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CHAPTER 3 SOCIAL BELIEFS AND JUDGMENTS Availability heuristic – Def - A cognitive rule that judges the likelihood of things in terms of their availability to memory. If examples appear readily, we presume them to be commonplace. Eg – When posed with the question whether more people live in Iraq or T...

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CHAPTER 3 SOCIAL BELIEFS AND JUDGMENTS Availability heuristic – Def - A cognitive rule that judges the likelihood of things in terms of their availability to memory. If examples appear readily, we presume them to be commonplace. Eg – When posed with the question whether more people live in Iraq or Tanzania, we would presume Iraq to be the answer as most people would be having more vivid images of Iraqis due to media, even though Tanzania’s 52 million people greatly outnumber Iraq’s 36 million people. Evidence – If we were to try to order these cities, New York, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Atlanta, according to their crime rates, availability of information from crime drams would list New York or Los Angeles as having the highest crime rate. However, according to FBI (2012), each of these two cities would only have one-third the crime rate of St. Louis or Atlanta. Representativeness Heuristic Def – The tendency to presume, despite contrary odds, that someone or something belongs to a particular group if resembling a typical member. Eg – Linda is outspoken and deeply concerned with social issues, often participating in social demonstrations. “She must be a feminist!” Evidence – An experiment by Fischoff & Bar-Hillel (1984) had students were given a summarized description of the impressions given 30 engineers and 70 lawyers, and asked to guess if the profile they were asked to guess was a lawyer or an engineer. 80% guessed that the profile fit a lawyer better, and did not change even when the base number of engineers and lawyers flipped to 70 and 30 respectively. The profile was more representative of lawyers. CHAPTER 4 – BEHAVIOURS AND ATTITUDES Facial feedback effect Def – The tendency of facial expressions to trigger corresponding feelings such as fear, anger, or happiness Eg – Those induced to repeatedly practice happy expressions recall more happy memories and find the happy mood lingering. Evidence – An experiment by Fritz Strack and colleagues (1988) report that people find cartoons funnier while holding a pen with their teeth, which uses smiling muscles, than while holding it with their lips, which uses muscles incompatible with smiling. CHAPTER 7 - PERSUASION

6 Principles of Persuasion 1. Authority/ Credibility People defer to credible experts. a. Perceived Expertise b. Speaking style c. Perceived Trustworthiness 2. Attractiveness and Liking People respond to those they life 3. Social Proof People allow the example of others to validate how to think, feel, and act 4. Reciprocity People feel obliged to repay in kind what they’ve received 5. Consistency People tend to honor their public commitments 6. Scarcity People prize what’s scarce

Foot-in-the-door phenomenon Def – The tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request Lowball technique Def – A tactic for getting people to agree to something. People who verbally agree to an initial request will often still comply when the requester ups the ante, whereas people who received only the costly request are less likely to comply with it Door-in-the-face technique Def – a strategy for gaining a concession. After someone first turns down a large request, the same requester counteroffers with a more reasonable request. Primacy vs Recency effect When two persuasive messages are back-to-back and the audience then responds at some later time, the first messages has the advantage (PRIMACY) When the two messages are separated in time and the audience responds soon after the second message, the second message has the advantage (RECENCY) Personal versus media influences in persuasion Works through – Two-step flow of communication, by which media influence occurs through opinion leaders who in turn influences others. The more life-like the medium, the more persuasive its message Order of influence – Live, videotaped, audio-taped, and written. Easy-to-understand messages are most persuasive when videotaped. Difficult messages are most persuasive when written. Thus, the difficulty of the message interacts with the medium to determine persuasiveness. Life-cycle explanation – attitudes change with age (people growing more conservative) Generational explanation – attitudes do not change, older people hold onto the same attitudes they had growing up, which is different from the values young people are adopting as they grow up today. What are they thinking – stimulate their thinking!  Rhetorical questions

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Multiple speakers Repeating the message Undistracted attention

CHAPTER 6 – CONFORMITY AND OBEDIENCE Norm Formation/Compliance (Sherif) – Interpreting events differently after hearing from others Def – Conformity that involves publicly acting in accord with an implied or explicit request while privately disagreeing Conformity (Asch) – Doing as others do Def – A change in behaviour or belief as the result of real or imagined group pressure Obedience ( Milgram) – Complying with questionable orders Def – a type of compliance involving acting in accord with a direct order or command 4 Factors determines obedience 1. The Victim’s emotional distance a. Participants acted with the greatest obedience and least compassion when the “learners” could not be seen and could not see them. 2. The authority’s closeness and legitimacy a. There is difference in giving commands in person and over the telephone b. People don’t listen to illegitimate authority well 3. Institutional Authority a. Authorities backed by known institutes wield social power. 4. The liberating effects of group influence a. Conformity can be constructive and liberating Predictors of conformity 1. Group size Asch found that 3 to 5 people will elicit much more conformity than just 1 or 2, while increasing beyond 5 yields diminishing returns. 2. Unanimity The support of one comrade greatly increases a person’s social courage. 3. Cohesion The more cohesive a group is, the more power it gains over its members. 4. Status Higher-status people tend to have more impact 5. Public Response People conform more when they must respond in front of others 6. Prior Commitment Prior commitments are stuck to, and restrain persuasion. Why People Conform? Normative influence Def – Conformity based on a person’s desire to fulfill others’ expectations, often to gain acceptance. (desire to be liked) Informational Influence Def – Conformity occurring when people accept evidence about reality provided by other people. (desire to be right) Who conforms? 1. Personality People higher in agreeableness and conscientiousness are more likely to conform, being people

pleasers. People higher in openness to experience – connected to creativity and socially progressive thinking – are less likely to conform. 2. Culture Conformity is higher in collectivistic countries. 3. Social Roles Social roles create pressure to conform to social expectations Who wants to be different? Reactance – A motive to protect or restore one’s sense of freedom. Reactance arises when someone threatens our freedom of action. Example – Bich brits stopped wearing Burberry caps after the caps caught on among soccer hooligans. In collectivistic cultures, people feel comfortable when they appear too different from others, and in individualistic cultures, people feel uncomfortable when they appear too much like others. CHAPTER 10 – AGGRESSION Theories of Aggression 1. Biological Aggressive energy is instinctive behaviour, which is an innate, unlearned behaviour pattern. Aggression increases when social status is challenged or when a mate is involved. Activity in brain can influence aggression, whether through electrodes or lack of sleep. Genes play a part too. Alcohol influences aggression. Testosterone correlates with aggressiveness. (higher testosterone = higher delinquency, provocation) Diet affects aggressiveness (studies found that students in a Boston high school who drank more than five cans of non-diet soda a week were more likely to be violent) 2. Response to Frustration Frustration (the blocking of goal-directed behaviour) triggers a readiness to aggress (revised, only when the person becomes upset. It is possible to be frustrated but not ready to aggress, it requires aggressive cues) Displacement – the redirection of aggression to a target other than the source of the frustration. Generally, the new target is a safer or more socially acceptable target. Frustrations arise from the gap between expectations and attainment. Relative deprivation – the perception that one is less well off than others with whom one compares oneself 3. Learned Social Behaviour Aggression often pays (in sports) (severe defeats may create submissiveness) Social learning theory – we learn social behaviour by observing and imitating and by being rewarded and punished. We learn aggression not only by experiencing its payoffs but also observing others. (Experiment – Bandura and the “Bobo” doll, where children reproduce acts of aggression commited by an adult) Influences on Aggression 1. Aversive Incidents a. Pain Pain was found to increase aggression when Azrin shocked rats in an experiment, wanting to reinforce positive interactions with each other by turning off the electric shocks when the rats approached each other, only to find that the rats attacked each other the moment they felt pain. These same effects occurred throughout species and were not selective of targets. b. Heat There is correlation, not yet causation, which heat leads to increased aggressions. Griffitt found that students who answered questions in an uncomfortably hot room were more tired and expressed more hostility towards strangers than those who answered in a room with normal temperature.

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c. Attacks Intentional attacks breed retaliatory attacks. Arousal Arousal fuels emotions, whether it is sexual, frightening, or frustrating, stirring of such emotions tend to amplify one another. Aggression Cues Weapons are a cue. Guns serve as aggression cues as they also put psychological distance between aggressor and victim, as remoteness facilitates aggression. Media Influences a. Porn i. Distorted perceptions of sexual reality ii. Aggression against woman iii. Media Awareness Education b. Television i. Behaviour It produces AROUSAL, which stirs/amplifies one another. Viewing violence lowers inhibitions to repeat violent behaviour TV evoke imitation. Conversely, TV modeling of Pro-social behaviour should be socially beneficial. ii. Thinking 1. Desensitization Repeating an emotion-arousing stimulus and the emotional response will extinguish, causing emotional numbing. 2. Social Scripts Culturally provided mental instructions for how to act in various situations – more violent TV leads to more violent social scripts 3. Altered Perceptions Media portrayals shape perceptions of reality 4. Cognitive Priming Media portrayals shape thinking (Punch being a fist rather than a drink) c. Video Gaming Experiments produce these effects: Hostile Attribution bias – people act aggressively when provoked i. Increases arousal ii. Increases aggressive thinking, feelings, behaviours iii. Emotional numbing to violent displays iv. Greater likelihood in carrying a weapon v. Decreases prosocial behaviours 1. Self-control 2. Antisocial behaviour 3. Helping others 4. Empathy Group Influences Group interaction amplifies an individual’s aggressive reaction through diffusion of responsibility.

How can Aggression be reduced? 1. Catharsis “Hydraulic Model” – accumulated aggressive energy, like dammed-up water, needs a release. To have an emotion excited, is to have that emotion released (Butcher, 1951) Catharsis (purging) is emotional release obtained not only by observing drama but also through our recalling and reliving past events, through our expressing emotions, and through our actions. HOWEVER venting aggression causes more, not less. Short run, may reduce tension and provide pleasure, but long run fuels negative feelings. Distraction helps to alleviate aggressive thoughts and feelings.

There are non-aggressive ways of confronting the source of our frustrations, like reframing our accusatory messages from “you” to “I” when confronting. 2. Social Learning Approach a. Refrain from aversive experiences; instead, reward cooperative, nonaggressive

behaviour. b. Caregivers should ignore aggressive behaviour in children, and reinforce their nonaggressive behaviour. 3. Culture change and World Violence All forms of violence are less common in recent years than in past eras. CHAPTER 11 – ATTRACTION AND INTIMACY What leads to friendship and attraction? 1. Proximity a. Interaction b. Anticipation of interaction c. Mere Exposure 2. Physical Attractiveness a. Attractiveness and dating b. The matching phenomenon c. Physical-attractiveness stereotype i. First Impressions ii. Evolution and Attraction iii. Social Comparison iv. Attractiveness of those we love 3. Similarity versus Complementarity (Each completes what is missin in the other) a. Likeness begets likeness b. Dissimilarity breeds dislike 4. Liking those who like us a. Attribution b. Ingratiation – the use of strategies such as flattery to gain another’s favor. 5. Relationship rewards Reward theory of attraction – we like those whose behaviour is rewarding to us or whom we associate with rewarding events What enables close relationships? 1. Attachment a. Secure attachment – rooted in trust and marked by intimacy b. Avoidant attachment – marked by discomfort over, or resistance to, being close to others. c. Anxious attachment – marked by anxiety or ambivalence. 2. Equity – a condition in which the outcomes people received from a relationship are proportional to what they contribute to it. a. Long-term Not being calculating is a mark of friendship In total assets, equity is the rule in lasting relationships. b. Perceived Equity and satisfaction When both partners freely give and received and make decisions together, lasting relationships form. 3. Self-disclosure a . Disclosure reciprocity – one person’s intimacy of self-disclosure to match that of a conversational partner...