Krueger - Towards a Balanced Social Psychology

To be published in

Behavioral and Brain Sciences

(in press)Cambridge University Press 2003

Below is the unedited, uncorrected final draft of a BBS target article that has beenaccepted for publication. This preprint has been prepared for potential commentatorswho wish to nominate themselves for formal commentary invitation. Please DO NOT write a commentary until you receive a formal invitation. If you are invited to submit acommentary, a copyedited, corrected version of this paper will be posted.

Towards a Balanced Social Psychology:Causes, Consequences and Cures for the Problem-seekingApproach to Social Behavior and Cognition

Joachim I. Krueger Department of PsychologyBrown UniversityProvidence, RI 02912Joachim_Krueger@brown.eduhttp://www.brown.edu/Departments/Psychology/faculty/krueger.htmlDavid C. Funder Department of PsychologyUniversity of California, RiversideRiverside, CA 92506funder@citrus.ucr.eduhttp://www.psych.ucr.edu/faculty/funder/rap/Rap.htm1

Long Abstract:

Mainstream social psychology focuses on how people characteristicallyviolate norms of action through social misbehaviors such as conformity, obedience, andfailures to help. Likewise, they are seen to violate norms of reasoning through cognitiveerrors such as misuse of social information, self-enhancement, and an over-readiness toattribute dispositional characteristics. The causes of this negative research emphasis includethe apparent informativeness of norm violation, the status of good behavior and judgment asunconfirmable null hypotheses, and the allure of counter-intuitive findings. Theshortcomings of this orientation include frequently erroneous imputations of error, findingsof mutually contradictory errors, incoherent interpretations of error, an inability to explainthe sources of behavioral or cognitive achievement, and the inhibition of generalized theory.Possible remedies include increased attention to the complete range of behavior and judgmental accomplishment, analytic reforms emphasizing effect sizes and Bayesianinference, and a theoretical paradigm able to account for both the sources of accomplishmentand of error. A more balanced social psychology would yield not only a more positive viewof human nature, but also an improved understanding of the bases of good behavior andaccurate judgment, coherent explanations of occasional lapses, and theoretically-groundedsuggestions for improvement.

Keywords:

Bayesian inference; biases; normative models; personality; positive psychology;rationality; reasoning; social behavior, social judgment; social psychology

Short Abstract:

Social psychological research stresses violations of behavioral norms of ethical conduct and cognitive norms of rational thought. The assumed informativeness of norm violations and the status of normative criteria as unconfirmable null hypotheses resultin many erroneous or contradictory imputations of error, and fail to develop an account of theentire range of behavior and cognitive accomplishment. We suggest analytic and conceptualreforms to promote a more balanced social psychology, which would improve our understanding of the bases of good behavior and accurate judgment, yield coherentexplanations of occasional lapses, and facilitate theory-driven suggestions for improvement.2

“Odious behavior (‘sin’) is at the heart of our most powerful research in social psychology.”(Elliot Aronson 1999, p. 104).“How could people be so wrong?” (Lee Ross & Richard Nisbett 1991, p. 139).“Oops, I did it again.” (Britney Spears 2001)

1. Introduction

While everyday social behavior and cognition includes both appalling lapses and impressiveaccomplishments, mainstream social psychology has for decades emphasized the negativeside of this equation. A prevalent research strategy has been to propose a prescriptive normfor social behavior or cognition and then to demonstrate that human performance falls shortof it. Using this strategy, some of the most influential studies of social behavior documentedconformity with false group judgments, obedience to malevolent authority, and failure to helpthose in need. Studies of social cognition showed how—among numerous other shortcomings—people misuse social information, perceive themselves erroneously, and aretoo quick to attribute attitudes and personality traits to others. The selective demonstration of negative phenomena is further compounded by the message that people’s intuitions regardingsocial behavior and cognition are also flawed. For example, people are said to believe thatothers, but not they themselves, are prone to bias (Friedrich 1996; Pronin, Lin & Ross 2002).Some investigators have begun to revive interest in human strengths (Seligman &Csikszentmihalyi 2000; Sheldon & King 2001; Snyder & Lopez 2002) and cognitive3

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