Attribution, Attitudes, & Actions
The tendency of observers to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition.
Fundamental Attribution Error
An understood rule for accepted and expected behavior.
Norm
An unjustifiable and usually negative attitude toward a group and its members.
Prejudice
Any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy.
Aggression
The tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable.
Social Loafing
The tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request.
Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon
The mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives.
Groupthink
A generalized belief about a group of people.
Stereotype
Unselfish regard for the welfare of others.
Altruism
Improved performance on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others.
Social Facilitation
The tendency to favor our own group.
Ingroup Bias
The loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity.
Deindividuation
Unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group and its members.
Discrimination
The tendency for any given person to be less likely to give aid if other people are present.
Bystander Effect
The theory that we act to reduce the discomfort we feel when our attitudes and our actions are inconsistent.
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
When people are influenced by evidence and arguments.
Central Route Persuasion
Role playing morphed into real life in this famous study in which male college students volunteered to spend time in a simulated prison.
Stanford Prison Experiment
The tendency to recall the faces of one’s own race more accurately than faces of other races.
Other-Race Effect
An expectation that people will help those who helped them.
Reciprocity Norm
In 1963, Stanley Milgram conducted a series of experiments in which he asked participants to deliver electric shocks to a learner for giving incorrect answers. He was studying this concept.
Obedience to Authority
When people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker’s attractiveness.
Peripheral Route Persuasion
The enhancement of a group’s prevailing inclinations through discussions within the group.
Group Polarization
The tendency for people to believe the world is fair and that people therefore get what they deserve and deserve what they get.
Just-World Phenomenon
The principal that frustration creates anger, which can generate aggression.
Frustration-Aggression Principle
In 1955, Solomon Asch conducted a series of experiments in which he asked participants to state which of three comparison lines was identical to a standard line. Asch was studying this concept.
Conformity