Social Psychology Lecture Notes

Attitudes: Affect, Behavior, and Cognition

• Attitudes have three components:
  • Affect: Feelings.
  • Behavioral: Actions.
  • Cognitive: Beliefs and knowledge.

Cognitive Dissonance (Leon Festinger)

• Definition: Psychological discomfort caused by holding two or more inconsistent attitudes, behaviors, or cognitions.
• Example: Believing smoking is bad but continuing to smoke.
• Reducing Dissonance:
  • Change behavior (e.g., quit smoking).
  • Change beliefs through rationalization or denial.
  • Add additional cognitions to justify the behavior (e.g., smoking suppresses appetite).
• Conflicting cognitions that threaten positive self-image cause greater dissonance.

Festinger's Experiment

• Participants performed a boring task (sorting nuts, screws, bolts, and nails) for an hour.
• They were asked how much they enjoyed the study. All rated it as boring.
• Participants were then asked to tell the next person the study was interesting and exciting.
• Two groups were created based on payment:
  • Group 1: Paid $1.
  • Group 2: Paid $20.
• Months later, participants were asked to rate the study again.
• Results:
  • $20 group: No change in attitude. They justified lying because of the money.
  • $1 group: Changed their attitude and rated the study as more interesting. Insufficient justification led to cognitive dissonance, resolved by changing their belief.

Cognitive Dissonance in Purchasing Decisions

• Example: Buying a car.
• After choosing a car (Car A) over alternatives (Car B), buyers tend to:
  • Downplay the cons of Car A.
  • Downplay the pros of Car B.
  • This reduces cognitive dissonance and reinforces the buying decision.

Group Dynamics

Effort Justification

• The more difficult it is to get into a group, the more the group is liked.
• Aronson and Mills Experiment:
  • College students volunteered to join a group discussing the psychology of sex.
  • Three initiation conditions:
    • No initiation.
    • Easy initiation.
    • Difficult initiation.
  • Those with difficult initiation liked the group more.
• Real-world examples: Sororities and fraternities.

Persuasion and Attitude Change

• Elaboration Likelihood Model (Petty and Cacioppo):
  • Two routes to persuasion:
    • Central Route:
      • Using data, facts, and logic.
      • Directly addresses the issue.
      • Effective if the audience is analytical and motivated.
      • Leads to lasting change.
    • Peripheral Route:
      • Associating positive things with the message (e.g., celebrity endorsements).
      • Indirect approach.
      • Effective for an audience that is not motivated or analytical.
      • Leads to fast but temporary attitude change.

Advertising Techniques

• Foot-in-the-Door Technique:
  • Agreeing to a small request makes a larger request more likely later.
  • Example: Starting with a campaign button, later asking to put a sign in the yard.
• Door-in-the-Face Technique:
  • Asking for something ridiculously big, then asking for what was really wanted all along (a smaller request).
  • Example: Asking parents to go to a concert in New York City, then asking to go to a local concert instead.
• "That’s Not All" Technique:
  • Presenting something that seems fantastic, then adding more for the same price.
  • Example: Infomercials.
• "Not-So-Free" Sample:
  • Giving samples leverages the norm of reciprocity.
  • Example: Charities including address labels in donation requests.

Conformity (Solomon Asch)

• Changing behavior to go along with the group, even without agreement.
• Asch's Experiment:
  • Seven people (six confederates, one subject) compared line lengths.
  • Confederates gave the wrong answer on six out of 18 trials.
  • Results: 76% of subjects changed their answer at least once to conform.
• Factors Influencing Conformity:
  • The greater the number of people against you, the more likely you are to conform.
  • Having at least one ally significantly reduces conformity.
  • Public responses increase conformity more than private responses.

Group Influence

• Groupthink: The tendency for opinions to align, potentially leading to extreme decisions and faulty decision-making.
• Group Polarization: Strengthening of the original group attitude after discussion.
• Social Facilitation:
  • Performing better with an audience than alone.
  • More likely with skills or easy tasks; hindered by nervousness or difficult tasks.
• Social Loafing:
  • Putting forth less effort in a group.
  • More likely when individual performance cannot be separated.
  • Less likely with challenging tasks where people feel needed.

Prejudice and Discrimination

• Prejudice: Negative attitude or feeling towards someone based on group membership.
  • Example: "I hate Yankees fans."
• Stereotypes: Beliefs or assumptions about someone based on group membership.
  • Example: "Yankees fans are arrogant and obnoxious."
• Discrimination: Negative behavior or action towards someone based on group membership.
  • Example: "I would never hire or befriend a Yankees fan."
• Sources of Prejudice and Discrimination: Social learning, conformity to social norms.
• Types:
  • Racism: Prejudice based on race (explicit or implicit).
  • Ageism: Prejudice based on age.
  • Homophobia: Prejudice based on sexual orientation.
  • Sexism: Prejudice based on sex and gender roles.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: An expectation that alters behavior to make the situation true.
  • Example: Teachers’ expectations affecting students’ grades.
• Confirmation Bias: Seeking information that matches stereotypes and ignoring inconsistent information.
• In-groups and Out-groups:
  • In-group: Group we belong to and identify with.
  • Out-group: Group seen as fundamentally different.
  • In-group bias: Favoring our own group.
• Scapegoating: Blaming an out-group for frustrations.

Aggression

• Causing harm or pain to someone else.
• Hostile Aggression: Intent to cause pain, motivated by anger.
  • Example: A bar fight.
• Instrumental Aggression: Motivated by achieving a goal; may not involve intent to cause pain.
  • Example: Communication impairing social standing.
• Frustration leads to aggression.
• Evolutionary Perspective:
  • Men are more likely to show aggression, serving dominance over males.
  • Protecting mates ensures continuation of genes
    *Bullying:
    *repeated negative treatment of someone else over time. It could be physical. It could be verbal. It could be psychological. But the idea is you're trying to inflict some type of harm, injury, or humiliation*,
  • boys: direct much more physical
  • girls indirect and more social forms of aggression