Social Psychology

The subarea of psych that focuses on how our thoughts, feelings, perceptions, & behaviors are affected by the presence of or interactions with others.

Social Cognition

• the cognitive processes we use to make sense of things in social situations- including our impressions of and inferences about other people, our interpretation of the social situation, our attitudes and how they affect behavior

Social Influence

• How our behavior is influenced, directly or indirectly, by the presence and/or the behavior of others

Some Social Psych Topics:

• Social Cognition

• Person perception 

• Attributions

• Interpersonal attraction

• Attitudes & how they’re influenced

• Stereotypes/Prejudice

• Social Influence

• Behavior of groups

• Conformity

• Obedience

• Social roles, norms & impact of situation

• Behavior in crowds; Aggression

• Helping behavior

Conformity

• When you yield to real or imagined group or social pressure, even if there are not direct requests.

• Solomon Asch - studied conformity in subjects placed with a group of strangers & asked to do a simple line perception task

• 75% of participants conformed at least some of the time

ASCH’S STUDY

You’re Most Likely to Conform When:

• the rest of the group is unanimous

• your response is public

• you are uncertain or feel less confident

• you care about the group

Compliance:

• When we give in to direct requests 

• Foot-in-the-door technique - compliance to a small request increases the likelihood of compliance to a larger request.

• Door-in-the-face technique – a large request (usually turned down) is followed by greater compliance to a small request

Obedience

• Compliance to the requests of someone in a position of authority.

• Stanley Milgram - studied whether average individuals would obey an authority figure telling them to do something that harms another individual.

• Before the study psychiatrists predicted complete obedience in .1% of subjects.

Social Influence: Milgram’s Results

Extensions to Milgram’s Study

• Subjects going all the way to 450:

– 65% in original study

– Similar results when conducted with women, unpaid college students

– 48% when conducted away from Yale

– 40% when sitting near the learner (victim)

– 30% when teacher had to place learner’s hand on the electric grid for a shock

– 21% when experimenter telephoned commands

Negative Aspects of Obedience

Positive Aspects of Obedience?

Social Roles & Norms

• Whenever you are with others, there is a tendency for that group & situation to generate social norms & roles.

• Social norms: standards for behavior in that situation

• Social role: particular positions in groups that have different norms for appropriate behavior

Impact on Your Behavior

• Norms & roles can help you know how to behave in new situations.

• Violating norms/roles (in most cases) makes you stand out & can cause discomfort.

• Social roles may affect behavior more than personality in certain situations.

• Attitudes are also influenced by social roles.

• Example: Stanford Prison Study (Zimbardo)

Social Influence

• The Stanford Prison Experiment

– Zimbardo and colleagues, 1971

– randomly chosen “prisoner” and “experimenters”

– all “normal” college students

– instructed not to use violence

– had to stop the experiment early

Socail Influence Effects on Performance

• Presence of others sometimes improves performance – “social facilitation”

• On the other hand, if you are not used to an audience, presence of others may impair performance – “social inhibition” or decrease your motivation – “social loafing”

Social Influence

– Conclusions:

• We shouldn’t underestimate 

– THE POWER OF THE SITUATION

• mostly we are sheep, not wolves

• not evil or sadistic, rather obedient

Effect of Others on Prosocial (Helping) Behavior

• The Case of Kitty Genovese

• Bystander Apathy vs Bystander Intervention in Emergencies 

• John Darley & Bibb Latane

• The more people present, the less likely someone will help. An individual witnessing an event alone is more likely to help than when many others are present.

The Bystander Effect

• The more observers there were, the less likely that anyone would help

– Not per observer, but total

• May be due to Diffusion of responsibility

Theories About the 
Bystander Effect

• Informational influence theory – we use the reactions of others to judge the seriousness of a situation.

• Diffusion of responsibility theory – you feel less personally responsible when others are observing the same emergency

• Deindividuation (less chance of being personally recognized) in a crowd - more likely to misbehave

Social Psychology

• Study of how people 

behave, think, and feel 

in social situations

– Effects of group membership on individual behavior

– Interpersonal attraction

– Social influence, conformity, & obedience

– Altruism, antisocial behavior, bystander effect

Use of Social Influence 
in Business

• Robert Cialdini – principles of social psychology form the basis of much of marketing