Transcript Social cognitive neuroscience

Social Influence on Beliefs
Objectives
• Explain attributes
• Explain Attitudes
• Analyze why people join a cult
• Social cognition is an area in social psychology
concerned with social influences on thought,
memory, perception, and beliefs
• Not only what people are doing but what is
going on in head while doing it
New specialty- neuroscience +
cognitive
• Social cognitive neuroscience draws upon
technologies from neuroscience to study the
emotional and social processes underlying
beliefs, prejudices, and social behavior
• Explanations on behavior, formation of
attitudes
Attributions
• Attribution theory is the theory that people
are motivated to explain their own and other
peoples behavior by attributing causes of that
behavior to a situation or a disposition
• Who did it and why? (terrible childhood,
mental illness, demon possession)
• Two categories of theory
• Situational attribution identifies the cause of
an action as something in the situation or
environment
• Identifying Cause of action as something in
the environment
• “ Joe stole the money because his family is
starving”
• Dispositional attribution identifies the cause
of an action as something in the person, such
as a trait or a motive
• “ Joe stole the money because he is born a
thief”
• Find reasons for others behavior, reveal common
bias: overestimate personality traits AND
underestimate situation
• Called Fundamental attribution error is the
tendency, in explaining other peoples behavior, to
overestimate personality factors and
underestimate the influence of the situation
• Explained Milgram and Zimbardo- sadistic by
nature
Explain own behavior
• Self serving bias is the tendency, in explaining
ones own behavior, to take credit for ones
good actions and rationalize ones mistakes
• Taking credit for good actions, but let situation
account for failures
• “ I won the game because of my skill”
• “ the sun was in my eye so I dropped the ball”
• Just-word hypothesis is the notion that many
people need to believe that the world is fair and
that justice is served, that bad people are
punished and good people are rewarded
• People are fair, rewarded; bad people punished
• Blame the victim- friend fired, not working hard
enough; woman raped, dressed provocatively;
innocent bystander shot by police, shouldn't have
been in the way
Attitudes
• Attitude is a belief about people, groups,
ideas, or activities. Can be implicit, we are
aware of them or explicit, we are unaware of
them
• People, groups, ideas or activities
Shifting opinions vs. bedrock beliefs
• Movies, sports, casual opinions to passionate
convictions
• friend neutral baseball but you are devoted
fan= probably still friends
• But subject gives meaning and purpose to
life= different ball game ( politics and religion)
• Some strict principals, guide lines for
interpretation, some accept rituals, some no
religion or actively rebel
Origin of attitudes
• Psychologists used to think all learned=
parents, experiences, economic
circumstances, environment, social influences
• However some now argue behavioral
genetics- some core attitudes stem from
personality traits that are highly heredible
• Open to experience from personality
Attitude change
• New info or experience
• Cognitive dissonance is a state of tension that
occurs when a person simultaneously holds
two cognitions that are psychologically
inconsistent or when a persons belief is
incongruent with his or her behavior
• Prision study
Friendly persuasion
• Social influence- friends, advertisers,
politicians
• Believe one thing or another
• Familiarity effect is the tendency of people to
feel more positive toward a person, item,
product or other stimulus that they have often
seen
• Validity effect is the tendency of people to
believe that a statement is true or valid simply
because it has been repeated many times
• See info in movies
• Joseph Gobbles called this technique, the big
lie
Coercive Persuasion
• Suicide bombing- how could someone strap
bomb to body?
• Jim Jones- people temple- 913 people drank
Kool-Aid mixed with cyanide
• David Koresh- cult in Waco, fiery death, shootout
• Heavens gate in San Diego, 38 commit suicide
waiting for space ship
• WHY?
Key in process
• The person is put under physical or
emotional stress (No eat, sleep or exercise,
dark room)
• The persons problems are reduced to one
simple explanation, which is repeatedly
emphasized (Jews, government, nonbelievers)
• The leader offers unconditional love,
acceptance, and attention (love bath from
group- constant praise and affection)
More in process
• A new identity based on the group is created
(part of chosen, elite, or saved- new name)
• The person is subjected to entrapment(small things then increase weekend, another
weekend, weekly seminar, advanced courses,
contribute money)
• The persons access to information is severely
controlled