Thinking About Psychology:

The Science of Mind and Behavior 2e

Charles T. Blair-Broeker

Randal M. Ernst

Variations in Individual and Group Behavior Domain

Social Psychology Chapter

Social Relations

Module 35

Attraction

Module 35: Social Relations

Attraction

• Three key ingredients to attraction:

– Proximity

– Physical attractiveness

– Similarity

Attraction:Proximity

Module 35: Social Relations

Mere Exposure Effect

• Phenomenon that repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of them– Our ancestors benefited from the mere exposure

effect. Familiar faces were less likely to be dangerous or threatening than unfamiliar faces. Some researchers think we are born with a tendency to bond with those who are familiar to us and to be leery of those we don’t know

Familiarity Breeds Fondness

• Several years ago, a student began attending a class at Oregon State University enveloped in a big, black bag. Only his bare feet showed. Each Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 11am, the black bag sat on a small table near the back of the classroom. The professor knew the identity of the person inside, but none of the students did. The professor said the students’ attitudes changed from hostility toward the bag to curiosity to friendship.

Attraction:Physical

Attractiveness

Module 35: Social Relations

Physical Attractiveness

• Positive first impressions are correlated with the attractiveness of the person

• Attractive people are judged to be happier, healthier, more successful, etc.

• Physical attractiveness is highly determined by culture

Villains and Heroes

• Are people who are villainous or less than heroic physically attractive? Think of favorite movies and television shows.

• How are the heroes physically different from the villains?

Physical Attractiveness

1920’s 1950’s Today

The Halo Effect

• http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=5773839

• The Privilege of Being Beautiful

• Two readings

What Is Beautiful Is Good

• College students judged an essay written by an attractive author to be of higher quality than one by an unattractive author.

• Simulated juries conferred less guilt and punishment on physically attractive defendants than on unattractive defendants

• The average salary of more than 17,000 middle-aged men was positively related to their height (Keyes study)

• Every inch over 5’ 3” was worth an extra $370/yr in salary

• In one study, more than 400 fifth-grader teachers evaluated attractive children as having greater intelligence and scholastic potential than unattractive children.

• Children as young as 4 are responsive to the physical attractiveness of their peers. It has been suggested that parents may implicitly teach the physical attractiveness stereotype through the bedtime stories they read their kids.

• Physical deformities and chronic illness often symbolize inner defects (Captain Hook and Cinderella’s mean stepsisters; Hansel and Gretel are the victims of an arthritic witch; Pinocchio’s nose lengthened as his integrity slipped).

• Will Cookie Monster make up for this, in all his ugly and loveable glory?

Attraction:Similarity

Module 35: Social Relations

Golden Proportions• The width of an “ideal” face is 2/3 its length• The nose is no longer than the distance between the

eyes• Similarity between the left and right sides of the face• Babies spend more time looking at symmetrical faces• Face Prints / rate and then pictures merged together;

each trial ends when the viewer deems picture the perfect 10

• All the perfect 10s are super-symmetric

Symmetry

• The rationale behind symmetry preference in both humans and animals is that symmetric individuals have a higher mate-value; scientists believe that this symmetry is equated with a strong immune system. Thus, beauty is indicative of more robust genes, improving the likelihood that an individual's offspring will survive. This evolutionary theory is supported by research showing that standards of attractiveness are similar across cultures (Feng).

What Men Like• Aside from symmetry, males in Western

cultures generally prefer females with a small jaw, a small nose, large eyes, and defined cheekbones - features often described as "baby faced", that resemble an infant's.

• In general, men have a preference for women with low waist-to-hip ratios (WHRs), that is, more fat is deposited on the hips and buttocks than on the waist.

• Research shows that women with high WHRs (whose bodies are more tube-shaped) are more likely to suffer from health maladies, including infertility and diabetes.

• Bees are attracted to symmetrical flowers as they produce more nectar and are therefore sweeter.

• Men with symmetrical faces are less prone to mental decline (

• http://www.jyi.org/volumes/volume6/issue6/features/feng.html

• FACEPRINTS

What Women Like

• Females, however, have a preference for males who look more mature -- generally heart-shaped, small-chinned faces with full lips and fair skin. But during menstruation, females prefer a soft-featured male to a masculine one. Indeed, researchers found that female perceptions of beauty actually change throughout the month.

Symmetrical Faces

Similarity

• People are reluctant to include dissimilar people in their group of friends.

• Close friends usually share interests, attitudes, age, intelligence level, and economic status.

Romantic Love:Passionate Love

Module 35: Social Relations

Passionate Love

• Aroused state of intense positive absorption in another, usually present at the beginning of a love relationship

• Page 35-9

• PsychQuest 35-5

Romantic Love:Companionate Love

Module 35: Social Relations

Companionate Love

• Deep affectionate attachment we feel for those with whom our lives are intertwined

• Two important factors:

– Equity

– Self-disclosure

Equity

• Condition in which people contribute to and receive from a relationship at a similar rate

• Couples share in decision making and possessions

• Freely give and receive emotional support

Self-Disclosure

• Revealing intimate aspects of oneself to others

• Include likes, dislikes, fears, accomplishments, failures, shameful moments, goals, etc.

How Do We Pick Our Mates?

• Proximity Filter: helps us narrow down our potential mates to those we come in contact with. Will the internet change this?

• Stimulus Filter: All people we meet are potential mates, but we are not attracted to all of them. The stimulus filter narrows potential mates to those whom we find attractive: those who stimulate us, physically at first, but also intellectually and emotionally.

• Value Filter: People who share our values are more likely to be potential mate. It is difficult for people with widely different beliefs to maintain a lasting partnership.

• Role Filter: The role filter involves weeding out those who are not compatible with us. If those we are choosing from do not fit a particular role that is compatible with our own, we filter them out. Ex: if a man wants a stay-at-home woman to stay home with kids.

• Marriage: If a relationship lasts long enough, a long-term commitment must be made; usually in Canada, that involves marriage. If one person wants to marry and the other doesn’t, they are not likely to last.

AltruismWorth: Do Adolescents Lack Empathy?

Module 35: Social Relations

Altruism

• Unselfish regard for the welfare of others

Dave Sanders: Teacher at Columbine High School

Which Brings More Happiness

• Brainstorming 35-11

• 35-12 Case Studies in Helping

• 35-13 Legislating Helping

Altruism:Bystander

Intervention

Module 35: Social Relations

Bystander Effect

• Tendency for a person to be less likely to give aid if other people are present

Bystander Effect - Kitty Genovese

• Famous case of Kitty Genovese--38 people heard her cry for help but didn’t help. She was raped and stabbed to death.

Factors Increasing Bystander Intervention

• not in a hurry

• believe the victim deserves help

• in a good mood

• feeling guilty

• live in a small town or rural area

• just saw someone being helpful

Factors Increasing Bystander Intervention

Top 10 Notorious Cases of the Bystander Effect

• http://listverse.com/2009/11/02/10-notorious-cases-of-the-bystander-effect/

Examples on You Tube

• http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8oxx9_the-bystander-effect-kitty-genovese_tech

• Why do people help? Worth• http://bcs.worthpublishers.com/pvtk/player/

pages/home.aspx?Tab=Home&VtkID=1&pageIndex=1&NumRows=52

• Does Self-Confidence Intimidate Others?• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGaJrgi_SpE

The Bystander Effect: No one Cares, Global National

Altruism

Altruism

Altruism

Altruism

Altruism

Altruism

Altruism

Prejudicehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=YyL5EcAwB9cTrue Colors, ABC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSdKy2q6pEY

The Doll Test

Module 35: Social Relations

Prejudice

• Unjustifiable attitude toward a group and its members

• Usually involves a negative attitude

• Usually involves stereotyped beliefs, negative feelings, and a predisposition to discriminatory action

• The Blue-Eyed Children & Experiment

My Kid Would Never Do That

• http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/my-kid-would-never-do-that-discrimination-part-3/6qdooqx?cc=il&cpkey=c2506697-eb3f-4ebb-8f14-ff17d49b6f8d%7c%7c%7c%7c&adlt=strict

What Would You Do?

• http://abcnews.go.com/WhatWouldYouDo/video/stop-muslim-discrimination-11347387

Stereotype

• Generalized belief about a group of people

• Stereotypes are sometimes accurate but often over-generalized.

Discrimination

• In social relations, taking action against a group of people because of stereotyped beliefs and feelings of prejudice

Prejudice:Ingroup and Outgroup

Module 35: Social Relations

Ingroup “Us”

• People with whom we share a common identity

Outgroup “Them”

• Those perceived as different or apart from “us” (the ingroup)

Ingroup Bias

• Tendency to favor one’s own group

• Usually at the expense of the outgroup

• Blue-Eyed

Children

Videos

• http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Oprahs-Social-Experiment-on-Her-Audience-Video

• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/– Frontline “A Class Divided”

Prejudice:Thought Processes

and Prejudice

Module 35: Social Relations

Categorization

• The tendency to group similar objects

• May be a means to explain stereotypes

Just-World Phenomenon• Tendency to believe that people get what they

deserve and deserve what they get

• Reflects child’s attitude that good is rewarded and evil is punished

Belief in a Just World

• People get what they deserve and deserve what they get.

• This belief contributes to prejudice in which we blame victims for their own fate.

• Try the scale

• Initially tested in relation to the 1971 national draft lottery (US) of 19 year olds, which determined the order of induction into the armed forces. Although most students expressed sympathy for the losers, those who scored high on the scale ran counter to this pattern. They resented the losers more than the winners. Others studies have also suggested that high scorers may have a tendency to derogate innocent victims

Classic Test

• Students come to a lab to participate in a study presumably on the perception of emotional cues. By what appears to be random choice, one of the participants, actually an accomplice of the researchers, is selected to perform a memory task. She is to receive a painful shock for each error she makes; the other participants are to observe and note her emotional response.

• After watching her receive a number of painful shocks, they are asked to evaluate her along several dimensions. How do they respond? With compassion and sympathy? No. The results indicate that when the observers are powerless to alter her fate, they tend to reject and devalue her. Subsequent research has suggested that this is particularly true of those who have a strong belief in a just world.

• Raman and Winer reported that some adults believe physical illness can be payback for bad behavior. In their study, 239 college students were presented with a case study in which a person contracted a mysterious, deadly illness. The patient was described as having lied, cheated and engaged in other immoral behavior. Depending on precisely how the story was presented, between 19 and 44% of participants agreed that the person deserved to be ill because s/he was bad.

Double-Edged Sword• Desire for justice can be a double-edged sword.

Under certain circumstances, it may make one more sensitive to the reality of injustice and more likely to correct it. When victims have been portrayed as having finite, manageable needs so that providing help will successfully restore justice, his JWS scorers have been more willing to help than low JWS scorers. If help is easy to give, and when helping doesn’t run counter to firmly entrenched social attributes such as preexisting prejudice against blacks or women, and when the altruistic behavior is sanctioned by authority.

My Kid Would Never BullyDateline

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032600/vp/41928090#41928090

Dateline: Down Syndrome, What Would You Do?

What Would You Do?

• 20/20 What would you do You Tube (bystander) http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=eNu-WZdHzaA&feature=&p=EE9376B3F4FCD1C3&index=0&playnext=1

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd4Gpi9ksXw Not Pretty, Really Sundance

• http://abcnews.go.com/2020/