Social Psychology

Fundamental attribution error

Overestimate dispositional

Underestimate situational

(individual)

Rosenthal Effect

Self-fulfilling prophecy effect

Ex: students randomly selected have positive grades after being assigned as academic spurters

Hawthorne Effect

Changing behaviour due to being watched or studied

Ultimate attribution error

My group:

Bad behaviour = Situation

Good behaviour = Dispositional (personality)

Other group:

Bad behaviour = Dispositional (personality)

Good behaviour: Situational

Overestimate frequency of deaths due to plane crashes / underestimate deaths due to heart disease

Availability heuristic

Judgment based on how memorable, not how often

The amount of influence a person’s attitude have on their behaviours are affected by

Strength = how strong/convict the attitude is

Accessibility = how easily this attitude comes to mind

Specificity = how specific the attitude is for that behaviour

Ex:

I care about the environment

Versus

I believe I should use public transportation instead of driving to work

Relationship between the amount of attitude change and message discrepancy

Inverted U shape:

Biggest change = moderate level of discrepancy between recipient’s attitude and attitude expressed in the persuasive message

Example: If you already somewhat support recycling, a moderately stronger pro-recycling message is more persuasive than a message that is either very similar to your view or extremely different from it.

Message discrepancy & attitude change → credibility of the source

High-credible communicator: linear relationship.

Greater discrepancy = greater attitude change

Moscovici: group member with minoritary opinion must rely on [….] to persuade members with opposing opinion?

Behavioural style (not being to rigid or dogmatic)

Schachter’s “misery loved misery” study is explained by

Social comparison theory

In uncertain situations, people compare themselves to others to obtain information about themselves

Social Identity Theory (Tajfel)

Individual derive part of their self-esteem from group membership.

Enhance self-esteem favouring their own group (ingroup)

And devaluing other groups (outgroups)