Attitudes and Social Behavior
This chapter covers how we explain behavior, how attitudes form and change, and how the presence of others shapes what we do. The AAMC outline heavily tests attribution theory and its biases, cognitive dissonance, the classic social influence studies (Asch, Milgram, Zimbardo), and group processes like groupthink and social facilitation.
Attribution Theory
Attribution is how we explain the causes of behavior. A dispositional (internal) attribution credits personality; a situational (external) attribution credits circumstances.
- Fundamental attribution error
- Overemphasizing dispositional causes for others’ behavior while underestimating the situation.
- Actor–observer bias
- Attributing our own behavior to the situation but others’ to disposition.
- Self-serving bias
- Crediting our successes to ourselves and blaming failures on external factors.
- Just-world hypothesis
- Believing people get what they deserve.
Attitudes and Attitude Change
Attitudes have three components (ABC model): Affective (feelings), Behavioral (actions), Cognitive (beliefs). Cognitive dissonance (Festinger) is the discomfort of holding conflicting attitudes/behaviors, motivating us to change an attitude to restore consistency.
- Central route — persuasion through careful evaluation of the argument’s content; produces durable change (used when motivated and able to think).
- Peripheral route — persuasion through superficial cues (attractiveness, celebrity, number of arguments); produces weaker, temporary change.
Social Influence
| Study | Concept | Finding |
|---|---|---|
| Asch line study | Conformity | People conform to an obviously wrong majority ~1/3 of trials |
| Milgram shock study | Obedience to authority | ~65% delivered maximum "shocks" when ordered |
| Zimbardo prison study | Roles / deindividuation | Assigned roles rapidly shaped abusive behavior |
Normative influence = conforming to be liked/accepted; informational influence = conforming because we believe others know better. Compliance techniques: foot-in-the-door (small request first), door-in-the-face (large request first), and lowball.
Group Processes
- Social facilitation
- Improved performance on simple/well-learned tasks when others are present (impaired on hard tasks).
- Social loafing
- Reduced individual effort in a group when contributions are pooled.
- Deindividuation
- Loss of self-awareness and self-restraint in groups, often anonymous.
- Groupthink
- Desire for harmony overrides realistic appraisal of alternatives, leading to poor decisions.
- Group polarization
- Group discussion strengthens the members’ prevailing views to a more extreme position.
- Bystander effect
- The more bystanders present, the less likely any one helps (diffusion of responsibility).
Worked MCQs
Five MCQs covering the high-yield testing patterns for attitudes and social behavior.
Q1. Assuming a coworker who is late is lazy, rather than considering traffic, is an example of the:
The fundamental attribution error is overattributing others’ behavior to disposition ("lazy") while underweighting situational causes (traffic).
Q2. Milgram’s famous experiment primarily demonstrated:
Milgram showed that a majority of participants would administer what they believed were dangerous shocks when instructed by an authority figure — a study of obedience, not peer conformity.
Q3. After buying an expensive car, a person suddenly notices only its positive features and dismisses its flaws. This reflects:
To reduce the dissonance between the large expense and any doubts, the buyer adjusts attitudes to justify the purchase — a classic post-decision dissonance reduction.
Q4. A witness in a large crowd fails to help an injured person, assuming someone else will. This is:
The bystander effect arises from diffusion of responsibility: as the number of bystanders increases, each individual feels less personally responsible to act.
Q5. A salesperson first asks for a small favor, then a larger one, increasing compliance. This technique is:
Foot-in-the-door starts with a small request to gain commitment, making a person more likely to agree to a larger request later. Door-in-the-face begins with a large request that is refused.
Quick Recap
- Attribution: dispositional vs situational; FAE, actor–observer, self-serving bias.
- Attitudes: ABC model; cognitive dissonance drives attitude change.
- Persuasion: central (content) vs peripheral (cues) routes (ELM).
- Asch = conformity; Milgram = obedience; Zimbardo = roles/deindividuation.
- Normative (to be liked) vs informational (to be right) influence.
- Compliance: foot-in-the-door, door-in-the-face, lowball.
- Group: social facilitation, social loafing, groupthink, polarization, bystander effect.