Social Psychology

Halo Effect

one or few prominent characteristics dominate our overall impression of someone

Attribution

judgments about the causes of behavior

Dispositional Attribution

attributing behavior to personal factors, such as traits or motives

Situational Attribution

attributing behavior to external factors, such as the environment or social context.

Correspondence Bias

the tendency to overemphasize dispositional factors in explaining others' behavior while underestimating situational influences.

Fundamental Attribution Error

the tendency to attribute others' behavior to internal characteristics while ignoring external factors.

Actor-Observer Bias

the tendency to attribute one's own actions to situational factors while attributing others' actions to dispositional factors.

Self-Serving Bias

the tendency to attribute successes to internal factors while attributing failures to external factors.

Group-Serving Bias

Group version of self-serving bias

Just-World Belief

Assuming good things happen to good ppl and bad things happen to bad ppl

Attitude

a favorable or unfavorable evaluation that predispose behavior toward an object, person, or situation.

(ABC) A: Affect (Emotion), B: Behavior, C: Cognition

Cognitive Dissonance

The uncomfortable state when outward behavior doesn’t match our attitudes. Resolved by changing the attitude, not the behavior.

Requires voluntary action to produce attitude change.

Central Route

careful, thoughtful evaluation of arguments. Produce more durable, resistant attitude change. Used when motivated and knowledgeable.

Peripheral Route

use heuristics and surface cues (speaker attractiveness, emotion, number or arguments). Produce weaker, more temporary attitude change.

Prejudice

(attitude) an attitude toward a person based on group membership. “to prejudge”

Stereotype

(cognition) a simplified set of traits associated w/ group membership.

Discrimination

(Behavior) unfair behavior based on stereotyping and prejudice

Stereotype threat

awareness of a negative group stereotype reduces performance.

social norms

unwritten rules for behavior in social settings, can be explicit or implicit

Conformity

matching behavior and appearance to perceived group norms

compliance

agreeing to a request from someone w/ no authority over

door-in-the-face

large request followed by a small (target) request

foot-in-the-door

small request followed by a larger request (consistency)

low-balling

favorable deal revised upward after buyer commits; public commitment trapes buyers

Obedience

compliance with a request from an authority figure

social facilitation

presence of others changes individual performance; well-practiced—> better; novel skills —> worsen. Yerkes-Dodson Law

social loafing

reduced effort when working in a group

deindividuation

immersion in group —> anonymity —> uncharacteristic behavior

group polarization

discussion pushes group members toward more extreme version of initial positions

Groupthink

flawed decision-making; dissenting views are suppressed to maintain cohesion

Tit-for-Tat Strategy

1. start with cooperation

2. mirror partner’s move

3. immediately forgive and return to cooperation

self-fulfilling prophecy

a belief or expectation that causes itself to become true through the behavior it generates

social comparison theory

we evaluate our own opinions, abilities, and emotions by comparing ourselves to others, especially when objective standards are unavailable

upward comparison

comparing to someone better off. can motivate self-improvement or produce envy and lower self-esteem

downward comparison

comparing to someone worse off. boost self-esteem and mood

relative deprivation

the perception that one is worse off compared to relevant reference group

false consensus effect

the tendency to overestimate how many other people share our own beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. We assume our views are more normal and widespread than they actually are

social contagion

the spread of behaviors, emotions, or ideas through a social network, often without deliberate communication or conscious awareness.

normative social influence

conforming to gain approval or avoid rejection (you know the group is wrong but go along anyway to fit in)

outgroup homogeneity effect

the tendency to perceive members of out-group as more similar to each other than members of one’s own in-group

other-race effect

ppl are significantly better at recognizing and distinguishing faces from their own racial group than from other racial groups

ethnocentrism

the tendency to view one’s own cultural group as the standard or norm, and to evaluate other cultures through the lens of one’s own

implicit prejudice

prejudice that operates below conscious

scapegoating theory

displaced aggression toward a relatively powerless out-group that is blamed for one’s frustration or problems

confirmation bias

the tendency to search for, favor, interpret, and remember information that confirms our pre-existing beliefs while ignoring contradictory evidence

ultimate attribution error

Thomas Pettigrew,

attribute

1. negative out-group behavior to their disposition

2. positive out-group behavior to situational (opposite for in-group)

race priming

the activation of racial stereotypes and associations by exposure to race-related cues