PSY 1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Confirmation Bias, Fundamental Attribution Error, The Takeaway
Document Summary
Students given role as prison guards were shocked at the changes in their behavior and values. Shows that social context dramatically influences behavior. Social psychology studies how the presence of others can influence our thoughts, feelings and behavior. Attitude: a learned, relatively enduring evaluative reaction toward a person, object or idea. Can affect behavior, but the interaction between attitudes and behavior is often very complex. Carried out classic study on prejudice, attitudes and behavior. Attitudes and behavior are not always consistent with one another: although most americans felt badly about asian-americans (92% said they would refuse service), only 11% of restaurants refused service to. Attitudes influence behavior most strongly when counteracting situational factors are weak (ex. financial incentives, social risk of expressing an attitude, etc. ) Degree depends on presence or strength of any counteracting factors and the strength of one"s attitude. When prophecy fails (schachter and others, 1956) Religious cult with leader mrs. kreech and her prophecy.
