Social Cognition, Social Influence, and Prejudice Review Flashcards

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts in social cognition, attribution styles, heuristics, attitude change theories, and social influence based on the lecture transcript.

Causal Attributions

Inferences that people draw about the causes of their own behaviors and the behaviors of others, categorized by locus, stability, and generality.

Optimistic Attribution Style

The tendency to attribute negative outcomes to external, unstable, and specific factors (Peterson & Seligman, 1984).

Fundamental Attribution Error

The tendency to overestimate dispositional factors and underestimate situational factors when explaining another person's behavior (Ross, 1977).

Actor-Observer Effect

The tendency to attribute our own behaviors to situational factors and others' behaviors to dispositional factors (Jones & Nisbett, 1971).

Self-Serving Bias

Attributing our own behaviors to dispositional factors when outcomes are desirable, but to situational factors when outcomes are undesirable (Ross & Sicoly, 1979).

Ultimate Attribution Error

Attributing negative behaviors of in-group members to situational factors and negative behaviors of out-group members to dispositional factors (Pettigrew, 2001).

Group Attribution Error

The belief that an individual group member’s views reflect the group as a whole, or that a group decision reflects every individual member's conclusion (Hamill et al., 1980; Allison & Messick, 1985).

Kelley's Covariation Model

A model proposing that attributions are based on consensus (would others do the same?), consistency (does the person usually act this way?), and distinctiveness (does the person act differently in other situations?).

Confirmation Bias

The tendency to seek and pay attention to information that confirms existing attitudes and beliefs while ignoring refuting information.

Self-Verification Theory

The prediction that people seek feedback from others that confirms their existing self-concepts, whether positive or negative (Swann, Pelham, & Krull, 1989).

Illusory Correlation

Overestimating the relationship between two variables that are not or only slightly related, such as negative stereotypes and minority behaviors (Hamilton & Gifford, 1976).

Base Rate Fallacy

The tendency to ignore or underuse general information about most people and instead be influenced by distinctive features of a specific case (Baumeister & Bushman, 2013).

False Consensus Effect

The tendency to overestimate the extent to which other people share our opinions, values, and beliefs.

Gambler's Fallacy

The belief that a particular chance event is affected by previous events and will 'even out' in the short run (Baumeister & Bushman, 2013).

Spotlight Effect

The belief that more people notice one's appearance and actions than is actually the case (Gilovich, Medvec, & Savitsky, 2000).

Illusion of Transparency

Overestimating the extent to which others can discern one's internal thoughts and feelings (Gilovich, Savitsky, & Medvec, 1998).

Hindsight Bias

The 'knew-it-all-along' effect, where people inaccurately believe they could have predicted an event after it has already occurred.

Sunk-Cost Fallacy

The tendency to continue investing resources in an endeavor after a significant previous investment that did not produce desired outcomes; also known as the Concorde fallacy.

Attractiveness Halo Effect

The 'what is beautiful is good' principle where physical attractiveness is equated with positive, unrelated characteristics like kindness or intelligence (Dion et al., 1972).

Representativeness Heuristic

Making judgments about likelihood by focusing on how much an event resembles a prototype/typical case while ignoring base rates.

Conjunction Fallacy

The error of estimating the odds of two uncertain events happening together as greater than the odds of either happening alone (Weiten, 2022).

Availability Heuristic

Basing judgments of frequency or likelihood on how easy it is to recall relevant examples.

Anchoring and Adjustment Heuristic

Estimating a value by beginning with a starting point and making upward or downward adjustments.

Simulation Heuristic

Judging the likelihood of an event based on how easily it can be mentally imagined happening.

Theory of Planned Behavior

Proposes behavior intention is the best predictor of behavior, determined by attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavior control (Ajzen & Fishbein, 2005).

Health Belief Model

Identifies factors predicting health-related behavior change: perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, barriers, self-efficacy, and cues to action (Rosenstock et al., 1994).

Elaboration Likelihood Model

Distinguishes between the central route (high elaboration, message strength) and peripheral route (low elaboration, source attractiveness) of persuasion (Petty & Cacioppo, 1981).

Social Judgment Theory

Proposes persuasion effectiveness depends on latitudes of acceptance, rejection, and noncommitment relative to a person's current position (Sherif & Hovland, 1961).

Balance Theory (P-O-X Theory)

Focuses on the relationships between a person (P), another (O), and an object (X), suggesting people seek consistent, balanced states (Heider, 1958).

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Proposes that inconsistencies between cognitions or between cognition and behavior cause discomfort, motivating a change to relieve it (Festinger, 1954).

Self-Perception Theory

Proposes that people learn about their own attitudes and traits by observing their own behaviors and the circumstances in which they occur (Bem, 1972).

Overjustification Effect

The decrease in intrinsic motivation that occurs when people are externally rewarded for an intrinsically rewarding behavior (Lepper et al., 1973).

Alpha and Omega Strategies

Alpha strategies increase persuasion by increasing approach forces (reasons to change); Omega strategies reduce persuasion resistance by decreasing avoidance forces (Knowles & Linn, 2004).

Sleeper Effect

A phenomenon where the different impact of high- and low-credible communicators disappears over time as people remember the message but forget the source (Hovland & Weiss, 1951).

Attitude Inoculation Hypothesis

Increasing resistance to persuasion by exposing individuals to weak arguments against their position along with counterarguments (McGuire, 1973).

Loss Aversion

The premise that 'losses loom larger than gains,' meaning negative emotions from a loss are more intense than positive emotions from an equivalent gain (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979).

Agentic State

A condition in which a person sees themselves as an agent for carrying out another person's wishes, used by Milgram to explain obedience (Milgram, 1974).

Informational vs. Normative Influence

Informational influence stems from thinking others know more; Normative influence stems from a desire to avoid ridicule/rejection (Baumeister & Bushman, 2017).

Foot-in-the-Door Technique

A compliance tactic where a small request is made first to gain agreement before making a larger request.

Door-in-the-Face Technique

A compliance tactic where a large, likely-to-be-rejected request is made first, followed by a smaller, more reasonable request.

Social Facilitation vs. Social Inhibition

Facilitation is performance improvement on easy tasks in the presence of others; Inhibition is performance decrease on difficult tasks (Zajonc, 1980).

Social Loafing

Also known as the free rider effect, it is the tendency of group members to contribute less effort than if they were working alone (Latane et al., 1979).

Deindividuation

The loss of a person’s sense of individuality and reduction of normal constraints against deviant behavior in large crowds or anonymous settings (Kassin et al., 2016).

Additive Task

A group task where the final output is the sum of all individual contributions, making group performance better than the best individual’s (Steiner, 1972).

Conjunctive Task

A group task where the final output is limited by the contribution of the least capable member (Steiner, 1972).

Tuckman and Jensen's Stages

Five stages of group development: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning (Tuckman & Jensen, 1977).

Pratfall Effect

The finding that the attractiveness of a competent person increases after a blunder, while the attractiveness of a mediocre person decreases (Aronson et al., 1966).

Gain-Loss Effect

The finding that we are more attracted to those who initially dislike us but change their minds than to those who like us constantly (Aronson & Linder, 1965).

Pluralistic Ignorance

A misperception in which a bystander fails to act because they assume others' inactivity means there is no emergency.

Realistic Conflict Theory

Proposes that prejudice and discrimination result from direct competition between groups for scarce and valued resources (Pettigrew, 1978).

Terror Management Theory (TMT)

Suggests human awareness of mortality creates terror, which is managed through cultural worldviews and self-esteem (Greenberg et al., 1986).

Infrahumanization Theory

The process of considering one’s in-group as fully human and out-groups as less human by attributing fewer uniquely human 'secondary' emotions to them (Leyens et al., 2001).

Symbolic Racism

Believing prejudice no longer exists while holding that minority hardships are due to personal failings like lack of effort (Sears, 1988).

Aversive Racism

A state where support for equality is accompanied by unconscious negative feelings about minority groups, appearing often when situational norms are unclear (Dovidio & Gaertner, 2004).

Stereotype Threat

The impairment of performance for members of stigmatized groups when situational factors activate negative group stereotypes (Hummert, 2011).

Shooter Bias

A tendency to shoot armed Black suspects faster than armed White suspects and erroneously shoot unarmed Black suspects more frequently (Correll et al., 2002).