Dr. Jacqueline Pickrell Social Psychology Dr. Jacqueline Pickrell

The mere presence of others How does the mere presence of others affect our behavior? 1898 Triplett Social facilitation is the tendency for the presence of others to enhance our performance on simple tasks and impair performance on complex tasks

Social Norms: The rules of the game Social norms are shared expectations about how people should think, feel, and behave. Many are implicit and unspoken Social roles consist of a set of norms that characterize how people in a given social position ought to behave

Conformity to Social Norms Conformity – the adjustment of individual behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs to a group standard There are both overt and subtle pressures on members to conform Solomon Asch 2 types of social influence Informational influence Normative influence

Asch’s conformity experiments 1 2 3 Standard Line Comparison Lines

Factors influencing conformity Group size Presence of an ally (dissenter) Our perceptions of social norms Minority influence

Obedience to Authority Inherently neither good or bad

Milgram's Obedience Studies Social pressure has a strong effect on people's behavior and thinking, as demonstrated by conformity to group pressure and obedience to commands from authority figures. Stanley Milgram performed a series of experiments to study compliance with orders from an authority figure to inflict pain on another person.

The subjects in Milgram's experiments are told they are taking part in a test of the effect of punishment on learning. Each teacher (the experimental subject) is ordered to deliver increasing levels of electric shock to a learner (the experimenter's confederate) who gives incorrect answers on a test.

Milgram’s Methodology Confederate was always the learner No electric shocks were given (except demo in beginning to teacher- 45volts) Confederate replaced by a taped recording Slight heart problem Confederate intentionally made mistakes

Factors that Influence Destructive Obedience Milgram studies N>1,000 The authority Closeness legitimacy The victim remoteness The situation Cog in-the-wheel Responsibility No personal characteristics

Controversy… Deception Substantial stress Risk of long-lasting effects Cost-Benefit analysis? Would similar results occur today?

Group Influences on Performance Social Loafing aka Failing to pull your own weight The tendency for people to expend less individual effort when working in a group than when working alone. Physical tasks Cognitive tasks More likely to occur when: Believe not being monitored Task has less value to the person Group is less important to the person Task is simple making effort redundant Fatigue

When are Groups More Productive? Social compensation Diversity of resources Better solutions developed More opportunity to correct errors When tasks are easily subdivided

Group decision making Group polarization – when a group of like-minded people discusses an issue, the “average” opinion of group members tends to become more extreme Normative social influence Informational social influence

Group decision making Groupthink – the tendency of group members to suspend critical thinking because they are striving to seek agreement Under high stress to reach a decision Insulated from outside input Directive leader High cohesion – closeness and ability to work well together

More Social Influence Deindividuation – a loss of individuality that leads to disinhibited behavior Anonymity to outsiders Reduces feelings of accountability Increases to risk of antisocial actions

Psychology of Bystanders The rape and murder of Kitty Genovese on a street in Queens, New York, in 1964, witnessed by 38 neighbors, stimulated much discussion among social psychologists about bystander psychology. By staging emergency events in field studies, researchers have found that an individual is less likely to offer assistance or call for help when other people are present than when he or she is the only witness. This is known as the bystander effect.

Detecting (and hopefully resisting) Persuasion Tactics The norm of reciprocity Expectation that when others treat us well, we should respond in kind Door-in-the-face Technique A persuader makes a large request, expecting you to reject it, and then presents a smaller request Foot-in-the-door Technique Shifting from a smaller to a larger request

Detecting (and hopefully resisting) Persuasion Tactics Lowballing A persuader gets you to commit to some action and then – before you perform the behavior, he or she increases the cost of that same behavior

Social Thinking and Perception Attitude- a positive or negative evaluative reaction toward a stimulus, such as a person, action, object, or concept. Evidence that attitudes do and do not predict behavior

Stereotype, Prejudice and Discrimination Prejudice – a positive or negative evaluation of another person based on their group membership Discrimination – a positive or negative behavior toward another person based on their group membership The Eye of the Storm Brown eye Blue eye Experiment