🧠 Social Psychology
Last modified on April 02, 2023

Philosophers have been intuitively (if not quite scientifically) thinking about these ideas for centuries!

Anybody can become angry - that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way - that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy. - Aristotle

Example: introducing a fine for late-picker-uppers of kids at daycare actually increases the number of late pick-ups. Explanation? The motivation shifted from intrinsic to extrinsic.

About understanding the “causal architecture” of the society that we’re embedded in.

Three parts of the class: social cognition, interpersonal processes, everyday life.

Motivated reasoning is our tendency to come to conclusions that make us feel good.

We don’t like to admit when we’re wrong! (Nor our sports heroes, family, political candidates, etc.)

Group affiliation: “We crushed them!” when your team wins vs. “They were terrible” when your team loses.

Above-average effect: people believe they are above average in valued domains (lol.) BUT in other domains that are seen as really hard (e.g. juggling or living past 100,) we see the below-average effect. The reason: we “anchor” to our initial estimate. E.g. for living to 100, we initially think it’s very unlikely, then adjust the estimate upward as we get evidence.

Dunning-Kruger Effect: Correlation between lower skills and greater Above-Average Effect. In other words, correlation between cognitive and metacognitive skills. (Also, those with the most skills underestimate a little!)

One answer: self-esteem. (But why do we need self-esteem, evolutionarily?)
Another answer: overconfidence gives social benefits?

Hubristic pride = arrogant/conceited.
Authentic pride = confident, high self-esteem.

People can make predictive judgments “instantly” – predicting future success, marriage success, sales performance, sexual orientation, etc. (Cue Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, lol.)

Women can predict hetero/homosexual at higher rates when ovulating

These “thin slice” judgments can be surprisingly predictive, but also biased.

(But she should’ve mentioned that autistic people don’t see this the same way)

Tendency to want to verify our pre-existing beliefs.

kids whose teachers thought the kids were “late bloomers” – it actually came true.

Side note: whoa. Intuitively I feel like (and I’m of course enjoying that sweet confirmation bias) but it confirms my intuitions – in cases where I’ve set high, clear expectations for myself, I’ve achieved them.

You have expectations about someone => you behave accordingly towards them => they behave just how you expected => reinforces your expectations…

This seems like a kind of positive feedback loop that can either go really well, or really badly. Parents have a huge role in establishing expectations for their children. (As a first-born, I know this firsthand 😅)

You can disregard one belief.
You can change your belief in one.
You can distort one belief.
You can add belief C that resolves the conflict.

Which one to choose? Will probably go with the path of least resistance.

Chicago doomsday cult didn’t see doomsday => rationalized by saying that the Guardians had stopped the flood

1755 Lisbon earthquake => threatened belief in God and a just world.

Good: it allows you to streamline cognition.
Bad: it loses the inherent complexity / ambiguity in the world.

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Severity of initiation: people seem to like organizations with sever initiation rituals, e.g. frats with extreme hazing. The reason is that we have a deep-seated belief that we’re not gullible, so motivated reasoning leads us to conclude the initiation task was interesting / the organization is of value, rather than (more accuractely) concluding that we’re just gullible.

Spreading of alternatives: we post-hoc try to “justify” our decisions in life to ourselves.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: change behaviors in people’s lives to change their perception of themselves positively.

Don’t think like you’re the person you want to be, act the way you want to be and become that person. Then, you will convince yourself that you are that person.

Common reactions to breaching of norms includes:

• You are sanctioned
  This is common for injunctive norms
  

• Gently brought in line – people want to maintain fluidity of interaction
  breaching causes cognitive dissonance – people seek to resolve it.
  

  “Dramaturgical analysis” (Goffman): social order like a play. People read their lines, and if someone goes “off-script,” they are gently guided back on
  

  And all the men and women merely players;
  They have their exits and their entrances;
  And one man in his time plays many parts. - Shakespeare
  

• You are imitated
  This is (often but not always) common when the norm is privately unpopular. Can trigger a “cascade” effect…
  

Rate pleasantness of odors, alone vs. in groups.

In groups: participants avoided extremes. (Moderation effect)

Instinctual/subconscious submission to the group

Autokinetic effect: When a white light is presented on a black background, it appears to be moving / fluttering.

Show light on wall of dark room – repeatedly ask “how much is it moving?”

Conditions: Individuals vs. Groups

Individuals: settle on a personal standard, then stick to those

Groups: converge towards a shared answer. Constructed reality.

Groups => Individuals: they stuck to the group’s “answer.” Social cohesion is strong.

Perception of lengths of lines – which one on the right is the same as the line on the left.

Conditions: confederate says wrong answer vs. not.

People conform to the wrong answer despite the evidence in front of their own eyes.

1. How am I being influenced?
   By my desire to be right, to be liked
   
2. How am I influencing others?
   Cialdini’s 6 principles
   
3. Are there places I want to change my behavior (given what I’m learning)?
   

People being told to administer electric shocks to someone else.

Factors influencing obedience: situational influence.

fake product, drink alone vs. with confederate (congruent, incongruent.) Measure subjective response, physiological response, functional response, endorsement, follow-up => even with no confederate, they improved alertness, increased blood pressure, etc.

No one is immune to the influence of others

Influence can be informational (be right), normative (be liked), explicit (obedience) or subliminal (social roles), potentially destructive, transformational

…in the absence of social verification, experience is transitory, random, and ephemeral, like the flicker of a firefly. But once recognized by others and shared in an ongoing, dynamic process of social verification we term “shared reality”, experience is no longer subjective, instead, it achieves the phenomenological status of objective reality. That is, experience is established as valid and reliable to the extent that it is shared with others.
Hardin & Higgins, 1996

“selves” that individual takes on in interaction

20 Statements Test:

I am:

• Indian American
  
• introvert
  
• male
  
• 22 years old
  
• Stanford student
  
• CS student
  
• nationality
  
• older brother
  
• firstborn son, grandson
  
• not generous
  

1. How people identify
   
2. Consequences of group ID
   

Principles

• Need constrast to form categories
  
• No group until there is an out-group
  

(going to Japan: feel my identity sticking out like a sore thumb.)

• Direct replication: The world changed (ex: stereotype threat of Tea Party – no one cares about the Tea Party anymore!)
  
• Conceptual replication: could indicate a boundary condition
  
  • Above-average effect: doesn’t always happen…for example, below-average effect for juggling. This is good, b/c it allows us to form more general theories.
    
• original study was poor
  

The Open Science Collaboration found lots of replication issues.

Direct replications are often impossible…can’t get the exact same people, etc. People bring a lot of complexity to the equation.

p-values suck. everyone uses p < .05. lol

Multiple dependent variables

Arbitrary data exclusions (“it’s an outlier!!”)

Optional stopping – stop the study once you get a significant finding

p-hacking: people have motivated reasoning to find a positive result

Small sample size

Only publish positive results (p < .05)

Publicly post the research plan before conducting a study.
Restricts “researcher degrees of freedom”

Will publish the results, no matter the result. Fight bias against null results
Researcher incentivized to run study very well

Publicly post your data, code, etc.

Affective: emotions
Attitudinal: attitudes toward (x)
Partisan sorting: people agree on everything, within their half, but disagree with everything in the other half

Symmetric: psychology of liberals and conservatives basically the same

Asymmetric: psychology of liberals and conservatives fundamentally different

openness to experience (D), tolerance for ambiguity (D), need for cognitive closure (R), need for cognition (R)

v
social issues, especially

OkCupid data shows that liberals tend to like complex people, conservatives like simple people.

Income - not … really, beyond the poverty line.
Success - meh to negative
Possessions - meh

Fleeting:
Food
exercise
backrubs (lol)

Enduring:
Relationships (strong, eduring, intimate, open, supportive)
Exercise (as a habit)
Generosity (charity, helping, gratitude)

Flow…

Becoming totally immersed in a challenging, stimulating task that suits your abilities

dancing
conversation
engrossing coding session

Flow = Active meditation.

Find things that generate flow for you, and build them into the habits of your life.

Really strong effects in the literature.

Verbal gratitude rituals

Gratitude journaling

+emotion regulation

We have an “affective immune system” that restores us to homeostasis.

We overestimate how long a highly positive/negative(esp negative) feeling from an experience will last.

That’s why introspective essay exercises are really good. Also a solid argument for journaling

Why?

• ameliorate anxiety associated with repressing emotions
  
• helps create a narrative for understanding negative events
  

Also that’s why therapy is really good – makes you construct a narrative, dig up what happened, understand the causal structure of it all. See things more clearly.

Type of therapy doesn’t even matter that much! You just need a warm body (or a blank page) to talk to, to construct a narrative to. Can be a loved one.

purpose => something greater
values => act consistent with my right/wrong
efficacy => make a difference
self-worth => I am good, worthy

Meaning-happiness disjuncture: high in meaning, low in happiness. E.g. revolutionaries, parents

Sources: Relationships/Community, Authenticity, Significant Goals. Working on stuff that matters, that “moves the needle.” Struggle/Adversity

Enemy number one is self-consciousness. We are deluded into thinking that others are harshly judging us.

Illusion of transparency: we overestimate others’ access to our internal states.

Spotlight effect: we overestimate others’ noticing our actions/appearance.

Expectations of criticism: we overestimate others’ judgment of our blunders, failures

Success and failure: people think success and failure are negatively related. But in many domains, those who lose the most also win the most. => celebrate tries, not just success. Seems like a good argument for being prolific.

In the long term, people regret the things they didn’t do more than the things that they did.

“It’s harder to get over the things you never do.”

Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life. - Omar Khayyam

The paramount fact is that people come into the world not alone with the objects of nature but also with other people, and through this encounter they are transformed into human beings. The environment of others and the products of their labor become a powerful, comprehensive region of forces within which each moves and has being. -Solomon Asch

Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes. -Walt Whitman

We are less isolated individuals than nodes in a social graph. Moreso defined by our context than the explicit properties of our node itself.

Reality is an illusion, albeit a very persistent one. -Albert Einstein

We don’t see the world as it is, we see it as we are. -Anias Nin

We see it through our assumptions, filters, biases…

Treat a [person] as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a [person] as he can and should be and he shall become as he can and should be. -Johan Wolfgang von Goethe

We can create positive realities. You just need to have some vision for the future.

The unexamined life is not worth living -Socrates