Chaptesr – 9 SOCIAL THOUGHT AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR

Q1. What is meant by Attribution? Discuss Kelley’s theory of Attribution.

Ans. The processes through which we seek to determine the causes behind other’s behaviour are termed as
Attribution.

 According to HAROLD KELLEY, the basic method we use to identify the causes of particular effects is
the “presence-absence” test. W identify something as a cause if in its presence the effect always
occurs and in its absence the effect does not occur.
 Kelley identified here basic factors that we use in deciding whether another’s response was caused by
internal or eternal forces.
1. Consensus : whether other people behave in the same way as the person we are considering for
judgement.
2. Consistency : whether this person behaves in the same manner overtime.
3. Distinctiveness : whether this person behaves in the same way in different situations.
 According to him, a combination of high consistency, high consensus and high distinctiveness creates
“external attributions”.
 Whereas, high consistency combined with low consensus and low distinctiveness creates “internal
attribution.”
Q2. What are the types of biases which occur in forming judgements?
Ans. The types of biases which occur in forming judgements are as follows :
1.The Self-Serving Bias

 This is our tendency to take credit for positive behaviour or outcomes by attributing them to
internal causes but, to blame negative ones on external causes, especially on factors beyond
our control.
 Cognitive factors suggest that self-serving bias stems mainly from certain tendencies in which
we attribute positive outcomes to internal causes because we expect to succeed based on our
ability and characteristics.
 Motivational factors suggest that this bias stems from our ned to protect and enhance our self-
esteem or the desire to look good to others.
 This bias is also more common in individualistic societies which emphasize personal
accomplishments.
 For example : we appear in a test and score very well. We would attribute this success to our
own talent or hard work. On the other hand if we did not score well, we would attribute our
failure to reasons like “the teacher doesn’t like us” or “It’s my unlucky day”.
2. False Consensus Effect

 It is a cognitive bias that causes people to “see their own behavioural choices and judgements as
relatively common or appropriate to existing circumstances.”
 In other words they assume that their personal qualities, characteristics, beliefs and actions are
relatively widespread through general population.
 For example : A person who prefers iced-tea over coffee strongly believes that everyone he knew also
preferred iced-tea over coffee with out even taking their opinions.
 It is significant because it increases self-esteem.
3. Automatic vigilance

 Humans preferentially attend to negative stimuli and this attention to the negative characteristics
disrupts the processing of other stimulus properties.
 In other words, when interacting with other people we might tend to focus on their negative trait and
might ignore all the other positive ones to form our judgement.
  For example a person who has experienced threat from a snake would be more vigilant to see objects
which resemble like snake (a rope, wire).
4.Motivated scepticism

 We tend to pay more attention to information that is unexpected or somehow inconsistent woth our
expectations.
 This tendency stems from the fact that we work harder to understand inconsistent information because
it is unexpected and surprising.
 And because the greater the amount of attention we pay to the information, the more will be its chance
to enter the memory and influence our judgement later.
 For example : we expect a famous cricketer to score centuries in the field but if he also becomes a
famous musician, this information would be difficult to believe.
5.Counterfactual thinking

 The tendency to evaluate events by thinking about alternatives to them – “what might have been” is
termed as Counterfactual Thinking.
 For example : you read an article in the newspaper about a woman who was injured by bricks
falling off the front of a large office building.
Many studies indicate that you would feel more sympathy for the woman if she’s a stranger in the
town. If she passes that building everyday then feeling of sympathy will be reduced.
 Research findings indicate that we feel more sympathy for people who experience harm as a result
of unusual actions on their part than as a result of more typical behaviour.

Q3. Explain Asch’s study on Conformity.

Ans.

 SOLOMON. E. ASCH conducted a study to explain how much conformity there would be when one
member of the group experiences pressure from the rest of the group to behave in a similar way or to
give a particular response/ judgement.
 A group of 7 persons participated in the study. It was a ‘Vision Test’. There was only one true
subject. The other six were ‘the confederates’ or associates of the Experimenter.
 All participants were shown a vertical line “Standard Line” that had to be compared with three vertical
lines of different lengths “Comparison Lines”.
 Each participant was asked to announce his/her answer. The first 5 participants gave a wrong answer.
Therefore, the true subject had an experience of 5 persons giving wrong answers before her/him.
 Finally, even if the true subject felt that the answers were incorrect, she/he conformed to the responses
given by the participants.
 In Asch’s study, it was experienced that 67% subjects showed conformity and gave the same
incorrect answer as the majority.
Q4. Explain Milgram’s experiment on Obedience.

Ans.

 STANLEY MILGRAM conducted an experiment to show that individuals obey commands from people
who are strangers.
 The Experimenter (E) informed the respondents that they were participating in an experiment to study
the effects of punishment on learning.
 The experiment was conducted in pairs. There was one person who as the Learner (L) whose task
was to memorise the given pairs of words.
 There was another participant, the Teacher (T) who would read these words aloud and punish the
learner when she/he made errors by giving electric shocks.
 The Learner was a “Confederate” (an associate of the Experimenter) who was instructed to make
errors.
 The teacher was asked to deliver a shock each time the learner made errors. The teacher was further
told to increase the strength of the shock. In reality, no shocks were given.
 It was found that 65% true subjects (who were made TEACHERS in the experiment) showed total
obedience. Thus, Milgram’s experiment suggests that even ordinary people are willing to harm an
innocent person if ordered by someone in authority.