Making Social Psychology Accessible http://www.in-mind.org Sat, 04 Jul 2009 07:43:37 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://www.in-mind.org/images/M_images/joomla_rss.png http://www.in-mind.org Making Social Psychology Accessible http://www.in-mind.org/about-51.html Recently a student approached me after I gave a lecture on 'Interpersonal Communication' and asked a question about the course's textbook. I answered his question and we spoke for a while about this book. Yet, at a certain moment we realized he was talking about a Marketing textbook, whereas I was referring to the Communication textbook assigned for my course. It turned out that he was about to attend the next lecture, he had never seen his own lecturer and, given that I was standing in front of the lecture room messing with my papers, he assumed I was teaching his course. Most people have experienced situations quite like this. After talking for quite a while, it dawns on you that you are talking at cross purposes. Articles - Issue 8 Fri, 03 Apr 2009 22:01:46 +0100 http://www.in-mind.org/issue-8/human-or-less-than-human-2.html It’s hard to imagine a more fundamental question for psychology than what it is that makes us human. It’s harder still to come up with an acceptable answer. Great thinkers through the ages have puzzled over the nature of human nature, and so have contemporary psychological theorists. Are we rational animals, intuitive scientists, naked apes, information-processing machines, or battlefields of intrapsychic conflict? Many writers have made suggestions about what makes us human or wthat defines our humanity, some less serious than others (Mark Twain: "Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to"). Or is there perhaps no human nature at all, as the existentialists thought, no definition of humanness that works? Plato suggested "featherless biped", only to be refuted when Diogenes produced a plucked chicken. Articles - Issue 8 Mon, 13 Apr 2009 18:22:24 +0100 http://www.in-mind.org/issue-8/embodied-persuasion-how-the-body-can-change-our-mind-2.html The link between our mind and our bodily responses has long been studied by persuasion researchers. It goes back to the use of the term "attitude" to refer to the posture of one’s body (Galton (#Gal), 1884), and to the notion that attitudes may reflect—and be influenced by—expressive motor behaviors (e.g., a scowling face can indicate a hostile attitude; Darwin (#Dar), 1872). Colloquially, it is common to refer to an attitude as an individual’s position on an issue, although the meaning in this case refers to an evaluative, rather than a physical, orientation. Articles - Issue 8 Fri, 03 Apr 2009 18:58:24 +0100 http://www.in-mind.org/issue-8/when-nothing-bad-happens-but-you-re-still-unhappy-boredom-in-romantic-relation-2.html Warning signs your lover is bored: 1. Passionless kisses 2. Frequent sighing 3. Moved, left no forwarding address. — Matt Groening, Love is Hell Articles - Issue 8 Fri, 03 Apr 2009 07:48:26 +0100 http://www.in-mind.org/issue-7/the-surprising-effect-of-facial-appearance-on-political-decision-m-2.html If your citizenship comes with the responsibility - and privilege - of voting, then every few years you face an interesting challenge. Who will you vote for? Whether you choose to support an incumbent, a celebrated war hero, an experienced government official, or a new face on the political scene, psychologists are incredibly curious about the process by which you come to that decision. There is reason to believe that, coming from a thoughtful and prepared voter, your ballot will reflect an objective assessment of candidate qualifications. You may, for example, use the time before an election to analyze debates, weigh social policies, and scrutinize performance records. With a wealth of political information at the tip of your fingers, only careful, deliberative thinking will contribute to your final decision…right? Articles - Issue 7 Tue, 02 Sep 2008 11:03:43 +0100 http://www.in-mind.org/issue-7/penetrating-the-circle-of-death-why-people-are-dying-and-killing-not-t-2.html The riddle of death Martin Luther King Jr., the social activist who represents for many the ideal of a meaningful life, foreshadowed his own assassination when he said, "A man who won’t die for something is not fit to live." These words may resonate with us, but Woody Allen spoke for many of us as well when he said, "I’m not afraid of dying – I just don’t want to be there when it happens." The idea of death occupies a unique place in our minds: it is both the sum of all fears and a kind of golden standard by which we measure an individual’s commitment to an ideal. We honor and understand King Jr.’s sacrifice insofar as almost all of us possess ideals for which we believe we would give everything, whether it’s the love of our children, fighting oppression in a foreign country, or protecting our personal freedoms. Yet we empathize with Allen because death seems like a terrifying and unfair fate for us, instilled as we are not only with drives toward self-preservation (we seek food when hungry, react quickly to external threats), but also an advanced consciousness that harbors love and a fear of loss for many aspects of our lives. Articles - Issue 7 Tue, 02 Sep 2008 11:41:10 +0100 http://www.in-mind.org/issue-7/reconsidering-race-in-the-genetic-era-2.html "When we talk about the concept of race, most people believe that they know it when they see it but arrive at nothing short of confusion when pressed to define it." E. Higginbotham (1992, p. 253) (#Hig) Race is a topic that has been explored throughout the history of social psychology research. Typically, this research has focused on how our conceptions (or preconceptions) of race affect our attitudes and behaviors. There is a long line of research examining phenomena such as prejudice, stereotypes, discrimination, in-group bias, stereotype threat, self-fulfilling prophecies, and a whole range of related issues. One could argue that an underlying assumption of this research is that all humans are fundamentally equal, regardless of race. In the academic world, there has been consistent support this notion (Anderson & Nickerson, 2005 (#And); Sternberg, Grigorenko, & Kidd, 2005 (#Ste)); however, folk notions of race, as a fundamental biological difference, still persist in the United States and many countries around the world (Jayarantne, Ybarra, Sheldon, Brown, Feldbaum, et al., 2006 (#Jay); Smedley & Smedley, 2005 (#Sme); Williams & Eberhardt, 2008 (#Wil)). Articles - Issue 7 Sun, 31 Aug 2008 23:02:11 +0100 http://www.in-mind.org/issue-7/social-judgment-warmth-and-competence-are-universal-dimensions-2.html How do you make sense of Barack Obama and John McCain? The odds are that you judge them mainly on two dimensions: warm/cold and (in)competence. Depending on your experience of them, you may judge one of them as both warm and competent, evoking your admiration and pride; and perhaps the other as neither warm nor competent, which triggers a sense of contempt and disgust. Or perhaps you view one as warm but not competent, which generates pity and sympathy; or finally, you could judge one of them as cold but competent, leading to feelings of resentment and even envy. All the media hoopla boils down to these two dimensions, which determine the outcomes of Presidential campaigns, but also our ordinary perceptions of other people as individuals or as group members. Articles - Issue 7 Tue, 02 Sep 2008 12:44:18 +0100 http://www.in-mind.org/issue-6/love-at-first-sight-2.html The song "Some Enchanted Evening" from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific warns us that, when it comes to explaining love at first sight, "Fools give you reasons. Wise men never try." Notwithstanding this lyrical warning, more and more psychologists are trying to solve this age-old mystery. According to a recent survey, almost two out of three Americans believe in love at first sight (Naumann, 2001 (#Nau)). The survey reported that over half of them have actually experienced it, and over half of those went on to marry the person they had instantly fallen in love with. Articles - Issue 6 Wed, 30 Apr 2008 16:49:19 +0100 http://www.in-mind.org/issue-6/complementing-individualism-with-the-social-identity-approach-2.html The Illustrative Case of Individuals` Moral Conviction Have you ever thought about where your strong moral convictions (if any) come from? For example, let`s assume you feel strongly about the sacredness of the Qur’an, and feel outraged when someone mocks your Holy Book. Or, alternatively, you feel strongly about freedom of speech, and hence feel outraged when those mocking a holy book are threatened and attacked by those who perceive this as a transgression of their sacred values. Is it, in these cases, a strictly personal part of who you are that reacts so strongly, or is your conviction perhaps derived from important groups you are a member of? Although strong moral conviction may, from an outside perspective, appear to be very much of an individual thing, I suggest in this article that we should consider the possibility that, in reality, this is not always the case. By proposing that moral convictions can also stem from the multitude of groups that individuals are members of, I will illustrate the larger point that individualism, which I define loosely here as a line of thought that attributes individuals` behavior to their personality characteristics, is complemented with the so-called social identity approach. Articles - Issue 6 Tue, 22 Apr 2008 09:52:11 +0100 http://www.in-mind.org/issue-6/the-anatomy-of-love-2.html "Whoever loves becomes humble. Those who love have, so to speak, pawned a part of their narcissism." -Sigmund Freud "How does it feel when it's love? It's just something you feel together." -Van Halen I score that: Psychologists 1, rock stars 0. In May of 2000 a virus spread around the world. It infected 1200 computers within three hours, and was rattling around machines at the CIA, FBI, and Pentagon within a day. It shut down servers at The British House of Commons while the American Department of State was forced to temporarily disconnect its computers from the internet (BBC (#BBC), 2000). Did some malevolent genius unravel the inner secrets of network crypto architecture? Was it a terrorist plot? No, actually, just a small virus tossed off by a Fillipino student disgruntled at having being kicked out of his computer science program. Articles - Issue 6 Sun, 04 May 2008 22:56:09 +0100 http://www.in-mind.org/issue-6/altruism-myth-or-reality-2.html We humans devote much time and energy to helping others. We send money to famine victims halfway around the world—or to save whales. We stay up all night to comfort a friend with a broken relationship. We stop on a busy highway to help a stranded motorist change a flat tire. Why do we do these things? What is our motive? The dominant answer in Western thought is well expressed by the wise and witty Duke de la Rouchefoucauld, 2001: “The most disinterested love is, after all, but a kind of bargain, in which the dear love of our own selves always proposes to be the gainer some way or other” (Maxim 82, 1691). Articles - Issue 6 Tue, 13 May 2008 09:20:33 +0100 http://www.in-mind.org/issue-5/taking-one-for-the-team-2.html Even on Your Way Out of the Door Kaitlyn works Monday through Friday, 9-5. Sitting at her desk on Friday afternoon, Kaitlyn glances at the clock. It is 4:30 pm. The end of the workweek is a mere 30 minutes away. Visions of a relaxing weekend begin to creep in. And then, the phone rings. A distraught coworker is calling to ask for a big favor. His kids are really sick, he feels there’s no way he’s going to be able to prepare for an upcoming meeting on Monday, and he’s wondering if Kaitlyn might be able to run it for him. She’s not up-to-date on the agenda, so it is going to take a fair amount of time to prepare. If she agrees to help out, she can kiss her weekend goodbye. And no, there isn’t any direct reward for running the meeting. A thank you, maybe. A complimentary latte, perhaps. But she shouldn’t expect a big bonus in her next check. Kaitlyn is simply being asked to step up to the plate, be a good sport, and take one for the team. Will she agree? How might her answer change if she knew, for sure, that she had another job lined up and was about to leave the organization? In the present article, I address these questions by first introducing the concept of organizational citizenship behaviors and then summarizing a series of recent studies my colleagues Dishan Kamdar, Denise Daniels, Jane George-Falvy and Blythe Duell and I conducted on this topic. Articles - Issue 5 Sat, 19 Jan 2008 17:52:09 +0100 http://www.in-mind.org/issue-5/are-stereotypes-true-2.html Are African Americans really better at basketball than Caucasians? Are blonds really dumber than brunettes? Are women really worse at math than men? The short answer is yes. The longer answer is no. Let me explain by focusing on the stereotype that women can’t do math. At first glance, this stereotype seems to be true. For instance, men continue to outperform women on the math sections of the SAT and GRE, and men outnumber women in college math courses and math-related jobs. Surely this is evidence that women are not as good at math as men. But as this article will explain stereotypes are self-perpetuating and not only reflect but also cause performance differences between groups. Articles - Issue 5 Tue, 22 Jan 2008 20:53:24 +0100 http://www.in-mind.org/issue-5/creativity-is-more-than-a-trait-it-s-a-relation-2.html What is all the commotion about creativity? Whatever definition this vogue expression is dressed in, it has apparently captured the awareness of countless authorities for educational, economical, governmental and last but not least, scientific issues. Moreover, the media is filled with references to creativity or its synonyms. Ochse (1990), the author of a renowned book on the determinants of creative genius, contested that "our quality of life, perhaps our very survival as a species, depends on promoting creativity" (p. 33). Articles - Issue 5 Sun, 27 Jan 2008 15:06:40 +0100 http://www.in-mind.org/issue-5/the-vision-thing-2.html Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion. [John Welch, American businessman, former head of General Electric] Vision is the key to understanding leadership, and real leaders have never lost the childlike ability to dream dreams… Vision is the blazing campfire around which people with gather. It provides light, energy, warmth and unity. [Bill Newman, Australian broadcaster] The very essence of leadership is that you have to have a vision. It’s got to be a vision you articulate clearly and forcefully on every occasion. [Theodore Hesburgh, former President of the University of Notre Dame]. Articles - Issue 5 Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:37:33 +0100 http://www.in-mind.org/issue-5/the-naked-power-understanding-nonverbal-communications-of-power-2.html Because power is something we often avoid discussing openly, its nonverbal communication is fascinating to lay people and psychologists alike. When directly asked, people interpret many different nonverbal signs as indicating high or low power – unfortunately, these ideas are often exaggerated and misguided. Likewise, social psychologists still have no good understanding of the nonverbal cues to power. This article sheds more light on what is actually underlying nonverbal communication of power. We identify two new insights: First, much of the nonverbal communication of power takes places unconsciously and is hard to control. Second, people use abstract schemas to judge power, and they not only apply these schemas to understanding body talk, but also elements of art, advertisement, and architecture. Articles - Issue 5 Wed, 30 Jan 2008 23:04:00 +0100 http://www.in-mind.org/issue-4/the-media-carriers-of-contagious-information-2.html The media play a critical role in modern society because they are the carriers of information about how people behave. And, the evidence from social science is clear that information about others’ behavior can have a contagious effect—leading observers to behave similarly, which can lead still more and more observers to conform (Cialdini (#Cialdini), 2001). In the economic arena, marketing professionals understand how to harness this power. Television commercials depict crowds rushing into stores and hands depleting shelves of the product. Advertisers proclaim their products as the “largest selling” or “fastest growing” in the market. Restaurant owners designate certain menu items as “our most popular,” which immediately makes them even more popular. Consider the advice offered more than 350 years ago by the Spaniard Balthazar Gracian (#Gracian) (1649/1945) to those wishing to sell goods: Their intrinsic worth is not enough, for not all turn the goods over and look deep. Most run where the crowd is—because the others run. (p. 124) The Media: Carriers of Contagious Information – In-Mind.org Articles - Issue 4 Thu, 18 Oct 2007 00:22:05 +0100 http://www.in-mind.org/issue-4/there-s-something-about-zero.html For some people, looking at one or more of the numbers in the image will be an aesthetically unpleasant experience. “But zero is black!” they will think to themselves. Those with black (or red, or upper left, or shy, or any other type of additional sensation) zeroes are synaesthetes – for them, the perception of a stimulus (the inducer) in one sense will activate a sensation (the concurrent) in a second sense, or a different aspect of the same sense. There’s Something About Zero – In-Mind.org Articles - Issue 4 Thu, 18 Oct 2007 11:16:50 +0100 http://www.in-mind.org/issue-4/on-mirror-neurons-or-why-it-is-okay-to-be-a-couch-potato.html Have you ever wondered why, when you see someone stretch out and yawn, suddenly, you start to feel drowsy and feel the urge to do the same? Or how about the tendency of people to copy each other’s postures? In social psychology this phenomenon is called postural mirroring. All this mimicking is the result of so-called mirror neurons in our brain. On Mirror Neurons or Why it is Okay to be a Couch Potato – In-Mind.org Articles - Issue 4 Thu, 18 Oct 2007 11:59:58 +0100