Chapter 7: Social Thinking and Social Influence

Person Perception

the process of forming impressions of others

Appearance

based on people’s physical characteristics (e.g., height, weight, clothing style)

Verbal Behavior

based on what people say (e.g., what kind of advice they give, how judgmental they are, how supportive they are)

Actions

based on what people do (e.g., someone volunteering at a homeless shelter must be a caring person)

Nonverbal Messages

facial expressions, eye contact, body language and gestures also provide rich information with which to make impressions of others (e.g., a bright smile signals friendliness)

Situational Cues

the setting where the behavior occurs provides important information regarding how to interpret others’ behaviors (e.g., someone crying at a wedding- we know the crying means they are happy)

Snap Judgements

judgements that are made quickly (e.g., employer re job applicant), based on little information and preconceived notions, might not be very accurate.

Systematic Judgements

judgements that take more time and require more controlled processing; can occur when forming impressions of others that would potentially affect our happiness or welfare (e.g., whether you should date someone, be friends with someone, work at a particular company)

Perceiver Expectations

our expectations of others can influence our actual perceptions of them (e.g., confirmation bias, self-fulfilling prophecy)

Confirmation Bias

the tendency to seek out, remember, and give more weight to information that supports one’s beliefs while forgetting/discounting information inconsistent with one’s beliefs (e.g., ‘I am not good at psychology’)

Self-fulfilling Prophecy

occurs when expectations about a person cause them to behave in ways that confirm these expectations (e.g., aging)

Cognitive Distortions

errors in our perceptions of the world around us.

Ingroup

“us”. a social group to which an individual psychologically identifies as a member

Outgroup

“them“. a social group with which an individual does not identify

Outgroup Homogeneity Effect

Regard outgroup members as being much more similar regarding behaviour than they are (e.g., those football jocks are all cheaters) and ingroup members as being more unique.

Stereotypes

widely held beliefs that people have certain characteristics due to their membership in a particular group (e.g., Italians are loud and passionate, etc).

Prejudice

negative attitudes towards members of a group

Discrimination

behaving differently, usually unfairly, towards members of a group.

Defensive Attribution

a tendency to blame victims for their misfortune so one feels less likely to be victimized themselves (similar to just-world hypothesis).

Old Fashioned Discrimination

 outward discrimination against underrepresented groups (e.g., segregation, inability to vote)

Modern Discrimination

private negative attitudes towards underrepresented groups, expressed/acted on when such views appear justified or it is safe to do so (e.g., less likely to vote for person of colour; opposed to programs promoting equality)

Systemic Racism

practices, policies, and privileges within society providing unfair advantage to the members of certain groups, while maintaining unfair and harmful treatment of members of other groups

Ableism

a form of prejudice and discrimination aimed at people with disabilities.

Persuasion

communicating arguments and information to change another’s attitudes/beliefs

Elaboration Likelihood Model

explains two different routes to processing information which can both lead to persuasion

Peripheral route

a receiver is persuaded due to cues that are peripheral to the actual message (e.g., music, attractiveness of source, appealing scene); mindless processing

Central route

a receiver is persuaded by logic and thinks about the meaning of the message; if people have a favorable reaction to their thoughtful evaluation of the message, attitude change occurs; mindful processing

Conformity

occurs when people give in to real or imagined social pressure (e.g., you spray your lawn due to neighbors).

Normative Influence

happens when people conform to social norms for fear of negative social consequences (e.g., Asch study).

Informational Influence

happens when people conform because they are looking to others regarding what is right in situations (e.g., Asch study)

Bystander effect

tendency for individuals to be less likely to provide help when others are present than when they are alone

Diffusion of Responsibility

feeling less responsible to do something because there are others around, ex: someone must have already called 9-1-1

Evaluation Apprehension

the feeling of I might embarrass myself/do something wrong

Informational Influence

the feeling of others are not doing anything so there must be nothing that needs to be done

Compliance

going along with social pressure regardless of whether the action goes against one’s beliefs/better judgement

Obedience

a form of compliance that occurs when people follow direct commands, usually from someone in a position of authority

Consistency Principle

when people agree with something they tend to stick with their commitment, event when the terms change (e.g., foot-in-the-door; lowballing)

Foot-in-the-door technique

getting people to agree to a small request to increase the chances that they will agree to a larger request later; widely used (e.g., charities)

Lowball technique

getting someone to commit to an attractive proposition before its hidden costs are revealed (e.g., car sales, stay at the cabin)

Reciprocity Principle

most people believe that they should pay back what they receive from others; the belief that people should reciprocate others’ kindness is a powerful norm (e.g., charities send you free stuff)

Door-in-the-face technique

making a large request that is likely to be turned down in order to increase the chances that the person will agree to a smaller request; must be no delay between the two requests to work (e.g., teen asks for money; waitress)

Scarcity Principle

people want what they can’t have; this is because people have learned that items that are harder to get are usually of better quality, also, when people are told they can’t have something they want it more (i.e., reactance) (e.g,. ads- limited supply available).