Chapter 12 Social Psychology

Class updates
• We will go over Chapter 12 today and on Thursday
• Chapter 12 Quiz is due on Friday by 11:59pm
• Exam 3 is next Tuesday
• Will post a practice exam later this week
• Will NOT have time for an in-class review session
Personal Reflection Paper Due on 12/08
• Worth 100 points (same as an exam!)
• 2-3 pages of double-space, times new roman 12pt font, 1” margins
• Prompt: Discuss what you have learned from this class and how it might be helpful for you in
future endeavors (whether professional, personal, or both).
• Will be graded primarily based on effort and thoughtfulness. Points will be deducted if the paper
is hard to read or follow, there are copious grammatical errors, or if it does not adequately
incorporate specific knowledge gained from this course.
• Rubric will be posted soon!
• Will give an extra 5 points of extra credit if it is submitted by 12/01
• Required to complete AI Pledge on Blackboard (will be posted soon)
AI Pledge
“I acknowledge that my instructor, Miranda Foster, has clearly communicated to me that students are
prohibited from using AI-powered tools, such as ChatGPT, for the personal reflection essay. These tools are not
a substitute for my own critical thinking and analysis – as the purpose of this assignment to practice my ability
to synthesize the course material and apply this knowledge to my own life, it is both dishonest and impractical
to use AI powered-tools to generate ideas for this assignment, write any portion of this paper, or otherwise
utilize this technology for the assignment.

If my instructor suspects that I have used AI-powered tools for this assignment, she will communicate this
information to my TRiO advisor and may submit a claim to Honor Court. This will likely affect my grade in my
class and may result in an Honor Code Violation.”

Will be posted on blackboard later this week

It is REQUIRED for you to sign this pledge – otherwise, I will not grade your paper.
What is Social Psychology?
• Study of how people influence others’ behavior, beliefs, and attitudes
• We think that others are vulnerable to social influence, but that we
ourselves are not.
• Can lead us to doubt social psychology’s findings initially
• “I don’t have confirmation bias, that’s absurd”
• “That’s BS, I’m not influenced by other people like that”
Humans are Social
• We are predisposed to form intimate interpersonal networks
• Need-to-belong theory—we have a biologically based need for
interpersonal connections.
• It literally hurts us to be isolated or rejected.
• Most social influence processes (obedience, conformity) are adaptive
under most circumstances.
• They can turn maladaptive when they are blind or unquestioning.
• Social influences should be evaluated critically.
Social Comparison
Theory
• We seek to evaluate our abilities and
beliefs by comparing them with those of
others.
• Upward (superiors) and downward
(inferiors) social comparison
• How can this be helpful?
• Harmful?
Social Contagion
• Looking to others for
interpretation when a situation is
ambiguous.
• Mass hysteria is a contagious
outbreak of irrational behavior that
spreads.
• Ex: Satanic Panic of the 80s, Flat-
earthers
• Can lead to collective delusions
• Urban legends are another example
of social contagions.
• Can you think of any examples?
Fundamental Attribution Error
• When we look at others’ behavior, we
– Overestimate impact of dispositional influences
– Underestimate impact of situational influences
• Do the opposite for our own behavior

• Culture may play a role

• Ex: Japanese and Chinese are less likely to commit
this error.
– May be more prone to seeing others’ behavior as a
combination of both dispositional and situational
influences
Conformity
• The tendency of people to alter their behavior as a result of group
pressure
• Classically demonstrated by Solomon Asch’s experiments
Solomon Asch’s Conformity Experiment
Conformity
• Social influences on conformity
– Unanimity increased conformity
– Difference in answers
– Conformity decreases if one other person disagrees from the
majority, even if they have a different answer from you!
– Size of majority makes a difference
• Differences in conformity
– Low self-esteem makes one more likely to conform
– Asian cultures more likely to conform
– No sex differences
Deindividuation
• The tendency of people to engage in atypical behavior when stripped
of their usual identity
• Become more vulnerable to social influence
• Wearing masks and concealing identity encourages deindividuation.
• Ex: Trolling people on the internet, the January 6th riots
Deindividuation: Stanford Prison Experiment
(Zimbardo)
• Recruited normal young men for a two week “psychological study of prison
life”
• Randomly assigned participants to be either a prisoner or a guard
• Prisoners were dressed as such and referred to by number, not name.
• By the second day, guards began to treat prisoners cruelly
• Prisoners started a rebellion; guards became increasingly sadistic.
• Had to stop study after only six days due to nervous breakdowns by
prisoners
• In the past 5 years, major allegations have come out that this experiment’s
findings were inaccurate and the participants were coerced to change their
behavior
Stanford Prison Experiment
Groupthink
• Emphasis on group unanimity at the expense of critical thinking
• Can be treated by encouraging dissent
• Appointing a “devil’s advocate”
• Having an independent expert evaluate decisions
• Holding follow-up meetings
• Group polarization can cause views to become more extreme.
• Evidence that the American electorate is becoming increasingly polarized
• Research suggests that prejudice toward people of opposing political parties
equals or exceeds prejudice against people of different races.
Groupthink: Cults
• Cult Definition: Group of individuals who exhibit intense
and unquestioning devotion to a single individual or cause
• Cults promote groupthink:
• Persuasive leadership (fosters loyalty)
• Group members disconnected from outside world
• Discourages questioning of leadership
• Gradual indoctrination of new members
• Members are generally psychologically normal, though
leaders often suffer from mental illness
• Misconception that all cult members are brainwashed
Obedience
• Adherence to orders from those of higher authority
• Essential ingredient in our daily lives
– Stop lights, parking signs
• Can produce trouble when people stop asking questions about why
they’re behaving as others want them to
• Stanley Milgram
– Student of Asch’s who wanted to know how the Holocaust could have occurred
– Designed experiment to test the influence of obedience and authority on
normal people
– Became a landmark study
What was the Milgram Paradigm?
• Voluntary subjects were taken to a lab and introduced to a fellow
“volunteer” and the researcher.
• “Teachers” (subjects) were supposed to shock the “learners”
(confederates) when they did not successfully repeat words.
• With each failure, the shock level increased.
• Learner tells teacher he has “a slight heart condition” before any
shocks.
• Learner soon misses some answers; researcher tells teacher to
continue.
• By 330 volts, he is yelling “Let me out of here!”; by 345 he is silent.
Milgram Experiment Video
Results of the Milgram Paradigm
• Two key themes emerged from follow-ups:
• The greater the psychological distance between teacher and experimenter,
the less the obedience.
• The greater the psychological distance between teacher and learner, the
more the obedience.
• Predictors of disobedience:
• Higher level of moral development
• Lower level of authoritarianism
Social Loafing: With a Little Too Much Help
from My Friends
• Social loafing is a phenomenon whereby individuals become less
productive in groups.
Prosocial Behavior and Altruism
• Altruism is helping others for unselfish reasons.
• Requires empathy, which is identifying with and understanding another’s
situation, feelings, and motives.
• Situational influences:
• Victim characteristics
• Knowledge of bystander nonintervention
• Helping: individual and gender differences:
• People less concerned with social approval are more likely to intervene.
• Extraverted people are more prone to help.
• People with specific lifesaving skills are more likely to help.
Aggression: Why We Harm Others
• Aggression is behavior intended to harm
others, either verbally or physically.
• Personality traits can combine to create a
dangerous cocktail of aggression
proneness.
• Gender differences:
• Males are more aggressive.
• Females engage in more relational aggression.
• Cultural differences:
• Physical aggression and violent crimes are less
prevalent among Asian individuals.
Up Next:
• We will continue discussing
Chapter 12 on Thursday
• Chapter 12 Quiz is due this Friday
(11/10) by 11:59pm