Have you ever

1
Have you ever

• - accepted a free sample and then bought
  something you really didnt need?
• - done something silly or dangerous with a group
  of friends that you would never have done while
  alone?
• - seen a stranded motorist while driving down a
  busy highway and not stopped to help?
• - made negative remarks about members of another
  group after a member of that group got a job, a
  spot on a sports team, or a scholarship you
  wanted?

2

• Social Psychology
• How do other people and social situations
  affect individual behavior, attitudes,
  perceptions and motives?
• Ordinary people
• Social variables
• Everyday behavior
• Power of situation
• - but social situations sometimes blend into
  background.

3

• Birds of feather flock together
• Similarity
• in trivial stuff (same b-day)
• In more important stuff (political view)

4

• Birds of feather flock together
• OR
• Opposites attract?
• Usually similarity wins, although in some traits
  (dominance), complementary would make us happier
• Categorization How similar to me is she?
• - Us vs. them

5

• Categorization
• ingroup group which we identify with
• outgroup group with which we do not identify
• minimal groups meaningless groups formed by
  grouping strangers on the basis of trivial
  criteria (paintings)
• Results
• I like us better,
• I share more of my money

6

• 1) We like members of our in-group better and are
  nicer to them than members of out-groups.
• sororities - not so highly respected groups
  especially likely to put down out-group members.
• 2) out-group homogeneity perception that members
  of out-group are all alike-- more similar to each
  other than they really are, and more similar to
  each other than members of the in-group are to
  each other.
• Also, more likely to recall distinguishing
  information about members of our in-group

7

• stereotype generalization about a group of
  people
• Frenchmen are good lovers
• Chinese are good at math

8

• Stereotype threat - concern among members of a
  negatively stereotyped group about confirming a
  negative stereotype.

9

• contact hypothesis prejudice will be reduced if
  different groups have a chance to interact with
  each other.
• conditions under which contact works
• - equal status (white supervisor, black worker)
  
• - personal interactions (not just TV)
• - cooperative activities
• - social norms in favor of reducing prejudice