Social Psy Exam 4
The Stereotype Content Model (Fisk et al., 2002)
-Positive Stereotypes -Negative Stereotypes -MIXED Stereotypes ◆Paternalistic stereotypes (high warmth/low competence): Elderly, disabled people, some gender stereotypes ◆Envious stereotypes (low warmth/high competence): Asian, Jews -The 4 different combinations of warmth and competence are associated with different intergroup emotions
What Causes Initial Attraction?
-Proximity -Similarity -Reciprocal Liking -Physical Attractiveness
Study of 1st Year Male and Female Engineering Students - Interventions
-Social belonging Intervention: Heard upper-year students talk about how they worried at first about belonging but, over time, came to feel at home. -Affirmation Training Intervention； Heard upper-year students talk about how they manage stress by thinking about and doing activities that reflect their personal values.
Equity Theory and Attraction
Equity theory holds that people are happiest with relationships in which the rewards and costs a person experiences and the contribution he or her makes to the relationship are roughly equal to the rewards, costs, and contributions of the other person.
Goldberg (1968)
Goldberg (1968) asked women to read scholarly articles and then to evaluate them in terms of competence, style, etc. ▶1/2 of the participants got the article with the author's name listed as John T. McKay ▶1/2 of the participants got the same article, but with the author's name listed as Joan T. Mckay. ▶Females rated the article significantly higher if it was supposedly written by a male author than if it was written by a female author. A group might internalize the stereotypes and prejudice toward it - that does not make those views valid!
How Can Prejudice Be Reduced?
Historically, there's been plenty of contact between whites and blacks, but unequal in status, with blacks typically in subordinate roles. Near the end of WWII, the army partially desegregated some of its rifle companies. When later asked their opinions of such desegregation, 11% of white soldiers in segregated companies approved, while 60% of white soldiers in desegregated companied approved. At about the same time, NYC desegregated its public housing units by assigning families to apartments without regard to race. White women in desegregated developments were far more favorable in their attitudes towards blacks than those in segregated developments.
Prejudice
Hostile or negative feelings toward persons, based solely on their membership in particular groups. This is the affective (emotion) component of the terrible trio.
Why Do Our Stereotypes and Prejudices Persist?
And once we have a stereotype activated in our mind, there is a kind of "believing is seeing effect" that makes it hard for us to be objective. We create a self-fulfilling prophecy - our stereotypes create the realities that confirm and reinforce our stereotypes.
Is stereotyping and Prejudice Inevitable?
Are there two levels of aversive prejudice? Internal & External Motivation to Respond Without Prejudice People are motivated by social pressures, impression management, and internalized ideals. Example questions: 1. Because of today's PC (politically correct) standards I try to appear nonprejudiced toward Black people 2. I attempt to act in nonprejudiced ways toward Black people because it is personally important to me.
Recollections of Initial Attraction
Aron et al. (1989) found that for love, people reported reciprocal liking and attractiveness important. Similarity and propinquity were mentioned with low to moderate frequency. For friendship, reciprocal liking, attractiveness, similarity, and propinquity were all mentioned as important.
Ingroup favoritism effect: IG > OG
Commonality of effect suggests a basic social need
Heterostereotype
A stereotype of another group. (do non-psychologist think that psychologists are generally boring?) If autostereotype = heterostereotype of the group, then can we conclude that the stereotype is true? ▶Clark & Clark demonstrated that black kids, even as young as 3 years of age in some cases, rejected black dolls in preference for white dolls → Often said the white dolls were prettier ▶Study was cited by the US Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
Is stereotyping and Prejudice Inevitable?
Motivation to control Prejudice (MCP) Scale People differ in the extent to which they seek to control the expression of prejudice. This can be measured with items like: 1. In today's society it is important that one not be perceived as prejudiced in any manner. 2. I always express my thoughts and feelings, regardless of how controversial they might be. 3. I get angry with myself when I have a thought or feeling that might be considered prejudiced.
Discrimination
Negative behavior directed against persons because of their membership in a particular group. This is the behavioral component of the terrible trio.
Love
Romantic love tends to fade with time But companionate love tends to deepen and strength with time!
How Can Prejudice Be Reduced?
Stephan (1986) found that school desegregation sometimes led to increased prejudice and sometimes led to decreased prejudice. Mere contact between groups simply may give opportunity for taunts and attacks. (e.g., Rattlers & Eagles did this even in noncompetitive activities, such as eating, watching movies) Perhaps if competitive contact divides, we need cooperative contact to unite.
Proximity does not always lead to attraction.
The FBI reports that: ▶1/3 of all murders occur within the family ▶Most aggravated assaults occur within family units or between neighbors. A general rule seems to be that proximity tends to enhance the emotion that already is predominate.
Love and Relationships
Two Cultural Differences that Matter: Relational Mobility and Power ▶Women with more economic power are more interested in physically attractive men than are women with little economic power. ▶Physical attractiveness and general similarity matter more in forming relationships in cultures where there is high relational mobility (ease of leaving relationships, and attracting new people to form relationships with)
Why Do Our Stereotypes and Prejudices Persist?
We are "wired" to form in-groups and out-groups, and once we do, it is difficult not to change our views of the outgroup (see social categorization and the social identity theory) As long as there are limited resources to fight over, realistic conflict theory says competition and frustration will lead to stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination. Even when we don't have limited resources realistic conflicts to fight over, we perceive symbolic threats from other groups/views and actions that we think challenge our cherished beliefs and values.
Adrenaline Makes the Heart Grow Fonder
White, Fishbein, & Rusttein (1981) Male Subjects in one of 3 conditions: 1. Ran in place; 2. Watched a grisly blood-n-gore film 3. Watched a Steven Martin comedy routine ▶Later the male subjects interacted with either an attractive or an unattractive female. ▶Results: Physiological arousal led to increased attraction to the attractive female and a decreased attraction to the unattractive female.
Reciprocal Liking
▶A person's level of self-esteem moderates how we are affected by other people liking us. ▶Swann et al. (1992) have shown that people with high self-esteem like and interact with those who like them, but people with low self-esteem prefer to interact with somebody who criticized them.
Reciprocal Liking
▶Aronson's Gain-Loss Theory suggests that we particularly like individuals who we have "won over" Negative → Positive +7.67 Positive → Positive +6.42 Negative → Negative +2.52 Positive → Negative +0.87
Similarity - "Birds of a Feather Flock Together"
▶As we get to know each other better, other factors besides proximity and attractiveness come into play in determining liking. ▶Key among these is similarity to ourselves ▶People who are similar are attractive because they validate our own self-worth and we assume that people who disagree with us have negative personality traits. Byrne & Blaylock (1963) found a moderate degree of similarity in the attitudes of married couples. But when they asked the husband or wife to predict the attitudes of his or her partner, the similarity scores were significantly higher. Thus, it may be the perceived similarity that is important, not the actual degree of similarity.
Arousal & Attraction
▶As we noted earlier in the course, our emotional experience may be based on how we interpret or "label" our physiological arousal. ▶It's possible that a person who has an elevated level of arousal and could interpret that arousal as an attraction to the other person. ▶This is most likely to play a role when there is some ambiguity as to how much of one's level of arousal is due to the situation and how much of one's arousal is due to an attraction to the other people.
Physical Attractiveness and Liking
▶Clifford & Walster (1973) showed 5th grade teachers a report card with information about a hypothetical student. ▶All teachers saw the same report but the pictures attached to the card varied in attractiveness. ▶Teachers' assessment of the student' IQ and expected future level of performance was higher for attractive students.
Close Relationships
▶Close friendships are important ▶College students generally feel lonely, not when they don't spend much time with other people, but when they believe they lack intimate and meaningful social relationships. ▶Thus, having close friends rather than only social companions is what matters ▶Two types of loneliness: Social loneliness vs. emotional loneliness
Physical Attractiveness and Liking
▶Debate has existed on sex differences in the importance of physical attractiveness. ▶Feigold (1990) reports that both sexes value attractiveness, although men value it somewhat more than women; however this difference is larger for stated attitudes and values than for actual behavior. ▶Recent research supports the idea that physical attractiveness is equally important to men and women.
Close Relationships
▶There is more to friendship than just liking: ▶Self-disclosure plays an important role in close relationship. ▶When 2 people have an intimate relationship, they are not on guard all of the time, and they are willing to reveal their hopes and anxieties to each other. These self-revelations strengthen the relationship (as long as they are done at the right time and in the appropriate manner)
Moreland & Beach (1992)
▶They had four typical and comparable female students visit a class during a semester either 0,5,10, or 15 times. ▶Frequency of exposure had a significant influence on subjects' liking of the women on a variety of measures ▶e.g., ratings of intelligence, popularity, honesty, physical attractiveness, how much they would enjoy spending time with her, how much they would like her
Social Identity Theory
"Because people typically want to maintain positive self-regard, they are motivated to have favorable evaluations of the groups to which they belong. But there is no objective yardstick for gauging the desirability of any particular social group: such comparisons are inherently subjective. Therefore, people enhance their own group's favorability by psychologically establishing its relative superiority in comparison with some out-group. Thus, people are motivated to accentuate the evaluative difference between the in-group and outgroup
Competition Promotes Prejudice & Intergroup Conflict - The Robbers Cave Study
-11&12 yr. old boys at a 3 week summer camp all of the same ethnicity and similar in SES -Divided 22 boys into 2 groups and drove them to a Boy Scout camp in separate buses, settled in bunkhouses about 1/2 mile apart. -Developed group identities → "Rattlers" and "Eagles" -Camp staff set up a tournament of competitive activities between the two groups (baseball, tug-of-war, treasure hunts, etc.) -The campgradually degenerated into open warfare: name-calling, "garbage wars" in the dinning hall, flag burning, cabins ransacked fistfights. -The win-lose competitions produced intense conflict, and negative images of the outgroup, but also strong ingroup coheisiveness and pride.
Tajfel's Social Identity Theory
-After university athletic teams win a game, students are more likely to (1) wear clothes that identify the school, and (2) use the word "we" when describing the game's outcome, especially if their self-esteem has recently been challenged by a personal failure -A review of 34 separate studies found people who are high in self-esteem --and who therefore have the most to lose if their self-esteem is undercut -- exhibit more ingroup bias than do people low in self-esteem
Fein & Spence (1997) Study
-Hypothesis: When people experience a drop in self-esteem, they become more likely to express prejudice. -Experiment temporarily altered students' self-esteem by giving them bogus feedback after an intelligence test. -1/2 their participants told they scored in the top 10% for their university, and half told that they scored below average. -Later, in what appeared to be an unrelated study, participants were asked to evaluate a job candidate who was presented as either Jewish or Italian -Participants who suffered a blow to their self-esteem later evaluated the candidate more negatively when she seemed Jewish than she seemed Italian. -No difference was found among participants who were given positive feedback about their intelligence. -Moreover, students who received negative feedback about their intelligence showed a rebound in self-esteem after devaluating the Jewish candidate; That is, by putting down the Jewish candidate, they increased their self-esteem. -It may be possible to reduce prejudice with something as simple as a boost in self-esteem -Fein and Spencer (1997) found this to be the case in a separate experiment. In this experiment, anti-Jewish prejudice was eliminated after students increased their self-esteem by writing a few paragraphs about something they valued about themselves (a "self-affirmation" exercise).
The importance of Belonging is Complex
-In a study by Oyserman et al. (2006), they looked at inner city adolescents in Detroit and found that: Boys who rated themselves as dark-skinned blacks had significantly higher GPAs, higher academic confidence, and higher social acceptance than those with lighter skin tones. The results were replicated with Latino students who "looked Latino" Minority students who do well in school can be labeled as "acting white" so those who more visible appear to be member of the minority group are freer to act outside the group norm.
Two ways to Manage Threatening Environments
-Integrate and belong: develop strong relationships with majority group members in the setting. -Develop external supports: To cope and succeed despite psychological threats. -Both strategies may change people's experience and outcomes recursively over time.
How Stereotypes & Prejudices Form - #1: A "Kernel-of-Truth?"
-Kernel-of-Truth View: Stereotypes have a degree of truth to them, but are exaggerated and/or overgeneralized. E.g.: "Professors are boring." That might be generally true, but the stereotype might exaggerate how boring they are ("they have no sense of humor") and it might be overgeneralized to all professors. Thought questions: Do all stereotypes have a kernel of truth to them? How can we determine if a stereotype is true or not.
Stereotype Content Model
-Low competence, Low warmth → Contempt -Low competence, High warmth → Pity -High competence, Low warmth → Envy -High competence, High warmth → Admiration/Pride
Low-prejudiced and High-prejudiced
-Low-prejudiced individuals are those for whom the stereotype and prejudice may automatically come to mind but who are uncomfortable with their thoughts and feelings (cf. aversive racism) and will exert efforts to suppress the stereotype and prejudice. -High-prejudiced individuals also have the same stereotype and prejudice automatically come to mind, but feel no guilt about it and make no effort to suppress it. ►Bargh et al. (1995) have shown that automatic prejudice can be triggered when certain ideas about the target group come to mind. ►Researchers suggest there are 3 types of people: 1. Those who do not have an automatic negative reaction to members of a given group 2. Those who do have an automatic negative reaction but have no problems expressing their prejudice 3. Those who have an automatic negative reaction but want to suppress it.
Henri Tajfel's classic insight: mere categorization may be sufficient
-Mere, "arbitrary" categorization → -Division into InGroup and OutGroup -Drive for self-esteem, resulting in... -InGroup Favoritism -Referred to as "minimal group" paradigm
Tajfel's Social Identity Theory
-People maintain their self-esteem, in part by believing the groups they belong to are better than other groups. -Even experimentally created minimal group give people a chance to bolster their self-esteem through ingroup biases.
Belonging Uncertainty
-People may commonly question their belonging in new social and academic settings. -Especially when they are targeted by stigma and negative stereotypes. -This uncertainty creates ambiguity regarding the meaning of negative social events
What's wrong with stereotypes?
-Stereotypes can influence what we notice and attend to in our environment -Stereotypes can influence how we interpret the events we notice -Stereotypes can influence how we explain or make attributions for the causes of events we notice -Stereotypes can lead us to remember better events and information that fit our stereotypes -Stereotypes can influence our emotional reactions and our subsequent behavior. A stereotype is a cognitive schema about a particular group. But stereotypes have the power to Shape Our Perceptions of these events and behaviors so that they fit our expectations.
Which groups are the targets of prejudice?
-There are two fundamental dimensions by which people universally judge others -Depending on the content of our stereotypes of the competence and warmth of various groups, we will have different emotional and behavioral reactions to these groups -This is known as the Stereotype Content Model of prejudice.
What's wrong with stereotypes?
-We all do it. It's how we see the whole world, including the people in it. -We categorize and we generalize. It's how we simplify the world around us. -Problems arise, though, when it blinds us to individual differences within a class of people. Then it becomes maladaptive and dangerous -Can lead to prejudice and can lead to discrimination -Can cause harm to those who are the target of stereotypes and prejudices
Why does proximity lead to attraction?
1. Familiarity - with repeated exposure one becomes more familiar with the person and this leads to greater liking of the person. -Mere Exposure Effect - the more often we are exposed to a stimulus, the more apt we are like it.
Autostereotype
A group's stereotype of itself (do psychologists think that psychologists are generally boring?)
When Contact Reduces Prejudice: Six COnditions
1. Mutual interdependence 2. A common goal 3. Equal status of group members 4. Having informal interpersonal contact 5. Having multiple contact with several members of the outgroup 6. When social norms are in place that promotes equality A situation where two or more groups need each other and must depend on each other to accomplish a goal that is important to them defines mutual interdependence. A jigsaw classroom is a classroom setting designed to reduce prejudice and raise the self-esteem of children by placing them in small desegregated groups and making each child dependent on the other children in the group to learn the course material and do well in the class
How An Illusory Correlation Forms - Three Steps
1. When infrequent events co-occur (e.g., negative behavior performed by a minority group member) it attracts considerable attention. 2. The greater attention leads it to be more memorable later on. 3. Due to the Availability Heuristic (things we remember well are assumed to have occurred more often), we overestimate the frequency with which those memorable events occurred.
Why does proximity lead to attraction?
2. Predictability - with repeated exposure and familiarity comes predictability. They more we know about another person, the more predictable and relaxed one's interactions with that person become.
Why does proximity lead to attraction?
3. Anticipatory Dissonance Avoidance - given that we will be in close proximity to another person, we want to get along with that person. Darley & Bercheid (1967) found that people evaluated another person with whom they exposed to interact more favorably than one with whom they did not expect to interact
Stereotype
A belief that associates a group of people with traits. This is the cognitive component of this terrible trio Allport (1958) described a stereotype as a "faulty and inflexible generalization" -Inflexible: because it's not altered by contradictory info -Faulty: Assumes "facts" about all members of the group that are not true of all (or most) members of the group
Evolutionary Explanations of Love
Buss (1985( suggests that this approach explains the different strategies of men and women in romantic relationships. ▶Men universally seem to seek youth and beauty - as these are signs of "reproductively fit" women. ▶Women universally seem to prefer older mates with good earnings potential - as these are sign of a mates who likely to be capable and committed to help raise the offspring.
Clark & Hatfield (1984)
Confederates approached opposite-sex students and said "I have been noticing you around campus. I find you very attractive." (This is the manipulated independent variable that was randomized): 1. Would you go out with me tonight? 2. Would you come over to my apartment tonight? 3. Would you go to bed with me tonight? ▶Compared with men, women make a huge biological investment in their offspring - gestate, give birth, nurse, & care for their young. ▶Compared with men, women can only produce relatively few offspring - to insure their genes survive they, must invest more.
How can Prejudice Be reduced?
Contact Hypothesis - increased contact between members of various groups can be effective in reducing prejudice between them. Does contact between groups reduce prejudice? What impact did the desegregation of neighborhoods, workplaces, the military, and schools have? Did it produce favorable social results?
Culture and Love
Culture plays a role in how people label their experiences and what they expect from them. Dion and Dion (1993) suggest that romantic love is an important basis for marriage in individualistic society, but is less valued in collectivist ones. Recent research has noted that cultural differences in the value placed on romantic love are decreasing. Young people in some collectivist cultures are becoming more individualistic in their approach to romantic love.
Automatic Activation of Stereotypes and Prejudice
Devine (1989) developed a theory about how stereotypical and prejudiced beliefs affect information processing. Her theory is based on the distinction between automatic and controlled information processing. According to her theory, when we process information about another person: -First, (1) the stereotypes that we know about are automatically triggered, Then, (2) in the controlled process we decide whether or not to accept the stereotype
Institutional Discrimination
Discrimination that occurs on the level of a large group, society, organization, or institution. -It does not necessarily involve personal prejudice -It may be that institutional policies have an unintended (or intended discriminatory effect on some group)
Evolutionary Explanation of Love
Evolutionary biology judges an animal's "fitness" in terms of its reproductive success; the evolutionary approach to love states that men and women are attracted to different characteristics in each other because this fosters reproductive success.
Is stereotyping and Prejudice Inevitable?
In the short run, people can successfully suppress stereotypes if (a) they are motivated to do so, and (b) they have the necessary attentional resources and energy. But a rebound effect can occur, such that when suppression stops (as was the case for the second description) then the stereotype actually comes to mind even more (a temporary, but nonetheless unpleasant side-effect of suppressing stereotypes). A better strategy than suppressing the stereotype is to "individuate" the person - that is, activate personal information about him or her, rather than thinking of them as a member of a particular group. One way be able to learn to break the stereotype activation habit with practice and training.
Ending Intimate Relationships
John Gottman's Four Horseman of the Apocalypse 1. Criticism 2. Defensiveness 3. Contempt 4. Withdrawal
Similarity toward others does not always lead to attraction, for example, if the other person is of low status.
Novak & Lerner (1968) found that when subjects were led to believe that their attitudes and general background were similar to those of a particular mental patient, the subjects reported liking the mental patient LESS than subjects who were told they were dissimilar to the mental patient.
Why Does Jigsaw Work?
One reason for the effectiveness of the jigsaw classroom is that it succeeds in breaking down ingroup versus outgroup perceptions. This learning environment also places people in a "favor-doing" situation and leads them to like the people they help. In addition, then jigsaw classroom works because it fosters empathy. The cooperative learning movement has become a major force in the field of public education, and provides a powerful tool in the battle against prejudice. Unfortunately, the spread of cooperative learning is gradual.
Equity in Long-Term Relationship
People in communal relationships are not completely unconcerned with equity - if the relationship is inequitable, over time they will become dissatisfied
Physical Attractiveness and Liking
Physical attractiveness is a major determinant of liking in studies of first impression. We have a stereotype about physically attractive people: "What is beautiful is good." Attractive people are assumed to have a wide variety of other positive characteristics: Strong, kind, sociable, sensitive, poised, happier, more competent spouses, higher occupational status, etc.
How Stereotypes & Prejudice Form - #3: Realistic Conflict and Competition
Realistic Conflict Theory - limited resources lead to conflict between groups and result in increased prejudice and discrimination. Prejudice, discrimination, and violence against out-group members are positively correlated with scarcity of jobs or other resources. Both correlational and experimental data support group conflict theory. Scapegoating - the tendency for individuals, when frustrated or unhappy, to displace aggression onto groups that are disliked, visible, and relatively powerless.
Ending Intimate Relationships
Recently, researchers have started to look at what drives people to end relationships and the process involved in breaking up a relationship. Which comes first, a couple's unhappiness with each other, or their negative way of thinking about each other? ▶Research suggests the negative ways of thinking and blaming the other person usually come first. It is not necessarily the frequency of anger or other negative emotional states (e.g., depression) that matter. But the ratio of positive to negative interactions does matter. ▶The magic ratio appears to be 5-1 positive to negative
Social Exchange in Relationships
Rusbolt's investment model of relationships hold that people's commitment to a relationship depends on their satisfaction in terms of rewards, costs, and comparison level, their comparison level for alternatives and how much they have invested in the relationship that would be lost by leaving it.
How Stereotypes & Prejudice Form - #4: Salience and Illusory Correlation
Salience and Illusory Correlation - We are cognitively set to notice unusual characteristics and events in our environment. ▶Certain things are salient or more noticeable than others. ▶What happens when we notice or pay more attention to unusual people and unusual behavior?
How Stereotypes & Prejudice Form - #2: Social Categorization & Social Identity
Social Categorization - the mere act of separating people into groups leads to overgeneralizations. ▶We tend to overestimate the similarities of people within a group (intra-category similarity) and to overestimate the differences between people across groups (inter-category dissimilarity) ▶This is true of our perceptions of outgroups (groups to which we do not belong) ▶We have an illusion of outgroup homogeneity (They are all alike) ▶But when it comes to our ingroups (groups to which we belong), we tend to view the members as much more varied ▶Why does the outgroup homogeneity occur? -Lack of contact -Unrepresentative sample -Lack of mental efforts to individualize
Social exchange theory and Attraction
Social exchange theory is the theory holding that how people feel about a relationship depends on their perceptions of the rewards and costs of the relationship, the kind of relationship they believe they deserve (comparison level), and their chances for having a better relationship with some else (comparison level for alternatives)
Defining Love
Sternberg developed the triangular theory of love. This is the idea that different kinds of love consist of varying degrees of three components: Intimacy, passion, and commitment.
Why Do Our Stereotypes and Prejudices Persist?
Subtyping - regarding individuals who do not fit the stereotype as "exceptions to the rule." Even with positive, cooperative contact with individuals from an outgroup, one may maintain one's overall stereotype of the group by relegating these individuals to a subtype.
Social Identity Theory
Tajfel's social identity theory postulates that the underlying motive behind in-group bias is self-esteem maintenance and enhancement. Basic Predictions: •1) Threats to Self-Esteem → need for ingroup favoritism •2) Ingroup favoritism → repairs Self-Esteem
Illusory correlation
Tendency to see relationships or correlations, between events that are actually unrelated. Illusory correlations are most likely to occur when the events or people are distinctive or conspicuous; minority group members are so by definition.
Passionate Love
The feelings of intense longing, accompanied by physiological arousal, we feel for another person; when our love is reciprocated, we feel great fulfillment and ecstasy, but when it is not, we feel sadness and despair.
Defining Love - Companionate love
The feelings of intimacy and affection we feel for another person when we care deeply for the person, but do not necessarily experience passion or arousal in his or her presence
The person Next door
The finding that the more we see and interact with people, the more likely they are to become our friends is known as the proximity effect. Festinger et al. (1950) examined friendship patterns in a married students housing complex.
Physical Attractiveness and Liking
The media bombards us with a standard of beauty; and also associates beautiful characters with high moral standards; because of the media, we develop shared standards of beauty. For both sexes, this standard includes large eyes, prominent cheekbones, and a big smile. For women, a small nose and chin, narrow cheeks and high eyebrows are considered attractiveness For men, a large chin is considered attractive.
Physical Attractiveness and liking
There is a some truth to the association between physical attractiveness and sociability; This may be due to a self-fulfilling prophecy. Perhaps it may be associated with occupational status as well - do you think beautiful people get the benefit of the doubt?
What's beauty?
▶Even young infants show a preference for faces that adults rate as attractive, as evidenced by how long the infants look at attractive vs. unattractive faces. ▶This preference for what is the "average" or prototypical face turns out to be part of a more general pattern. ▶According to research by Halberstadt and Rhodes (2000,2003), people are attracted to all sorts of objects that are closer to the "average" or prototypical example of that type of objects (e.g., dogs, fish, cars, wristwatches)
Equity and Two Types of Relationships
▶Exchange Relationships - we tend to "bookkeep" to make sure that everyone is contributing their fair share (strangers, causal acquaintances) ▶Communal Relationships - we do not bother to bookkeep" and share simply more interested in the other person's long-term welfare
What's "Beauty"
▶Faces are judged as beautiful with a high level of agreement between adults & children, between men & women, and across people of different cultures and ethnicities. ▶Langlois and her colleagues have found that "average" faces are preferred to other faces. By "average" she means faces that are the statistical average of the faces that one encounters. ▶This may be due to the fact that the "average" face is perceived as more familiar.
What Causes Attraction?
▶Friendships and close relationships are at or near the top of the list of what people say make them happy. ▶People desire to be liked by even the most casual of acquaintances ▶We have a need for affiliation, which is the desire to establish and maintain many rewarding interpersonal relationships
Some Classic Dating Scenarios Increase Arousal
▶Go to a scary movie ▶Go go a rousing concert or party ▶Go dancing ▶Go to a crowed restaurant or bar ▶Some combination of all of the above
Criticisms of Evolutionary Theory's Explanations
▶It offers post hoc explanations for any and all differences ▶There may be alternative cultural explanations for the observed differences. For example, males' emphasis on attractiveness maybe because they have more wealth and do not need to marry for economic reasons as much as women. Therefore, they can attend to other less practical (more superficial?) criteria. ▶Evolutionary arguments are often misused to characterize men and women as having immutable or fixed traits (e.g., men are promiscuous, women are gold-diggers). ▶Cultural learning and environmental influences affect human love and sexuality.
Being the Target of Prejudice
▶Jemmott & Gonzales (1989) took elementary school children and made some "high-status" by giving them a big fancy "BOSS" button, while others were made "low-status" by giving them a small unimpressive "helper" button. ▶Kids were put into 4-person groups that varied a child's status as well as whether they were in the majority or minority -3-BOSSES plus one helper -1 BOSS plus 3 helpers ▶After a brief group activity, the children then were given a series of 10 anagrams to solve on their own ▶Results: BOSSES did better than helpers on the anagram task, especially when helpers had been in the minority in their group. ▶Being singled out, labeled as inferior, damaged performance, particularly when one lacked social support.
Stereotype Threat
▶Knowing that some people have a stereotype of your group and knowing that some people will use that stereotype to form judgments of you can be frustrating and stressful, but it doesn't always lead to negative effect. ▶The situation can have both negative and positive effect
Clark & Hatfield (1984)
▶Men can "father" an indefinite # of offspring. ▶Men have evolved to be more interested in sex, more promiscuous, less desirous of emotional commitment / pair-bonding. ▶Men are more open to casual sex than women ▶Trivers' theory is that the sex that is more invested in the offspring is more choosy and discriminating than the sex that has less invested - it needs a mate willing to be devoted and willing to invest resources.
Clark & Hatfield (1984)
▶Men, on average, are more upset than women by a mate's sexual infidelity. Women are relatively more upset by a mate's emotional infidelity (Buss et al., 1992) ▶Why? Because men can never be as certain of the paternity of their children as women can, men have evolved to be sexually jealous and to drive off competitors. ▶In contrast, women require commitment and investment from a mate for their children to survive & prosper, so they have evolved to be jealous of a mate's possible emotional commitments to rivals.
Reciprocal Liking
▶One of the most potent determinants of our liking someone is if we believe that person likes us. ▶This is particularly true when we are feeling insecure or having self-doubts ▶Aronson & Worchel (1966) manipulated how similar a confederate was to the subjects as well as whether the confederate liked the subject. Results: Attraction to the confederate was affected only by whether the confederate liked or disliked the subject.
Close Relationships
▶Reluctance to enter into a close relationship may be due to this interdependence. ▶To be emotionally involved with another person is to give this individual some degree of power over your feelings → threatens one's full independence ▶Many relationships progress only in fits and starts as people move back and forth ambivalently between attachment and independence.
Physical Attractiveness and Liking
▶So, when choosing a dating partner, you will seek out the most attractive person you can find, right? ▶Well, we also assume that attractive individuals will be more discriminating, so our own fear of rejection may influence our choice. ▶Matching Principle - people typically select dates who are of a similar level of attractiveness.
Physical Attractiveness: Getting Drawn In
▶Teachers judge attractive students as more intelligent than unattractive students (Clifford & Walster, 1973), ▶Adults, and nurses in pediatric wards, punish unattractive children more harshly than attractive children. (Dion, 1974) ▶Texas judegs set lower bail and smaller fines for attractive suspects (Downs & Lyons, 1991) ▶Attractive people make more money (Hamermesh & Biddle, 1994) and get better job ratings from bosses (Hosoda et al., 2003) ▶Parents spend more time looking at attractive babies!
Reciprocal Liking
▶The effects of similarity on attraction may in part be due to the assumption that if they are similar to us, they will probably like us. ▶If we believe somebody else likes us, we will be a more likable person in their presence; this will lead them to actually like us more, which leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Close Relationships
▶Until recently, there was little research in social psychology on enduring relationships, because they are more difficult to study scientifically: random assignment is impossible, and feelings can be hard to measure. ▶Close relationships are not defined by duration. (causal friends and acquaintances can keep in touch for years.) ▶Close relationships are characterized by a strong, frequent, and diverse interdependence. ▶They affect each other emotionally, they support and encourage each other, they can reward and punish each other.
Stereotype Threat
▶What if you are the target of a stigmatizing stereotype? ▶How often would you wonder if someone's impression of you, or behavior towards you, was distorted by the stereotype? ▶Remember Glen, the Black man from the True Colors video we watched? How might he feel the next time he does not get the job he applied for, or the promotion he hoped for, or the house he wanted to buy? ▶As a member of a stigmatized group, you don't want to do anything that will lead other people to think their stereotypes of you are justified. ▶Steele and Aronson define stereotype threat as the apprehension experienced by members of a minority group that their behavior might confirm a cultural stereotype. ▶This had been shown to affect a variety of groups. A classic demonstration of this comes from Claude Steele's work on the academic achievement of Black students. ▶Black college students have a higher dropout rate from college, have lower achievement (GPAs) in college, even when one controls for academic ability and preparation. Why? ▶There is a great deal of ambiguity and uncertainty in stereotype threat. ▶The meaning of other people's behavior is not always clear. For example: Attributional Ambiguity - is the nature of the behavior, evaluations, or opportunities that I am receiving due to something about my internal dispositions (e.g., my abilities) or is it due to other people's prejudice toward people like me?
Similarity: Liking People Who Are Just Like US
▶Why does it happen? ▶People want to date attractive people, but rejection hurts -Possibility of rejection makes people more realistic -Most attractive people pair off and are "off the market" People see the best but settle for what they can get.
Aversive Racism
►Some researchers have argued that what differentiates racism now form racism in the past, is that people have conflicting attitudes: ●Openly endorse egalitarian values and feelings of sympathy towards minorities. ●Culturally socialized negative images of blacks and feelings of unease. ►People don't like to be prejudiced, but they are also very worried that people might think that they are ►Rather than giving rise to hostility, aversive racism is expressed by the avoidance of inter-racial settings, particularly when norms for appropriate behavior are unclear or behavior can be justified in non-prejudiced terms
