PSY 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Evolutionary Psychology, Social Proof, Cognitive Dissonance
Document Summary
An association between an act or object and an evaluation. Belief and feeling that predisposes one to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events. How we explain someone"s behavior affects how we react to it. Lapiere, 1934: restaurants served chinese couple, despite saying (later) they wouldn"t. General; attitudes predict very little, since the situation dominates (but specific attitudes often predict specific behaviors) All subjects perform boring task for 1 hour. Control group: no lie, ends with negative attitude. Exp: group 1: lies for 1 dollar, ends with positive attitude. Exp: group 2: lies for 20 dollars, end with negative attitude. A discrepancy between an attitude and our behavior (or some new info) leads to tension. Adjusting one"s behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard. Improved performance of tasks in the presence of others. Occurs with simple or well-learned tasks but not with tasks that are difficult or not yet mastered.
