Unit Notes: Social Thinking and Social Influence

Module 19-1: Social Thinking and Attribution

• Social Psychology: Defined as the scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another.
• Automatic Processing: Humans form beliefs and attitudes about the world around them automatically, often without conscious thought or awareness of the process taking place.
• Categorization and Analysis: When meeting people for the first time, there is a natural tendency to categorize and analyze them based on observed behaviours.
• Attribution Theory: This theory posits that we tend to explain the behaviour of others as an aspect of either an internal disposition (personality traits) or the situation (environmental factors).
• Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE): This is the tendency for observers to attribute the behaviour of others to internal dispositions rather than considering the external situation. An example provided is shouting "You jerk!" at someone's behavior without knowing the situational context.

Reflection and Practical Applications of Attribution Theory

Reflective Questions from Note Sheet:

• 1. If a very good friend gets angry with you, how would you explain their behaviour?
• 2. If that same friend does something nice for you, how would you explain such behaviour?
• 3. If someone you have met recently walks by you in the hall, but doesn’t say hello (even if you try to greet them), what would you think about that person? Why?
• 4. Are your thoughts about your good friends behaviours different from your thoughts about someone you are only acquainted with? Why or why not? How might attribution theory play a role in stereotypes and discrimination?

Self-Serving Bias

• This is a readiness to perceive oneself favourably.
• Mechanisms: Humans typically credit themselves for good outcomes and blame external situations for bad outcomes.
• Example: A student who earns an "A" on a psychology test might think, ‐‐I’m really smart and studied hard!‑‑ Conversely, if they fail the next test, they might justify it by saying, ‐‐That test was unfair and too hard.‑‑

Cultural Influence and Attribution

• Culture shapes how blame is assigned.
• Westernized Societies: People in Western countries tend to make attributions based on dispositions and are more likely to commit the Fundamental Attribution Error. There is a frequent focus on blaming the individual.
• Collectivist Societies: These cultures place more focus on the context or situation surrounding an event.

Optimism vs. Pessimism

• Optimists: Tend to attribute good events to internal dispositions and bad events to situations (the "glass half full" perspective).
• Pessimists: Tend to attribute good events to situations and bad events to internal dispositions. Pessimists are more often diagnosed with and experience depression.

Module 19-2: Attitudes and Actions

• Attitude: The belief and feeling that predisposes someone to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events.
• Attitude-Behaviour Connection: Several studies indicate that attitudes and behavior are not always perfect matches. Attitudes are best at predicting behavior when the circumstances are right.

Reflective Questions on Attitudes:

• 5. Does your attitude about school change from class to class? Why or why not?
• 6. Has your attitude about something ever gotten you into trouble? What happened? Have you changed your attitude since? Why or why not?
• 7. Do you believe that people who behave contrary to their stated beliefs are hypocritical? Why or why not?

The Reciprocal Nature of Influence

• While we assume attitudes drive actions, the reverse is also true: actions can drive attitudes.
• Acting kind can lead to feeling kind. Alternatively, acting rudely often leads a person to justify the behavior later.
• Example of inconsistency: Saying ‐‐I hate drama…‑‑ while actively telling everyone about drama.
• Conditions where Attitudes guide Actions:
  • 1. Outside pressure is low.
  • 2. We are self-aware (being self-aware helps individuals stay authentic).
  • 3. The attitude is directly related to the action.

Processes of Influence: Foot-in-the-Door and Role-Playing

Foot-in-the-door Phenomenon

• Definition: The tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request.
• Gaming Company Example: A company asks players to complete a short in-game survey (a small request). Once the players agree, the company later asks them to participate in a longer beta testing program or share the game on social media (larger requests). Because the players already said "yes" to the survey, they are more likely to agree to the larger favors.

The Power of Role-Playing

• Role: A set expectation in a social setting that defines how one ought to behave.
• Role-playing can change attitudes because as people act out a role, they begin to internalize the behaviors and beliefs associated with it.
• Stanford Prison Experiment: Conducted by Zimbardo, this study demonstrated how participants' attitudes and behaviors shifted to match their assigned roles (prisoner or guard), even though the roles were temporary.

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

• Cognitive Dissonance Theory: Defined as the theory that we act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) we feel when two of our thoughts (cognition) or our thoughts and actions are inconsistent.
• Example (Academic Dishonesty): A student who believes honesty is important but uses AI to cheat on an essay experiences discomfort. To reduce this dissonance, the student may justify the behavior by claiming, ‐‐Everyone else was using AI.‑‑ This mental adjustment restores internal consistency.

Module 19-3: Social Influence

• Scope of Social Influence: Social influence has "titanic power" and is used by advertisers to sell products and politicians to win voters. It also plays a role in tragic events such as school shootings and genocide.
• Vocabulary:
  • Conformity: Adjusting behaviour or thinking to coincide with a group standard.
  • Obedience: The tendency to comply with orders, implied or real, from someone perceived as an authority.

Influence on Youth

• Students often underestimate how much others influence them. Youth may deny that conformity and obedience dictate their choices while they search for individual identity.
• Platform Influence Study: A study of Canadian kids aged $7$ to $17$ (Media in Canada, 2025) found:
  • $70\%$ of Canadian teens found new content through recommendations from parents/friends.
  • $67\%$ found new content through "digital influence" (e.g., YouTube or algorithm-driven suggestions).

Conformity and Solomon Asch

• Solomon Asch’s Study: Focused on the conditions under which conformity is likely to occur.
• Conditions that Increase Conformity:
  • You feel incompetent or insecure.
  • You are in a group of $3$ or more (studies show groups larger than $3$ do not cause additional increases in conformity).
  • The rest of the group is unanimous.
  • You are impressed by the group's status.
  • You have made no prior commitment to a response.
  • You are being observed by other group members.
  • Your culture strongly encourages respect for social standards (e.g., cultures that discourage standing out).

Double Standards in Perceived Social Influence

• Perceptions of social influence often reflect personal values and beliefs.
• If social influence supports an idea we oppose, we may view it as "weak-minded conformists who can't think for themselves."
• If social influence supports an ideal we favor, we might view the same behavior as being "forward thinking, responsive, and intellectual."

Obedience and the Milgram Experiment

• The Milgram Experiment: Often cited as social psychology’s most famous and controversial experiment regarding obedience to authority.
• Factors Increasing Obedience:
  • The victim could not be seen.
  • The authority figure giving orders was close at hand.
  • The authority figure was part of a prestigious organization or institution.
• Factors Decreasing Obedience: The presence of a defiant role model.
• Ethical Concerns: The original experiment would not be allowed today as it breaks several ethical standards.
• VR Recreation: A recent recreation used Virtual Reality where participants had to shock a virtual woman on a TV screen. Participants responded similarly to the original study, despite the victim clearly not being a real human.
• The Fundamental Lesson: Stanley Milgram concluded that ordinary people, simply doing their jobs and without any particular hostility, can become agents of terrible destructive processes when corrupted by evil situations.

Module 19-4: Group Influence

• Social Facilitation: Improved performance on a task when in the presence of others. This works best for simple or well-learned tasks. Being watched increases arousal, which strengthens performance on mastered tasks but diminishes performance on unmastered ones.
• Social Interference: Difficult tasks may become seemingly impossible when an audience is watching.
• Social Loafing: The tendency for individuals in a group to exert less effort when pooling efforts toward a common goal than when they are individually accountable.
  • Social loafers often believe their lack of effort will go unnoticed.
  • If group benefits are shared equally, "slackers" tend to emerge in both school and business settings.

Discussion/Note Questions for Social Loafing (Question 8):

• 1. Should teachers stop assigning group projects altogether? Why or why not?
• 2. Does having group members evaluate each other minimize social loafing? Why or why not?
• 3. Does assigning roles minimize social loafing? Why or why not?
• 4. How can group members motivate each other to work their hardest during group work?

Advanced Group Dynamics

• Deindividuation: The loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity. This is mathematically described as: Social Facilitation (Increased Arousal) + Social Loafing (Decreased Responsibility) = Deindividuation.
• Group Polarization: The enhancement of a group’s already existing attitudes through discussion within the group. Discussion among the like-minded tends to pull attitudes toward extremes.
  • David Myers and George Bishop Research: Discovered that low-prejudice groups became less prejudiced after discussion, while highly-prejudiced groups expressed higher levels of prejudice after discussing racial issues.
• Groupthink: The mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives. This process can "paralyze" groups as members go along with decisions just to get along with others.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: When we believe something to be true about ourselves or others, and we act in ways that cause that belief to become reality.
  • Relationship Example: Idealizing a partner can foster better relationships. If a partner views you as smart and thoughtful, you tend to internalize that perception and behave more competently and thoughtfully over time.

Minority Influence

• Persuasion by the Minority: Minorities can sway majorities if they stand firm and are unwavering in their convictions. Those who waffle have difficulty persuading others.
• Seeds of Change: Unwavering minorities cause members of the majority to rethink their opinions.
• Notable Influential Figures:
  • Rosa Parks
  • Mahatma Gandhi
  • William Kimbro
  • Lieutenant David Sutton