1 Social Relations Module 45

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3 Social Psychology Social Relations Overview  Prejudice  Aggression  Attraction  Altruism  Conflict and Peacemaking

4 Social Relations Social psychology the branch of psychology that studies individuals in the social context. …teaches us how we relate to one another through prejudice, aggression, and conflict to attraction, and altruism and peacemaking.

5 Prejudice Prejudice is an unjustifiable (usually negative) attitude toward a group and its members. Prejudice is often directed towards different cultural, ethnic, or gender groups. 1.Beliefs (stereotypes) 2.Emotions (hostility, envy, fear) 3.Predisposition to act (to discriminate) Components of Prejudice

6 How Prejudiced are People? Over the duration of time many prejudices against interracial marriage, gender, homosexuality, and minorities have decreased.

7 Racial & Gender Prejudice Americans today express much less racial and gender prejudice, but prejudices still exist.

8 Stereotype: A generalization about a social group

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Self-fulfilling Prophecy People have expectations about another person that influence how they act toward that person. Such expectations in turn cause that person to behave consistently with the original expectations. 10

Stereotypes… A FATHER AND HIS SON ARE IN A CAR ACCIDENT, the father dies at the scene and the son, badly injured, is rushed to the hospital. In the operating room, the surgeon looks at the boy and says, 'I can't operate on this boy. He is my son." How can this be? 11

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13 IAT Implicit Association Test Exposes cognitive bias

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20 Gender Bias Worldwide more women live in poverty than men About 100,000,000 women are missing in the world. There is a preference for male children in China and India, even with sex-selected abortion outlawed.

21 Gender Bias Although prejudice prevails against women, more people feel positively toward women than men. Professor Dave Perrett, St. Andrews University Women rated picture b [feminized] higher (66%) for a matrimonial ad (Perrett & others, 1998).

22 Social Roots of Prejudice Why does prejudice arise? 1.Social Inequalities 2.Social Divisions 3.Emotional Scapegoating

23 Social Inequality Prejudice develops when people have money, power, and prestige, and others do not. Social inequality increases prejudice.

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Racist TweetsTweets 25

Which is darker? 26

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28 Social Divisons: Us and Them Ingroup: People with whom one shares a common identity. Outgroup: Those perceived as different from one’s ingroup. Ingroup Bias: The tendency to favor one’s own group.

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31 Emotional Roots of Prejudice Scapegoat theory: Prejudice provides an outlet for anger [emotion] by providing someone to blame. After 9/11 many people lashed out against innocent Arab- Americans.

32 Cognitive Roots of Prejudice One way we simplify our world is to categorize. We categorize people into groups, often we stereotype them. Foreign sunbathers may think Balinese look alike. Michael S. Yamashita/ Woodfin Camp Associates

33 Cognitive Roots of Prejudice We judge frequency by things that readily come to mind Vivid cases such as the 9/11 attacks, terrorists can feed stereotypes or prejudices (terrorism). Most terrorists are non-Muslims.

34 Cognitive Roots of Prejudice Just-world phenomenon: The tendency of people to believe the world is just, and people get what they deserve and deserve what they get. © The New Yorker Collection, 1981, Robert Mankoff from cartoonbank.com. All Rights Reserved.

35 Hindsight Bias After learning an outcome, the tendency to believe that we could have predicted it beforehand may contribute to blaming the victim and forming a prejudice against them. Somebody got what they deserved…

36 Aggression Aggression: any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy. It may be done reactively out of hostility or proactively as a calculated means to an end. Research shows that aggressive behavior emerges from the interaction of biology and experience.

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Humans are amazing creatures … Urinary latency in men… 38

39 The Biology of Aggression Three biological influences on aggressive behavior are: 1.Genetic Influences 2.Neural Influences 3.Biochemical Influences

40 Biology of Aggression OffenseCarrying the genes Not carrying the genes Aggravated Assault 3,419,000435,000 Homicide14,1961,468 Armed robbery2,051,000157,000 Sexual assault442,00010,000

41 Influences Genetic Influences: Animals have been bred for aggressiveness for sport and at times for research. Neural Influences: Some centers in the brain, especially the limbic system (amygdala) and the frontal lobe, are intimately involved with aggression.

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49 Influences Biochemical Influences: Hormones, alcohol and other substances influence the neural systems that control aggression

…Testosterone isn't causing aggression, it’s exaggerating the aggression that's already there. Dr. Sapolsky 50

Neural Influences 51

52 The Psychology of Aggression Four psychological factors that influence aggressive behavior are: 1.dealing with aversive events; 2.learning aggression is rewarding; 3.observing models of aggression; and 4.acquiring social scripts.

53 Environment Even environmental temperature can lead to aggressive acts. Murders and rapes increased with the temperature in Houston.

54 Aversive events: Frustration- Aggression Principle A principle in which frustration (caused by the blocking of an attempt to achieve a desired goal) creates anger, which can generate aggression.

55 Learning that Aggression is Rewarding When aggression leads to desired outcomes, one learns to be aggressive. This is shown in both animals and humans. Cultures that favor violence breed violence… Instrumental Aggression: harmful behavior engaged in without provocation to obtain an outcome or coerce others.

56 Observing Models of Aggression Sexually coercive men are promiscuous and hostile in their relationships with women. This coerciveness has increased due to television viewing of R- and X-rated movies.

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58 Models of Aggression: Acquiring Social Scripts The media portrays social scripts and generates mental tapes in the minds of the viewers. When confronted with new situations individuals may rely on such social scripts. If social scripts are violent in nature, people may act them out.

59 Chandler: I was just at the bank and there was this really hot teller, and she didn't ask me to go do it with her in the vault! Joey: Same kind of thing happened to me! Woman pizza-delivery guy comes over, gives me the pizza, takes the money, and leaves! Chandler: What? No, "Nice apartment, I bet the bedrooms are huge?" Joey: No! Nothing! Chandler: You know what? We have to turn off the porn.

60 Do Video Games Teach or Release Violence? The general consensus on violent video games is that, to some extent, they breed violence. Adolescents view the world as hostile when they get into arguments and academic performance suffers after playing such games.

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62 The Psychology of Attraction 1.Proximity: Geographic nearness is a powerful predictor of friendship. 2.Mere exposure effect: Repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases its attraction.

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While we are on names…. 66

67 Psychology of Attraction 3.Physical Attractiveness: Once proximity affords contact, the next most important thing in attraction is physical appearance. Brooks Kraft/ Corbis

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In his own study, Barnaby found that men simply liked staring at all breasts, regardless of size or how attractive the image was rated. 74

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Penalty for Ugliness? “I am too ugly to get a job.” A Miami man’s statement in 2003 as to why he committed robberies “…being very unattractive increases the individual’s propensity for criminal activity for a number of crimes ranging from burglary to theft to selling illicit drugs.” Dr. Erdal Tekin 76

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Beards are sexier when they're uncommon … …rare traits enjoy an advantage. 80

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87 Are you more attractive today… Are you ovulating? Women are perceived as most attractive at the peak of their fertility. As judged by men AND other women NOT dependent on actions.

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92 Like attracts like…implicit egoism … people more often get married to others with the same first letter of their first name than would be expected by chance. People tend to love reflections of themselves in others. …they preferred the tea whose name happened to match the first letters of their name.

93 More… Students that shared a birthday with Rasputin gave him more generous ratings. …people named Denise or Dennis are disproportionately likely to become dentists, while people named Laura or Lawrence are more likely to become lawyers, and people with names like George or Georgina to become geologists. …physicians have disproportionately more surnames that include doc, dok, or med, while lawyers are more likely to have law, lau, or att in their surnames.

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96 Psychology of Attraction 4.Similarity: Similar views among individuals causes the bond of attraction to strengthen. Similarity breeds content! The more people are alike the more their liking endures. (Byrne 1971)

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Do they look like you? We trust people more who look like us… 98

What do you smell like? It seems the brains of people with different sexual orientations respond differently to odors from either sex. Sean Kean in The Violinist’s Thumb 99

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101 Playing “hard to get” A quick poll,…does it work? The research says….guys less likely to return to the hard to get women. What men DO like is women who are cold and standoffish to all OTHER guys, but warm and receptive to them.

102 Romantic Love Passionate Love: An aroused state of intense positive absorption in another, usually present at the beginning of a love relationship. 1.Physical arousal plus cognitive appraisal 2.Arousal from any source can enhance one emotion depending upon what we interpret or label the arousal Two-factor theory of emotion

103 Romantic Love Companionate Love: A deep, affectionate attachment we feel for those with whom our lives are intertwined. Equity: A condition in which people receive from a relationship in proportion to what they give. Self-Disclosure: Revealing intimate aspects of oneself to others.

104 Top female ad…Genuine, attractive, outgoing, professional female, good sense of humor. Enjoys keeping fit, socializing, music, and travel. Would like to meet like- minded, good-natured guy to share quality times. Top male ad…Male, good sense of humor, adventurous, athletic, enjoys cooking, comedy, culture, film, seeks sporty, fun female for chats and possible romantic relationship.

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107 An unselfish regard for the welfare of others. Altruism

108 Bystander Intervention The decision-making process for bystander intervention. Akos Szilvasi/ Stock, Boston

109 Bystander Effect Tendency of any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present.

110 What Fuels Conflict? Conflict is perceived as an incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas. The elements of conflict are the same at all levels. People become deeply involved in potentially destructive social processes that have undesirable effects.

111 Enemy Perceptions People in conflict form mirror image perceptions of one another. George Bush “Evil” Saddam Hussein “Wicked Pharaoh”

112 Superordinate Goals are shared goals that override differences among people and require their cooperation. Cooperation Syracuse Newspapers/ The Image Works

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114 GRIT (Graduated & Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension-Reduction): This is a strategy designed to decrease international tensions. One side recognizes mutual interests and initiates a small conciliatory act that opens the door for reciprocation by the other party. Communication

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