Social Psych Exam III

chapters 6 and 8

Cognitive dissonance

Discomfort when two cognitions or attitudes and actions don’t align.

change behavior, change attitude, or add new cognition

ways to reduce cognitive dissonance

Post decision dissonance

Dissonance aroused after a decision, typically reduced by enhancing the chosen option and exaggerating the negatives of the rejected option.

Justification of effort

Tendency of individuals to like something more after they’ve worked hard to attain it.

Counterattitudinal behavior

Behaving in a way that counters one’s beliefs.

External justification

Explaining counterattitudinal behavior with situation or environment.

Internal justification

Reducing dissonance felt with counterattitudinal behavior by changing something about oneself.

Ben Franklin effect/ justification of kindness

Asking people who don’t like us to do something for us, causing dissonance and leading to better attitudes towards us.

Insufficient punishment

Dissonance aroused when individuals lack sufficient external justification for resisting temptations, leading to devaluation of temptation.

Hypocrisy induction

Creating dissonance by having individuals aware of a behavior then of their conflicting attitude to create behavioral change.

Self-affirmation theory

Idea that people can reduce threats to self-esteem by reassuring themselves in other areas.

Self-evaluation maintenance theory

People experience dissonance in a relationship when a close person is outperforming them in a task central to their self-esteem.

Narcissism

Excessive self-love and lack of empathy towards others.

Terror management theory

Those with high self-esteem are less frightened by thoughts of their own mortality.

Informational social influence

The need to know what’s 'right'.

Autokinetic effect

Light appears to move in the dark because there is no fixed point.

Private acceptance

Conforming because individuals believe others are genuinely right.

Public compliance

Conforming without necessarily believing in what others think.

Situations that lead to informational social influence

Ambiguous situations, crises, or when others are experts.

Normative social influence

Influence from others that leads us to conform in order to be liked and accepted.

Social norm

Explicit or implicit rules regarding acceptable behaviors in groups.

initially experience increased engagement, then complete exile

Resisters of normative influence

Social impact theory

Conforming to normative influence depends on the group’s importance, immediacy, and number.

Idiosyncrasy credits

Conforming to group norms allows deviation from the norm over time.

Minority influence

The ability of a minority in a group to influence the majority.

Injunctive norms

Perceptions of other people's attitudes towards specific behaviors.

Descriptive norms

Perceptions of the way people actually behave.

Boomerang effect

Individuals below average may perform behaviors MORE after receiving messages.

Foot in the door technique

Asking a small request leads to agreeing to a larger request.

Door in the face technique

Saying no to a larger request leads to a concession of a smaller request.

Propaganda

Deliberate and systematic attempt to shape perceptions and manipulate cognitions.

Obedience

Change in behavior due to direct influence from an authority figure.

Consonant cognitions

Rationalizations that come up, often the easiest route.

Low balling

After committing to a behavior, the cost can be raised higher than originally agreed.

Illusory irrevocability

The effects of permanence on dissonance reduction without actual permanence of behavior.

Compliance

Behavior change as a result of a direct request.

Reciprocity

Expectation to return a favor when someone does something nice for you.

Principle of reciprocal concessions

In negotiations, concessions from one party should be met with concessions from the other.

Agentic state

State in which an individual places responsibility on authority.