PSYCH 1F03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Murder Of Kitty Genovese, Solomon Asch
22 Sep 2016
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Document Summary
As social beings, our thoughts and behaviour are influenced by the thoughts and behaviour of people around us. We look to others for cues to determine how we should feel a and act in a given situation. Triplett noted that bicycle racers were faster when competing against each other than when racing against the clock. Triplett was talking about the effect on us of co-actors; that is, others present who are doing the same thing. If others are present but just watching, we call them an audience. Presence of co-actors or an audience improved performance: people were faster, more accurate, etc. Sometimes we may behave better than if were alone in the same situation. In the case of mob action, we may behave in a way that we never would if alone. We conform to standards of behaviour of others because : Subject found that the others began to agree on what he thought was clearly a wrong answer.
