two

People to marry

Cross-cultural replications of Solomon Asch's original (1951) conformity studies (in which participants gave public judgments of the lengths of lines) have revealed that

People's conformity in these situations varies depending on the culture in which they were reared

In general, the more ________ a decision between alternatives, the ________ the postdecision dissonance.

Permanent; greater

The authors of your text note that across the studies that Milgram did investigating obedience to authority, the one factor that never made a consistent difference in how participants behaved was

Pleas for help from the victim

People are unlikely to change their attitudes after saying something they don't truly believe if there is ________ for the lie.

Post-decision Regret

Believing that others are right is to ________ as conforming without believing is to ________.

Private acceptance; Public compliance

Pierre joins the other concertgoers in giving the symphony a standing ovation, even though he thought the performance was merely adequate. The next morning, Pierre confides to his girlfriend that the performance was "satisfactory, but not overwhelming." In joining the standing ovation, Pierre displayed what kind of conformity?

Public Compliance

In a variation of his standard experiment, Solomon Asch (1957) found that when participants could write their responses on a piece of paper, conformity dropped dramatically. This finding indicates that participants exhibited ________, not ________, during the standard experiment.

Public compliance; Private acceptance

In most stores, owners provide background music for shoppers. Now, this music may not be to everyone's taste, but from the perspective of social psychologists who study routes to persuasion, it is probably designed to ________, and thus to ________.

Put them in a good mood; Make products more attractive to them

Based on research by Goldstein and colleagues (2008), which of the following techniques would be most effective in getting hotel guests to reuse their bath towels?

Putting a sign in the room stating that the majority of guests in this room reuse the towel

Recall that Brehm (1956) asked women to rate the desirability of a number of appliances and then allowed them to choose one of those appliances as a gift. Twenty minutes later, all women re-rated the same appliances, including the one they chose. Women tended to rate the alternatives they rejected lower than they had originally, and to rate their chosen appliance more positively. These results suggest that people

Reduce dissonance by overestimating differences between chosen and unchosen alternatives

The Asch line studies were conducted over fifty years ago, and society has changed quite a bit. A recent study involving fMRI and the line judgment task attempted to replicate some of Asch's results. What were the results of this study?

Results were very similar to those of Asch's original studies

Recall that Aronson and his colleagues asked college students either to compose a persuasive message advocating the use of condoms or to compose and deliver their message in front of a video camera. In addition, half of the participants in each group were made mindful of the times that they didn't use condoms. Which (fictitious) participant below would experience the most dissonance and express a greater willingness to use condoms in the future?

Sally, who delivered her speech, and listed the times she found it hard to use condoms

Briñol and Petty (2003) conducted a study in which participants were presented strong or weak arguments on an issue while they were either shaking their head or nodding their head. Someone listening to a weak argument would be more persuaded if they were ________.

Shaking their head

Chloe voted for the first time in the 2008 elections. She was very motivated to understand campaign issues and to make an informed choice at the polls. She read the newspapers and watched the television debates between the candidates. Motivated and informed when she watched the presidential debates between John McCain and Barrack Obama, Chloe was most likely to pay attention to

The candidate's disagreements on education issues

Which of the following represents the utilitarian aspect of an attitude object, such as a consumer product?

The gas mileage of a car

The authors of your text explain that people tend to overestimate how bad they will feel if a negative event were to happen to them. This tendency is called

The impact Bias

Recall that in a study by Baron et al. (1996), participants in one condition were asked to select perpetrators after a lineup in conditions of low ambiguity, so that participants in the control condition made very few mistakes. Recall also that some participants were told that the task was one that was being designed for use by the police department and were offered $20 if they were the most accurate, while others were told that it was just a laboratory task under development. This condition of the study found that

The more important it was to participants to be correct, the more they conformed to other group member's answers

According to research presented in the text (Baron et al., 1996), participants were asked to select perpetrators after a lineup in conditions of high ambiguity; the perpetrator wore different clothing in the lineup than in the original photo, and the slides were shown very quickly. Recall also that some participants were told that the task was one that was being designed for use by the police department and were offered $20 if they were the most accurate, while others were told that it was just a laboratory task under development. This study demonstrated that

The more important it was to the participants to be accurate, the more they conformed to other group member's answers

A person who supports gay marriage listens to a televised debate between two politicians on either side of the issue. According to dissonance theory, this person is likely to remember

The most plausible arguments in favor of gay marriage and the most implausible arguments against it

Triandis (1995) has argued that dissonance-reducing behaviors may be less prevalent on the surface in societies in which

The needs of the group matter more than the individual

Solomon Asch (1951, 1956) conducted a series of studies in which participants were asked to estimate the lengths of lines that clearly differed in length. Participants then heard the other group members give correct estimations for some trials, and blatantly incorrect estimations for others. When confederates in the study gave an incorrect response, how did participants respond?

They tended to conform on at least once of the trials

Consider the findings from a study by Peterson, Haynes, and Olson (2008) in which smokers were asked to create an antismoking video to be shown to high school students, thereby invoking dissonance in the smokers. Based on the findings about which participants were most likely to intend to quit smoking, who do you think would be most likely to reduce dissonance by changing his or her behavior?

Tim, who created once of those anti-smoking videos

According to your authors, threats of severe punishment ultimately teach people

To avoid getting caught

According to several replications of Asch's line studies, in Japan, Germany, and Britain, people in those countries are more likely to conform to groups

To which they belong

Because dissonance reduction processes are mostly unconscious, people

Usually will put a lot of effort into reducing cognitive dissonance

According to the authors of your text, what is one major danger of engaging in self-justification strategies?

We can fail to learn form our mistakes

Since World War II, the Japanese preference for beauty has evolved to hattou shin, which refers to

Westernized, With long legs and thin bodies

According to the authors of your text, people experience dissonance

When they know they did the wrong thing

Based on the Ben Franklin effect, you are most likely to increase your liking for Tony when

You lend Tony $10

According to the authors of your text, after carefully making a decision, what is likely to happen?

You will start to think more and more about the good qualities of your decision

Lisa is a car salesperson. She has just gotten you to agree to a deal on a new car and to write out a check for the down payment. She takes this to her manager and comes back a while later saying that, because of taxes and fees, the price of the car will actually come out to $600 over what you agreed upon. According to the research on lowballing, which of the following is most likely to occur?

You would decide to buy the car anyway because there is an illusion of irrevocability

Because of the societal pressures to be very thin, there is a so-called epidemic of eating disorders. Compared to females who developed eating disorders in the past, those who develop eating disorders today tend to be

Younger; aged twelve and thirteen