Social Forces on Decision-Making in PSYC 101 (Fall 2025)

Social Forces on Decision-Making in PSYC 101 (Fall 2025)

Big Question

• Decisions, decisions, everywhere!

  • Inquiry: How do we make decisions about the world (and why are we sometimes so bad at it)?

Social Psychology Overview

• Definition:

  • Social psychology examines the powerful influence of our social and cultural environment on the actions of individuals and groups.

  • Various factors, including psychological, biological, social, and cultural, all influence behavior and mental processes.

Core Motivations in Social Psychology

• Individuals have several core motivations that affect interaction and understanding of the social world:

  • Need to perceive ourselves positively

  • Need to feel control

  • Need to belong

Today's Goals

• To understand the following:

  1. The forces of norms, conformity, and obedience.

  2. How we make decisions regarding our behavior versus others' behavior.

  3. How social biases help maintain a positive self-view.

Norms

• Definition of Social Norms:

  • Rules about how we are supposed to act, which are enforced by:

  • Threats of punishment if we violate them.

  • Promises of reward if we follow them.

  • Social norms serve as conventions of everyday life, making interactions with others predictable and orderly.

Conformity

• Definition:

  • The tendency to act and think like the people around us.

Reasons for Conformity

• Normative Influence:

  • The need to go along with the crowd due to concerns about others' opinions of us.

• Informational Influence:

  • Going along with the crowd because others' actions provide social information about what is appropriate behavior.

  • Our personal experiences can distort our understanding of the world, as they are overlaid with biases.

Obedience

• Definition:

  • Obedience refers to an individual's compliance when ordered by someone in authority.

  • Factors influencing this include:

  • Legitimization of authority

  • Entrapment

Milgram Experiments

• Inquiry: Can most people be made to commit harmful acts in the name of obedience?

  • Classic experiment where participants were told, "The experiment requires that you continue."

  • Conclusion by Milgram: Situations exert powerful influences on behavior.

  • Results prompted the establishment of Research Ethics Review Board for humane treatment in experiments.

Attribution Theory in Social Psychology

• Explaining Behavior: How do we make sense of other people's behavior?

  • Attribution: A causal explanation for an event or action can be categorized as:

  • External/Situational Attribution: For example, a driver in a hurry to the hospital due to his wife's labor.

  • Internal/Dispositional Attribution: For instance, characterizing the driver as inconsiderate and self-centered.

Fundamental Attribution Error

• The error occurs when one ignores the situation's influence on behavior, instead attributing actions solely to individual personality traits.

Example of Fundamental Attribution Error

• Scenario Analysis: Valerie's late arrival for a job interview.

  • If the interviewer exhibits fundamental attribution error, the assumptions may include:

  • Valerie is irresponsible.

  • Reluctance to acknowledge external factors (e.g., traffic).

Cultural Differences in Attributions

• Fundamental Attribution Error: Involves believing that people's behavior reflects their identities (internal attribution).

  • Western Cultures (Individualistic): Tend to focus on the individual (internal attribution).

  • Collectivist Cultures: Explain behaviors considering situational factors (favoring external attributions).

Self-Serving Biases

• Definition:

  • A cognitive bias that leads individuals to attribute positive outcomes to their character and negative outcomes to external factors.

• Examples:

  • Good events attributed to internal factors (e.g., personal skill).

  • Bad events attributed to external factors (e.g., bad luck).

Importance of Attitudes in Decision Making

• Definition: Your attitude refers to your orientation towards a target stimulus, informing choices and decisions.

Self-Assessment of Attitudes and Behaviors

• Questions to evaluate attitudes (Scale: 1 = not at all to 5 = extremely):

  • Value of exercise

  • Importance of charitable giving

  • Importance of saving for retirement

• Questions to evaluate behaviors:

  • Frequency of exercise in the last week

  • Last donation to charity

  • Total savings for retirement

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

• Definition:

  • The theory posits that individuals are motivated to maintain consistency in their thoughts, beliefs, and actions, leading to discomfort when inconsistencies arise.

  • Quotation: "Nothing that isn’t a real crime makes a man appear so contemptible and little in the eyes of the world as inconsistency." - Joseph Addison.

Resolving Cognitive Dissonance

• Inconsistency between beliefs and actions generates psychological tension (dissonance).

• Individuals will seek to reduce this dissonance through various means, such as:

  • Changing beliefs to align with actions.

  • Changing behaviors to align with attitudes.

• Example: - A smoker knows smoking is harmful (belief). When smoking, if judged as inconsistent, they may either quit or rationalize smoking as acceptable.

Experimental Studies on Cognitive Dissonance

• Festinger & Carlsmith Experiment (1959): Examined what happens when individuals are compelled to act contrary to their beliefs, revealing how they alter their beliefs to fit their actions.

Media Representation of Cognitive Dissonance

• Example in pop culture: Scene from Friends where a character experiences cognitive dissonance regarding a fur coat purchase.

  • Inquiry: Identifying how Phoebe reduces her cognitive dissonance in this scenario.

Looking Ahead

• Assigned Reading:

  • Read sections 15.9 - 15.19 and Hock #37 (A prison by any other name) and #39 (To help or not to help?).