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T E N T H E D I T I O N

David G. Myers

www.mhhe.com/myers10e

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

ISBN 978-0-07-337066-8 MHID 0-07-337066-5

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Social Psychology

David G. Myers Hope College

Holland, Michigan

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Published by McGraw-Hill, an imprint of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020. Copyright © 2010, 2008, 2005, 2002, 1999, 1996, 1993, 1990, 1987, 1983. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written consent of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., including, but not limited to, in any network or other electronic storage or transmission, or broadcast for distance learning.

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About the Author

Since receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa, David Myers has spent his career at Michigan’s Hope College, where he is the John Dirk Werkman Professor of Psychology and has taught dozens of social-psychology sections. Hope College students have invited him to be their commencement speaker and voted him “outstanding professor.”

Myers’ scientific articles have appeared in some three dozen scientific books and periodicals, including Science, the American Scientist, Psychological Science, and the American Psychologist.

In addition to his scholarly writing and his text- books, he communicates psychological science to the general public. His writings have appeared in three dozen magazines, from Today’s Education to Scientific American. He also has published general audience books, including The Pursuit of Happiness and Intui tion: Its Powers and Perils.

David Myers has chaired his city’s Human Relations Commission, helped found a thriving assistance cen- ter for families in poverty, and spoken to hundreds of college and community groups. Drawing on his own experience, he also has written articles and a book (A Quiet World) about hearing loss, and he is advocat- ing a revolution in American hearing- assistance tech- nology (hearingloop.org).

He bikes to work year-round and still plays daily pick-up basketball. David and Carol Myers are parents of two sons and a daughter.

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Brief Contents

chapter 1 Introducing Social Psychology 2

Part One Social Thinking chapter 2 The Self in a Social World 34 chapter 3 Social Beliefs and Judgments 78 chapter 4 Behavior and Attitudes 122

Part Two Social Influence chapter 5 Genes, Culture, and Gender 156 chapter 6 Conformity and Obedience 190 chapter 7 Persuasion 228 chapter 8 Group Influence 266

Part Three Social Relations chapter 9 Prejudice: Disliking Others 306 chapter 10 Aggression: Hurting Others 352 chapter 11 Attraction and Intimacy: Liking and Loving Others 392 chapter 12 Helping 440 chapter 13 Conflict and Peacemaking 482

Part Four Applying Social Psychology chapter 14 Social Psychology in the Clinic 524 chapter 15 Social Psychology in Court 532 chapter 16 Social Psychology and the Sustainable Future 590

Epilogue 610

References R-1

Credits C-1

Name Index N-1

Subject Index/Glossary S-1

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Research Methods: How We Do Social Psychology 17 Forming and Testing Hypotheses 17 Correlational Research: Detecting Natural

Associations 18 Experimental Research: Searching for Cause and

Effect 24 Generalizing from Laboratory to Life 28

Postscript: Why I Wrote This Book 30

Part One: Social Thinking

chapter 2 The Self in a Social World 34

Spotlights and Illusions 36 Research Close-Up: On Being Nervous

about Looking Nervous 36

Self-Concept: Who Am I? 39 At the Center of Our Worlds: Our Sense of Self 39 Development of the Social Self 40 Self and Culture 42 The Inside Story: Hazel Markus and

Shinobu Kitayama on Cultural Psychology 46 Self-Knowledge 47

Self-Esteem 52 Self-Esteem Motivation 52 The “Dark Side” of Self-Esteem 53

Perceived Self-Control 56 Self-Efficacy 57 Locus of Control 58 Learned Helplessness versus Self-Determination 59 The Inside Story: Daniel Gilbert on the Benefits

of Irrevocable Commitments 62

Self-Serving Bias 63 Explaining Positive and Negative Events 63 Can We All Be Better than Average? 64 Focus On: Self-Serving Bias—How

Do I Love Me? Let Me Count the Ways 65 Unrealistic Optimism 66 False Consensus and Uniqueness 68 Explaining Self-Serving Bias 69 Reflections on Self-Esteem and Self-Serving Bias 70

Self-Presentation 72 Self-Handicapping 73 Impression Management 73

Postscript: Twin Truths—The Perils of Pride, the Powers of Positive Thinking 76

Table of Contents

chapter 1 Introducing Social Psychology 2

What Is Social Psychology? 4

Social Psychology’s Big Ideas 5 We Construct Our Social Reality 5 Our Social Intuitions Are Often Powerful but

Sometimes Perilous 6 Social Influences Shape Our Behavior 7 Personal Attitudes and Dispositions Also Shape

Behavior 8 Social Behavior is Biologically Rooted 8 Social Psychology’s Principles Are Applicable in

Everyday Life 9

Social Psychology and Human Values 10 Obvious Ways Values Enter Psychology 10 Not-So-Obvious Ways Values Enter Psychology 10

I Knew It All Along: Is Social Psychology Simply Common Sense? 13 Focus On: I Knew It All Along 15

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Contents vii

Focus On: Saying Becomes Believing 134 The Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon 134 Evil and Moral Acts 136 Interracial Behavior and Racial Attitudes 138 Social Movements 138

Why Does Our Behavior Affect Our Attitudes? 140 Self-Presentation: Impression Management 140 Self-Justification: Cognitive Dissonance 141 The Inside Story: Leon Festinger on Dissonance Reduction 144

Self-Perception 145 Comparing the Theories 150

Postscript: Changing Ourselves through Action 152

Part Two: Social Influence

chapter 5 Genes, Culture, and Gender 156

How Are We Influenced by Human Nature and Cultural Diversity? 158 Genes, Evolution, and Behavior 158 Culture and Behavior 160 Focus On: The Cultural Animal 161 Research Close-Up: Passing Encounters,

East and West 164

How Are Gender Similarities and Differences Explained? 168 Independence versus Connectedness 169 Social Dominance 171 Aggression 173 Sexuality 173

Evolution and Gender: Doing What Comes Naturally? 175 Gender and Mating Preferences 176 Reflections on Evolutionary Psychology 178 Focus On: Evolutionary Science and

Religion 179 Gender and Hormones 180

Culture and Gender: Doing as the Culture Says? 181 Gender Roles Vary with Culture 182 Gender Roles Vary over Time 183 Peer-Transmitted Culture 184

What Can We Conclude about Genes, Culture, and Gender? 186 Biology and Culture 186 The Inside Story: Alice Eagly on Gender

Similarities and Differences 187 The power of the Situation and the Person 187

Postscript: Should We View Ourselves as Products or Architects of Our Social Worlds? 189

chapter 3 Social Beliefs and Judgments 78

Perceiving Our Social Worlds 80 Priming 80 Perceiving and Interpreting Events 81 Belief Perseverance 84 Constructing Memories of Ourselves and

Our Worlds 85

Judging Our Social Worlds 88 Intuitive Judgments 88 Overconfidence 90 Heuristics: Mental Shortcuts 94 Counterfactual Thinking 97 Illusory Thinking 98 Moods and Judgments 100

Explaining Our Social Worlds 102 Attributing Causality: To the Person or the

Situation 102 The Fundamental Attribution Error 105

Expectations of Our Social Worlds 112 Focus On: The Self-Fulfilling Psychology of

the Stock Market 113 Teacher Expectations and Student Performance 113 Getting from Others What We Expect 115

Conclusions 117

Postscript: Reflecting on Illusory Thinking 119

chapter 4 Behavior and Attitudes 122

How Well Do Our Attitudes Predict Our Behavior? 124 When Attitudes Predict Behavior 125 The Inside Story: Mahzarin R. Banaji on

Discovering Experimental Social Psychology 126

Research Close-Up: You’ve Not Got Mail: Prejudicial Attitudes Predict Discriminatory Behavior 130

When Does Our Behavior Affect Our Attitudes? 131 Role Playing 132 Saying Becomes Believing 133

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viii Contents

chapter 6 Conformity and Obedience 190

What Is Conformity? 192

What Are the Classic Conformity and Obedience Studies? 193 Sherif’s Studies of Norm Formation 193 Research Close-Up: Contagious

Yawning 195 Focus On: Mass Delusions 197 Asch’s Studies of Group Pressure 197 Milgram’s Obedience Experiments 199 The Ethics of Milgram’s Experiments 200 What Breeds Obedience? 201 Focus On: Personalizing the Victims 203 The Inside Story: Stanley Milgram on

Obedience 205 Reflections on the Classic Studies 205

What Predicts Conformity? 210 Group Size 211 Unanimity 211 Cohesion 213 Status 213 Public Response 214 Prior Commitment 214

Why Conform? 215

Who Conforms? 218 Personality 218 Culture 219 Social Roles 220

Do We Ever Want to Be Different? 222 Reactance 222 Asserting Uniqueness 223

Postscript: On Being an Individual within Community 225

chapter 7 Persuasion 228

What Paths Lead to Persuasion? 231 The Central Route 232 The Peripheral Route 232 Different Paths for Different Purposes 233

What Are the Elements of Persuasion? 234 Who Says? The Communicator 234 Research Close-Up: Experimenting with a

Virtual Social Reality 238 What Is Said? The Message Content 239 How Is It Said? The Channel of Communication 246 To Whom Is It Said? The Audience 250

Extreme Persuasion: How Do Cults Indoctrinate? 254 Attitudes Follow Behavior 256 Persuasive Elements 256 Group Effects 258

How Can Persuasion Be Resisted? 259 Strengthening Personal Commitment 260 The Inside Story: William McGuire on

Attitude Inoculation 261 Real-Life Applications: Inoculation Programs 261 Implications of Attitude Inoculation 264

Postscript: Being Open but Not Naive 265

chapter 8 Group Influence 266

What Is a Group? 268

Social Facilitation: How Are We Affected by the Presence of Others? 268 The Mere Presence of Others 269 Crowding: The Presence of Many Others 270 Why Are We Aroused in the Presence of Others? 271

Social Loafing: Do Individuals Exert Less Effort in a Group? 273 Many Hands Make Light Work 274 Social Loafing in Everyday Life 276

Deindividuation: When Do People Lose Their Sense of Self in Groups? 278 Doing Together What We Would Not Do Alone 278 Diminished Self-Awareness 281

Group Polarization: Do Groups Intensify Our Opinions? 282 The Case of the “Risky Shift” 283 Do Groups Intensify Opinions? 284 Focus On: Group Polarization 287 Explaining Polarization 288

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Contents ix

What Are the Motivational Sources of Prejudice? 324 Frustration and Aggression: The Scapegoat

Theory 325 Social Identity Theory: Feeling Superior to

Others 325 Motivation to Avoid Prejudice 330

What Are the Cognitive Sources of Prejudice? 331 Categorization: Classifying People into Groups 332 Distinctiveness: Perceiving People Who Stand

Out 335 Attribution: Is It a Just World? 339

What Are the Consequences of Prejudice? 342 Self-Perpetuating Stereotypes 342 Discrimination’s Impact: The Self-Fulfilling

Prophecy 344 Stereotype Threat 345 The Inside Story: Claude Steele on

Stereotype Threat 347 Do stereotypes Bias Judgments Of

Individuals? 348

Postscript: Can We Reduce Prejudice? 350

chapter 10 Aggression: Hurting Others 352

What Is Aggression? 355

What Are Some Theories of Aggression? 356 Aggression as a Biological Phenomenon 356 Aggression as a Response to Frustration 359 Aggression as Learned Social Behavior 362

What Are Some Influences on Aggression? 365 Aversive Incidents 365 Arousal 368 Aggression Cues 368 Media Influences: Pornography and Sexual

Violence 370 Media Influences: Television 374 Media Influences: Video Games 379 The Inside Story: Craig Anderson on Video-

Game Violence 382 Group Influences 382 Research Close-Up: When Provoked, Are

Groups More Aggressive Than Individuals? 384

How Can Aggression Be Reduced? 385 Catharsis? 385 A Social Learning Approach 387

Postscript: Reforming a Violent Culture 389

Groupthink: Do Groups Hinder or Assist Good Decisions? 290 The Inside Story: Irving Janis on

Groupthink 291 Symptoms of Groupthink 292 Critiquing Groupthink 294 Preventing Groupthink 295 Group Problem Solving 295 The Inside Story: Behind a Nobel Prize:

Two Minds Are Better Than One 297

The Influence of the Minority: How Do Individuals Influence the Group? 299 Consistency 299 Self-Confidence 300 Defections from the Majority 300 Is Leadership Minority Influence? 301 Focus On: Transformational Community

Leadership 303

Postscript: Are Groups Bad for Us? 304

Part Three: Social Relations

chapter 9 Prejudice: Disliking Others 306

What Is the Nature and Power of Prejudice? 308 Defining Prejudice 308 Prejudice: Subtle and Overt 310 Racial Prejudice 310 Gender Prejudice 315

What Are the Social Sources of Prejudice? 319 Social Inequalities: Unequal Status and

Prejudice 319 Socialization 320 Institutional Supports 322

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x Contents

chapter 11 Attraction and Intimacy: Liking and Loving Others 392

What Leads to Friendship and Attraction? 396 Proximity 397 Focus On: Liking Things Associated with

Oneself 400 Physical Attractiveness 402 The Inside Story: Ellen Berscheid on

Attractiveness 407 Similarity versus Complementarity 412 The Inside Story: James Jones on Cultural

Diversity 414 Liking Those Who Like Us 415 Focus On: Bad Is Stronger Than Good 416 Relationship Rewards 418

What Is Love? 420 Passionate Love 421 Companionate Love 424

What Enables Close Relationships? 426 Attachment 426 Equity 428 Self-Disclosure 430 Focus On: Does the Internet Create

Intimacy or Isolation? 432

How Do Relationships End? 434 Divorce 434 The Detachment Process 435

Postscript: Making Love 438

chapter 12 Helping 440

Why Do We Help? 443 Social Exchange and Social Norms 443 The Inside Story: Dennis Krebs on Life

Experience and Professional Interests 445 Evolutionary Psychology 452 Comparing and Evaluating Theories of Helping 454 Genuine Altruism 454 Focus On: The Benefits—and the Costs—

of Empathy-Induced Altruism 458

When Will We Help? 459 Number of Bystanders 460 The Inside Story: John M. Darley on

Bystander Reactions 462 Helping When Someone Else Does 464 Time Pressures 465 Similarity 466 Research Close-Up: Ingroup Similarity and

Helping 467

Who Will Help? 469 Personality Traits 469

Gender 470 Religious Faith 470

How Can We Increase Helping? 473 Reduce Ambiguity, Increase responsibility 473 Guilt and Concern for Self-Image 474 Socializing Altruism 475 Focus On: Behavior and Attitudes among

Rescuers of Jews 478

Postscript: Taking Social Psychology into Life 480

chapter 13 Conflict and Peacemaking 482

What Creates Conflict? 484 Social Dilemmas 484 Competition 491 Perceived Injustice 493 Misperception 493 Research Close-Up: Misperception and War 498

How Can Peace Be Achieved? 499 Contact 499 Research Close-Up: Relationships That

Might Have Been 502 The Inside Story: Nicole Shelton and Jennifer

Richeson on Cross-Racial Friendships 503 Cooperation 504 Focus On: Why Do We Care Who Wins? 506 Focus On: Branch Rickey, Jackie Robinson,

and the Integration Of Baseball 512 Communication 514 Conciliation 519

Postscript: The Conflict between Individual and Communal Rights 521

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Contents xi

How Do Group Influences Affect Juries? 583 Minority Influence 584 Group Polarization 584 Research Close-Up: Group Polarization

in a Natural Court Setting 585 Leniency 586 Are Twelve Heads Better Than One? 586 Are Six Heads as Good as Twelve? 586 From Lab to Life: Simulated and Real Juries 587

Postscript: Thinking Smart with Psychological Science 589

chapter 16 Social Psychology and the Sustainable Future 590

An Environmental Call to Action 592

Enabling Sustainable Living 595 New Technologies 595 Reducing Consumption 596

The Social Psychology of Materialism and Wealth 598 Increased Materialism 598 Wealth and Well-Being 598 Materialism Fails to Satisfy 602 Focus On: Social Comparison, Belonging,

and Happiness 604 Toward Sustainability and Survival 605 Research Close-Up: Measuring National

Well-Being 607

Postscript: How Does One Live Responsibly in the Modern World? 608

Epilogue 610 References R-1 Credits C-1 Name Index N-1 Subject Index/Glossary S-1

Part Four: Applying Social Psychology

chapter 14 Social Psychology in the Clinic 524

What Influences the Accuracy of Clinical Judgments? 526 Illusory Correlations 527 Hindsight and Overconfidence 528 Self-Confirming Diagnoses 529 Clinical versus Statistical Prediction 529 Implications for Better Clinical Practice 531 Focus On: A Physician’s View 531

What Cognitive Processes Accompany Behavior Problems? 532 Depression 532 The Inside Story: Shelley Taylor on

Positive Illusions 534 Loneliness 536 Anxiety and Shyness 538 Health, Illness, and Death 540

What Are Some Social-Psychological Approaches to Treatment? 544 Inducing Internal Change through External

Behavior 544 Breaking Vicious Circles 545 Maintaining Change through Internal

Attributions for Success 547 Using Therapy as Social Influence 547

How Do Social Relationships Support Health and Well-Being? 549 Close Relationships and Health 549 Close Relationships and Happiness 552

Postscript: Enhancing Happiness 555

chapter 15 Social Psychology in Court 558

How Reliable Is Eyewitness Testimony? 561 The Power of Persuasive Eyewitnesses 561 When Eyes Deceive 562 The Misinformation Effect 564 Focus On: Eyewitness Testimony 565 Retelling 567 Reducing Error 567 Research Close-Up: Feedback to Witnesses 568

What Other Factors Influence Juror Judgments? 572 The Defendant’s Characteristics 572 The Judge’s Instructions 575 Additional Factors 577

What Influences the Individual Juror? 578 Juror Comprehension 578 Jury Selection 580 “Death-Qualified” Jurors 582

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Preface Regardless of background or major, students will see their world reflected in Social Psychology

Students will see themselves, their families, or

their workplaces within the pages of this text.

In barely a century of formal study, significant

insight has been gained into belief and illusion,

love and hate, conformity and independence—

social behaviors that we encounter virtually every

day in all walks of life. In these pages students

will see themselves and the world in which they

live and love, work and play.

Like the study of Social Psychology, I continue to envision this text as solidly scientific and warmly human, factually rigorous and intellectually provocative. In this edition, social phenomena that are important and relevant to today’s students are revealed throughout the narrative, and in enriching elements such as margin notes and chapter-ending Postscripts.

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Understanding that students majoring in psychology, business, law, teaching, or many other areas may be drawn to the study of Social Psychology, this text is written in the intellectual tradition of the liberal arts. As with great literature, philosophy, and science, liberal arts education seeks to expand our thinking and awareness beyond the confines of the present. By focusing on humanly significant issues I offer the core content in ways that appeal to, and draw on applications from, a wide array of behaviors and experiences.

Social Psychology can now offer partial answers to many questions we face in our homes, communities, and societies:

■ How does our thinking—both conscious and unconscious— drive our behavior?

■ What leads people sometimes to hurt and sometimes to help one another?

■ What kindles social conflict, and how can we transform closed fists into helping hands?

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We humans love to feel good about ourselves, and gen- erally we do. Not only are we prone to self-serving bias (Chapter 2), we also exhibit what Brett Pelham, Matthew Mirenberg, and John Jones (2002) call implicit egotism: We like what we associate with ourselves.

That includes the letters of our name, but also the people, places, and things that we unconsciously con- nect with ourselves (Jones & others, 2002; Koole & others, 2001). If a stranger’s or politician’s face is morphed to include features of our own, we like the new face better (Bailenson & others, 2009; DeBruine, 2004). We are also more attracted to people whose arbitrary experimental code number resembles our birth date, and we are even disproportionately likely to marry someone whose first or last name resembles our own, such as by starting with the same letter (Jones & others, 2004).

Such preferences appear to subtly influence other major life decisions as well, including our locations and careers, report Pelham and his colleagues. Philadelphia, being larger than Jacksonville, has 2.2 times as many men named Jack. But it has 10.4 times as many people named Philip. Likewise, Virginia Beach has a dispropor- tionate number of people named Virginia.

Does this merely reflect the influence of one’s place when naming one’s baby? Are people in Georgia, for example, more likely to name their babies George or Georgia? That may be so, but it doesn’t explain why states tend to have a relative excess of people whose last names are similar to the state names. California, for example, has a disproportionate number of people whose names begin with Cali (as in Califano). Likewise, major Canadian cities tend to have larger-than-expected

numbers of people whose last names overlap with the city names. Toronto has a marked excess of people whose names begin with Tor.

Moreover, women named “Georgia” are dispropor- tionately likely to move to Georgia, as do Virginias to Virginia. Such mobility could help explain why St. Louis has a 49 percent excess (relative to the national propor- tion) of men named Louis, and why people named Hill, Park, Beach, Lake, or Rock are disproportionately likely to live in cities with names (such as Park City) that include their names. “People are attracted to places that resem- ble their names,” surmise Pelham, Mirenberg, and Jones.

Weirder yet—I am not making this up—people seem to prefer careers related to their names. Across the United States, Jerry, Dennis, and Walter are equally pop- ular names (0.42 percent of people carry each of these names). Yet America’s dentists are almost twice as likely to be named Dennis as Jerry or Walter. There also are 2.5 times as many dentists named Denise as there are with the equally popular name Beverly or Tammy. People named George or Geoffrey are overrepresented among geoscientists (geologists, geophysicists, and geochem- ists). And in the 2000 presidential campaign, people with last names beginning with B and G were disproportion- ately likely to contribute to the campaigns of Bush and Gore, respectively.

Reading about implicit egotism–based preferences gives me pause: Has this anything to do with why I enjoyed that trip to Fort Myers? Why I’ve written about moods, the media, and marriage? Why I collaborated with Professor Murdoch? If so, does this also explain why it was Suzie who sold seashells by the seashore?

Liking Things Associated with Oneself focus

ON

400 Part Three Social Relations

prefer not only letters from their names but also numbers corresponding to their birth dates. This “name letter effect” reflects more than mere exposure, however— see “ Focus On: Liking Things Associated with Oneself .”

The mere-exposure effect violates the commonsense prediction of boredom— decreased interest—regarding repeatedly heard music or tasted foods (Kahneman & Snell, 1992). Unless the repetitions are incessant (“Even the best song becomes tiresome if heard too often,” says a Korean proverb), familiarity usually doesn’t breed contempt, it increases liking. When completed in 1889, the Eiffel Tower in Paris was mocked as grotesque (Harrison, 1977). Today it is the beloved symbol of Paris.

So, do visitors to the Louvre in Paris really adore the Mona Lisa for the artistry it displays, or are they simply delighted to find a familiar face? It might be both: To know her is to like her. Eddie Harmon-Jones and John Allen (2001) explored this phenomenon experimentally. When they showed people a woman’s face, their

How much do you like your name? In six studies, Jochen Gebauer and his colleagues (2008) report that liking of one’s own name is a reliable indicator of both implicit and explicit self-esteem.

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Engaging research reflects students’ interests and their environment

As we see in the research literature as

well as popular blogs (and, more recently,

“tweets”), social psychology remains a compelling and dynamic area of study.

Readers of this text from around the world have reached out to me, affirming that

this richness is captured in the narrative as well as hallmark features in each chapter.

In addition to part openers, chapter outlines, and summaries, each chapter includes

the following features.

The Inside Story essays capture compel- ling stories of famous researchers in their own words, highlighting the interests and questions that guided—and sometimes misguided—their findings. For example, Chapter 4 offers an essay by Mahzarin R. Banaji on her journey from being a secretarial assistant in India to being a Harvard professor.

Focus On features give students an in-depth explora- tion of a topic presented in the text. The “Focus On” in Chapter 11, for example, describes what Brett Pelham and colleagues call implicit egotism, which is the pre- disposition that we like what we associate ourselves with.

g g

126 Part One Social Thinking

hope, can reveal enough of a microsmile or a microfrown to indicate the partici- pant’s attitude about a given statement. A newer and widely used attitude measure, the implicit association test (IAT), uses reaction times to measure how quickly people associate concepts (Greenwald & others, 2002, 2003). One can, for example, measure implicit racial attitudes by assessing whether White people take longer to associate positive words with Black than with White faces. Across 126 studies, implicit associations measured by the IAT have correlated, on average, a modest .24 with explicit self-reported attitudes (Hofmann & others, 2005). (See “The Inside Story: Mahzarin R. Banaji on Discover- ing Experimental Social Psychology.”) A review of more than 100 studies and of more than 2.5 million IATs completed online reveals that explicit (self-report) and implicit attitudes both help predict peo- ple’s behaviors and judgments (Greenwald & others, 2008; Nosek & others, 2007). Thus, explicit and implicit attitudes may together predict behavior better than either alone (Spence & Townsend, 2007). For attitudes formed early in life, such as racial and gender attitudes, implicit and explicit attitudes frequently diverge, with implicit attitudes often being the bet- ter predictor of behavior. For example, implicit racial attitudes have successfully predicted interracial roommate relationships (Towles-Schwen & Fazio, 2006). For other attitudes, such as those related to consumer behavior and support for politi- cal candidates, explicit self-reports are the better predictor.

implicit association test (IAT) A computer-driven assessment of implicit attitudes. The test uses reaction times to measure people’s automatic

associations between attitude objects and evaluative words. Easier pairings (and faster responses) are taken to indicate stronger unconscious associations.

Mahzarin R. Banaji on Discovering Experimental Social Psychology Graduating from high school in India at age 15, I had but a single goal—to leave my well-adjusted and secure fam-ily to live the patently more daring and exciting life of a secretarial assistant. Proficient at typing scores of words a minute, I looked forward to a life of independence that involved living a block away from my parents. My mother, despite not having attended college, persuaded me to try college—but only for a semester, we agreed, after which I would be free to choose my path. The end of my first semester at Nizam College came and went. Mother didn’t ask about my plans. I didn’t have to swallow and tell. Just before one holiday trip home, I bought the five volumes of the 1968 Handbook of Social Psychology for the equivalent of a dollar apiece (it seemed like a lot of book for the money). By the end of a 24-hour train ride home, I had polished off one vol-ume and knew with blunt clarity that this science, which studied social processes experimentally, was something I had to do.

Doctoral and postdoctoral fellowships enabled me to work with three remarkable people early in my career: Tony Greenwald at Ohio State, and Claude Steele and Elizabeth Loftus at the University of Washington. At Yale, while still interested in human memory researchers, I dis-covered that memories come in both explicit (conscious)

and implicit (unconscious) forms. Might this also be true of attitudes, beliefs, and values? Hesitantly, I wrote the words “Implicit Attitudes” as the title of a grant proposal, not knowing it would become such a central part of what my students and I would study for the next two decades. With Tony Greenwald and Brian Nosek, I have enjoyed an extended collaboration on implicit social cognition that few scientists are blessed with. From the hundreds of studies that have used the Implicit Association Test (implicit.harvard.edu) and the millions of tests taken, we now know that people carry knowledge (stereotypes) and feelings (attitudes) of which they are unaware, and which often contrast with their conscious expressions. We know that subcortical brain activity can be an inde-pendent marker of implicit atti-tudes, that people differ in their implicit attitudes, and that suchattitudes and stereotypes pre-dict real-life behavior. Most opti-mistically, we know that implicit attitudes, even old ones, can be modified by experience.

THE inside STORY

Mahzarin Banaji Harvard University

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Rev.Confirming Pages

Postscripts are chapter-ending vignettes that engage students with thought-provoking questions and insights from the chapter. For example, Chapter 8 (“Group Influ- ence”) explores the question, “Are Groups Bad for Us?”

Research Close-Up boxes offer in-depth looks at sci- entific exploration of a fascinating variety of topics, ranging from when people yawn to how pedestrians in different cultures interact. “Research Close-Ups” provide students with a detailed, yet highly accessible understanding of how social psychologists use various research methods,

from laboratory studies, Internet experiments, and creating virtual realities to naturalistic observation and har- vesting archival data. Chapter 12’s “Research Close-up” explores the ingroup similarities and helping behaviors of individuals under certain conditions—one of many “Research Close-Up” topics that generate rich student discourse in classrooms, dorm rooms, or virtual chat rooms.

When I first set out to write this text I engaged the services of Jack Ridl, a poet in residence at Hope College. Little did I know that his guidance, my continual work- ing and re-working of the narrative, and the Liberal Arts foundation upon which it is all built, would lead to a text that continues to be so widely accepted, beyond my wildest dreams. Whether the Internet promotes or hinders social interaction may still be debat- able (see the “Focus On” in Chapter 11!), but it has allowed me to enjoy messages from students around the globe, many expressing genuine surprise at their enjoy- ment in reading a textbook!

Helping Chapter 12 467

Ingroup Similarity and Helping

Likeness breeds liking, and liking elicits helping. So, do people offer more help to others who display similarities to themselves? To explore the similarity-helping relationship, Mark Levine, Amy Prosser, and David Evans at Lancaster University joined with Stephen Reicher at St. Andrews University (2005) to study the behavior of some Lancaster students who earlier had identified themselves as fans of the nearby Manchester United soccer football team. Tak- ing their cue from John Darley and Daniel Batson’s (1973) famous Good Samaritan experiment, they directed each newly arrived participant to the laboratory in an adja- cent building. En route, a confederate jogger—wearing a shirt from either Manchester United or rival Liverpool— seemingly slipped on a grass bank just in front of them, grasped his ankle, and groaned in apparent pain. As Figure 12.8 shows, the Manchester fans routinely paused to offer help to their fellow Manchester supporter but usually did not offer such help to a supposed Liverpool supporter.

But, the researchers wondered, what if we remind Manchester fans of the identity they share with Liverpool supporters—as football fans rather than as detractors

who scorn football fans as violent hooligans? So they repeated the experiment, but with one difference: Before participants witnessed the jogger’s fall, the researcher explained that the study concerned the positive aspects of being a football fan. Given that only a small minority of fans are troublemakers, this research aimed to explore what fans get out of their love for “the beautiful game.” Now a jogger wearing a football club shirt, whether for Manchester or Liverpool, became one of “us fans.” And as Figure 12.9 shows, the grimacing jogger was helped regardless of which team he supported—and more so than if wearing a plain shirt.

The principle in the two cases is the same, notes the Lancaster research team: People are predisposed to help their fellow group members, whether those are defined more narrowly (as “us Manchester fans”) or more inclu- sively (as “us football fans”). If even rival fans can be per- suaded to help one another if they think about what unites them, then surely other antagonists can as well. One way to increase people’s willingness to help others is to promote social identities that are inclusive rather than exclusive.

research CLOSE-UP

FIGURE :: 12.8 Percent of Manchester United Fans Who Helped Victim Wearing Manchester or Liverpool Shirt

FIGURE :: 12.9 Common Fan Identity Condition: Percent of Manchester United Fans Who Helped Victim Wearing Manchester or Liverpool Shirt

Manchester shirt

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60%

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0% Liverpool

shirt Manchester

shirt

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80%

60%

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shirt Plain shirt

• Some studies found a same-race bias (Benson & others, 1976; Clark, 1974; Franklin, 1974; Gaertner, 1973; Gaertner & Bickman, 1971; Sissons, 1981).

• Others found no bias (Gaertner, 1975; Lerner & Frank, 1974; Wilson & Donnerstein, 1979; Wispe & Freshley, 1971).

• Still others—especially those involving face-to-face situations—found a bias toward helping those of a different race (Dutton, 1971, 1973; Dutton & Lake, 1973; Katz & others, 1975).

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304 Part Two Social Influence

When an apt combination of intelligence, skill, determination, self-confidence, and social charisma meets a rare opportunity, the result is sometimes a championship, a Nobel Prize, or a social revolution.

Summing Up: The Influence of the Minority: How Do Individuals Influence the Group? • Although a majority opinion often prevails, some-

times a minority can influence and even overturn a majority position. Even if the majority does not adopt the minority’s views, the minority’s speak- ing up can increase the majority’s self-doubts and prompt it to consider other alternatives, often lead- ing to better, more creative decisions.

• In experiments, a minority is most influential when it is consistent and persistent in its views, when its

actions convey self-confidence, and after it begins to elicit some defections from the majority.

• Through their task and social leadership, formal and informal group leaders exert disproportion- ate influence. Those who consistently press toward their goals and exude a self-confident charisma often engender trust and inspire others to follow.

POSTSCRIPT: Are Groups Bad for Us?

A selective reading of this chapter could, I must admit, leave readers with the impression that, on balance, groups are bad. In groups we become more aroused, more stressed, more tense, more error-prone on complex tasks. Submerged in a group that gives us anonymity, we have a tendency to loaf or have our worst impulses unleashed by deindividuation. Police brutality, lynchings, gang destruc- tion, and terrorism are all group phenomena. Discussion in groups often polarizes our views, enhancing mutual racism or hostility. It may also suppress dissent, cre- ating a homogenized groupthink that produces disastrous decisions. No wonder we celebrate those individuals—minorities of one—who, alone against a group, have stood up for truth and justice. Groups, it seems, are ba-a-a-d.

All that is true, but it’s only half the truth. The other half is that, as social ani- mals, we are group-dwelling creatures. Like our distant ancestors, we depend on one another for sustenance, support, and security. Moreover, when our individual tendencies are positive, group interaction accentuates our best. In groups, runners run faster, audiences laugh louder, and givers become more generous. In self-help groups, people strengthen their resolve to stop drinking, lose weight, and study harder. In kindred-spirited groups, people expand their spiritual consciousness. “A devout communing on spiritual things sometimes greatly helps the health of the soul,” observed fifteenth-century cleric Thomas à Kempis, especially when people of faith “meet and speak and commune together.”

Depending on which tendency a group is magnifying or disinhibiting, groups can be very, very bad or very, very good. So we had best choose our groups wisely and intentionally.

Making the Social Connection In this chapter we discussed group polarization and whether groups intensify opinions. This phenomenon will also be covered in Chapter 15

when we look at juries and how they make decisions. Can you think of other situa- tions where group polarization might be in effect? Go to the Online Learning Cen- ter for this book to view a clip about cliques and the influence of the group.

P.S.

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Confirming Pages

Updated material in the tenth edition With some 650 new bibliographic citations, David Myers, who subscribes to nearly all English-language social psychology periodicals (including those from Europe), has comprehensively updated Social Psychology. In addition to new margin quotes, photos, and cartoons, new content includes:

Chapter 1 Introducing Social Psychology • Hindsight bias and the world financial crisis • 2008 U.S. presidential election examples • Framing and nudging organ donation and retirement savings

Chapter 2 The Self in a Social World • Chapter opening example • Section on narcissism • Research on self-esteem and self-serving bias

Chapter 3 Social Beliefs and Judgments • Constructed memories and biased perceptions in politics • Research on unconscious information processing • Data on “probability neglect” in judgments of risk

Chapter 4 Behavior and Attitudes • Enhanced coverage of implicit attitudes and Implicit Association Test • Recent studies and examples of behavior feeding attitudes • Updated coverage of dissonance research

Chapter 5 Genes, Culture, and Gender • Research on social norms and rule-breaking • Group conflict and preference for male leader • International data on gender and sexuality, and gender and social roles

Chapter 6 Conformity and Obedience • Examples of suggestibility, conformity, and obedience • Replication of Milgram obedience experiment • Research on cohesion, conformity, and genocide

Chapter 7 Persuasion • Research on effective anti-smoking ads • Examples of political persuasion • Two-step flow of medical information

Chapter 8 Group Influence • Deindividuation effects on the Internet • Group polarization in liberal and conservative communities • The wisdom of crowds, prediction markets, and “the crowd within”

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Confirming Pages

Chapter 9 Prejudice: Disliking Others • Contemporary examples and data regarding various forms of prejudice • Recent studies of implicit prejudice • Research on prejudice phenomena, including infrahumanization, own-age