Chapter 7 Notes: Facemash & Social Psychology

Facemash & Social Psychology

  • Facemash was a website that allowed users to vote on others' attractiveness, illustrating certain principles of social psychology.

Attitude vs. Belief vs. Dual Attitudes

  • Attitudes: General evaluations of something, expressing liking or disliking.
  • Beliefs: Facts or opinions held about something.
  • Dual Attitudes: The simultaneous possession of conflicting implicit and explicit attitudes toward the same object.

Implicit Association Test (IAT)

  • IAT: A measure of implicit or unconscious attitudes.
  • Reveals biases that individuals may not be aware they possess.

Why We Have Attitudes

  • Attitudes aid in:
    • Decision-making processes.
    • Expressing identity.
    • Simplifying complex information to make it more manageable.

Attitude Formation

  • Attitudes are formed through:
    • Classical conditioning: Associations between stimuli and responses.
    • Operant conditioning: Reinforcement and punishment shaping attitudes.
    • Social learning: Acquiring attitudes by observing others.

Learning Types

  • Classical conditioning: A passive learning process based on association.
  • Operant conditioning: Learning through rewards and punishments.
  • Social learning: Acquiring knowledge and attitudes by observing others' behaviors and consequences.

Attitude Polarization

  • Attitude Polarization: The strengthening of attitudes through reflection.
    • Selective exposure to attitude-consistent information.
    • Biased processing of information to reinforce existing attitudes.

Heider’s P-O-X Theory

  • Heider's P-O-X Theory: People prefer balanced relationships.
    • If you like someone (P) and they like something (X), you (P) are more likely to also like it (X) to maintain balance.

Cognitive Dissonance

  • Cognitive Dissonance: Discomfort arising from conflicting attitudes and behaviors.
    • Reduction: Achieved by changing attitudes or rationalizing behavior.

Effort Justification

  • Effort Justification: The tendency to value outcomes more when significant effort has been invested in achieving them.
    • Example: Hazing rituals, where individuals value group membership more after enduring harsh initiation.

Money Matters Box

  • Study:
    • Participants paid either 11 or 2020 to lie about a task.
    • 11 group experienced more dissonance and changed their beliefs more than the 2020 group.
    • Reason: Insufficient justification for their behavior.

Justifying Choices

  • Post-Decision Dissonance: After making a choice, people tend to increase their preference for the chosen option.
    • Simultaneously, they devalue the rejected option to reduce dissonance.

Dissonance Theory Advances

  • Expanded Applications: Dissonance theory has been applied to various areas:
    • Morality
    • Self-esteem
    • Broader behavior justification

Social Side of Sex

  • Cognitive dissonance helps explain how people rationalize sexual behaviors.

Coping

  • Coping (in social psychology): Managing stress or trauma to return to normal functioning.