Topics

• "Following the Leader"
• Conformity
• Obedience
• Prosocial Behavior
• Helping Behavior
• Antisocial Behavior
• Prejudice
• Aggression

Conformity & Obedience

• Why do we sometimes do things that other people ask us to, even when we do not want to?
• Rev. Jim Jones & followers; David Koresh & Branch Davidians; Heaven's Gate

Conformity

• Conformity refers to changing your behavior to conform to the norms of a group.
• Solomon Asch (1907-1996)

Asch's Findings

• Most people went along with the majority on about one-third of the judgments.
• Only about one-fourth of the subjects never conformed.
• Subjects did not typically believe their responses; they simply felt pressure to conform.

Factors Affecting Conformity

• Group size: Maximum at 3-4.
• Appearance of unanimity.
• Cohesiveness (e.g., Bennington study).
• Social status: "Average" conforms most.
• Culture: Individualistic vs. collectivistic.

Obedience

• Obedience refers to changing your behavior in response to the command of a real or perceived authority figure.
• Historical background: the Holocaust.
• Stanley Milgram's infamous experiment in 1963.

"Predictions"

• Participants in a survey predicted that the "teacher" would stop at 135 volts.
• Psychiatrists predicted that only a "pathological fringe" would go to the end.

Results

• 26 of the 40 subjects went up to the final switch ("XXX").
• Not a single subject stopped before 300 volts.
• Women were as likely as men to obey.

Why did people obey?

• Legitimization of the authority.
• "I was ordered to do it."
• Routinization.
• Define activity in terms of routine duties.
• Rules of good manners.
• Don't rock the boat.
• Entrapment.
• We increase commitment to a course of action to justify our investment.

Prosocial Behavior

• In what circumstances do people help their fellow human beings? In what circumstances do people not help?
• The tragic case of Kitty Genovese.

Bystander Effect

• The presence of other people inhibits helping behavior.
• Each person experiences a diffusion of responsibility; the presence of other people leads each person to feel less responsible for dealing with the crisis.
• This even occurs when a person's own safety is at stake.

Factors Affecting Helping Behavior

• + Victim is similar
• + Victim is related
• - Victim is stigmatized
• - There is gore
• + Few other bystanders
• + Knowledge of how to help
• + Good mood

Factors Affecting Helping Behavior

• Being dedicated to a life of serving others has little effect!
• Seminarian study
  • Only 40% offered help; not affected by topic of speech.
• Heaven forfend the bystander is in a rush!
• 63% helped if not in a rush; 10% helped if pressed for time.

Antisocial Behavior

• Prejudice
• Aggression

Prejudice

• Prejudice is an unfavorable attitude directed toward other groups of people, based on insufficient or incorrect evidence (cf. racism, bigotry).

Sources of Prejudice

• Categorization & prototypes Æ social categorization & stereotypes
• Outgroup homogeneity bias
• Stereotypical characteristics that apply to a portion of an outgroup are generalized to the entire outgroup.
• Illusory correlation
• More likely to notice unusual than common behaviors of outgroup; less likely to notice unusual than common behaviors of ingroup.

Reducing Prejudice

• Resistance to change must be recognized.
• Contact hypothesis
• Groups must be of equal status
• Contact must involve personal interactions
• Groups need to engage in cooperative activities (Muzafer Sherif's Robber's Cave study)
• Social norms must favor reduction in prejudice
• Experience

Aggression

• Aggression is behavior directed toward another person that is intended to cause harm.

What Causes Aggression?

• Biological factors
• Environmental factors
• Social learning
• Deindividuation

Biological Factors

• Hypothalmus & amygdala have a role in stimulating and inhibiting aggressive behavior.
• In institutionalized populations, higher levels of testosterone have been correlated with greater freq. of aggressive behavior.
• A lot more than biology is needed to explain human aggression.

Environmental Factors

• When the temperature rises, rates of violent crimes rise as well.
• Frustration

Social Learning

• People learn aggressive behavior by watching aggressive role models.
• Television
• Bandura's Bobo doll study
• APA study
• Violent pornography
• Male aggression toward women increases after watching violent pornography.
• Repeated watching leads to more positive evaluations of violent pornography.

Social Learning

• Violence & Southern Culture
• Greater number of white perpetrated murders, esp. involving arguments, in South than in North. Rural areas show highest rates.
• No regional difference for African-Americans.

Social Learning

• Cohen (1995) study
• Northern & Southern students were insulted by the experimenter who bumped into the subject and called him an "_ _ _ hole."
• Northerners were relatively unaffected; Southerners were
  • more likely to think masculine reputation was threatened
  • more upset (rise in cortisol)
  • more physiologically primed for aggression (rise in testosterone)
  • more likely to be aggressive or domineering

Social Learning

• Culture of Honor: A man's reputation is the key to his social and economic survival.
• Acceptable to be violent in response to insult, to protect home & property, to aid in socializing children.
• Culture of honor and wide availability of guns lead to violent responses to perceived threats and insults.

Deindividuation

• Deindividuation is the loss of individual identity, resulting in the reduction of constraints against socially harmful activities.

Zimbardo's Prisoner Study

• Jail created in the basement of a psychology department.
• "Prisoners" vs. "Guards"
• Prisoners wore prison-like uniforms, stocking caps; numbers, no names.
• Guards wore official uniforms, carried clubs.
• Guards quickly adjusted to their roles. About one third were tyrannical, even imposing punishment without telling experimenters. Most were willing to work overtime without extra pay.

Zimbardo's Prisoner Study

• Prisoners quickly become distressed, helpless, panicky. Half begged to be released after a few days.
• Experiment was terminated because prisoners were near mental breakdown.

Reducing Aggression

• Observing nonaggressive role models.
• Generating incompatible responses.
• Empathy, humor, unexpected responses.
• Cognitive strategies.
• Stop & think.

Summary

• Our tendencies to conform, to obey, to diffuse responsibility, to prejudge, and to be aggressive are to a large extent the negative consequences of the ways our minds work and of our need for intact social structure.
• The trick to not falling prey to these tendencies is to realize that we are prone to them and to THINK about what we do and what we say.