SOSC1960

Discovering Mind and Behavior

Lecture 11
Social Psychology

Social psychology is the scientific study of social

cognition, social influence, and social interaction.

M.C. Escher

Social influence
Stereotypes and discrimination
Attraction

Social influence

Social influence

The process by which the actions of an

individual or group affect the behavior of
others
Conformity
Compliance
Obedience

Conformity

A change in behavior or attitudes brought

desire
about by a ____________
to follow the beliefs
or standards of other people
Asch (1955)

You are told that this is an experiment involving the

discrimination of the lengths of lines. In each trial,
there are one standard line and three comparison
lines. Your task is to choose the line that is identical
in length to the standard line.

Asch (1995). See video.

Conformity

Asch (1955)

Only 23% of the participants always gave the right

answer and went against the group on all 12 trials
The remaining 77% of participants went along with
the group at least once

Conformity

Relative status

The lower a persons status in the group, the more

likely conformity is

Nature of task

Task at which the person is incompetent is more

susceptible to conformity

Attractiveness

The more attractive a group is to its members, the

more likely they will be to adopt the behavior and
attitudes of fellow members

Public responses

Conformity is higher when group members must

make responses in public

The importance of unanimity:

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Presence of dissenter (social supporter) empowers a person to
defy the group

Normative behavior

Cialdini, Reno & Kallgren (1990)

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Compliance

direct
Behavior that occurs in response to ________
explicit
and ____________
social pressure
Different from conformity, in which the social
pressure is subtle or indirect
E.g., sales request, donation request

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Compliance salesperson

Foot-in-the-door phenomenon: the tendency

for people who have first agreed to a small
request to comply later with a larger request

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Compliance

Foot-in-the-door phenomenon

People were asked a day ahead to wear a label pin

publicizing the Canadian Cancer Society. Those who
agreed to wear the pin were nearly twice likely to
donate when approached directly on the following
day (Pliner et al., 1974)

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Compliance

Foot-in-the-door phenomenon

Only 17% of Californian respondents agreed to pose

a Drive Carefully sign in their front yard.
76% among those who had agreed to display a 3inch window sign agreed to pose the sign in their
front yard (Freedman & Fraser, 1966)

why does the foot-in-the-door

technique increase compliance?
1. interest
2. consistency
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Compliance

Door-in-the-face technique: the tendency for

people who have first refused a big request to
comply later with a smaller request

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Compliance

Door-in-the-face technique

50% of those who had refused a big request (to act

as unpaid counselors 2 hours per week for 2 years)
complied with a subsequent smaller request (to bring
a group of delinquents to a two-hour zoo trip); only
17% of those who had not received the big request
complied with the smaller request
(Cialdini et al., 1975)

guilty and want to compensate,

want to be helpful

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Obedience

A change in behavior in response to the

______________
of others
commands
Particularly commands of persons with
____________
(e.g., teachers, police,
authority
superordinates)

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Milgram (1963)
See video.
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% of participants delivering the maximum

shock

Milgram (1963)

expected

observed

1.2%

65%
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Obedience

Every single participant complied with at least

some orders to shock another person
Why?
The experimenter would be responsible for
any potential ill effects
Legitimacy of the authority matters

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Adolf Eichmann: I never killed anyone. It

would repulse me to do so.
Rudolf Hss: I dont know what you mean
by being upset about these things,
because I didnt personally murder
anybody. I was just the director of the
extermination program at Auschwitz.
Concentration camp officer: Its not me.
Its the guy who told me to do this.

Adolf Eichmann (1906-1962), "the architect of the Holocaust",

was a Nazi and an Lieutenant Colonel
Rudolf Hss (19001947) was an Lieutenant Colonel and the first
commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp, where it is
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estimated that more than a million people were killed.

Stereotype and discrimination

Stereotypes

A set of generalized beliefs and expectations

about a particular group and its members
Simplifying our social world, but ignoring
diversity within a group, fostering inaccurate
perception

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Stereotypes

Males vs. females

Gender stereotype in 5 minutes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIwWS2atE
mc&feature=PlayList&p=EF8B70613FA0ACE5&i
ndex=6

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Stereotypes

Out-group homogeneity effect

Perception of out-group members as more similar to

one another than are in-group members
They are alike; we are diverse

us

them
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Own-race bias: the tendency for people to more accurately recognize

faces of their own race.

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Who is Keira Knightley? Who is Natalie Portman?

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Discrimination

Unjustified behavior
_______________________directed
toward
individuals on the basis of their membership in
a particular group (interpersonal or
institutional such as personnel selection or
arrest)

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Famous Black professor arrested for trying to enter his house

Discrimination

Top-rated diagnostic test for Black vs. White

heart patients: 60% less likely to suggest for
Black patients (Schulman et al., 1999)
White men were offered better deals on cars
(Ayres, 1995)

$11,362
$11,504
$11,783
$12,237

for
for
for
for

White men
White women
Black men
Black women

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Interviews sat farther away, ended the interview 25% sooner, and made 50%
more speech errors when the applicant was Black. Zanna & Cooper (1974).

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Implicit Association Test (IAT) (Greenwald et al., 1998)

9 in 10 White people took longer to identify pleasant words as good
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when associated with Black rather than White faces

Images of suspects--both armed and unarmed, black and whiteflash

onto a monitor. Within a split-second, participants must decide
whether to shoot. People are faster to shoot an armed Black suspect
than an armed White suspect. They are more likely to shoot an
unarmed Black suspect than an unarmed White target. Correll et al.
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(2007).

Discrimination

Two-thirds of the ethnic minorities in HK

perceived some form of racial discrimination
(Department of Social Work, CUHK, 2004)
E.g. less favorable career progress (58.6%),
failed to get a job although they were more
qualified and competent than a Chinese person
(58.8%), other people opted to stand up
rather than sit next to them in public places
(55.3%)

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The foundations of stereotypes, prejudice

and discrimination
Realistic Group Conflict Theory
Prejudice arises from competition between
groups for scarce resources
Prejudice against immigrants: perceived
competition from immigrants for school
places, jobs, healthcare, and other
resources leads people to oppose open,
lenient immigration policies
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Social identity theory

Social identity: part of self-concept derived

from perceived membership of social groups
We use group membership as a source of pride
and self-worth
We inflate the positive aspects of our social
group (ingroup) and at the same time, devalue
other social grousp (out-groups)

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Socialization

mass media

Commercials and regular programming

transmit stereotypes and prejudice
Females portrayed as soft-hearted, weak,
submissive, passive, emotional, sensual,
nurturing; males as strong, powerful, active,
aggressive, independent

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Socialization

Boys received more positive reaction for play

with male-typical toys and for aggression
Girls received more positive reactions when
attempting to communicate

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Attraction

Proximity

Geographical nearness
When Im not near the one I love, I love the
one Im near

E.Y. Harburg

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Proximity

Festinger, Schachter, & Back (1950)

Students at MIT were randomly assigned to

apartments
They were asked to list their 3 closest companions

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The closer people lived together, the more

likely they were to become friends

Within Buildings, a resident named a close

companion

1 door away 41% of the time

2 doors away 22%

3 doors away 16%

4 doors away 10%

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___________________
Mere exposure

new
The tendency for novel stimuli to be liked more
or rated more positively after the rater has
been repeatedly exposed to them

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1. why?
2. intensify?
Novel stimuli

Zajonc (1968)

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Physical attractiveness

Attractiveness predicts dating frequency

Men place more importance on attractiveness

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Physical attractiveness

Hatfield et al. (1966)

Matched randomly 752 freshmen for a dance

Measured personality and aptitude
Danced and talked for 2.5 hours
Physical attractiveness predicts liking and desire to
date again

similarity in personality,
similarity in aptitude

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Physical attractiveness

The preference for attractive people starts

early in infancy
Babies look longer at faces that are attractive
than at faces unattractive
One-year-olds are more involved in play and
show more positive affect toward an attractive
stranger than an unattractive stranger
(Langlois et al., 1987, 1990)

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Physical attractiveness

Waist-hip ratio (WHR) is a significant factor in

judging female attractiveness
0.7
Women with a _________
WHR (waist
circumference that is 70% of the hip
circumference) are rated as more attractive by
men from most cultures

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Physical attractiveness

The WHR of Playboy centerfolds has remained

about 0.7 over time, even as weight has
dropped

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Physical attractiveness

WHR is an indicator of reproductive status; as

circulating estrogen lowers WHR and
testosterone raises it
A high WHR indicates a greater propensity to
have problems such as diabetes, hypertension,
heart problems, strokes, etc.

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Which face is more attractive?

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Physical attractiveness

_______________
faces are rated as more
Symmetrical
attractive

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Physical attractiveness

Average
______________
face

People perceive physical features that are not

unusually large or small as relatively

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Physical attractiveness

What is beautiful is good

The belief that beautiful people possess more
desirable traits (e.g., more intelligent, happy,
successful, outgoing, kind) (Eagly et al., 1991;
Feingold, 1992; Langlois et al., 2000)

to judge based on physical

attractiveness
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stereotype

Cinderella and her ugly sisters

Snow white and the witch

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Required readings

Chapter 17

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