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Psychology

Twelfth Edition

Chapter 8

Behavior in Social and Cultural Context

Social Forces

LO 8.1.A Compare social norms and social roles, and note how each contributes to the social rules that govern a culture.

LO 8.1.B Outline the basic procedures and findings of the Milgram obedience experiments, and discuss five conditions that make disobedience to authority more likely.

LO 8.1.C Outline the basic procedures and findings of the Zimbardo prison study.

LO 8.1.D Explain how feelings of entrapment contribute to destructive obedience.

Roles and Rules (1 of 3)

Social norms are rules about how we are supposed to act.

They are enforced by:

threats of punishment if we violate them, and

promises of reward if we follow them

Norms are the conventions of everyday life that make interactions with other people predictable and orderly.

Roles and Rules (2 of 3)

In every society, people also fill a variety of social roles.

gender, occupation, family roles

Social psychologists study how individuals are influenced by:

social roles

attitudes

relationships

groups

Roles and Rules (3 of 3)

Cultural psychologists study the influence of culture on human behavior.

Many cultural rules are unspoken but nonetheless powerful.

such as those governing correct conversational distance

People bring their own personalities and interests to the roles they play.

Nonetheless, the requirements of a social role are strong.

The Obedience Study (1 of 3)

Stanley Milgram wanted to know how many people would obey an authority figure when directly ordered to violate their ethical standards.

Milgram’s study illustrates the power of norms and roles to affect individual actions.

Most people in the role of “teacher” inflicted what they thought was extreme shock on another person because of the authority of the experimenter.

The Obedience Study (2 of 3)

Milgram concluded that obedience was more a function of the situation than of the personalities of the participants.

Some psychologists have questioned Milgram’s conclusion regarding personality traits.

They note that certain traits increase obedience and a willingness to inflict pain on others.

hostility

narcissism

rigidity

The Obedience Study (3 of 3) Figure 8.1 The Milgram Obedience Experiment

(a) Milgram’s original shock machine; in 1963, it looked pretty ominous. (b) The “learner” is being strapped into his chair by the experimenter and the “teacher.” (c) In Milgram’s study, when the “teacher” had to administer shock directly to the learner, most subjects refused, but this one continued to obey. Copyright 1965 by Stanley Milgram. From the film Obedience, distributed by Penn State Media Sales.

The Prison Study (1 of 2)

In Zimbardo’s Stanford prison study, college students tended to behave in accordance with the role they had been assigned.

“prisoner”

“guard”

Within a short time, most of the prisoners became distressed and helpless.

The guards, however, began to enjoy their new power.

The Prison Study (2 of 2)

The social situation exerted a powerful influence on individuals’ behavior, often prompting them to behave in uncharacteristic ways.

Zimbardo ended this study after only 6 days.

He had not expected such a speedy and alarming transformation of ordinary students.

Despite flaws in this study, it remains a powerful and useful cautionary tale.

Why People Obey (1 of 3)

Obedience to authority contributes to the smooth running of society.

But obedience can also lead to actions that are:

deadly

foolish

illegal

Throughout history, the plea “I was only following orders” has been offered to excuse such actions.

Why People Obey (2 of 3)

People obey orders because:

they can be punished if they do not

out of respect for authority, and

to gain advantages

Even when they would rather not obey, they may do so because they have been entrapped.

Why People Obey (3 of 3)

Entrapment involves:

justifying each step and decision they make, and

handing over responsibility for any harmful actions they commit to the authority

For many, the demands of the role and the social pressures of the situation defeat the inner voice of conscience.

Social Influences on Beliefs and Behavior

LO 8.2.A Contrast situational and dispositional attributions, explain how and why the fundamental attribution error takes place, and describe three biases that people hold about themselves and others.

LO 8.2.B Outline the process of cognitive dissonance, and explain how the validity effect and the familiarity effect shape our attitudes.

LO 8.2.C Summarize four elements that contribute to indoctrination.

Attributions (1 of 3)

According to attribution theory, people are motivated to search for causes to which they can attribute their own and other people’s behavior.

Situational attribution:

“Joe stole the money because his family is starving.”

Dispositional attribution:

“Joe stole the money because he is a born thief.”

Attributions (2 of 3)

The fundamental attribution error occurs when:

people overestimate personality traits as a cause of behavior, and

underestimate the influence of the situation

It is especially prevalent in Western nations, where middle-class people tend to:

believe that individuals are responsible for their own actions, and

dislike the idea that the situation has much influence over them

Attributions (3 of 3)

Attributions are further influenced by three self-serving biases:

the bias to choose the most flattering and forgiving explanations of our own behavior

the bias that we are better, smarter, and kinder than others, and

the bias that the world is fair (the just-world hypothesis)

These biases can distort communication, impede the resolution of conflicts, and lead to serious misunderstandings.

Attitudes (1 of 3)

People hold many attitudes about people, things, and ideas.

Attitudes may be explicit (conscious) or implicit (unconscious).

Attitudes may change through:

experience

conscious decision, or

as an effort to reduce cognitive dissonance

Attitudes (2 of 3)

One powerful way to influence attitudes is by taking advantage of two effects:

familiarity effect

validity effect

Simply exposing people repeatedly to a name or product makes them like it more.

Repeating a statement over and over again makes it seem more believable.

Attitudes (3 of 3) Figure 8.2 The Slippery Slope of Self-Justification

(a) Imagine two people with the same neutral attitude toward cheating. (b) Given an opportunity, one cheats and the other doesn’t. (c) Because of the need to reduce cognitive dissonance, each will then justify the action they took so that their opinion about cheating is consonant with their behavior. Over time, they both will have moved a long way from their original attitude.

Persuasion or “Brainwashing”? The Case of Suicide Bombers (1 of 2)

Suicide bombers and terrorists have not been “brainwashed.”

“Brainwashing” implies that a person has had a sudden change of mind without being aware of what is happening.

It sounds mysterious and strange.

The methods used to create a terrorist suicide bomber are neither mysterious nor unusual.

Persuasion or “Brainwashing”? The Case of Suicide Bombers (2 of 2)

Most are not psychopaths or mentally ill.

Many are well-educated and affluent.

They have been:

entrapped into taking increasingly violent actions against real and perceived enemies

encouraged to attribute all problems to that one enemy

offered a new identity and salvation

cut off from access to dissonant information

Methods are similar to religious and other sects.

Individuals in Groups

LO 8.3.A Outline the basic procedures and findings of the Asch line-judging study.

LO 8.3.B List four symptoms of groupthink.

LO 8.3.C Explain how diffusion of responsibility and deindividuation contribute to the madness of crowds.

LO 8.3.D Discuss four situational factors that increase one’s likelihood to offer help to others.

Conformity (1 of 2)

In groups, individuals often behave differently than they would on their own.

Conformity:

permits the smooth running of society, and

allows people to feel in harmony with others like them

Two basic, beneficial motives for conformity are:

the need for social acceptance

the need for information

Conformity (2 of 2)

But like obedience, conformity has negative consequences, notably its power to suppress critical thinking and creativity.

The Asch experiment showed that most people will conform to the judgments of others even when the others are obviously wrong.

In a group, many people will deny their private beliefs, agree with silly notions, and even repudiate their own values—just to be accepted.

Groupthink (1 of 2)

Close-knit groups are vulnerable to groupthink, the tendency of group members to:

think alike

censor themselves

actively suppress disagreement, and

feel that their decisions are invulnerable

Throughout history, groupthink has led to disastrous decisions in military and civilian life.

Groupthink (2 of 2)

Groupthink often produces faulty decisions because group members fail to seek disconfirming evidence for their ideas.

Groupthink can be minimized if the leader:

rewards the expression of doubt and dissent

protects and encourages minority views

asks group members to generate as many alternative solutions to a problem as they can think of, and

has everyone try to think of the risks and disadvantages of the preferred decision

The Wisdom and Madness of Crowds (1 of 4)

Sometimes a group’s collective judgment is better than that of its individual members—the “wisdom of crowds.”

But crowds can also spread:

gossip

panic

rumor

misinformation

They can also turn from joyful and peaceful to violent and destructive in a flash.

The Wisdom and Madness of Crowds (2 of 4)

In groups, responsibility for an outcome is diffused, or spread, among many people, reducing each individual’s personal sense of accountability.

This diffusion of responsibility in a group can lead to inaction on the part of individuals, as in bystander apathy.

Individuals often fail to take action or call for help when they see someone in trouble because they assume that someone else will do so.

The Wisdom and Madness of Crowds (3 of 4)

Diffusion of responsibility is likely to occur under conditions that promote deindividuation, the loss of awareness of one’s individuality.

Deindividuation has long been considered a prime reason for mob violence.

Individuals become disinhibited, just as if they were intoxicated on alcohol.

They are more likely to conform to the norms of the specific situation (antisocial or prosocial).

The Wisdom and Madness of Crowds (4 of 4)

In some situations, crowd norms lead deindividuated people to behave aggressively, but in others, crowd norms foster helpfulness.

In truly dangerous, unambiguous emergencies people are more likely to help.

In fact, they are often spurred to do so by the presence of others.

Altruism and Dissent (1 of 2)

The costs of nonconformity, dissent, courage, and honesty are often high.

Whistle-blowers are punished for their bravery.

But personal convictions and conscience can generate the willingness to:

speak up for an unpopular opinion

blow the whistle on illegal practices

help a stranger in trouble

perform other acts of altruism

Altruism and Dissent (2 of 2)

But several situational factors are also important:

The person perceives that help is needed.

Cultural norms support taking action.

The person has an ally.

The person becomes entrapped in a commitment to help or dissent.

Certain social and cultural factors make altruism, disobedience, and dissent more likely to occur, just as other external factors suppress them.

Us Versus Them: Group Identity

LO 8.4.A Contrast social identity, ethnic identity, and acculturation, and offer examples of each concept.

LO 8.4.B Define ethnocentrism, and describe how it contributes to us–them dichotomies.

LO 8.4.C Define what a stereotype is, and discuss three ways in which stereotypes distort reality.

Ethnic Identity (1 of 3)

People develop social identities based on their:

ethnicity (including nationality)

religion

occupation

other social memberships

In multicultural societies such as the United States and Canada, different social identities sometimes collide.

Ethnic Identity (2 of 3)

People often face the dilemma between:

ethnic identity

a close identification with a religious or ethnic group

acculturation

identification with the dominant culture

The hallmarks of having an ethnic identity:

identify with the group

feel proud to be a member

feel emotionally attached to the group

conform to the group’s rules, values, and norms

Ethnic Identity (3 of 3)

Many Americans today do not want to be pigeonholed into one ethnic or racial category.

Some have created combination identities:

Blaxican (African American and Mexican)

Negripino (African American and Filipino)

Chino-Latino (Chinese and Hispanic)

Most minorities remain identified with their ethnicity of origin, while picking and choosing among the values, foods, and customs of the mainstream culture.

Ethnocentrism (1 of 3)

Ethnocentrism, the belief that one’s own ethnic group or religion is superior to all others, promotes “us–them” thinking.

Ethnocentrism rests on a fundamental social identity: us.

As soon as people have created a category called “us,” they invariably perceive everybody else as “not-us.”

Ethnocentrism (2 of 3)

One effective strategy for reducing us–them thinking and hostility between groups is interdependence, having both sides work together to reach a common goal.

Robbers Cave experiment

Cooperation causes people to think of themselves as members of one big group instead of two opposed groups, us and them.

Ethnocentrism (3 of 3) Figure 8.4 The Experiment at Robbers Cave

(Sherif et al., 1961)

In this study, competitive games fostered hostility between the Rattlers and the Eagles. Few boys had a best friend from the other group (left). But after the teams had to cooperate to solve various problems, the percentage that made friends across “enemy lines” shot up (right) (Sherif et al., 1961).

Stereotypes (1 of 2)

A stereotype is a summary impression of a group of people in which all members of the group are viewed as sharing a common trait or traits.

Stereotypes help people:

rapidly process new information

organize experience, and

predict how others will behave

Stereotypes aren’t necessarily bad and they are sometimes accurate.

Stereotypes (2 of 2)

But they distort reality by:

exaggerating differences between groups

underestimating the differences within groups

producing selective perception

Cultural values affect:

how people evaluate the actions of another group

whether a stereotype becomes positive or negative

Group Conflict and Prejudice

LO 8.5.A Describe four sources of prejudice.

LO 8.5.B Describe five ways of measuring prejudicial attitudes.

LO 8.5.C Describe four situations that can help reduce prejudice and intergroup conflict.

LO 8.5.D Explain the phrase “the banality of evil,” and discuss how it contributes to otherwise-good people behaving badly.

The Origins of Prejudice (1 of 4)

A prejudice is an unreasonable negative feeling toward a category of people.

It provides the fuel for ethnocentrism.

Prejudice persists everywhere in some form because it has so many sources and functions:

psychological

social

economic

cultural

The Origins of Prejudice (2 of 4)

Psychologically, prejudice wards off feelings of anxiety and doubt and bolsters self-esteem when a person feels threatened (by providing a scapegoat).

Prejudice also has social causes: pressure to conform to views of friends, relatives, associates.

Some prejudices are passed mindlessly from one generation to another, through parental lessons.

“We don’t associate with people like that.”

The Origins of Prejudice (3 of 4)

Prejudice also serves to justify a majority group’s economic interests and dominance.

Prejudice rises and falls with changing economic conditions:

when two groups are in direct competition for jobs

when people are worried about their incomes

The oldest prejudice in the world may be sexism.

It, too, serves to legitimize existing sex roles and inequities in power.

The Origins of Prejudice (4 of 4)

Finally, prejudice serves the cultural and national purpose of bonding people to their social groups and nations.

By disliking “them,” we feel closer to our own group.

We justify whatever we do to “them” to preserve our customs and national policies.

Many people assume that prejudice causes war, but the reverse is far more often the case: War causes prejudice.

enemies described as vermin, heathens, monsters

Defining and Measuring Prejudice (1 of 3)

Psychologists disagree on whether racism and other prejudices are declining or have merely taken new forms.

There is evidence that explicit, conscious prejudices have declined.

It is no longer fashionable to admit one’s prejudices.

But some have used various measures to see whether implicit, unconscious negative feelings between groups have also diminished.

Defining and Measuring Prejudice (2 of 3)

Measurements of implicit prejudicial feelings:

social distance and instances of “microaggressions”

unequal treatment by the police or other institutions

seeing whether people are more likely to behave aggressively toward a target when they are stressed or angry

observing changes in the brain

assessing unconscious positive or negative associations with a group, as with the Implicit Association Test (IAT)

Defining and Measuring Prejudice (3 of 3)

However, the IAT has many critics who claim it is not capturing true prejudice.

Example: Experimenters got an IAT effect by matching target faces with nonsense words and neutral words that had no evaluative connotations at all.

To truly understand prejudice, we must distinguish:

explicit attitudes from unconscious ones

active hostility from simple discomfort

what people say from what they feel

what people feel from how they actually behave

Reducing Conflict and Prejudice (1 of 3)

Efforts to reduce prejudice by appealing to moral or intellectual arguments are not enough.

They need to target both the explicit and implicit attitudes that people have.

They must also touch people’s:

deeper insecurities

fears

negative associations with a group

Reducing Conflict and Prejudice (2 of 3)

Four conditions help to reduce two groups’ mutual prejudices and conflicts:

Both sides must have equal legal status, economic standing, and power.

Both sides must have the legal, moral, and economic support of authorities and cultural institutions.

Both sides must have opportunities to work and socialize together informally and formally (the contact hypothesis).

Both sides must work together for a common goal.

Reducing Conflict and Prejudice (3 of 3) Figure 8.5 The Impact of Cross-Ethnic Friendships on Minority Students’ Well-Being

(Mendoza-Denton & Page-Gould, 2008)

Cross-ethnic friendships benefit both parties. In a longitudinal study of minority black students at a predominantly white university, many black students at first felt left out of school life and thus dissatisfied with their educational experience. But the more white friends they made, the higher their sense of belonging (orange bar) and satisfaction with the university (blue bar). This finding was particularly significant for minority students who initially had been the most sensitive to rejection and who had felt the most anxious and insecure about being in a largely white school. The study was later replicated with minority Latino students (Mendoza-Denton & Page-Gould, 2008).

The Question of Human Nature (1 of 2)

Many people believe that only bad people do bad deeds.

But the principles of social and cultural psychology show that under certain conditions, good people often can be induced to do bad things, too.

Everyone is influenced to one degree or another by all-too-normal social processes.

mindless obedience to authority, conformity, groupthink, deindividuation, stereotyping, ethnocentrism, and prejudice

The Question of Human Nature (2 of 2)

Human nature contains the potential for:

unspeakable acts of cruelty

inspiring acts of goodness

By identifying the conditions that create the “banality of evil,” perhaps we can create other conditions that foster the “banality of virtue”:

kindness

selflessness

generosity