Module 36: Social Thinking & Social Influence (Tues 10/28/25) Class 13

Social psychology is the subfield that studies how we think about, influence, and relate to one another, emphasizing the social context of behavior.

Norms

Norms are rules for accepted and expected behaviors.

1. Explicit norms: Stated openly (e.g., saying "thank you," laws).

2. Implicit norms: Unstated rules (e.g., personal space, not talking to strangers in public restrooms).

   • Violation of implicit norms (e.g., close-talker) reveals their existence.

   • Cultural differences exist in norm adherence: loose cultures (U.S.) are more flexible, tight cultures (e.g., some Asian cultures) expect strict adherence.

Social Thinking

1. Attribution Theory: Explaining behavior by crediting the situation or the person's disposition.

   • Dispositional attribution: Attributing behavior to someone's enduring traits (e.g., calling a reckless driver a "jerk").

   • Situational attribution: Attributing behavior to external demands or constraints (e.g., a driver cutting you off due to an emergency).

2. Fundamental Attribution Error: The tendency to overestimate dispositional factors and underestimate situational factors when explaining others' behavior (e.g., blaming poorly designed products or ballots on users' intelligence).

   • Consequences: Dispositional attributions for negative situations often lead to less empathy or aid, while situational attributions foster help (e.g., views on poverty, rock concert stampede).

3. Attitudes and Actions: Attitudes affect actions, and actions affect attitudes.

   • Foot-in-the-door phenomenon: Complying with a small request makes one more likely to comply with a larger, later request (e.g., wearing a ribbon then donating).

   • Cognitive Dissonance: A clash between thoughts/attitudes and actions, causing discomfort that leads to changing either the attitude or the action to restore consistency.

   • Persuasion:

     • Peripheral route persuasion: Influencing without systematic thinking, often via emotional appeals or endorsements.

     • Central route persuasion: Engaging thoughtful, analytical processing, relying on evidence and arguments.

Social Influence

1. Conformity (Solomon Asch study, 1955): Adjusting behavior or thinking to coincide with group standards.

   • Factors influencing conformity: group size (at least three others), cultural respect for social standards, and group unanimity.

   • A single dissenter in a group significantly reduces conformity.

2. Obedience (Stanley Milgram study): Following orders or requests, typically from an authority figure.

   • Experiment: Participants (teachers) administered escalating fake electric shocks to a learner for incorrect answers, despite the learner's protests.

   • Prediction: Psychiatrists predicted less than 1% would go to the maximum $450$ volts.

   • Results: $100\%$ administered some shock; $65\%$ went to the maximum $450$ volts.

   • Explanations for obedience: perceived authority of the experimenter, entrapment (gradual escalation of commitment), routinization (focusing on routine tasks rather than the bigger moral picture), and social norms of politeness.

   • Replications: Found similar rates of obedience even decades later (e.g., Berger, 2009).

   • Ethical concerns: The study raised significant concerns about psychological harm to participants who believed they inflicted harm.

Elements of Group Behavior

1. Social Facilitation: Improved performance on well-learned or simple tasks in the presence of others, especially when others are supportive (e.g., home team advantage).

2. Social Loafing: The tendency for individuals to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward a common goal than when individually accountable (e.g., in-group projects, clapping experiments).

3. Deindividuation: The loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity (e.g., Halloween trick-or-treating studies showed increased "stealing" in anonymous group conditions).

4. Group Polarization: The enhancement of a group's prevailing inclinations through discussion within the group. High-prejudice groups become more prejudiced, and low-prejudice groups become less prejudiced after discussion with like-minded individuals.

5. Groupthink: A mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives. Individuals may suppress dissenting opinions to maintain group cohesion, potentially leading to poor decisions.