Social psychology

543 Pages·2014·10.866 MB·English

by  Aronson, Elliot;Wilson, Timothy D;Akert, Robin M

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Social Psychology
Aronson Wilson Akert
Eighth Edition
ISBN 10: 1-292-02116-0
ISBN 13: 978-1-292-02116-4
Pearson Education Limited
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book by such owners.
ISBN 10: 1-292-02116-0
ISBN 13: 978-1-292-02116-4
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Printed in the United States of America
1112433322582693396181359557535191
P E A R S O N C U S T O M L I B R A R Y
Table of Contents
1. Introducing Social Psychology
Elliot Aronson/Timothy D. Wilson/Robin M. Akert 1
2. Methodology: How Social Psychologists Do Research
Elliot Aronson/Timothy D. Wilson/Robin M. Akert 23
3. Social Cognition: How We Think About the Social World
Elliot Aronson/Timothy D. Wilson/Robin M. Akert 55
4. Social Perception: How We Come to Understand Other People
Elliot Aronson/Timothy D. Wilson/Robin M. Akert 89
5. The Self" Understanding Ourselves in a Social Context
Elliot Aronson/Timothy D. Wilson/Robin M. Akert 125
6. The Need to Justify Our Actions: The Costs and Benefits of Dissonance Reduction
Elliot Aronson/Timothy D. Wilson/Robin M. Akert 165
7. Attitudes and Attitude Change: Influencing Thoughts and Feelings
Elliot Aronson/Timothy D. Wilson/Robin M. Akert 197
8. Conformity: Influencing Behavior
Elliot Aronson/Timothy D. Wilson/Robin M. Akert 235
9. Group Processes: Influence in Social Groups
Elliot Aronson/Timothy D. Wilson/Robin M. Akert 281
10. Interpersonal Attraction: From First Impressions to Close Relationships
Elliot Aronson/Timothy D. Wilson/Robin M. Akert 319
11. Prosocial Behavior: Why Do People Help?
Elliot Aronson/Timothy D. Wilson/Robin M. Akert 361
12. Aggression: Why Do We Hurt Other People? Can We Prevent It?
Elliot Aronson/Timothy D. Wilson/Robin M. Akert 395
13. Prejudice: Causes, Consequences, and Cures
Elliot Aronson/Timothy D. Wilson/Robin M. Akert 433
I
544297397
14. Social Psychology in Action: Making a Difference with Social Psychology
Elliot Aronson/Timothy D. Wilson/Robin M. Akert 477
15. Social Psychology in Action: Social Psychology and Health
Elliot Aronson/Timothy D. Wilson/Robin M. Akert 499
Index 523
II
Introducing Social Psychology
From Chapter 1 of Social Psychology, Eighth Edition, Elliot Aronson, Timothy D. Wilson, Robin M. Akert. Copyright © 2013 by
Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
1
Introducing Social Psychology
2
THE TASK OF THE PSYCHOLOGIST IS TO TRY TO UNDERSTAND AND P REDICT
HUMAN BEHAVIOR. Different kinds of psychologists go about this task
in different ways, and in this text we attempt to show you how social
psychologists do it. Let’s begin with a few examples of human behavior.
Some of these might seem important; others might seem trivial; one or two
might seem frightening. To a social psychologist, all of them are interesting.
Our hope is that by the time you finish reading this text, you will find these
examples as fascinating as we do.
• Abraham Biggs Jr., age 19, had been posting to an online discussion
board for 2 years. Unhappy about his future and that a relationship had
FOCUS QUESTIONS
ended, Biggs announced on camera that he was going to commit suicide.
He took an overdose of drugs and linked to a live video feed from his
■ What is social psychology, and
bedroom. None of his hundreds of observers called the police for more
how is it different from other
than 10 hours; some egged him on. Paramedics reached him too late, and
disciplines?
Biggs died.
• Oscar is a middle-aged executive with a computer software company. As ■ What’s more important:
a student, Oscar had attended a large state university in the Midwest,
personality or situation?
where he was a member of Alpha Beta. He remembers having gone
through a severe and scary hazing ritual to join, but believes it was
■ How did behaviorism and
worthwhile, since Alpha Beta was easily the best of all fraternities. A
Gestalt psychology contribute
few years ago when his son, Sam, enrolled in the same university, Oscar
to the development of social
urged him to pledge Alpha Beta. Sam did and was accepted. Oscar was
psychological thought?
relieved to learn that Sam was not required to undergo a severe initia-
tion in order to become a member; times had changed, and hazing was
■ What are the differences
now forbidden. When Sam went home for Christmas, Oscar asked him
how he liked the fraternity. “It’s all right, I guess,” he said, “but most of between the self-esteem
my friends are outside the fraternity.” Oscar was astonished. Why had approach and the social
he been so enamored of his fraternity brothers and his son wasn’t? Was cognition approach?
Alpha Beta now admitting a less desirable group of young men than in
Oscar’s day? ■ How can social psychology help
solve social problems?
• In the mid-1970s, several hundred members of the Peoples Temple, a
California-based religious cult, immigrated to Guyana under the guid-
ance of their leader, the Reverend Jim Jones. Their aim was to found
a model interracial community, called Jonestown, based on “love, hard
work, and spiritual enlightenment.” But within a few years some mem-
bers wanted out, and they wrote to their congressman, claiming they
were being held against their will. The congressman flew to Jonestown to
investigate, but he and several other members of his party were shot and
killed by a member of the Peoples Temple on Jones’s orders. Jones grew
despondent and began to speak over the public address system about the
beauty of dying and the certainty that everyone would meet again in an-
other place. The residents lined up in a pavilion, in front of a vat contain-
ing a mixture of Kool-Aid and cyanide. According to a survivor, almost all
the residents drank willingly of the deadly solution. A total of 914 people
died, including 80 babies and the Reverend Jones.
These stories pose fascinating questions about human social behavior: Why
would people watch a troubled young man commit suicide in front of their
eyes, when, by simply flagging the video to alert the Web site, they might
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Introducing Social Psychology
Social Psychology have averted a tragedy? Why did Sam feel so much less attached to his fraternity than
The scientific study of the way in his father did? And how could large numbers of people be induced to kill their own
which people’s thoughts, feelings, children and then commit suicide? In this chapter, we will consider what these examples
and behaviors are influenced by have in common and how social psychologists go about explaining them.
the real or imagined presence of
other people
Social Influence
What Is Social Psychology?
The effect that the words, actions,
or mere presence of other people
have on our thoughts, feelings, Social psychology is the scientific study of the way in which people’s thoughts, feel-
attitudes, or behavior ings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people:
parents, friends, employers, teachers, strangers—indeed, by the entire social situation
(Allport, 1985). When we think of social influence, the kinds of examples that readily
come to mind are direct attempts at persuasion, whereby one person deliberately tries
to change another person’s behavior. This is what happens when advertisers use so-
phisticated techniques to persuade us to buy a particular brand of toothpaste, or when
our friends try to get us to do something we don’t really want to do (“Come on, have
another beer—everyone is doing it”), or when the schoolyard bully uses force or threats
to get smaller kids to part with their lunch money.
These direct attempts at social influence form a major part of social psychology.
To the social psychologist, however, social influence is broader than attempts by one
person to change another person’s behavior. It includes our thoughts and feelings as
well as our overt acts. And it takes many forms other than deliberate attempts at persua-
sion. We are often influenced merely by the presence of other people, including perfect
strangers who are not interacting with us. Other people don’t even have to be present
in order to influence us: We are governed by the imaginary approval or disapproval of
our parents, friends, and teachers and by how we expect others to react to us. Some-
times these influences conflict with one another, and social psychologists are especially
interested in what happens in the mind of an individual when they do. For example,
conflicts frequently occur when young people go off to college and find themselves torn
between the beliefs and values they learned at home and the beliefs and values of their
professors or peers. (See the Try It!)
We will spend the rest of this chapter expanding on these issues, so that you will get
an idea of what social psychology is, what it isn’t, and how it differs from other, related
disciplines.
Our thoughts, feelings, and
behaviors are influenced by our
immediate surroundings as well
as by our cultural and family
background. These students share
a college identity but differ in
ethnicity and religion.
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Introducing Social Psychology
TRY IT! How Do Values Change?
Think of the major values that govern people’s lives: love, Note the similarities and differences in your lists. How do
money, sex, wealth, religion, freedom, compassion for oth- these differences affect you? Do you find yourself rejecting
ers, security, children, duty, loyalty, and so on. Make three one set of values in favor of the other? Are you trying to
lists of the 10 values that are most important to (1) you, make a compromise between the two? Are you attempting
(2) your parents, and (3) your closest friends in college. to form a new set of values that are your own?
Social Psychology, Science, and Common Sense
Throughout history, philosophy has been a major source of insight about human na-
ture. Indeed, the work of philosophers is part of the foundation of contemporary psy-
chology. This has more than mere historical significance: Psychologists have looked
to philosophers for insights into the nature of consciousness (e.g., Dennett, 1991) and
how people form beliefs about the social world (e.g., Gilbert, 1991). Sometimes, how-
ever, even great thinkers find themselves in disagreement with one another. When this
occurs, how are you supposed to know who is right? Are there some situations where
Philosopher A might be right, and other conditions where Philosopher B might be
right? How would you determine this?
We social psychologists address many of the same questions that philosophers do,
but we attempt to look at these questions scientifically—even questions concerning that
great human mystery, love. In 1663, the Dutch philosopher Benedict Spinoza offered a
highly original insight. He proposed that if we love someone whom we formerly hated,
that love will be stronger than if hatred had not preceded it. Spinoza’s proposition is
beautifully worked out. His logic is impeccable. But how can we be sure that it holds
up? Does it always hold up? What are the conditions under which it does or doesn’t?
These are empirical questions, meaning that their answers can be derived from experi-
mentation or measurement rather than by personal opinion (Aronson, 1999; Aronson
& Linder, 1965).
Now let’s take another look at the examples at the beginning of this chapter. Why
did these people behave the way they did? One way to answer this question would sim-
ply be to ask them. We could ask the people who observed Abraham Biggs’s suicide why
they didn’t call the police; we could ask Sam why he wasn’t especially excited about his
fraternity brothers. The problem with this approach is that people are not always aware
of the origins of their own responses and feelings (Gilbert, 2008; Nisbett & Wilson,
1977; Wilson, 2002). People might come up with plenty of excuses for not calling the
police to rescue Biggs, but those excuses might not be the reason they did nothing. It
is unlikely that Sam could pinpoint why he liked his fraternity brothers less than his
father had liked his.
After the mass suicide at Jonestown, everyone had an explanation. Some people
claimed (mistakenly) that the Reverend Jones used hypnotism and drugs to weaken
the resistance of his followers. Others claimed (also mistakenly) that the people who
were attracted to his cult were emotionally disturbed in the first place. As you will learn
throughout this text, such speculations are almost always wrong, or at the very least
oversimplified, because they underestimate the power of the situation. It is difficult for
most people to grasp just how powerful a cult can be in affecting the hearts and minds
of otherwise healthy and well-educated people.
If we rely on commonsense explanations of one particular tragic event, moreover,
we don’t learn very much that helps us understand other, similar ones. The attacks
on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, made Ameri-
cans wonder what kind of “crazy, deranged” people become suicide bombers. Yet the
evidence repeatedly finds that the people in suicide cults, like most suicide bombers
today, were mentally healthy and, for the most part, bright and well educated. Name-
calling may make some people feel better, but it is no substitute for understanding the
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