PSYC E-1050 (Harvard Extension) - EXAM 2
Normative Focus Theory
- A theory about when norms will impact how we behave. - States that norms will influence our behavior when we're thinking about them and view them as applying to us and what we do. - If we aren't thinking about them or don't think they apply to us, we're less likely to follow them.
Examples of the Negative Effects of Tokenism
- After Barack Obama was elected, White Americans believed that less racial progress needed to happen and they were less inclined to support policies to promote more racial equality. - People viewed as being admitted through affirmative action seen as less competent
Collective Guilt
- An emotional response that people can experience when they perceive their group as responsible for illegitimate wrongdoing. - This can create a defensive reaction to avoid upsetting feelings of guilt. - Blaming the victims of prejudice and discrimination can also be an attempt to defend against guilt. Then the inequality isn't unfair; it's "justified."
Two attitudes develop through early interactions with caregivers
- Attitude toward the self: Self-esteem. Caregiver teaches infant whether they're valued, loved, and important...or not... - Attitude toward others: Interpersonal trust. Caregiver teaches infant whether they can trust, depend on, and rely on the caregiver (and by extension, others as well)...or not...
Attractiveness and Body Type
- Attractiveness associated with weight is culturally dependent. Stereotypes associated with various body types: Round : Easygoing and less personally disciplined. Muscular : Energetic and healthy Thin : Intelligent and reflective
Why does destructive obedience happen?
- Authority figures relieve those who obey of responsibility for their own behavior - Authority figures increase the level of their orders gradually - Events progress at a very quick pace
Robber's Cave Experiment
- Boys assigned to two different camps with a range of activities. - Competition for prizes generated prejudice toward the outgroup and praise toward the ingroup. - Working together on superordinate goals lessened prejudice.
Facial Averageness
- Composite faces rated as more attractive - The more faces, the higher the attractiveness o Why is averageness attractive? - Matches our schema of a face that we develop over exposure to many faces.
Upside to Conformity
- Conformity brings a reassuring element of predictability into everyday life; we can anticipate how people will behave. - It helps give us a way of navigating new and unfamiliar situations in appropriate and effective ways. - It encourages people to interact in ways that are appropriate and constructive, for themselves, others, and society as a whole.
Feelings of Prejudice
- Feelings of prejudice can come up when someone is in the presence of someone from a disliked group. But these feelings can also be sparked by thinking about a disliked group. - Prejudice can reflect feelings such as fear, anger, envy, pity, disgust.
Compliance• Techniques based on commitment and consistency
- Foot-in-the-door technique : Make a small request, and then make a larger request, which is the real, intended request. - Lowball technique : A salesperson offers a very beneficial deal to a customer. Once the customer agrees to the deal, the salesperson gives a reason why they can't offer the deal. The new proposed deal is less beneficial to the customer, but the customer is likely to agree to it anyway. The lure effect : A person lures the target with a desirable request (e.g., answering three questions for $20). Then the lure is taken away because person tells the target they're not needed for this activity. And then the real request is made that is far less desirable, such as a boring or tedious task.
Attractiveness and the Color Red
- For primate females, they display red during ovulation (genitals, chest, face) - There's ancient evidence of the use of red lipstick and rouge. - Red linked to attractiveness across cultures. - Women standing against a red background viewed as more attractive than when they had a white background behind them.
Characteristics of long-term friendships
- Greater modesty - More honesty-less apt to lie - More use of "we" language rather than "she and I" or "he and I" language
Studies revealing that when a group's status is threatened by another group, that group may:
- Help the threatening group over non-threatening group. - Give the threatening group help regardless of whether the group needs it (helping when facing simple and challenging problems). - Give dependency-oriented help Help that offers whole solutions and fosters dependency on external aid. - This help is in contrast to autonomy-oriented help Help that gives people the means to solve their own challenges and issues on their own. - People high in social dominance orientation (prefer to maintain hierarchical systems and reject egalitarianism) are especially prone to defensive helping.
Secure Attachment
- High in self esteem - High in trust - Most able to form lasting, satisfying, committed relationships
Dismissing Attachment
- High in self esteem - Low in trust - They believe they're worthy of a relationship, but don't trust others to be a reliable, trustworthy, and steady presence. As a result, they're frightened of getting close to anyone, lest they get hurt. They're likely to seem dismissing and uninterested in connection.
Racial bias in the bystander effect:
- In an emergency, White study participants were more likely to help White victims than Black victims. Black study participants did not show this helping bias. - More time passed before White study participants gave aid to Black victims compared to White victims. Black study participants did not show this helping bias.
Balance Theory
- Learning that someone who you like is similar to you creates a state of balance, with positive feelings. - Learning that someone who you like is dissimilar to you, however, creates a sense of imbalance and negative feelings. - Partners try to regain balance by: a) Trying to get each other to change b) ignoring or downplaying the difference.
Anxious-Ambivalent Attachment
- Low in self esteem - High in trust - Strong desire for closeness. They hang onto a relationship, hoping it will last, yet wait anxiously to be rejected because, ultimately, they feel unworthy.
Fearful-Avoidant Attachment
- Low in self esteem - Low in trust - They believe they're unworthy and they don't trust others to be a reliable, trustworthy, and steady presence. As a result, they're likely to avoid relationships or to have relationships that are unhappy.
Countering P&D - Contact
- More contact between groups can open awareness of similarities and reduce the sense of "otherness." - Cross-group positive contact can reveal that members of other groups do not dislike one's own group. This reduces anxiety during intergroup interactions. - Cross-group friendships (e.g., study of heterosexuals with a gay friend- extent to which friend seen as typical of the gay community predicted less less prejudice toward people who are gay) - Knowing members of one's own group are friends with members of other groups can lessen prejudice.
When the need for affiliation isn't met
- Negative emotions of sadness and anger and a sense of having lost control - Greater sensitivity to social information (e.g., memory for social information) - Decrease in complex cognitive performance (IQ and GRE) (just from being told they'd probably end up alone in the future) - Similar neurological response to social exclusion and physical pain - More aggressive behavior - Decreases in ability to self-regulate (e.g., food choices, task persistence)
Risk Aversiveness
- People are more sensitive to losses than gains. - In the case of discrimination and relative social advantage, the socially advantaged or privileged group is invested in holding onto privilege and not losing it. - If they perceive any movement toward greater equality by another group, they may view it as extensive and threatening, leading the privileged group to "see" more progress than has actually occurred.
Countering P&D - Re-Categorization with the Common In-Group Identity Model
- People from various social groups view themselves as a single social entity, which reduces hostility. - Work toward shared larger goals. - Problem: This is an approach that minimizes important differences in identity and experience. For members of different racial groups, this model is color blind.
Looking Through a Narrow Lens
- People tend to live, work, and socialize with those who are members of their in-groups. - For those who don't face discrimination, this can make it harder to see the discrimination that exists in society.
Factors That Increase Helping
- Similarity - Modeling --> The presence of a bystander modeling helpful behavior increases the odds that others will help too - Prosocial video games - Awe --> People who experienced less of a sense of self-importance (which is something awe can produce) were more apt to contribute to a good cause and be less selfish with people - SES --> People with lower socioeconomic status (i.e., income level, occupation, and education level) are more inclined to help others.
Why Does Prejudice Exist?
- Social Categorization: The Us Vs. Them Effect - Threats to Self-Esteem - Competition for Resources
Factors that Decrease Helping
- Social exclusion - Darkness and feeling anonymous - Viewing our time in economic terms
Cognitive Miser Perspective
- Stereotypes are examples of schemas - Stereotypes save time and effort. It's mentally easier to group people based on stereotypes. - There are circumstances in which we can make assumptions about people that benefit us.
Unintentional Social Influence and Emotional Contagion
- We use the emotional reaction of others as a gauge for our own feelings. (e.g., If someone is excited by news, we assume it must be exciting and that we should feel excited.) - When people who we deeply care about have an emotional reaction, we automatically have the same emotional reaction. (e.g., If a partner is sad about something that happened, we're likely to feel sad too) - If we believe someone else is like us, then we're more apt to feel the same emotion they are showing. However, if we believe someone is different from us, then we're more likely to feel a different or an opposite emotion.
Countering P&D - Facing Guilt
- White participants who wrote down all of the advantages they have because of their race felt more collective guilt than when they wrote about disadvantages Black people have because of their race. - Greater collective guilt linked to less racism later. - Collective guilt from an awareness of White advantage combined with a sense of personal efficacy to bring change can result in behavior to fight discrimination.
Shooter Bias
- White study participants must decide whether to shoot or not shoot armed vs. unarmed targets - The targets are White or Black - They are more likely to shoot Black targets, whether armed or unarmed, and not shoot White targets, whether armed or unarmed
Countering Prejudice and Discrimination
- contact - re-categorization with the common in-group identity model - re-categorization with intergroup dialogue - facing guilt - challenging stereotypes - challenging attributions
Need for Affiliation
- need to have contact with people and be accepted - the need to affiliate is a basic need for emotional well-being - evolutionarily adaptive for our ancestors to belong to groups as a way of obtaining food and protection - infants prefer to look at faces compared to other kinds of objects - the need to affiliate is virtually universal. Even though some people may claim not to need relationships, their well-being increases with social acceptance
What influences whether people can resist conforming?
- power - the desire to be unique
Although all forms of prejudice and discrimination are sadly rampant, so is the denial of it. Why?
- risk aversiveness - looking through a narrow lens - comparison with the extreme - collective guilt
Stereotypes
- the cognitive component of attitudes toward a social group - based on: o Physical appearance o Abilities o Behaviors o Traits
Interpersonal Attraction
- the evaluations we make of other people. - the attitudes we form about others can be positive or negative.
Why don't people always accept help?
- threat to self esteem - helper expressed sense of superiority or a lack of genuine care for the person's well-being
What influences whether people will conform (and how much) or resist conformity?
1. Cohesiveness 2. Group Size 3. Status 4. Norms
Why do we engage in prosocial behavior?
1. Empathy/ Altruism 2. Negative-State Relief 3. Empathic Joy 4. Competitive Altruism 5. Kin Selection 6. Defensive Helping
Why We Like Someone - External Factors
1. Proximity 2. Physical Beauty/ Handsomeness
Three Types of Close Relationships
1. Romantic Relationships 2. Family Relationships 3. Close Friendships
Four Attachment Styles
1. Secure 2. Anxious/Ambivalent 3. Fearful/Avoidant 4. Dismissing
Why We Like Someone: Social Factors
1. Similarity 2. Reciprocity 3. Social Skills 4. Personality Traits 5. What People Desire
Six fundamental principles underlying various techniques of getting people to comply:
1. friendship/liking 2. commitment/consistency 3. scarcity 4. reciprocity 5. social validation 6. authority
Why We Like Someone - Internal Factors
1. need for affiliation 2. moods and feelings
Obediance
A form of social influence in which one person simply orders one or more others to perform some action(s). *Example: In a construction zone, a police officer tells you to stop, and so you wait until the officer signals to you to allows you to drive through.
Compliance
A form of social influence involving direct requests from one person to another. *Example: Asking someone to bring you a glass of water.
Conformity
A type of social influence in which individuals change their attitudes or behavior to adhere to existing social norms. *Example: Leaving a restaurant to take a phone call rather than chatting in the middle of the restaurant.
Empathic Accuracy
Accurately perceiving the thoughts and feelings of people. The cognitive facet of empathy.
Prosocial Behavior
Actions that help others, often with no immediate benefit to the person (or people) performing those actions
Racial Arguments Scale
Articles written about athletes consistently describe White athletes as "intelligent," "hard- working," and "crafty" and describe African American athletes as "talented," "flashy," and "athletic." Conclusion: Biased descriptions of athletes should be avoided to stop perpetuating the stereotype that African American athletes are less intelligent than White athletes.
Group Size
As the number of people in a group grows to approximately eight, conformity increases.
Implicit relief of responsibility
Assumption that authority figure is in charge.
Explicit relief of responsibility
Authority figure states that they carry responsibility for what happens.
Glass Ceiling
Barrier that stops women from reaching the highest leadership positions.
Unintentional social influence
Behavior change that happens without someone's conscious intent
Gender Stereotypes
Beliefs about characteristics of men and women
Age Stereotypes + Example
Beliefs about characteristics of people based on their age o Study participants lead to believe they would train either an older or a younger person in technology. o People who thought they were training someone older had lower expectations that their trainee would perform well. In turn, they had lower quality interactions while working with the trainee and gave the trainee a lower evaluation.
Sexual Orientation Stereotypes + Example
Beliefs about characteristics of people based on their sexual orientation. o Study participants in a mock jury on a child sexual abuse case involving a male teacher. When jurors were told the defendant was gay and the victim was a boy, they were more apt to believe the defendant was guilty than when told the defendant was heterosexual.
Racial Stereotypes
Beliefs about characteristics of various racial and ethnic groups
Stereotyping
Beliefs about what members of a social group are like
Countering P&D - Re-Categorization with Intergroup Dialogue
Combine acknowledgement of different racial groups with shared commitment to social justice. - Example: Dialogue of how the members as White people, Black people, Brown people, and Asian people can come together to challenge racism.
What helps people adhere to their own views and give the correct answer?
Conformity went down when one of the confederates disagreed with the group: - Gave the correct answer - Gave an incorrect answer but one that wasn't as extremely wrong as the group's response. - Gave an incorrect answer that was more extremely wrong than the group's response. This reduced conformity the most. Conformity went down when people wrote down their answers rather than state them aloud.
Decision tree of helping (Latane & Darley)
Decision #1: Noticing, or failing to notice, that something unusual is happening. Decision #2: Correctly interpreting an event as an emergency Decision #3: Deciding that it is your responsibility to provide help. Decision #4: Deciding that you have the knowledge and/or skills to act Decision #5: Making the final decision to provide help
Discrimination
Differential treatment based on group membership
Social Influence
Efforts by one or more people to change the behavior, attitudes, or feelings of one or more others
Prejudice and Feeling of Anger
Even incidental feelings of anger can generate prejudice. o People in a study thought about a time they were angry, sad, or neutral. o When remembering anger, they more readily viewed an out-group in a negative light and their in-group in a positive light. o And it was more challenging for them to view an out-group positively and their in-group negatively.
Emotional Empathy
Experiencing the feelings and emotions of others
How does symbolic social influence sway us?
Explanation #1 : Relational schemas of the important people in life can activate thoughts of goals we want to reach linked to those schemas, which can affect behavior. Explanation #2 : Relational schemas of the important people in life can activate thoughts of goals they want us to reach, which can affect our dedication and behavior toward that goal.
Empathic Concern
Feelings of concern for someone's well- being.
Reciprocity (Compliance Technique)
If someone has done a favor for us, we're more likely to comply with their requests to repay that favor.
Authority
If someone who holds authority or appears to hold it makes a request, we're more likely to comply.
Social validation
If we believe most people similar to us would perform a certain action, we're more likely to agree with requests to perform that action.
Exception to the repeated exposure effect
If you find someone unpleasant to start off with and your inner reaction is a negative one, then more exposure will strengthen your dislike, rather than lighten it.
Associated Effect of Moods and Feelings on Why We Like Someone
If you're feeling happy and content when you happen to meet someone, you'll like this person more. And if you're feeling frustrated or down when you happen to meet that person, you're apt to like them less. It's a matter of the person simply catching you at the right (or wrong) time.
How stereotypes impact attention
Information consistent with stereotypes generally attended to more
Unintentional Influence
Instances in which other persons change our behavior without intending to do so. *Example: You see a person give someone money, and you do the same thing.
Downside to Conformity
It can lead people to engage in harmful, destructive behavior. - Example: Philip Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Study
Deindividuation
Lessened state of self-awareness in which people are more likely to engage in impulsive actions or behavior they would not normally carry out.
Emotional contagion
Moods and emotions spread from one person to another
Modern racism and modern sexism
More subtle forms of prejudice: - Hiding racist/sexist attitudes publicly, but sharing them privately. - Denial of ongoing discrimination - Antagonistic toward demands (e.g., economic, political, civil demands) - Resentment toward treatment that helps and advances (policies in academia or in the workplace)
Prejudice
Negative emotional responses or dislike based on group membership
Singlism + Examples
Negative stereotyping and discrimination directed toward single people o Study revealing that single people described as kind, giving, and caring only 2% of the time. o Negative stereotypes toward single people increases with age. o Research indicates that people prefer to rent to a married couple than a single person.
Mirror neurons
Neurons that respond the same when we watch someone else act or express an emotion as when we're acting or feeling the same emotion
Descriptive Norms
Norms that state what most people do in certain situations. They give us information about what behavior is viewed as appropriate or effective.
Injunctive Norms
Norms that tell us what we should do. They give us information about what actions are approved of, and which ones are looked down upon.
Kin Selection Theory
Our main evolutionary objective is to survive and pass our genes along to succeeding generations. So we should be more inclined to help people we're related to, as this will help us fulfill that objective.
Comparison with the Extreme
People can hold prejudice and not view themselves as prejudiced because they're comparing themselves to those with extreme bigotry.
How stereotypes impact how information about people and social situations is processed
People who don't fit a stereotype can get sub-typed as the exception to the rule
Countering P&D - Challenging Attributions
People who practice mentally challenging attributions for negative behavior among out-group members reduce stereotypes
Countering P&D - Challenging Stereotypes
People who practice mentally challenging their stereotypes show less stereotype activation
Philip Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Study Results
Prisoners: - Initially rebellious. - Passive and depressed later on Guards: - More brutal and sadistic as time went on - Harassing, dehumanizing behavior toward the prisoners
Why does the "beautiful is good" effect happen?
Proposed reason #1: We stereotype attractive people - We assume that people who look attractive also possess attractive personal qualities. Proposed reason #2: We want to connect with physically attractive people, and so we see qualities in them that will allow us to become closer. - Study participants rated photos of very attractive or less attractive people based on interest in cultivating a relationship and each person's traits.
Negative-state relief model
Prosocial acts can be motivated by negative feelings and the desire to lighten those feelings
Empathic Joy Hypothesis
Prosocial acts can be motivated by the uplifting feelings that come with others' positive reactions when they receive help
Social Identity Theory
Remember how we talked about people wanting to feel good about themselves and their group? By feeling good about their group, they can feel better about themselves.
Elation and Helping
Seeing someone else help another can stir the feeling of elation; it's inspiring to see people treating others with kindness and care. The uplifting experience of seeing someone else helping others increases the odds that a person will be inspired to help others as well. -> Results: Participants who watched the inspiring video about people helping each other volunteered significantly longer than people who watched the other videos.
Similarity-Dissimilarity Effect
Similarity between people tends to engender positive emotions, and dissimilarity tends to foster negative feelings. - People who view the attitudes of someone else as similar to their own not only like that person better, but they view them in a more positive light in terms of morality, intelligence, possession of knowledge, and emotional adjustment.
Objective Scales
Standards that mean the same things no matter who they're applied to
Subjective Scales
Standards that take on different meanings depending on who they're applied to - fast runner example (olympian vs. kids team)
Status
Those with more status in a group are less likely to conform, whereas those with less status are more apt to conform to fit in.
Close Friendships and Culture
View of friendship among Japanese college students: - Give and take - Easy to get along with - Modest - Considerate and mild-tempered View of friendship among American college students - Addition of spontaneity and activity
Informational Social Influence
We have a desire to be correct in our understanding of the world as we navigate the world and make decisions within it. We turn to the ideas and behavior of others to help us get a sense of reality. Conforming with what other people think and do becomes a way of trying to respond to "the way things are." This is especially likely to happen when we're uncertain in a situation.
Normative Social Influence
We have a desire to be liked, and we learn that agreeing with people, being similar to them, and doing what they do can lead them to like and praise us. Through these types of reinforcing experiences, conformity becomes a way of winning acceptance and approval from others.
Friendship/liking
We tend to be more willing to agree to requests from people we like than from people we don't know or don't like.
Scarcity
We value items and opportunities that are harder to come by. So requests that appeal to the scarcity of an item or opportunity are more likely to influence us to comply.
Reciprocal Altruism Theory
We'll help people who aren't related to us because they generally help us too. So a step to help them is actually a step to help ourselves too, which goes toward promoting our own survival.
Consistency Theory
We're motivated to behave in ways that are consistent with how we've acted in the past.
Realistic Conflict Theory
When groups are viewed as competing for resources, prejudice can result. - Other group portrayed as the enemy - Own group viewed as morally better - View own group and other group as more different - Dehumanize the other group
Unrequited Love
When one person is in love, but those same feelings are not reciprocated by the other person
Pluralistic Ignorance
When we collectively misunderstand what attitudes others hold and believe erroneously that others have different attitudes than we do
Initial commitment
When we make an initial public commitment to a course of action, we feel the pull to follow through, even though the circumstances we originally agreed to no longer apply.
Commitment/consistency
When we've committed to a certain position or action, we're more likely to comply with requests to engage in behaviors that are consistent with that position or action.
Direct Effect of Moods and Feelings on Why We Like Someone
You're more apt to like someone who does or says something that leaves you feeling positive and upbeat. You're also more inclined to dislike someone who does or says something that leaves you feeling down or distressed in some way.
Compliance • Techniques based on scarcity
o Deadline technique : A technique that highlights that the deadline to take advantage of an opportunity or obtain an item is drawing near.
Decision #4: Deciding that you have the knowledge and/or skills to act
o Even if someone accepts personal responsibility for helping an emergency, they won't be able to help if they don't possess the knowledge or skills to be helpful. o In some emergencies, it's clear to many people how they can assist, and they possess the ability to do so
Cognitive miser perspective can't completely explain why people stereotype
o Even when people have the mental bandwidth to process information, they can spend their mental energy explaining away information that counters a stereotype to hold onto it. o This is more likely when people hold prejudice.
What is physically attractive?
o Female faces rated as more attractive by males: o Childlike features: - Large eyes, with a wide space in between - Small nose and chin o Mature features: - Prominent cheekbones - High eyebrows - Large pupils - Large smile
Compliance • Techniques based on friendship and liking
o Flattery : Praising someone o Self-promotion : Telling someone about our positive qualities or accomplishments o Taking care with one's appearance o Reflecting positive nonverbal behavior (e.g., smiling) o Small favors o Incidental similarity : Highlighting small and intriguing similarities, such as the same first name or birthday. It enhances a sense of personal affiliation and connectedness.
Two Negative Effects of Tokenism
o Gives people who are prejudiced have a way to deny bigotry and an unfair system. ("How can we be biased if we're willing to hire Karen?") Also leads people in the majority group to believe that meaningful progress has happened, even if it hasn't. o Can undermine self-esteem and confidence of members of the disadvantaged group, even people who are admitted as tokens.
Gender Stereotypes - Women
o High warmth (kind, nurturing, polite) o Low competence (weak, dependent, too emotional/irrational) o Women tend to be liked more, but viewed as less suitable for leadership positions.
Decision #1: Noticing, or failing to notice, that something unusual is happening.
o If you're preoccupied, paying attention to something else, in a hurry, or sleeping, to name a few examples, you might not notice an unusual situation. o You can't help in a situation if you don't notice it, and it's possible not to notice.
Indirect methods of assessing racism and other forms of prejudice needed
o Implicit Associations Test (IAT) o Racial Arguments Scale: Indirect measure of prejudice in which people rate how well arguments support positive or negative conclusions about racial groups.
Proximity
o In addition to offering opportunities to meet, proximity can also increase attraction through repeated exposure. o Repeated exposure effect (aka: mere exposure effect) - The more we're exposed to a person, object, idea, or place (anything, really), the more we tend to view that person or thing in a positive light. - Study of classroom assistants who attended class 15, 10, 5, and 0 times without interacting with anyone. At the end of the term, the more an assistant attended, the more she was liked.
Gender Stereotypes - Men
o Low warmth (insensitive, unemotional, arrogant, aggressive) o High competence (decisive, assertive, high-achieving, strong)
Asch Paradigm (Soloman Asch)
o Naïve study participant with six to eight confederates (assistants to the experimenter) posing as real study participants. o Told it's an experiment on perceiving the length of lines. o Given three lines labeled A, B, and C, then told to say which of these lines is most like the line the experimenter presents. o All confederates announce their answers until it comes to the real, naïve participant. o Over 18 trials, sometimes the answers are correct, but most often they're not (12 trials with an incorrect answer). o All of the confederates gave the same answer, whether it was correct or not. o 76% conformed with the group and gave the incorrect answer at least one time. o Across participants and all of the trials, people conformed with the group and gave an incorrect answer 37% of the time.
How does the repeated exposure effect work?
o New and unfamiliar situations (including people) can create at least a little discomfort. o Repeated exposure to these situations makes them more familiar and reduces uncertainty, which increases comfort and pleasant feelings. - More topics participants in a study discussed, the more they liked their conversation partner. - The more times study participants had chats with their partner (two, four, six, or eight times), the more they liked their partner. They reported greater responsiveness from their partner and a better sense of knowing their partner.
Tokenism
o Only a few members of a group that had been excluded before are allowed to be included. o When a small number of people from a disadvantaged group are allowed into a higher-status group, this deters collective action among members of the disadvantaged group. o Study in which women read about equal gender representation on a board (open), no women on a board (closed), and token members on a board. Then they filled out a measure on beliefs about meritocracy. --> Tokenism viewed as fair to men and women equally. --> Equal belief in meritocracy in the open and token conditions.
Implicit Prejudice
o People unconsciously associate various groups with evaluations. These evaluations can be positive, negative, or neutral. o Even though people aren't consciously aware of the evaluations they hold, they can impact how they interact with others.
Personality Traits
o Personality traits can influence impressions and liking: - Narcissism: Inflated views of self. It is an extreme and unjustified high sense of self. - Focus on self while ignoring the needs of other people. - Research indicates narcissists can be well liked at first, until people get to know them. People who were higher in narcissism given higher likeability ratings than those lower in narcissism. - Charming, humorous, and self-assured
Physical Beauty/ Handsomeness
o Physical appearance has profound effects on how people view and treat each other. o What is beautiful is good --> Inference that attractive people tend to possess other desirable traits and abilities in addition to their good looks. o Treatment based on appearance continues through a person's life in a host of domains.
Decision #5: Making the final decision to provide help
o Potential positive and negative consequences of helping come to mind and can push one to help or to decide not to help. - Positive emotions of helping someone in need. - Possibility of being seriously wounded or killed. - Requests for help have been used as a ruse to lure in victims, and potential helpers can hesitate for this reason.
How can people be protected against engaging in destructive obedience?
o Reminder that the individual is directly responsible for harm, and cannot displace it onto the authority figure. o Signal that complete obedience to harmful, destructive orders is unacceptable, such as exposure to a disobedient model. o Question the knowledge and motives of authority figures. Are their commands really in the best interest of others? o Mindful awareness of how people in authority can powerfully lead people to engage in destructive behavior. Knowledge of this research can help dampen susceptibility to destructive obedience.
Social Skills
o Social skills offer a number of benefits for people who have them: - Others tend to like them. - Socially skilled defendants found not guilty or receive lighter sentences more often than less socially skilled defendants. - Socially skilled employees receive larger raises and more promotions. - Socially skilled doctors have patients who like them more and are more apt to follow their advice. - Socially skilled people are more attractive to potential partners and have more choice in who they decide to enter a relationship with.
Decision #2: Correctly interpreting an event as an emergency
o Sometimes an emergency situation is clear, but not always. It can be ambiguous and may involve waiting for more information, which is what people who notice an unusual situation but are unsure it's an emergency are apt to do. o People tend to assume that an unusual situation that isn't clearly an emergency is probably not one. o Intervening too quickly in a situation that isn't an emergency could lead to inconvenience and embarrassment for the person being helped and the helper
Compliance • Techniques based on reciprocity
o That's-not-all technique : Make a request, and then include an additional perk that makes the deal more attractive, such as a lower price or an additional item.
Social Categorization: The Us Vs. Them Effect
o The creation of groups of any kind can generate an us vs. them mentality. - Study randomly dividing people into two groups but telling them it was based on painting preference (Klee vs. Kandinsky). Participants allocated resources (i.e.., points, money) between two people. One was an ingroup member and the other was an outgroup member. People gave more to the ingroup member and less to the outgroup member.
What People Desire
o There's evidence that people look for certain characteristics in people across most social contexts (e.g., good friend, employee, project team, study group, golf team, sorority or fraternity): Trustworthiness, cooperativeness, agreeableness, extraversion o And for other qualities, they can be more or less valued depending on the social context: - Attractiveness, intelligence, humor, and wealth
How people with more prejudice process information differently than people with less prejudice
o They pay more attention to information about groups they dislike than to other kinds of information. o When someone's group membership is uncertain, people with a high degree of prejudice show more concern with resolving that uncertainty. o Belief that groups have different essences-qualities that have a biological basis that separate the groups.
Symbolic Social Influence
o Thoughts of how important people in our lives would react to our behavior and attitudes. o Does symbolic influence work? Yes... --> People who thought about a friend were more helpful than those who thought about a coworker.
Reciprocity
o We like to be liked. As a result, we tend to like those who like us. o We find ourselves drawn toward people who like us. o We find ourselves wanting to move away from those who dislike us. o Reciprocal liking predicts how much people are liked for short-term and especially for long-term relationships. o People told that a fake person liked them (or did not like them). Being told they were liked made a difference.
Why do we conform?
o We look to others to make sure we've got accurate information and understanding. o It helps us to be socially accepted.
The need to affiliate can increase when
o We're reminded of our mortality o After extremely stressful experiences o In the midst of deeply upsetting or threatening circumstances: - Connect with others who are in a similar situation - Gain information about what's happening and reach a decision about how to respond - Offer mutual comfort
Decision #3: Deciding that it is your responsibility to provide help.
o When responsibility isn't clear, people will look to those in leadership roles. o People probably won't help in a situation if they don't think it's their role to help or if they think someone else is likely to do it (we see diffusion of responsibility and the bystander effect here).
Prejudice - Threats to Self Esteem
o When something happens that threatens how positively people see their group, one way of coping is by viewing another group negatively. o JaneElliott - Told all White class of third graders that children with blue eyes were superior to children with brown eyes. - The next day, she told the class she was wrong, and that children with brown eyes were really superior. - Noticed that when children were told they were superior, their behavior dramatically changed, and they became more insulting and condescending to the other "inferior" children.
Glass Cliff Effect
o Women more likely to receive leadership positions in times of crisis for an organization. o Experiments in which equally qualified female and male candidates presented for a job involving a risky vs. not risky leadership position. - Women more apt to be selected for leadership position with risk, and men for the leadership position that has less risk. - When an organization is struggling or a leader's approach doesn't seem to be working, women brought in for stereotyped interpersonal abilities.
Gender and Close Friendships
oAlthough the differences are small, women tend to expect emotional support more and men tend to bond through activities. oHowever, other research reveals a more complex story: - There were no appreciable gender differences in intimate variables (with same-gender friends) such as discussing one's sex life, relying on friends to celebrate birthdays, and calling if one was in trouble late at night. - And were there were significant differences, although small, many of them indicated that men actually had more of these intimate friends.
Social Norm
rule or guideline in a group or culture about what behaviors are proper and improper.
Negative Emotions and Helping
• Negative emotions can decrease the odds of helping, but sometimes they increase it: o Negative feelings can motivate people to help, as this becomes a means of feeling better.
Positive Emotions and Helping
• Positive emotions generally increase the odds of helping • Yet, positive emotions don't always increase the odds of helping. Sometimes they reduce it: o Pleasant feelings can reduce the odds of perceiving a situation as one that's serious or an emergency. o Someone in a positive mood may be less likely to help than someone in a more neutral frame of mind if helping seems like it will decrease those pleasant feelings.
Cohesiveness
The extent to which we are attracted to a particular group and want to belong to it. More cohesiveness leads to more conformity out of a desire to be accepted.
Similarity Hypothesis
The greater the similarity between people, the more the liking between them. - Similarity fuels attraction across intelligence, personality traits, the attitudes and values people hold, and their habits and preferences.
