This document provides a summary of key concepts from a chapter on social psychology. It discusses topics like social cognition, person perception, social influence, conformity, prejudice, and obedience. Some main points include: - Social psychology examines how people think, feel, and behave in social situations. It includes social cognition, or how we form impressions of others, and social influence, how our behavior is affected by other people. - When forming impressions of others, we rely on mental shortcuts like social categorization and implicit personality theories. We also make attributions to explain others' behaviors. - Studies on conformity, like Asch's line experiment, show that people often conform to group pressures even if it means agreeing with

1. Lecture Slides
Chapter Twelve
Social
Psychology
By Glenn Meyer
Trinity University

2. Introduction: What Is
Social Psychology?
Branch of psychology
that studies how
people think, feel, and
behave in social
Sense of self: Unique sense of identity
influenced by social, cultural, and
psychological experiences
Two key research areas
• Social cognition refers to how we form
impressions of other people, how we
interpret the meaning of other people’s
behavior, and how our behavior is
affected by our attitudes.
• Social influence focuses on how our
behavior is affected by other people and
by situational factors.
situations

3. Person
perception
Social
Cognition
Mental
processes that
people use to
make sense
out of their
social
environment
Social
categorization
Implicit
personality
theory
Attribution
Stereotypes
Attitudes

4. Person Perception
Forming Impressions of Other People
Principle 1: Your reactions to others are determined by
your perceptions of them, not by who they really are.
Four key
components
or principles
influence
your
decision
Characteristics of the person
you are trying to evaluate
CLICK HERE
Principle 2: Your self-perception also influences how you
perceive others and how you act on your perceptions.
Your own self-perception
CLICK HERE
Principle 3: Your goals in a particular situation determine the
amount and kinds of information you collect about others.
Your goals in the situation
CLICK HERE
Mental process we use
to form judgments
about other people
We can judge a person’s
attractiveness,
likeability, competence,
trustworthiness, and
aggressiveness in a
1/10 of a second
Principle 4: In every situation, you evaluate people partly in
terms of how you expect them to act.
Specific situation in which the
process occurs
CLICK HERE

6. Social Categorization
Using Mental Shortcuts in Person Perception
Mental process of categorizing
people into groups (or social
categories) on the basis of their
shared characteristics
• Conscious processes
• Explicit cognition: Deliberate, conscious mental
processes involved in perceptions, judgments,
decisions, and reasoning
• Unconscious or automatic processes
• Implicit cognition: Automatic, nonconscious, mental
processes that influence perceptions, judgments,
decisions, and reasoning
• Assumption that people share traits and behaviors
• Implicit personality theory: Network of assumptions
or beliefs about the relationship among various types
of people, traits, and behaviors; leads to use of
cognitive schemas

7. One Schema:
Attractiveness
“What is beautiful is good.”
• Attractive people are
perceived as more
intelligent, happier, and
better adjusted
• Attractive people also tend
to be higher in self-esteem,
intelligence, and other
desirable personality traits
than people of more
average appearance
• Beginning in infancy and
continuing throughout their
lives, attractive people
receive more attention and
more favorable treatment
from other people, such as
parents, teachers,
employers, and peers

8. Brain Reward When
Making Eye Contact
with Attractive
People
• Direct eye contact with a
physically attractive
person, activates ventral
striatum
• Ventral striatum is a brain
area that predicts reward
• Orbital frontal cortex,
nucleus accumbens, and
amygdala are all
selectively responsive to
the reward value of
attractive faces

9. Attribution
Explaining Behavior
• Process of inferring the
causes of people’s
behavior, including one’s
own
• The explanation given for
a particular behavior
• Helps psychologically
insulate us from the
uncomfortable thought “It
could have just as easily
been me”

11. Using Attitudes as Ways to “Justify”
Injustice, Discrimination, and Prejudice
Just-world hypothesis
The assumption that life is
fair; for example, it seems
horrible to think that you
can be a good person and
bad things could happen to
you anyway.
Just-world hypothesis leads to “blaming the
victim.” We explain others’ misfortunes as
being their fault, as in: She deserved to be
raped. What was she doing in that
neighborhood anyway? Their lower social
status is their own fault.

12. Culture and Attributional Biases
Self-Serving Bias – found in individualistic cultures
• People tend to credit themselves for their successes (internal attributions)
and to blame their failures on external circumstances (external
attributions)
• Self-serving bias is far from universal, as cross-cultural psychologists have
discovered
Self-Effacing Bias – found in collectivistic cultures
• Involves blaming failure on internal, personal factors, while attributing
success to external, situational factors
• Reflects the emphasis that interdependent cultures place on fitting in with
other members of the group
• Japanese proverb: “The nail that sticks up gets pounded down.”
Fundamental Attribution Error
• Members of collectivistic cultures are less likely to commit the fundamental
attribution error than are members of individualistic cultures.

13. The Social
Psychology of
Attitudes
Attitude: learned
tendency to
evaluate objects,
people, or issues in
a particular way
Can be negative or
positive
Cognitive—
thoughts and
conclusions about
given topic or
situation
Example: In my
opinion, cars
should be more
fuel efficient!
Has three
components
Affective—feelings
or emotions about
topic
Example: It
makes me
furious to see
Professor
Dumptress
driving a big
wasteful SUV!
Behavioral—your
actions regarding
the topic or
situation
Example: I’m
buying an
electric car and
always parking
next to ol’
Dumptress.

15. The Effect of Attitudes on Behavior
You’re most likely to behave in accordance
with your attitudes when:
• You anticipate a favorable outcome or
response from others for behaving that way
• Your attitudes are extreme or are frequently
expressed
• Your attitudes have been formed through
direct experience
• You are very knowledgeable about the
subject
• You have a vested interest in the subject and
personally stand to gain or lose something
on a specific issue

16. Interpersonal
Attraction and
Liking
Attraction
feeling drawn to other people—
having positive thoughts and
feelings about them
What makes one person more attractive?
• Personal characteristics such as warmth, trustworthiness,
adventurousness, and social status
• Physical appearance, especially facial features — most
significant factor in attraction
• Wide smiles, high eyebrows, dilated pupils, and full lips are
judged as attractive by both men and women
• Women tend to prefer taller men
• Men tend to prefer women who are of short or average height

17. Interpersonal
Attraction and
Liking
Interpersonal aspects of attraction
• People whom we perceive as being like us
• More familiar
• Socioeconomic and cultural environment
• Men in societies where food and resources are in short supply
tend to prefer heavier women
• Preference for thinner women is more common in societies
where resources are abundant

18. The Effect of Behavior on Attitudes
Cognitive Dissonance (Festinger)
• We seek ways to decrease the discomfort caused by the
inconsistency
• If you can rationalize or explain your behavior, the conflict (and
the tension) is eliminated or avoided
• If you can’t explain your behavior, you may change your attitude
so that it is in harmony with your behavior
• When you are torn between two choices, then pick one and not
the other
• You emphasize the negative features of the choice you
rejected, which is commonly called a “sour grapes”
rationalization
• You also emphasize the positive features of the choice you
made—a “sweet lemons” rationalization
Dissonance
Unpleasant state of
psychological tension or
arousal that occurs when
two thoughts or
perceptions are
inconsistent

19. Philip Zimbardo

20. Ways to Reduce Dissonance
Attend to
information that
supports our
existing views,
rather than
information that
doesn’t support
them
Once we’ve
made a choice to
do something,
lingering doubts
about our actions
would cause
dissonance, so
we are motivated
to set them aside

21. Understanding Prejudice
Prejudice
negative attitude toward people
who belong to a specific social
group
Important Points
• Racial and ethnic groups are far more alike than
are different
• Any differences that may exist between
members of different racial and ethnic groups
are far smaller than differences among various
members of same group

22. From Stereotypes to
Prejudice
In-Groups and Out-Groups
Social categories can be defined by relatively
objective characteristics: age, language,
religion, national or regional origin, tribe,
ethnic group, sexual orientation, and skin
color
• Stereotypes typically include qualities that
are unrelated to the objective criteria.
• The tendency to stereotype is a natural
cognitive process to simplify social
information.
What is a stereotype?
A cluster of
characteristics
associated with all
members of a specific
group of people.
A belief held by
members of one
group about members
of another group.
Stereotypes can cause problems
• Can blind us to the true causes of events
• Stereotype threat
• Once formed, stereotypes are hard to
shake
• Stereotypic beliefs become expectations
that are applied to all members of a given
group
• Can be both misleading and damaging
• People tend to discount evidence that
contradicts a stereotype
Creating exceptions
allows people to
maintain stereotypes in
the face of
contradictory evidence
Hey, some of my best
friends are…
I’ll hire you even if you
are ….

23. The Out-Group Homogeneity Effect
They’re All the Same to Me
Out-group
Social Categories
The social group to which
you do not belong
Click here
In-group
The social group to which
you belong
Click here
• In-group bias—
tendency to make
favorable attributions to
members of your in-group
• Ethnocentrism is one
type of in-group bias
Out-group homogeneity
effect—tendency to see
members of the out-group
as more similar to one
another

24. In-Group Bias
We’re Tactful, They’re Sneaky
In-group bias
The tendency to make favorable,
positive attributions for behaviors
by members of our in-group and
unfavorable, negative attributions
for behaviors by members of out-groups
Examples:
We succeeded because
we worked hard; they
succeeded because they
lucked out
We failed because of
circumstances beyond
our control; they failed
because they’re stupid
and incompetent
We are intelligent, they
are sneaky
Ethnocentrism – form of in-group bias
Belief that one’s culture or ethnic
group is superior to others

25. The Extreme Emotion of Prejudice
• Prejudice and intergroup hostility increase when different
groups are competing for scarce resources
• Prejudice and intergroup hostility are also likely to increase
during times of social change
• People are often prejudiced against groups that are
perceived as threatening important in-group norms and
values
Examples: homophobia, religious prejudice

26. Implicit Attitudes
• Overt prejudice has diminished and isn’t socially acceptable
to most
• Psychologists believe that overt forms of prejudice have been
replaced by more subtle forms of prejudice
• Implicit attitudes: evaluations that are automatic,
unintentional, and difficult to control
• People can be unaware of them but they influence choices
and behavior
• Most widely used test to measure implicit attitudes and
preferences is the Implicit Association Test or IAT
(https://implicit.harvard.edu/)
• Measures the degree to which you associate particular
groups of people with specific characteristics or attributes

27. Overcoming Prejudice – How To?
The Robbers Cave Experiment – Sheriff
• Conducted with 11- to 12-year-old boys at camp
• Boys were divided into 2 groups and kept separate from
one another
• Researchers arranged for the groups to meet in a series
of competitive games
• Fierce rivalry quickly developed, demonstrating the ease
with which mutually hostile groups could be created
• Nasty incidents occurred
• Each group took on characteristics of distinct social
group, with leaders, rules, norms of behavior, and
nicknames
• Simple increased contact did not reduce hostility
• Harmony between the groups was established by having
two groups cooperate to achieve a common goal
• But might have not worked if the two artificial groups
were not homogeneous (all were white and middle-class)

28. The Jigsaw Classroom—Promoting
Cooperation
• Adapted Robber’s Cave techniques to a newly integrated
school
• Aronson (1992) brought together students in small, ethnically
diverse groups to work on a mutual project
• Each student had a unique contribution to make toward the
success of the group; interdependence and cooperation
replaced competition – called the Jigsaw classroom
technique.
• Results: Children in the jigsaw classrooms had higher self-esteem
and a greater liking for children in other ethnic groups
than those in traditional classrooms
• Less negative stereotypes and prejudice and a reduction in
intergroup hostility
• “Cooperation changes our tendency to categorize the out-group
from ‘those people’ to ‘we people.’”

29. Conformity—
Following the Crowd
Conformity
adjusting your opinions, judgment,
or behavior so that it matches that
of other people, or the norms of a
social group or situation
Social influence
the psychological study of how
our behavior is influenced by
the social environment and
other people
Asch’s Experiment
• All but one in group was confederate
• Seating was rigged
• Asked to rate which line matched a “standard” line
• Confederates were instructed to pick the wrong line 12 of
18 times
Results
• Asch found that 76% participants conformed
to at least one wrong choice
• Subjects gave wrong answer (conformed) on
37% of the critical trials
• Remember that on about two-thirds of trials,
participants stuck to their guns

30. Why did they conform to
clearly wrong choices?
• Informational influence?
• Subjects reported having
doubted their own
perceptual abilities, which
led to their conformance –
didn’t report seeing the lines
the way the confederates
had

31. Factors Influencing Conformity
Previous research had shown people will conform to others’
judgments more often when the evidence is ambiguous.
Two basic reasons
• Normative social influence — the desire to be accepted as
part of a group leads to that group having an influence
• Informational social influence — other people can provide
useful and crucial information
Asch identified several reasons that promote conformity,
including
• Facing a unanimous group
• Giving your response in front of a group
• Doubting your abilities or knowledge
Factors which decrease conformity include
• Having an ally
• Any dissent lessens conformity, even if some dissent is
incorrect

32. Conformity is higher in collectivistic cultures than in
individualistic cultures.
Collectivistic Cultures
Click here
Culture and Conformity
Individualistic
Cultures
Click here
• Individualistic
cultures tend to
emphasize
independence.
• Conformity tends to
carry a negative
connotation
• Conforming while privately
disagreeing tends to be regarded
as socially appropriate tact or
sensitivity
• Publicly challenging the
judgments of others, particularly
the judgment of members of
one’s in-group, would be
considered rude, tactless, and
insensitive
• Conformity does not seem to
carry the same negative
connotation

33. Obedience
• Obedience is the
performance of a behavior
in response to a direct
command
• Typically, an authority
figure or a person of higher
status, such as a teacher
or supervisor, gives the
command
Stanley Milgram’s critical
question: Could a person be
pressured by others into
committing an immoral act,
some action that violated his
or her own conscience, such
as hurting a stranger?

35. Milgram’s Original Obedience
Experiment
Basic study procedure
• Participants represented a wide range of occupational and
educational backgrounds
• Postal workers, high-school teachers, white-collar workers,
engineers, and laborers
• One teacher and one learner (learner is always the confederate)
• Watch learner being strapped into chair
• Learner expresses concern over his “heart condition”
• Teacher goes to another room with experimenter
• Shock generator panel –15 to 450 volts, labeled “slight shock” to
“XXX”
• Asked to give higher shocks for every mistake learner makes
• Learner protests more and more as shock increases
• Experimenter continues to request obedience even if teacher
balks
• “The experiment requires that you continue” or “You have no
other choice, you must continue.”

37. The Results of Milgram’s Original
Experiment
Milgram asked psychiatrists, college
students, and middle-class adults to
make predictions
• All three groups predicted that all subjects (the teachers)
would refuse to obey at some point
• Predicted that most subjects would refuse at 150-volt
level, where learner first protested
• Predicted that only a few rare individuals would go as far
as the 300-volt level
• Predicted that no one would go to the full 450 volts

38. The Results of
Milgram’s Original
Experiment
What Happened?
• Two-thirds of Milgram’s
subjects—26 of the 40—were
fully compliant and went to the
full 450-volt level
• Of those who defied the
experimenter, not one stopped
before the 300-volt level
• No difference between men and
women
• Has been replicated many times

39. A previously
well-established
mental
framework to
obey
Subjects arrived at the lab
with the mental
expectation that they
would obediently follow
Click here Click here
Forces that
Influence
Obedience
The situation,
or context, in
which the
obedience
occurred
The gradual,
repetitive
escalation of
the task
The
Making
Sense of
Milgram’s
Findings
The physical
experimenter’s
behavior and
reassurances
and
psychological
separation
from the
learner
Click here
Click here Click here
Research
setting
predisposed
subjects to trust
experimenter
The physical and
psychological
separation from
the learner
• Learner was in
a separate room
• Punishment was
depersonalized

40. Conditions that
Undermine Obedience
• When teachers
were allowed to act
as their own
authority and freely
choose the shock
level, 95 percent of
them did not
venture beyond
150 volts
• Milgram found that
people were more
likely to muster up
the courage to defy
an authority when
they saw others do
so

41. Asch, Milgram, and
the Real World
Genocides and
Abuse
The Holocaust
Bosnia
Darfur
Cambodia
Armenia
Rwanda
Zimbardo’s
Prison
Experiment and
Abu Ghraib

42. Abuse at Abu Ghraib:
Why Do Ordinary People Commit Evil Acts?
What Why factors would ordinary contributed Americans to the events mistreat
that
occurred people like at Abu that? Ghraib How can prison?
normal people
• commit In-group such versus cruel, out-immoral group acts?
thinking, negative
stereotypes
• A few bad apples?
• Isolated incidents of overzealous or
• Dehumanization and prejudice
• Process sadistic similar soldiers to Zimbardo’s run amok?
Stanford
Prison Experiment
• Not just following orders but also following
implied social norms and roles

44. Helping Behavior and
the Bystander Effect
• Prosocial behavior describes
any behavior that helps
another person, including
altruistic acts—whatever the
motive
• Altruism is fundamentally
selfless—the individual is
motivated purely by the
desire to help someone in
need. No expectation of
personal benefit.
• The Kitty Genovese Case
• Friday, March 13, 1964;
Killed in NYC
• No one ran to help
• City apathy too simplistic
• Now called the Bystander
Effect

45. Bibb Latané and John Darley (1970)
“People often help others, even at great personal risk to themselves.
For every ‘apathy’ story, one of outright heroism could be cited. . . It
is a mistake to get trapped by the wave of publicity and discussion
surrounding incidents in which help was not forthcoming into
believing that help never comes. People sometimes help and
sometimes don’t. What determines when help will be given?”

46. Factors that Increase the Likelihood of
Bystanders Helping
The “feel good, do good” effect
Feeling guilty
Seeing others who are willing to help
Perceiving the other person as
deserving of help
Knowing how to help and being capable
A personalized relationship

47. Factors that Decrease the Likelihood of
Bystanders Helping
Bystander effect: The presence of other
people
Diffusion of responsibility
Being in a big city or a very small town
Vague or ambiguous situations
When the personal costs for helping
outweigh the benefits

48. Social Loafing
When Individual Effort Is
“Lost in the Crowd”
The Influence of Groups
on Individual Behavior
Individual behavior can be
strongly influenced by the
presence of others.
Social loafing
is reduced when
• The group is composed of people we
People tend to expend less effort on
know
collective tasks than they do when
performing the same task alone
• We are members of a highly valued
group
• Pronounced when it’s difficult or
impossible to assess each individual’s
contribution to collective effort
• Task is meaningful or unique
• Women are generally less likely to
• The greater the number of people
engage in social loafing than are men
involved in a collective effort, the lower
each individual’s output
• Diffusion of responsibility occurs among
group members working on a collective
task

49. Social Facilitation
• The tendency for the presence of
other people to enhance
individual performance
• When a task is relatively
simple or well-rehearsed, the
presence of other people
tends to enhance individual
performance
• The presence of others tends
to increase our level of
arousal and motivation
• Complex or poorly learned tasks,
presence of other people is likely
to hinder performance
• Arousal coupled with
apprehension about being
negatively evaluated tends to
work against us

50. Deindividuation
• When group members feel
anonymous.
• Reduction of self-awareness
and inhibitions
when person is part of a
group in which members
feel anonymous
• Example: Wearing
hoods in the Ku Klux
Klan, large riots
• One way to counteract
deindividuation is to
heighten self-awareness

51. The Persuasion Game
The Rule of
Reciprocity
If someone
gives you
something or
does you a
favor, you feel
obligated to
return the favor
Defending
Against
Persuasion
Techniques
The Rule of
Commitment
Foot-in-the-door
technique
Low-ball
technique
Sleep on it.
Play devil’s advocate.
When in doubt, do nothing.