Social Psychology

“We cannot live for ourselves

alone. Our lives are connected by
a thousand invisible threads.”
- Henry Melvill
 Social Psychology

 the scientific study of how we think about,

influence , and relate to one another.
First Impressions
First impressions

 We make quick assessments of others by

focusing on a subset of traits and
behaviours
 Often less than a minute
 Speed dating – some research shows that after
three minutes of observation, people have
accurately predicted their compatibility with a
potential partner
 We size up who people are and why they
behave the way they do
 Social Thinking
 Attributing Behavior to a Person (dispositional) or
to a Situation (situational)
 Attribution Theory- the theory that we
tend to give a causal explanation for
someone’s behavior, often by crediting
either the situation or the person’s
disposition.
Example
 A car swerves (negative behavior) in front of you
while driving, they are assumed to be either ill
(situational attribution) or a bad driver
(dispositional attribution); You then proceed with
caution (tolerant action) or speed past
(unfavorable reaction) with a dirty look.
Fundamental Attribution Error

 thetendency for observers, when

analyzing another’s behavior, to
underestimate the impact of the
situation and to overestimate the
impact of personal disposition.
 Fundamental Attribution Error

 thetendency for observers, when analyzing

another’s behavior, to underestimate the impact of
the situation and to overestimate the impact of
personal disposition.
For example: On the first
day of school Mrs. Chung
comes into class late and
frustrated. We
underestimate the
situation by attributing her
behavior to her personal
disposition (who she is);
not realizing that traffic
that morning was rough
and that her dog had
chewed up the amazing
first day t-shirt she was
going to wear (it would
have put Mr. Morphett’s
shirts to shame!). Her
behavior is due to
situational attributions.
 Social Thinking

 Do our Attitudes Guide our Actions?

 Attitude- a belief and feeling that
predisposes one to respond in a particular
way to objects, people, and events.

 Attitude-action/action-attitude
spiral
 Onefeeds the other-this phenomenon
can be dangerous if escalated quickly in
a bad situation.
 Social Psychology

 Foot-in-the-door-phenomenon- the
tendency for those who have first
agreed to a smaller request to
comply later with larger request.
“Start small and build”.
 Foot-in-Door example:
sales person getting you to try a
sample
 Social Psychology

 Foot-in-the-door-phenomenon- the tendency

for those who have first agreed to a smaller
request to comply later with larger request.
“Start small and build”.

 Note: evil acts shape the self.

But so do acts of good will.
Act as if you like someone and you soon will.
Commit to happy acts and you will be happier.
 Social Thinking
 Do our Actions Affect our Attitudes?
 Cognitive Dissonance Theory- the theory that
we act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance)
we feel when two of our thoughts (cognitions)
are inconsistent.

 For example: when our awareness of our

attitudes and of our actions clash, we can
reduce the resulting dissonance by changing
our attitudes/actions.

“Fake it until you make it” – AA saying

 Note: evil acts shape the self.
But so do acts of good will.
Act as if you like someone and you soon will.
Commit to happy acts and you will be happier.
Cognitive dissonance…if only
I had known!
 Social Thinking
 Do our Attitudes Affect our Actions?
 How our attitudes can be changed:
 Peripheral Route Persuasion – our attitudes can
change based on a snap judgment or incidental
cues.
 e.g. we don’t like a certain type of cell phone but we
see a picture of a celebrity using that phone and we
want it.
 Central Route Persuasion – relies on evidence,
logic and reasoned arguments to change our
minds
 e.g. we start liking a cell phone because we read
statistics that indicate it offers better options and
performance
 Social Influence
 Conformity and Obedience
 Behavior is contagious
 Giggles,coughs, yawns, laughter, and sickness
are all contagious
 Conformity- adjusting one’s behavior or thinking
to coincide with a group standard.
 https://youtu.be/NyDDyT1lDhA
 Conformity and Obedience
 Normative Social Influence-
influence resulting from a
person’s desire to gain approval
or avoid disapproval.
 Personal belief is not changed

 Informational Social Influence-

influence resulting from one’s
willingness to accept others’
opinions about reality.
 Personal belief changes
 Social Influence

 Conformity and Obedience

 Normative Social Influence- influence resulting from a
person’s desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval.
Informational Social Influence- influence resulting from
one’s willingness to accept others’ opinions about
reality.
 Conditions that strengthen obedience:
-one is made to feel insecure
-the group has at least three people
-one admires the group’s status and attractiveness
-one’s culture strongly encourages respect for social
standards
 Social Influence
Conformity and Obedience
 Obedience- Professor Stanley Milgram
 Two people draw slips from one hat, one says ”teacher”,
the other “learner”. The learner is led to an adjoining room
and strapped into a chair that is wired through the wall to
an electric shock machine. You are the teacher and are
equipped with the machine; on it are switches that have
voltage ratings ranging from mild to strong, to very strong.
Your task is to teach and then test the learner on a list of
word pairs. You are to punish the learner for every wrong
answer by delivering a quick shock through the machine,
beginning with a switch labeled “15 volts-slight shock”. You
begin, after each level you hear the learner grunt at the
shocks, but at the 8th level the learner shouts that the
shocks are painful. The experimenter urges you forward,
each shock more powerful than the last. You reach 330
Volts, they shriek in agony when you shock them. The
Experimenter orders you to continue shouting at you when
you pause to punish the learner for making a mistake; the
only switch left is the unbearably torturous 450-volt
switch…
 Ask yourself: How far would YOU go in this experiment?
Milgram’s Experiment

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W147ybOdgpE
 Social Influence
 Conformity and Obedience –
Milgram Expt.
 Results: Out of men aged 20-
50…
-63% complied fully
-Women responded similarly

Obedience was highest when

-the person giving the orders
was close at hand and was
perceived to be a legitimate
authority figure
-the authority figure was
supported by a prestigious
institution
Milgram’s Experiment
Variations
 Experimenter in a position of Authority
 Experimenter in official uniform(original study): 63%
 Replaced by second experimenter in street clothes: 20%
 Location
 Moved to a run down lab: 47.5%
 Dissociation of responsibility:
 Able to ask an ‘assistant’ to switch levers: 92.5%
 Absent Authority
 Experimenter is in a separate room instructing by phone: 20.5%
 Many participants lied about flipping switches

 Social Support
 Two other ‘participants’ refused to go any further: 10%
 Why is the Milgram experiment
important?

 Demonstrated the impact that the

situation can have on our behaviour
 Demonstrated the impact that social roles
can have on our behaviour
 Highlighted the ethical issues for
conducting psychological experiments
 Social Psychology in
Marketing
 1. What product does this ad attempt to market, and where
is the ad from?
 2. What route of persuasion do the advertisers seem to use
(e.g., central route vs. peripheral)? Was that a good
choice? Specifically, what central or peripheral cues are
used?
 3. Does the ad use Normative or Informational social
influence to sell its product? How effective was it?
 4. What about the target of the communication? Who are
the advertisers targeting, how can you tell, and was that a
good decision?
 5. How are other concepts, like dissonance or emotions,
relevant to your analysis?