11/7/19

1

SocialPsychology

•  Focusesonbehaviorandmentalprocessesoftheindividualincontextofotherpeople

•  Outlinefornextfourclasses:– Firstimpressions– Attributionerrors;attitudesandbehavior– Obediencetoauthority– TheStanfordPrisonExperiment

Illustratethepowerofthesituation

Formingimpressions

Impressions

•  Weformimpressionsofotherpeople– Howquickly?– Aretheypredictive?

•  Otherpeopleformimpressionsofus– Doothersseeushowwethinktheyseeus?

Areimpressionspredictive?

•  DoesAlice’simpressionofChrispredictBob’simpressionofChris?– Atestofwhetherimpressionsarereliable

•  Dofirstimpressionspredictlaterimpressions?– Laterimpressionsmaydifferifthey’rebasedonmoreinformation

Correlation

•  Twovariablescorrelateiftheychangetogether– Correlationscanbeusefulforpredictingonevariablefromanother

– Correlationsmay(butneednot)revealcausalrelationships

Acorrelation:Leadandcrime

11/7/19

2

Quantifyingcorrelation

•  Onecommonmeasure:Pearson’sr– Nocorrelation:r=0– Perfectdirectcorrelation:r=1– Perfectinversecorrelation:r=-1

Hypotheticalcorrelations

Onetwin’sIQ

Fraternaltwin’sIQ

Iden

ticaltw

in’sIQ

Onetwin’sIQ

r=.6 r=.8

Firstimpressions(Ambady&Rosenthal,1993)

•  13teacherswerevideotaped– Teachersweregraduatestudentsintraining– Pickedtohaveawiderangeofcourseevaluations•  Toavoidrestrictionofrange

Judges’ratings

•  Judgeswere9undergraduates– Notfromthoseteachers’classes

•  Eachshown310-secclipsfromeachvideo– Soundturnedoff

•  Eachrated15teachercharacteristics,including:– Competence,confidence,enthusiasm,likeability,supportiveness,warmth

– Ratingswereaveragedovercharacteristicsandjudgestoget1scoreperteacher

Courseevaluations

•  Administeredattheendofterm•  Eachstudentratedtwoaspects:– Thequalityofthesectionoverall– Theinstructor’sperformanceoverall

•  Ratingswereaveragedoveraspectsandstudentstoget1scoreforeachteacher

Results

•  Correlationbetweenjudges’ratingsandcourseevaluations:

r=.76

•  With2-secclipsinsteadof10-secclips:r=.71

11/7/19

3

Examplecorrelationof.76

Judgesratings

Courseevaluations Eachpoint

correspondstoahypotheticalteacher

Implications

•  Alice’simpressionofChrispredictsBob’simpressionofChris– Thoughimperfectly;correlationislessthan1

•  Impressionsformrapidly–  Inafewseconds– “Thinslicesofbehavior”

Implications

•  Alice’sfirstimpressionofChrispredictsBob’simpressionofChrisafterBobhasgottentoknowChris

•  Possibleexplanations:– Alotofinformationiscommunicatedrapidlywhenwefirstseeormeetsomeone

– Onceweformanimpression,westicktoit•  Confirmationbiasmayplayarole

Meta-impressions

•  Ourimpressionsofotherpeople’simpressionsofus– Doothersseeusthewaywethinktheydo?

Thespotlighteffect(Gilovich,Medvec,&Savitsky,2000)

•  Participantputonatshirt,knockedonadoor,andwalkedintotheroom– Sixotherparticipantswereinside,workingonsomethingbutfacingthedoorway

– TshirthadalargeimageofBarryManilow

Thespotlighteffect(Gilovich,Medvec,&Savitsky,2000)

•  Experimenterthen“changedtheirmind”– Pulledtshirtweareroutoftheroomasheorshewasabouttosit

•  Conditions:– Predicted,actual,control

11/7/19

4

Conditions

•  Predicted:– Tshirtwearerwasaskedtopredicthowmanypeopleintheroomnoticedthetshirt

•  Actual:– Peopleintheroomwereaskedwhethertheynoticedthetshirt

Controlcondition

•  Participantswatchedavideoreenactment•  Thenwereaskedtopredicthowmanypeopleintheroomwouldnoticethetshirt– Thesamepredictiontaskasthetshirtwearer,butnotmadewhileinthespotlight

– Measurespeople’sgeneralabilitytopredictwhatotherpeopleactuallynotice

Thespotlighteffect Thespotlighteffect

•  Otherparticipantsdonnedabettert-shirt– Chosefrom:MartinLutherKing,Jr.BobMarleyJerrySeinfeld