Transcript CE 00355

CE 00875-3
Character AI
Diane Bishton - K229
([email protected])
these slides at http://www.blackboard.staffs.ac.uk
Aspects of Human Behaviour
Introduction
Social settings are extremely complex, with many verbal & nonverbal communications involved.
Social settings are easy to misinterpret & the way we react to
other people is often as a consequence of the labels applied to
them e.g. normal (!) volunteers self-presenting themselves to
mental hospitals have been assumed & diagnosed as mentally ill
by staff.
In this lecture we’ll look at a collection of key experiments in
psychology (tend to be lab-based, with individuals or small
groups) & sociology (tend to be natural settings, large groups /
communities) that have revealed some aspects of human
behaviour.
Diffusion of Responsibility
Premise: modern society is dehumanised & uncaring
40 people watched an 18 yr old office worker, who’d escaped from
her attacker naked & bleeding, being dragged back inside.
11 people in a train compartment left a 17 yr old to bleed to death
after his attackers had left.
A victim may be better off with 1 bystander, not many – across
whom responsibility (& reproach / blame for not helping) is shared.
(1:5, 62% responded to a cry for help (& slower than 1:1))
We take our cue from others – if they’re worried, so are we.
Rangers & Celtic crash barriers gave way - ‘mass’ panic.
Who’s watching us ? If we care, we react.
What’s the relationship between a victim & attacker ? Close ?
Did the victim ‘ask for it’ ? What’s the ‘cost’ to us ?
Attractiveness & jury decision-making
Premise: attractive people get better treatment
Aristotle : beauty is a better recommendation than a letter of
introduction
Height is a valued male characteristic. ‘Mr England’ the student
was recalled as 5” shorter than ‘Professor England’.
Students 6’2” & higher received a starting salary 12% more than
those < 6’.
‘More attractive’ faces are most symmetrical.
What’s your mental image of a ‘typical’ criminal ?
Unattractive people tend to be more harshly treated by a jury,
unless the crime is serious. Car accident, plaintiff less attractive
than defendant - 17% & $5.5k; Opposite ? 49% & 10k
Handicaps of being unattractive
Premise : unattractiveness contributes to mental illness (& in
general, in coping with society)
Evidence 1 – female mental patients were categorised as less
attractive than others.
Less attractive – more admissions to hospital, & longer stays,
more likely to be diagnosed with serious mental illness e.g.
schizophrenia
Evidence 2 - Cosmetic surgery to repair e.g. knife & burn scars,
tattoos in prisoners - 30 % returned to prison within 1 year, yet
56% of those not treated returned.
Evidence 3 – 3 x more people chose an attractive man with the
same qualifications as an unattractive man for ‘masculine’ jobs.
(Unattractive women chosen for ‘masculine’ jobs !)
Dangers of obedience – ‘puppet’ ?
Premise : many people will obey an ‘authority’ figure even when
they know the instructions are ethically / morally wrong
Experiment – apparently, the effect of punishment on learning.
Actually, the lengths people are prepared to go to when told.
Electric chair, electrodes, shock generator – 15 levels from 15 to
450V, Switches labelled ‘slight shock’ to (the last 2) ‘XXX’.
270V agonised scream from ‘the learner’. The ‘instructor’ insists
that the experiment continues. Psychiatrists predicted 1/1000 would
go to 450V. It was 62% in US, 85% in Munich. (Values came down
the ‘nearer’ the learner got, lowest when they had to have their hand
forced on the shockplate, or when experimenter was away).
The ‘teachers’ often showed extreme signs of stress & anxiety.
Less educated; armed service; authoritarian personality > obedient
Remembering stressful events
Premise : the memory of an eyewitness can be distorted by
information presented after an accident or crime.
Our memories are reconstructions & can be distorted.
Using words like ‘smashed’ instead of ‘contacted’ in a query
increases the estimate of speed by ~10mph.
Respondents will also introduce ‘facts’ e.g. about seeing broken
glass, if the word ‘smashed’ is used.
Perception of a complex event e.g. a crime can be influenced by
past knowledge & beliefs. We see what we expect to see. In
general, situations that create fear result in less complete
descriptions.
Reacting to invasion of personal space
Argyle has suggested that NVC is used to maintain personal
relationships (it’s more ambiguous than actually saying ‘I don’t
like you’ & so potentially less damaging.)
Personal space is ‘an area with invisible boundaries…into which
intruders may not come’, a ‘buffer zone…protection against
perceived threats’
Many people will, if they have the opportunity, leave within 30
minutes if their space is invaded (instead of asking the person to
move). ‘Important’ people seem to have larger personal spaces.
Competitiveness is opposite (threat / challenge), cooperativeness
is side-by-side. We respond to invasion by disliking the invader –
even if the invasion is simply by being stared at.
Personal space reduces aggression / anxiety / embarrassment.
Is there a criminal personality ?
Premise : criminals are characterised by peculiar personality
profiles
The action of ‘conscience’ is less powerful / absent
(some people are less easy to ‘condition’ to society’s expectations
than others + does everyone in a society have the same
expectations ?)
Introverts easier to condition than extroverts (sociable, impulsive,
generally outgoing, & who may therefore be more ready to be
anti-social !). Derren Brown ‘experiments’ ?
Neuroticism (over-response of the limbic system, which
influences emotional expression & is less ‘civilised’).
Genetic factors may account for about 75% of some personality
characteristics.
Personality politics
‘Ideology’ (first used in 1817) brings ideas of struggle, terror,
violence. Action is revered, particularly in a military sense –
struggle, resist, victory.
Often defined as ‘a set of closely related beliefs or ideas, or even
attitudes, characteristic of a group or community’.
An ‘ideologist’ may well be aggressive, violent, physical &
‘committed’.
An authoritarian would be characterised as ‘tough minded’ &
ideologists typically have rigid attitudes. What they believe, they
feel strongly about. Any criticism or denial is interpreted as
hostility. Intolerant of ambiguity, demand immediate action &
decision.
Finally
Experiment (p.m.): look at the staff photographs in the Octagon.
Put the names of the face-holder under ‘higher’, ‘lower’ title.
In general, pay more attention to observing individual & group
behaviours (& watch more football !)