Social Psych + conditioning

★ Conformity

Social influence: changing behavior to match others.

★ Normative influence

Going along with others to be accepted by the group.

★ Informational influence

Going along with others because you assume they know more.

★ Asch (1951)

~33% conformed to a wrong line answer; 98% correct in private, so normative influence.

Group size effect (Asch)

Conformity rose up to about 3 confederates, then leveled off.

Error size (Asch)

Did not matter; conformity was about equal.

Wolosin et al. (1975)

People think they're driven by accuracy and others by conformity.

★ Groupthink

Need for agreement leads to maladaptive group decisions (Challenger).

★ Chameleon effect

Automatically mimicking others; we like people who mimic us (Chartrand & Bargh, 1999).

★ Social learning

Learning by observation (Haun et al., 2014).

Fein et al. (2007)

Removing crowd laughter lowered ratings of Reagan's debate performance.

Conformity-boosting group traits

Experts, high status, similar members.

★ Reference groups

Groups whose norms we adopt (Crandall, 1988 sorority study).

★ Descriptive norms

What most people do.

★ Injunctive norms

What people ought to do.

Aronson & O'Leary (1983)

Short showers: sign <10%, one model 49%, two models 67%.

Cialdini et al. (1990)

Littering 37% control vs. 7% after a model trashed the flyer.

Goldstein et al. (2008)

"75% of guests in this room reused towels" beat "save energy" (49% vs. 16%).

Cialdini (2003)

"Many visitors steal wood" sign increased theft (7.9% vs. 1.7%).

★ Bystander effect

Less helping when others are present (Latané & Rodin: 70% alone vs. 20%).

★ Diffusion of responsibility

More witnesses means each feels less responsible (Darley & Latané, 1968).

Darley & Batson (1973)

Hurried seminary students helped less (Good Samaritan study).

Piliavin et al. (1969)

Subway collapse got help 95% of the time; bystander number didn't matter.

When bystanders intervene

Shared common fate, face-to-face, unambiguous emergencies.

★ Pluralistic ignorance

Nobody privately supports a norm but everyone acts like they do.

Schroeder & Prentice (1998)

Exposing drinking pluralistic ignorance cut drinking (3.01 vs. 5.05/week).

The Boston Miracle

Kennedy et al. (2017): revealing gang members' real feelings cut youth homicide 63%.

★ Mere exposure effect

We prefer things we're exposed to more (Zajonc, 1968).

Mita et al. (1978)

People prefer their own mirror-image photo; friends prefer the regular one.

★ Moderator

A variable Z on which the X→Y effect depends.

Advertisement wear-out

Repeated exposure to something disliked increases dislike.

★ Illusory-truth effect (reiteration effect)

Repeated statements are rated truer, regardless of truth (Hasher et al., 1977).

★ Processing fluency / fluency heuristic

The easier info is to process, the more we believe it.

★ Heuristic

A mental shortcut, used automatically and constantly.

McGlone & Tofighbakhsh (2000)

Rhyming aphorisms were more persuasive ("woes unite foes").

Second-order conditioning

A conditioned stimulus (like "GOOD") conditions feelings toward new things.

Staats & Staats (1958)

"Dutch" paired with positive words was rated more positively than "Swedish."

★ Belief perseverance

Clinging to a conclusion after its basis is discredited.

Ross, Lepper, & Hubbard (1975)

Bogus success feedback persisted after being revealed as fake.

Anderson, Lepper, & Ross (1980)

Firefighter-trait beliefs persisted after the article was revealed as fake.

★ Just-world hypothesis

Bias toward seeing random outcomes as fair, often by derogating victims.

Lerner & Simmons (1966)

Shocked puzzle-solvers were derogated, unless they'd be paid.

Lerner (1980)

A coin-flip-rewarded worker was rated as having worked harder.

★ Anchor-and-adjust bias

Estimates are pulled toward an initial number (Boston population demo).

★ Low-ball (buyers)

Make a crazy-low initial offer.

★ Low-ball (sellers)

Change the deal after it's accepted; relies on commitment bias.

★ Commitment bias

Sticking with a decision even after its conditions change.

★ Foot-in-the-door

Small request first, then a large one (Freedman & Fraser, 1966).

★ Consistency bias

Wanting to stay consistent with actions already taken.

★ Bait-and-switch

Advertise a deal, then say it's unavailable at the store.

Sunk-cost fallacy

Continuing because of what you've already invested.

★ Labeling

Assigning a flattering identity people then live up to.

★ Legitimization of paltry favors

"Even a penny helps" doubled donations.

★ Door-in-the-face

Big request first makes a smaller one seem reasonable (Miller et al., 1976).

★ That's-not-all

Sweeten the deal before the person answers (Burger, 1986).

★ Scarcity principle

People assume scarce = valuable (limited number or time).

★ Pique technique

An unusual specific request ("17 cents?") increases compliance.

★ Social proof

Portraying the desired behavior as what everybody else does.

★ Halo effect

Assuming attractive people are also more competent.

Message persuasiveness factors

Overheard, stopped before the conclusion, or fear-inducing with a solution.

Behaviorism

Early-mid 20th century view that only observable behavior matters, not private mental processes.

★ Classical conditioning

Conditioning of reflexive, involuntary bodily responses through stimulus pairing.

★ Operant conditioning

Conditioning of deliberate behaviors through consequences.

★ Unconditioned stimulus (US)

Innately triggers an involuntary response without prior conditioning.

★ Unconditioned response (UR)

The innate, automatic response to the US.

Neutral stimulus (NS)

A stimulus that triggers no response before conditioning.

★ Conditioned stimulus (CS)

A former neutral stimulus that triggers a response after being paired with the US.

★ Conditioned response (CR)

The learned response to the CS.

★ Acquisition

The process of associating the US and UR with the CS and CR.

★ Stimulus generalization

A similar-but-different stimulus triggers the same response as the CS.

★ Extinction

Disassociating the CS from the US, so the CR fades.

★ Spontaneous recovery

Long after extinction, the CS randomly triggers the CR again.

Little Albert experiment

Clang (US) paired with a bunny (CS) conditioned fear; generalized to other fuzzy animals.

Pavlov's dogs

Dogs conditioned to salivate to a bell paired with food.

Phobias

Intense fears that can be acquired through classical conditioning.

Conditioned emotional response (CER)

An emotional reaction (like fear) learned through classical conditioning.

Vicarious conditioning

Classical conditioning acquired by watching someone else's experience.

★ Biological preparedness

Being evolutionarily primed to learn certain associations more easily.

★ Conditioned taste aversion

Avoiding a food linked to nausea; rats avoid food eaten within 6 hours of getting sick.

Disulfiram

Drug that makes alcohol cause nausea, creating a taste aversion.

Drug addiction, tolerance, withdrawal

Classical conditioning plays a key role: drug cues become conditioned stimuli.

★ Reinforcement

Encouraging (increasing) the target behavior.

★ Punishment

Discouraging (decreasing) the target behavior.

★ Positive (+)

Adding a stimulus.

★ Negative (−)

Taking a stimulus away.

★ Positive reinforcement

Adding something pleasant to increase a behavior (applause; reward).

★ Negative reinforcement

Removing something aversive to increase a behavior (nagging stops); NOT punishment.

★ Positive punishment

Adding something aversive to decrease a behavior (booing).

★ Negative punishment

Removing something pleasant to decrease a behavior (lost freedom, lost points).

The Wanderer demonstration

Class demo of the four operant types using applause and booing.

★ Shaping

Reinforcing incremental progress toward a desired behavior.

★ Severe punishment

Punishment causing extreme negative emotion; stops behavior fast, not long-term.

Problems with severe punishment

Avoiding the teacher, lying, fear and anxiety, opting out, modeling aggression.

Skinner box

B.F. Skinner's box for studying operant conditioning in rats.

Continuous reinforcement

Reward every instance of the behavior.

Fixed-ratio reinforcement

Reward every Nth instance (punch card; bonus per 5 sales).

★ Variable-ratio reinforcement

Reward at random instances (slot machines); most vigorous responding; linked to addiction.

Fixed-interval reinforcement

Reward after a set time doing the behavior (hourly wages).

Variable-interval reinforcement

Random rewards over time while engaged (free casino drinks).

★ Cue as conditioned stimulus

In VR addiction, the cue (lever pull, dice roll) triggers dopamine release.