Social Psychology Exam 2
What are the (three) causes of the FAE?
1) perceptual salience: what catches our attention is what we use as the reason (attribute) -behaviors are salient and tend to be noticed by perceivers not situation *Taylor and Fiske (1975) participants rated the extent to which each confederate: a) set the tone of the conversation b) chose topics of the conversation c) caused his partner to behave as he did Had participants face either confederate or be a control at the center point Results showed that who or what is perceptionally salient to the participant and what they are perceiving; biases affect attributions (people cause the behavior because they are more salient) 2) motivation: Dispositional inferences can be comforting (person's disposition not situation) -Linked with responsibility--Lennie B study: In both scenarios Lennie set the break in the car but what was manipulated was if the car hit a tree stump or rolled and crashed into a grocery store harming 2 individuals, and to determine the amount of responsibility for Lennie; We attribute blame based on the outcome even if behavior is the same -Different events are treated differently--VICTIM BLAMING A woman is robbed and killed by a highway man but in the scenarios presented she was either a widow or she was a cheating wife The results show that for more people attribute responsibility for the cheating wife and not the highway man for her own death than the widow, who people find the highway man to be primarily responsible This is shown again through Belief in a just world (Walster, 1966) in which people have a hard time separating the action and the outcome (if something bad happens to someone than they are bad) 3) experience-based: people automatically attribute behavior to dispositions because they are most available. If they are motivated and able, they correct for situational influence -> this is related to the use of the anchoring and adjustment heuristic (low vs high anchor points ppl implicitly use--can't get away from anchor, what we've learned, and thus it is used for causal attributions *3 step model of attributions (Gilbert, 1989) 1) categorization (what is the person doing?) 2) characterization (what does this behavior imply?) -both 1 and 2 are automatic 3) correction (what situational constraints may have caused the action?) (controlled) Importance of ability (Gilbert, 1992) Women indicated either she preferred a man with a traditional or non-traditional gender-role orientation. In both cases men's answers were consistent with the women's preferences Audiotape of men's responses were either good or degraded quality (low volume/difficult to hear) DV: rating of the man's true views about gender role (1-13 rating) Results show that people cannot anchor and adjust when we lack the ability (straining to hear audio) and cannot correct/don't have the cognitive resources to make that correction/adjustment (higher ratings of traditional gender roles for low quality tape ***motivation and ability is needed to overcome unconscious processing
six principles of reason- based compliance
1. Reciprocity: people are more likely to comply with the request of someone who has done them a favor (guilt) Ex: disabled american Veterans request for donations through mail (no gift 18% compliance rate) (gift-address labels rate doubles compliance rate) immediate reward increases response rate--i've given you something and now you give me something -that's-not-all(-folks): better than using an all-at-once approach, seller adds on additional stuff, which is seen as a gift, so customer feels the need to reciprocate by accepting offer Bake sale study (Burger, 1989) Uses thats not all technique (over 70%) vs all at once (40 % bought cookie and cupcake) 2. commitment and consistency: people don't like to appear inconsistent. gets people committed to small request and gets them more likely to act in a consistent manner (looking at behaviors to describe attitudes-dont have strong attitude to begin with) -Foot-in-the-door: getting someone to agree to a small request makes it more likely that they'll later agree to a larger request example: Bait and Switch: product is advertised but then isnt available (but costlier product is, more easily swayed since you went to get product already) Low-ball procedure: get someone to agree to a good deal then change it. Once people have committed to the original offer, they're willing to pay a little more for the product 3. Scarcity: opportunities seem more valuable to us when they are less available -limited number tactic: only a few left buy now -someone else is just about to but it act quickly This works because as things become more scarce, we lose the freedom to choose them, Based on the reactance theory-when our freedoms are threatened, we become motivated to re-establish them. 4. social proof: we determine what's correct by seeing what others think is correct Advertisers say a product is the 'biggest selling line' and thus we think it is Dance clubs create long lines outside when there is plenty of room inside, to make their place look popular and because we don't know we look to the crowd. 5. liking: we are influenced by people we like Factors that increase liking (of strangers) are physical attractiveness (halo effect-kind, honest, and intelligent), similarity, behavioral mimicry, compliments 6. authority: we're more likely to comply with people we perceive to be authorities (to be seen as credible, the authority must have two distinct characteristics: competence/expertise and trustworthiness (depends on how you interpret intentions of communicator) Who do we trust the most in occupations--Pharmacists -Can a non-trustworthy source be persuasive-when they appear to argue against their own self-interest (don't want ulterior motives) criminal was more persuasive when arguing for a less lenient punishment (arguing against themselves making them more persuasive) -the sleeper effect: when the effects of the speaker tend to disappear over time UNLESS: people are reminded of the source or communicator is questioned before the message source amnesia: as time goes on people tend to forget the source it came from but remember the message but is not effective increase likelihood of that target saying yes
reciprocal concessions technique
A compliance approach that involves asking someone for a very large favor that will certainly be refused and then following that request with one for a smaller favor (which tends to be seen as a concession the target feels compelled to honor).
Subliminal
Below the threshold of conscious awareness
Bad-news bias
Can lead people to believe they are more at risk for victimization than they really are. **The violence depicted in TV programs can make the world appear to be a dangerous place, especially when the televised images resonate with what people see in their own environment
top-down processing
Filters and interprets bottom-up stimuli in light of preexisting knowledge and expectations -> the meaning of stimuli is not passively recorded; it's actively construed --preexisting knowledge is necessary for understanding
recentcy effect (order effect)
Information presented last has the most impact -Information remembered obviously receives greater weight than information forgotten, so later items sometimes exert more influence on judgment than information presented earlier.
internalization
Private acceptance of a proposition, orientation, or ideology
descriptive norm
The behavior exhibited by most people in a given context.
casual attribution
The process of trying to determine the causes of people's behavior, with the goal of learning about their personalities
Factors affecting social influence on others appeal?
We are likely to 'go along to get along' when the person attempting to influence us is appealing due to: 1) physical attractiveness (good looking fundraisers raise 42% vs 23%) 2) shared group membership ('I'm a student too' doubles donations from students)
What is the best explanation for people often committing the regression fallacy?
We follow the representativeness heuristic; we expect the most representative outcome.
availability heuristic
We rely on the availability heuristic when we judge the frequency or probability of some event by how readily pertinent instances come to mind.
Compliance: Norm-based approaches (applied)
appeal to both rational and emotional approaches Social Norms: Codes of Schemas --descriptive norms: define what behaviors are typically performed ex: most college students dress casually for classes Akin to informational influence --Injunctive norms: define what behaviors are typically approved or disapproves ex: it is inappropriate to wear a bathing suit to most classes Akin to normative influence
Who is strong enough to resist strong group norms?
even strong group norms (drinking/smoking) may not influence a person's behavior if: 1) the person believes they have the ability to resist group norms 2) the person doesn't identify strongly with the group
heuristics
mental shortcuts that provide serviceable, if usually rather inexact, answers to common problems of judgment. They yield answers that feel right and therefore often forestall more effortful, rational deliberation.
Research reported in this chapter suggests that there is a positive correlation between the amount of television people watch and ________
perceptions about the likelihood of being a victim of crime
illusory correlation
seeing an association between variables even when they are not associated
Instead of asking the question, "Should the president of the United States be granted the line-item veto?" a survey written by a politician who is in favor of the line-item veto asks, "Should the president of the United States be granted the line-item veto in order to eliminate governmental waste?" This technique of asking a leading question is called
spin framing
just world hypothesis
the assumption that the world is fair and that therefore people get what they deserve and deserve what they get -Bad things happen to bad people
augmentation principle
the idea that people should assign greater weight to a particular cause of behavior if other causes are present that normally would produce a different outcome
ideomotor action
the phenomenon whereby merely thinking about a behavior makes performing it more likely
framing effect
the tendency for people's choices to be affected by how a choice is presented, including the order of presentation, can frame the way it is processed and understood; such as whether it is worded in terms of potential losses or gains -Order effects are a type of 'pure' framing effect: the frame of reference is changed by reordering the information, even though the content of the information remains exactly the same.
Dimension of attribution: Global vs specific
-Global: 'I am no good" -Specific: 'I am no good at math'
How to tell if influence us informational or normative?
-Informational: actually believe their answer (group has information they don't have) -Normative: know real answer, but want to be the same for fear of negative evaluations from others *in private most people give the actual correct answer, which is critical because it shows conformity and that the individual did not want to stick out
Dimension of attribution: Internal vs external
-Internal (dispositional): 'I don't really do well on multiple-choice tests' **an internal attribution is low in consensus, low in distinctiveness, and high in consistency** -External (situational): 'Those questions were incredibly picky' **an external attribution is likely if the behavior is: high in consensus, high in distinctiveness (doesn't rave a lot), and high in consistency** EXAMPLE: a friend says she likes a particular math class. What kinds of information about her would we consult to determine whether the class was good or just a byproduct of friends personality? 1. Observations across time (consistency) 2. Observations across entities (distinctiveness): like all or just this one 3. Observations across people (consensus): do many or few people agree?) examples for friend and math course: -friends math ability -friends personality and how she functions -the professor (who teaches the class) -Ask for second opinion (do other's find this class positive or is it just your friend?)
why are we so quick to judge someone's behavior in terms of disposition?
-Previous experience tell's us we're right (biases) -Defense mechanism (randomness is bad, reflexive of personalities based on behaviors)
Dimension of attribution: Stable vs unstable
-Stable: 'I've always had poor hand-eye coordination' -Unstable: 'I just wasn't paying attention' (less consistent)
Why do we conform?
1. Informational Social influence (need information for direction) 2. Normative social influence (need for approval and acceptance) 3. Reference groups (people we conform to because we like and admire them and want to be like them)
what makes some alternative worlds easier to imagine than others?
1. Time and distance (psychological closeness): want to be closer; which stirs emotions, and feel closer to the imagined situation -> the more emotional, the more sorry, the more reward 2. Routines vs exceptions (going against the norm) example: man loses arm after being shot at convenient store where he stopped to make a purchase --> compensation: usual store vs store he never goes to Results: the exception (unusual) is easier to imagine because it is a change of pace and not his usual store 3. Counterfactual thinking and first instincts example: people believe that changing answers usually lowers test scores, which is wrong. *for wrong answers that changed from a correct answer; it is easier to imagine an alternative world, one where you never switched and kept the correct answer (mistakes of action, stand out in our minds) **emotions and what could have been (logic vs emotion)- not based on just logic but emotions and environmental conditions
foot-in-the-door technique
A compliance approach that involves making an initial small request with which nearly everyone complies, followed by a larger request involving the real behavior of interest. you reduced your request which is seen as a concession that must be reciprocated by agreeing
Spin framing
A less straight forward form of framing that varies the content, not just the order, of what is presented -Example: describing these people as 'illegal aliens', creates more unfavorable impression than describing them as 'undocumented workers' -Opinion polls are 'like perfume-nice to smell, dangerous to swallow'
norm of reciprocity
A norm dictating that people should provide benefits to those who benefit them.
counterfactual thinking
Attribution and imagining an alternative chain of events -counter factual thoughts: thoughts of what might have, could have, or should have happened 'if only' something had been done differently
conformity
Conformity can be a response to implicit or explicit social pressure, and it can be the result of automatic mimicry, informational social influence, or normative social influence. -Group size influences conformity, but it appears to reach maximum effect at around four people. -Unanimity is also crucial in conformity, and a single ally can help an individual hold out against the group. -People conform more to those with high status or expertise, and they conform more when they must express their opinions publicly rather than register them in private. -People from interdependent cultures conform more than people from independent cultures, and women conform slightly more than men. -Conformity pressures notwithstanding, minorities often make an impact, primarily through informational social influence. -it's human nature to follow others *group pressure
Compliance: emotion-based approaches- positive mood and helping
Cunningham (1979) Sunny day and restaurant tips in Chicago Barron (1997) Pleasant vs Neutral smells in the mall--pleasant people are more likely to give change for a dollar --Why does positive mood lead to helping? a)positive moods prime positive thoughts b)people help so they can prolong their positive mood c)good moods increase self-attention, which makes us more likely to behave according to our values (value of altruism) LOST LETTERS (Job, 1987) -left lost letters on cars with note 'found near your car' at a major soccer game-envelope was addressed and contained an invitation -placed 50 letters on cars of fans of one team and 50 letters on cars of the other team RESULTS:Which team sent more letters? (winning or losing) Winning team- under 40 losing- near 50%-significant more willing to help out or comply when in a negative mood. --Why do bad moods increase helping?? a) Negative-state-relief-hypothesis: helping people makes people feel good about themselves BUT people in bad mood help only if they believe helping will improve their mood Manucia, Baumann, Cialdini (1984) Study about 'drugs and memory' Either told the drug would 'freeze' their mood or given no information Memory task (mood manipulator): reminisce about a happy experience, or a sad experience, or a neutral experience Leaving the experiment participants were asked if they would make a phone call to help collect information for blood donors RESULTS When happy you help regardless over neutral participants, sad participants participated more than neutral only in conditions they thought would change their mood showed Negative>Neutral ONLY when participants believed helping would improve mood
Using social norms to promote environmental behavior (use less energy)
Gave costumers comparison info of homes with similar size that were energy efficient and see energy usage Encouraging Energy Conservation (SHULTZ et al. 2007) 290households in San Marcos, CA Below average use (descriptive norm only-information) or (descriptive plus injunctive norm) above average use (descriptive norm only-information) or (descriptive plus injunctive norm) Information=doorhanger with A) # kWh/day they used in the previous week B) 3kWh/day the average household in neighborhood used during same time period C) suggestions for how to conserve energy Results: Gave people below average a smiley face while those below average a frown face which informed and changed people's behaviors People are conforming to group norm--descriptive works well for people who are above average, people given frown experienced boomerang effect increased consumption while those given smiley face did not. Smiley face- can be very power assets in turns of injunctive norms- telling you what you should be doing and rewarding you for it
Attributions
How we infer causes to other people's and our own behaviors -Constantly trying to answer the question 'why did someone say or do that?' which leads to making assumptions/inferring -Pervasive how we explain our and others behaviors
The dangers of the confirmation bias
If we look mainly got one type of evidence, we're likely to find it; to truly test a proposition, we must seek out the evidence against it as well as the evidence for it -In the social realm, the confirmation bias can lead people to ask questions that shape the answers they get, thereby providing illusory support for the very thing they are trying to find out -A balanced search for both confirmatory and dis-confirmatory information is essential to sound judgment; people don't recognize the need to seek out information from all sides of an issue, and doing so is made even harder by the fact that modern technologies create 'information bubbles' where confirmatory information is shared by members of like-minded communities -To have an ideological position is to be surrounded by information that supports that position.
Does priming rule our lives?
No, conditions that a prime might not affect behavior include: overriding automatic behavior MaCrae and Johnston; EFFECTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL CUE (1998): lack of match between the prime and the environment -example: primed with a picture of pizza, but it won't affect your behavior if there is no pizza in sight Study 1: scrambled sentence task primed 'helpfulness' or no construct (control) IV: experimenter drops a bunch of pens moving to the next experiment room (half-regular pens, half-leaky pens covered in ink) DV: does the participant help pick up the pens? (within ten seconds) Results: environment needs to be conclusive to that prime or it won't have any effect on your behavior *lack of match between the prime and the environment *other ideas/goals present in mind that inhabit that behavior (on a diet and shown a picture of pizza) MaCrae and Johnston (1998) (experiment 2): EFFECT OF GOAL/MOTIVATION -Scrambled sentence task primed 'helpfulness' or no construct (control) -Asked participants to go into the foyer of psych department for next experiment -IV: manipulation- 'we're running late' or 'we're on time' -Experiment drops (regular) pens -DV: does participant help -RESULTS: no significant different between those on time vs those running late. Prime has no effect-overall suppression (those running late, whether primed or not, stopped to help the experimenter pick up her pens the same amount of time, which had less percentage of people helping)
pluralistic ignorance
Occurs whenever people act in ways that conflict with their private beliefs because of a concern for social consequences (When everyone follows this logic, they all mislead one another about the true group norm) -Pluralistic ignorance is particularly common in situation where 'toughness' is valued and people are afraid to show their kinder, gentler impulses --Shelton + Richeson (2005): Found that although the students generally attributed their own failure to initiate contact to their fear of rejection, they assumed that the other person didn't initiate contact because of lack of interest in established friendships across ethnic lines; ***When both assume the other isn't interested, neither one makes an effort to become friends
Research suggests that people can sometimes forget about even vivid and crazy things that happen in the course of an otherwise ordinary event (for example, a man in a gorilla suit running through a game of catch). Why?
Our schema for the event selectively "tunes" our attention toward expected events and away from unexpected events.
Motivated confirmation bias
People can fall prey to the confirmation bias even when they have no particular motivation to confirm a particular outcome -Information that supports what a person wants to be true is readily accepted, whereas information that contradicts what the person would like to believe is subjected to critical scrutiny and often discounted --> people's preferences taint how they view pertinent evidence
ideological distortions
People who transmit information often have an ideological agenda—a desire to foster certain beliefs or behaviors—that leads them to accentuate some elements of a story and suppress others. Not all distortions are innocent; people often knowingly provide distorted accounts for the express purpose of misleading.
Your psychology professor finishes up her lecture and asks if anyone has any questions. No one raises a hand. You were hopelessly confused by the lecture but assume that everyone else must have understood it since no one asked anything. Later, you find out that your friends in the class were also confused, but they thought they were the only ones. Social psychologists would call this confusion a consequence of
Pluralistic ignorance
fluency
Psychologists use the term fluency to refer to the ease (or difficulty) associated with information processing. A clear image is easy to process, or fluent. An irregular word (like imbroglio) is hard to process, or disfluent.
The intuitive system
Rapid responses based on associations that come automatically to mind. Intuitive information processing can be one in parallel; many things can be intuitively processed at the same time
The rational system
Slower and more controlled, and based on rules and deduction; performs its operations one at a time-serially DIKKSTERHUIS (2004; EXP 2) -participants given information about four different apartments -15 pieces of information about each apartment (presented four lists) (either positive, negative, or neutral) Results: apartment three was most attractive: 8 positive, 4 negative, and 3 neutral The other three apartments were equal, less attractive: 5 positive, 6 negative, and 4 neutral -IV (manipulation): Immediate decision, conscious thought (3-minutes) and unconscious thought (3 minute- distracting task to prevent conscious thought) -DV: which apartment would you choose? (Choice based on global judgment or specific attribute) Results: show that we should not use/do immediate decision making, think about it and the more we use global judgement, the more likely they are to make the right decision -> weighing past events more heavily when conscious -> parallel processing
bottom-up processing
Takes in relevant stimuli from the outside world -> text on a page, gestures in an interaction, or sound patterns at a cocktail party
Cultural differences in FAE?
The fundamental attribution error is derived from surrounding context and specifically happens in our western culture. Focal Fish study (Masuda and Nisbett, 2001) Students from Japan and US were shown underwater animated scenes with various objects and a focal fish (larger, brighter, faster moving~more salient) and then were asked to describe what they saw. Results showed that Japanese students recorded more background/context objects in greater frequency than US students when asked about memory for old or novel fish by background (previously seen background, no background, or novel background) Results showed that american students were able to recognize a previously seen fish or new fish without background and with new background while japanese students were better at recognizing an old or new fish with only the original background SUMMARY SHOWINGS: Independent societies (US) automatically make dispositional attributions (anchor) and correct for situation only if motivated and able (adjust) Interdependent/collectivist societies (Japan) automatically make situational attributes (anchor) and correct for dispositions only if motivated and able
negative state relief hypothesis
The idea that people engage in certain actions, such as agreeing to a request, to relieve their negative feelings and feel better about themselves.
reactance theory
The idea that people reassert their prerogatives in response to the unpleasant state of arousal they experience when they believe their freedoms are threatened.
normative social influence
The influence of other people that comes from the desire to avoid their disapproval and other social sanctions (ridicule, barbs, ostracism). -Factors that promote normative social influence: a) group size: as group size increases, conformity increases (once you get to 4/5 group members, conformity will start to level out b) degree of attraction to group: the more likely you want to affiliate with people the more likely you are to conform c) when one feels incompetent or insecure: seeking security by conforming to what others think -Factors that weaken normative influence: a) presence of an ally (someone who is like-minded) b) break unanimous answer (give wrong answer that is different from the wrong answer everyone else is giving) c) independence (people who are strong in independence tend to break norms) d) make them publicly and actively commit to an answer/behavior/etc.
informational social influence
The influence of other people that results from taking their comments or actions as a source of information about what is correct, proper, or effective. -When does informational influence promote conformity(conditions): 1) when the situation is ambiguous (unknown environment and people) 2) when people are like you (copy cat) Copycat suicides (Schmidtke and Hafter, 1988) Examined number of suicides following broadcast of fictional TV show --show lasted six weeks --depicted 19 year old male who committed suicide by leaping in front of train Following the series, railway suicides increased substantially, greatest being for males who were of same age group as TV character AUTOKINETIC ILLUSION (Sherif, 1936) *Slogans and norms are shortcut formulas for predicaments people are in and suggest what should be done (an anchor to hold onto and create attitudes and social norms) In a dark room a stationary dot of light (without reference points) is interpreted (no cues) as the dot moving (when it's not) Results show when in a group and stat first in room with group showed decreased variability in perceived movement compared to individuals and those who had group reference second; the pattern being as more people join/come into the room, perception of movement gets closer and closer (individual-ambiguity) look to other people in room experiencing the same thing (comparison) and environment allow the convergence of information, the information from environment impacts how the individual perceives the info and quickly adopt group norm that is usually maintained consensually created and validated (informational influence)
primacy effect (order effect)
The information presented first exerts is the most influence -Most often occur when the information is ambiguous so that what comes first influences how the later information is interpreted *All of the traits in Asch's experiment have different shades of meaning and how each is construed depends on the information already encountered.
positive and negative framing
The mixed nature of most things (good and bad) means that they can be described or framed in a way that emphasize the good or the bad, with predictable effects on people's judgments -Example: people feel safer using a condom described as having a 90% success rate than one described as having a 10% failure rate **Emphasizing the negative makes it seem less appealing because negative information tends to attract more attention and have greater psychological impact than positive information; information framed in negative terms tends to elicit a stronger response.
priming
The presentation of information designed to activate a concept and hence make it accessible. A prime is the stimulus presented to activate the concept in question -Schemas are particularly likely to exert an influence if they have been recently activated (hence primed) or are habitually used and we needn't be aware of the recent or chronic activation of a schema for it to exert its effects
The overconfidence bias
The tendency for individuals to have greater confidence in their judgments and decisions than their actual accuracy merits -one of the most pronounced and consistent biases documented by psychologists -But people's confidence frequently exceeds their accuracy and this bias appears in numerous areas including physical ability, test performance, and general knowledge; the tendency to seek confirming information can lead to all sorts of false beliefs since we can find supportive evidence for almost everything
fundamental attribution error
The tendency to overestimate the extent to which people's behavior is due to internal, dispositional factors, and underestimate the role of situational factors (person's disposition not situation)
prescriptive norm
The way a person is supposed to behave in a given context; also called injunctive norm.
compliance
There are three basic types of compliance approaches: 1) those directed at the head 2) those directed at the heart 3) those based on the power of norms (which, given the impact of informational and normative influences, appeal to both the head and the heart). -People can be led to comply with requests because they see good reasons for doing so, because their emotions compel them to do so, or because everyone else is doing so. Of course, these types of influence aren't always neatly separable, and many compliance efforts are a blend of the three. -While Reason-based approaches aim to convince people that they would be better off choosing a particular course of action. -usual of equal status or power
representativeness heuristic
We use the representativeness heuristic when we try to categorize something by judging how similar it is to our conception of the typical member of the category.
Factors affecting social influence public observations?
When their own responses will be observed by other group members (public statements), people agree more with group judgments of: -whether a color patch is green or blue -whether a cup of coffee is tasty -handling racist propaganda ~In study observing; active commitment only, active and public commitment, or neither the results showed: Active and public commitment increased the amount of people who stuck with their original correct judgment. This shows that going against conformity by sticking with original correct answers through public and active commitments which combat social influence ~In men, women, and public conformity study: men in some studies have conformed less when they knew their judgments would be made public. Roy Baumeister and Kristin Sommer (1997) suggest: -they become less conforming because men aim to be accepted by demonstrating independent, leadership qualities -both sexes are motivated to be accepted by their groups
emotional amplification
a person's emotional reaction to an event is amplified if it almost did not happen -> usually worse, directly related to how easy it is to imagine alternative events
explanatory style
a person's habitual way of explaining events, typically assessed along three dimensions: internal/external, stable/unstable, and global/specific
covariation principle
a principle of attribution theory that holds that people attribute behavior to factors that are present when a behavior occurs and are absent when it does not
confirmation bias
a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence
construal level theory
a theory about the relationship between psychological distance and abstract or concrete thinking: psychologically distant actions and events are thought about in abstract terms; actions and events that are close at hand are thought about in concrete terms
obedience
changing one's behavior at the command of an authority figure
Thin slicing
the ability of our unconscious to find patterns in situations and behavior based on very narrow slices of experience Love Lab (John Gottman) small piece of data, time, or life -thin slices and people's relationships -used valid questionnaires to evaluate the questions and what parts need improvement Quality of friendship and interview physiological measures Use video-recall dial Results showed: 90% success rate in predicting divorce or stability and happiness (divorce accuracy); the way the conversation starts in the first three minutes of a disagreement will predict 96% of the time whether they are a high or low risk couple NEED balance of positive and negative emotional (ratio during conflict) ***reveal something crucial about the way our instincts work when making decisions: we really don't need very much information or time to make sound and accurate predictions. When we get a 'hunch' about this or that our unconscious is doing just what Gottman does: sifting through a situation in front of us, rejecting all that is irrelevant while we focus in on what really matters. Astonishingly, 'Thin Slicing' our experience often delivers a better answer than more deliberate and exhaustive ways of thinking. ****For efficient, reliable and happy days, say NO to contempt and say YES to thin slices of life.
discounting principle
the idea that people should assign reduced weight to a particular cause of behavior if other plausible causes might have produced it
Alter and colleagues (2007) conducted a study to examine how fluency affects the way individuals process information. Participants read a Cognitive Reflection Test on either a hard-to-read (disfluent) font or a readable (fluent) font. Which group of students was more likely to provide the correct answers, and why?
the students who were presented with the questions in a disfluent font because they had difficulty reading, which allowed them more time to process the information
self-serving attributional bias
the tendency to attribute failure and other bad events to external circumstances, and to attribute success and other good events to oneself
actor-observer difference
the tendency to see other people's behavior as dispositionally caused but focusing more on the role of situational factors when explaining one's own behavior Study (actor-trump vs observer-you) results showed that when asked about personality questions people attributed their own behaviors to the situation while attributing other people's behaviors to their dispositions
