Social Psychology and Human Behavior

These flashcards cover key concepts related to social psychology and human behavior discussed in the lecture.

Why are humans social?

Group living helped ancestors survive through protection, food sharing, raising children, and cooperation.

First impressions

Quick judgments about someone based on appearance, body language, tone of voice, facial expressions, and other social cues.

Attribution

Explanations we make for why people behave the way they do.

Dispositional attribution

Explaining behavior based on a person’s traits, personality, motives, or character.

Situational attribution

Explaining behavior based on the environment, circumstances, or outside pressures.

Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE)

The tendency to overestimate dispositional causes and underestimate situational causes when judging other people’s behavior.

Cognitive dissonance

The uncomfortable tension that happens when beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors conflict with each other.

Central route to persuasion

Persuasion that occurs when a person carefully thinks about facts, evidence, and logic; leads to stronger and longer-lasting attitude change.

Peripheral route to persuasion

Persuasion that occurs through surface-level cues like attractiveness or popularity; leads to weaker and more temporary attitude change.

Prejudice

A negative attitude or feeling toward a group or its members.

Discrimination

Unfair behavior or actions toward people based on their group membership.

Schemas

Mental frameworks that help us organize and interpret information quickly.

Groupthink

When a group values harmony and agreement so much that it ignores better ideas or warnings, leading to poor decisions.

Social loafing

The tendency to put in less effort when working in a group because responsibility is spread out.

Engaged followership

Followers who think critically, act morally, and do not blindly obey harmful orders.

Social facilitation

The tendency to perform better on simple or well-practiced tasks when others are present.

Altruism

Helping another person without expecting anything in return.

Bystander effect

The tendency for people to be less likely to help when more other people are present.

Aggression

Behavior intended to harm another person physically, emotionally, or socially.

Hostile attribution bias

The tendency to assume other people’s actions are meant to be hostile or harmful.

In-group

A group that a person identifies with and feels they belong to.

Halo effect

The tendency to assume that one positive trait, like attractiveness, means a person has other positive traits too.