social psychology
Social Psychology Ninth Edition
Elliot Aronson
Timothy D. Wilson
Robin M. Akert
Samuel R. Sommers
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Copyright © 2016, 2013, 2010 by Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliates. All Rights Reserved. Printed in the United States of America. This publication is protected by copyright, and permission should be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise. For information regarding permissions, request forms and the appropriate contacts within the Pearson Education Global Rights & Permissions department, please visit www.pearsoned.com/permissions/.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Aronson, Elliot. Social psychology / Elliot Aronson, Timothy D. Wilson, Robin M. Akert, Samuel R. Sommers. — Ninth Edition. pages cm Revised editon of the authors’ Social psychology, 2013. ISBN 978-0-13-393654-4 (Student Edition) 1. Social psychology. I. Wilson, Timothy D. II. Akert, Robin M. III. Title. HM1033.A78 2016 302—dc23 2015016513
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Student Edition ISBN-10: 0-13-393654-6 ISBN-13: 978-0-13-393654-4
Books à la Carte ISBN-10: 0-13-401239-9 ISBN-13: 978-0-13-401239-1
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To my grandchildren: Jacob, Jason, Ruth, Eliana, Natalie, Rachel, and Leo. My hope is that your capacity for empathy and compassion will help make
the world a better place.
—E.A.
To my family, Deirdre Smith, Christopher Wilson, and Leigh Wilson
—T.D.W.
To my mentor, colleague, and friend, Dane Archer
—R.M.A.
To my students—past, present, and future—for making coming to work each morning fun, educational, and unpredictable.
—S.R.S.
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iv
1 Introducing Social Psychology 1
2 Methodology: How Social Psychologists Do Research 23
3 Social Cognition: How We Think About the Social World 51
4 Social Perception: How We Come to Understand Other People 84
5 The Self: Understanding Ourselves in a Social Context 119
6 The Need to Justify Our Actions: The Costs and Benefits of Dissonance Reduction 157
7 Attitudes and Attitude Change: Influencing Thoughts and Feelings 188
8 Conformity: Influencing Behavior 226
9 Group Processes: Influence in Social Groups 269
10 Interpersonal Attraction: From First Impressions to Close Relationships 303
11 Prosocial Behavior: Why Do People Help? 344
12 Aggression: Why Do We Hurt Other People? Can We Prevent It? 375
13 Prejudice: Causes, Consequences, and Cures 413
Social Psychology in Action 1 Using Social Psychology to Achieve a Sustainable and Happy Future 455
Social Psychology in Action 2 Social Psychology and Health 476
Social Psychology in Action 3 Social Psychology and the Law 496
Brief Contents
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v
Preface xi About the Authors xvii Special Tips for Students xix
1 Introducing Social Psychology 1 Defining Social Psychology 3 Try IT! How Do Other People Affect your Values? 3
Social Psychology, Philosophy, Science, and Common Sense 4 How Social Psychology Differs from Its Closest Cousins 6
Try IT! Social Situations and Shyness 7
The Power of the Situation 9 The Importance of Explanation 10 The Importance of Interpretation 12
Where Construals Come From: Basic Human Motives 15 The Self-Esteem Motive: The Need to Feel Good About Ourselves 16
SuffERiNg AND SELf-JuSTifiCATioN
The Social Cognition Motive: The Need to Be Accurate 17 ExpECTATioNS AbouT ThE SoCiAL WoRLD
Summary 20 • Test Yourself 21
2 Methodology: How Social Psychologists Do Research 23
Social Psychology: An Empirical Science 24 Try IT! Social Psychology Quiz: What’s your Prediction? 25
Formulating Hypotheses and Theories 25 iNSpiRATioN fRoM EARLiER ThEoRiES and ReSeaRch • hYpoTheSeS BaSed oN pERSoNAL obSERvATioNS
Research Designs 27
The Observational Method: Describing Social Behavior 28 eThnogRaphY • aRchival analYSiS • limiTS of ThE obSERvATioNAL METhoD
The Correlational Method: Predicting Social Behavior 30 SuRveYS • limiTS of The coRRelaTional meThod: CoRRELATioN DoES NoT EquAL CAuSATioN
Try IT! Correlation and Causation: Knowing the Difference 33
The Experimental Method: Answering Causal Questions 34 independenT and dependenT vaRiaBleS • inTeRnal validiTY in expeRimenTS • exTeRnal validiTY in expeRimenTS • field expeRimenTS • ReplicaTionS and meTa-analYSiS • BaSic veRSuS applied ReSeaRch
New Frontiers in Social Psychological Research 42 Culture and Social Psychology 43 The Evolutionary Approach 43 Social Neuroscience 44
Ethical Issues in Social Psychology 45 Summary 48 • Test Yourself 49
3 Social Cognition: How We Think About the Social World 51
On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking 53 People as Everyday Theorists: Automatic Thinking with Schemas 54 Which Schemas Do We Use? Accessibility and Priming 56 Making Our Schemas Come True: The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy 58
Types of Automatic Thinking 61 Automatic Goal Pursuit 62 Automatic Decision Making 63 Automatic Thinking and Metaphors About the Body and the Mind 63 Mental Strategies and Shortcuts: Judgmental Heuristics 65
how eaSilY doeS iT come To mind? The availaBiliTY heuRiSTic • how SimilaR iS a To B? The REpRESENTATivENESS hEuRiSTiC
Try IT! reasoning Quiz 69
peRSonaliTY TeSTS and The RepReSenTaTiveneSS hEuRiSTiC
Cultural Differences in Social Cognition 70 Cultural Determinants of Schemas 70 Holistic versus Analytic Thinking 71
Controlled Social Cognition: High-Effort Thinking 73 Controlled Thinking and Free Will 73
Try IT! Can you Predict your (or your Friend’s) Future? 76
Mentally Undoing the Past: Counterfactual Reasoning 76 Improving Human Thinking 77
Try IT! How Well Do you reason? 78
Watson Revisited 79 Summary 80 • Test Yourself 82
4 Social Perception: How We Come to Understand Other People 84
Nonverbal Communication 86 Try IT! Using your Voice as a Nonverbal Cue 87
Facial Expressions of Emotion 87 evoluTion and facial expReSSionS • whY iS decoding SomeTimeS difficulT?
Culture and the Channels of Nonverbal Communication 90
First Impressions: Quick but Long-Lasting 93 The Lingering Influence of Initial Impressions 94 Using First Impressions and Nonverbal Communication to Our Advantage 95
Contents
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vi Contents
Causal Attribution: Answering the “Why” Question 97 The Nature of the Attribution Process 97
Try IT! Listen as People Make Attributions 98
The Covariation Model: Internal versus External Attributions 98 The Fundamental Attribution Error: People as Personality Psychologists 101
ThE RoLE of pERCEpTuAL SALiENCE iN ThE fuNDAMENTAL aTTRiBuTion eRRoR • The Two-STep aTTRiBuTion pRoCESS
Self-Serving Attributions 106 The “Bias Blind Spot” 108
Culture and Social Perception 109 Holistic versus Analytic Thinking 110
SoCiAL NEuRoSCiENCE EviDENCE
Cultural Differences in the Fundamental Attribution Error 111 Culture and Other Attributional Biases 113 Summary 115 • Test Yourself 117
5 The Self: Understanding Ourselves in a Social Context 119
The Origins and Nature of the Self-Concept 120 Cultural Influences on the Self-Concept 122
Try IT! A Measure of Independence and Interdependence 123
Functions of the Self 124
Knowing Ourselves Through Introspection 125 Focusing on the Self: Self-Awareness Theory 125
Try IT! Measure your Private Self- Consciousness 127
Judging Why We Feel the Way We Do: Telling More Than We Can Know 127 The Consequences of Introspecting About Reasons 128
Knowing Ourselves by Observing Our Own Behavior 130 Intrinsic versus Extrinsic Motivation 131 Mindsets and Motivation 134 Understanding Our Emotions: The Two-Factor Theory of Emotion 134 Finding the Wrong Cause: Misattribution of Arousal 137
Using Other People to Know Ourselves 139 Knowing Ourselves by Comparing Ourselves to Others 140 Knowing Ourselves by Adopting Other People’s Views 141 Knowing Our Future Feelings by Consulting Other People 143
Self-Control: The Executive Function of the Self 144
Impression Management: All the World’s a Stage 146 Ingratiation and Self-Handicapping 147 Culture, Impression Management, and Self-Enhancement 149
Self-Esteem: How We Feel About Ourselves 150 Summary 153 • Test Yourself 155
6 The Need to Justify Our Actions: The Costs and Benefits of Dissonance Reduction 157
The Theory of Cognitive Dissonance 158 When Cognitions Conflict 158
whY we oveReSTimaTe The pain of diSappoinTmenT
Dissonance and the Self-Concept 162 Decisions, Decisions, Decisions 163
diSToRTing ouR likeS and diSlikeS • The peRmanence of ThE DECiSioN
Try IT! The Advantage of Finality 165
cReaTing The illuSion of iRRevocaBiliTY • The deciSion To Behave immoRallY
Dissonance, Culture, and the Brain 167 diSSonance in The BRain • diSSonance acRoSS CuLTuRES
Self-Justification in Everyday Life 169 The Justification of Effort 169
Try IT! Justifying What you’ve Done 171
External versus Internal Justification 171
counTeRaTTiTudinal advocacY
Punishment and Self-Persuasion 173 The laSTing effecTS of Self-peRSuaSion • NoT JuST TANgibLE REWARDS oR puNiShMENTS
The Hypocrisy Paradigm 176 Justifying Good Deeds and Harmful Acts 177
The Ben fRanklin effecT: JuSTifYing acTS of kindneSS
Try IT! The Internal Consequences of Doing Good 179
dehumanizing The enemY: JuSTifYing cRuelTY
Some Final Thoughts on Dissonance: Learning from Our Mistakes 181
poliTicS and Self-JuSTificaTion • ovERCoMiNg DiSSoNANCE
Summary 185 • Test Yourself 186
7 Attitudes and Attitude Change: Influencing Thoughts and Feelings 188
The Nature and Origin of Attitudes 190 Where Do Attitudes Come From? 190
cogniTivelY BaSed aTTiTudeS • affecTivelY BaSed ATTiTuDES
Try IT! Affective and Cognitive Bases of Attitudes 192
BehavioRallY BaSed aTTiTudeS
Explicit versus Implicit Attitudes 193
When Do Attitudes Predict Behavior? 195 Predicting Spontaneous Behaviors 196 Predicting Deliberative Behaviors 196
Specific aTTiTudeS • SuBJecTive noRmS • peRceived bEhAvioRAL CoNTRoL
How Do Attitudes Change? 199 Changing Attitudes by Changing Behavior: Cognitive Dissonance Theory Revisited 199 Persuasive Communications and Attitude Change 200
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ThE CENTRAL AND pERiphERAL RouTES To peRSuaSion • The moTivaTion To paY aTTenTion To The aRgumenTS • The aBiliTY To paY aTTenTion To The aRgumenTS • how
