Personality Test and the Representative Heuristics

Personality Test and the Representative Heuristics

Personality Test and the Representative Heuristics

Elliot Aronson

Timothy D. Wilson

Robin M. Akert

Samuel R. Sommers

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Aronson, Elliot. Social psychology / Elliot Aronson, Timothy D. Wilson, Robin M. Akert, Samuel R. Sommers. — Ninth Edition. pages cm Revised editon of the authors’ Social psychology, 2013. ISBN 978-0-13-393654-4 (Student Edition) 1. Social psychology. I. Wilson, Timothy D. II. Akert, Robin M. III. Title. HM1033.A78 2016 302—dc23 2015016513

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Student Edition ISBN-10: 0-13-393654-6 ISBN-13: 978-0-13-393654-4

Books à la Carte ISBN-10: 0-13-401239-9 ISBN-13: 978-0-13-401239-1

Personality Test and the Representative Heuristics

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To my grandchildren: Jacob, Jason, Ruth, Eliana, Natalie, Rachel, and Leo. My hope is that your capacity for empathy and compassion will help make

the world a better place.

—E.A.

To my family, Deirdre Smith, Christopher Wilson, and Leigh Wilson

—T.D.W.

To my mentor, colleague, and friend, Dane Archer

—R.M.A.

To my students—past, present, and future—for making coming to work each morning fun, educational, and unpredictable.

—S.R.S.

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iv

1 Introducing Social Psychology 1

2 Methodology: How Social Psychologists Do Research 23

3 Social Cognition: How We Think About the Social World 51

4 Social Perception: How We Come to Understand Other People 84

5 The Self: Understanding Ourselves in a Social Context 119

6 The Need to Justify Our Actions: The Costs and Benefits of Dissonance Reduction 157

7 Attitudes and Attitude Change: Influencing Thoughts and Feelings 188

8 Conformity: Influencing Behavior 226

9 Group Processes: Influence in Social Groups 269

10 Interpersonal Attraction: From First Impressions to Close Relationships 303

11 Prosocial Behavior: Why Do People Help? 344

12 Aggression: Why Do We Hurt Other People? Can We Prevent It? 375

13 Prejudice: Causes, Consequences, and Cures 413

Social Psychology in Action 1 Using Social Psychology to Achieve a Sustainable and Happy Future 455

Personality Test and the Representative Heuristics

Social Psychology in Action 2 Social Psychology and Health 476

Social Psychology in Action 3 Social Psychology and the Law 496

Brief Contents

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v

Preface xi About the Authors xvii Special Tips for Students xix

1 Introducing Social Psychology 1 Defining Social Psychology 3 Try IT! How Do Other People Affect your Values? 3

Social Psychology, Philosophy, Science, and Common Sense 4 How Social Psychology Differs from Its Closest Cousins 6

Try IT! Social Situations and Shyness 7

The Power of the Situation 9 The Importance of Explanation 10 The Importance of Interpretation 12

Where Construals Come From: Basic Human Motives 15 The Self-Esteem Motive: The Need to Feel Good About Ourselves 16

SuffERiNg AND SELf-JuSTifiCATioN

The Social Cognition Motive: The Need to Be Accurate 17 ExpECTATioNS AbouT ThE SoCiAL WoRLD

Summary? 20?•?Test?Yourself? 21

2 Methodology: How Social Psychologists Do Research 23

Social Psychology: An Empirical Science 24 Try IT! Social Psychology Quiz: What’s your Prediction? 25

Formulating Hypotheses and Theories 25 iNSpiRATioN fRoM EARLiER ThEoRiES and?ReSeaRch? •? hYpoTheSeS?BaSed? oN pERSoNAL obSERvATioNS

Research Designs 27

The Observational Method: Describing Social Behavior 28 eThnogRaphY? •? aRchival?analYSiS? •? limiTS? of ThE obSERvATioNAL METhoD

The Correlational Method: Predicting Social Behavior 30 SuRveYS? •? limiTS?of?The?coRRelaTional?meThod:? CoRRELATioN DoES NoT EquAL CAuSATioN

Try IT! Correlation and Causation: Knowing the Difference 33

The Experimental Method: Answering Causal Questions 34 independenT?and?dependenT?vaRiaBleS? •? inTeRnal? validiTY?in?expeRimenTS? •? exTeRnal?validiTY? in?expeRimenTS? •? field?expeRimenTS? •? ReplicaTionS? and?meTa-analYSiS? •? BaSic?veRSuS?applied?ReSeaRch

New Frontiers in Social Psychological Research 42 Culture and Social Psychology 43 The Evolutionary Approach 43 Social Neuroscience 44

Ethical Issues in Social Psychology 45 Summary? 48?•?Test?Yourself? 49

3 Social Cognition: How We Think About the Social World 51

On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking 53 People as Everyday Theorists: Automatic Thinking with Schemas 54 Which Schemas Do We Use? Accessibility and Priming 56 Making Our Schemas Come True: The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy 58

Types of Automatic Thinking 61 Automatic Goal Pursuit 62 Automatic Decision Making 63 Automatic Thinking and Metaphors About the Body and the Mind 63 Mental Strategies and Shortcuts: Judgmental Heuristics 65

how?eaSilY?doeS?iT?come?To?mind??The?availaBiliTY? heuRiSTic? •? how?SimilaR?iS?a?To?B??The? REpRESENTATivENESS hEuRiSTiC

Try IT! reasoning Quiz 69

peRSonaliTY?TeSTS?and?The?RepReSenTaTiveneSS? hEuRiSTiC

Cultural Differences in Social Cognition 70 Cultural Determinants of Schemas 70 Holistic versus Analytic Thinking 71

Controlled Social Cognition: High-Effort Thinking 73 Controlled Thinking and Free Will 73

Try IT! Can you Predict your (or your Friend’s) Future? 76

Mentally Undoing the Past: Counterfactual Reasoning 76 Improving Human Thinking 77

Try IT! How Well Do you reason? 78

Watson Revisited 79 Summary? 80?•?Test?Yourself? 82

4 Social Perception: How We Come to Understand Other People 84

Nonverbal Communication 86 Try IT! Using your Voice as a Nonverbal Cue 87

Facial Expressions of Emotion 87 evoluTion?and?facial?expReSSionS? •? whY?iS?decoding? SomeTimeS?difficulT?

Culture and the Channels of Nonverbal Communication 90

First Impressions: Quick but Long-Lasting 93 The Lingering Influence of Initial Impressions 94 Using First Impressions and Nonverbal Communication to Our Advantage 95

Contents

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vi Contents

Causal Attribution: Answering the “Why” Question 97 The Nature of the Attribution Process 97

Try IT! Listen as People Make Attributions 98

The Covariation Model: Internal versus External Attributions 98 The Fundamental Attribution Error: People as Personality Psychologists 101

ThE RoLE of pERCEpTuAL SALiENCE iN ThE fuNDAMENTAL aTTRiBuTion?eRRoR? •? The?Two-STep?aTTRiBuTion? pRoCESS