Misplaced Pages

#406593

89-439: Social psychologist Ian Mckee states that the desire for the sustenance of power motivates vengeful behavior as a means of impression management: "People who are more vengeful tend to be those who are motivated by power, by authority and by the desire for status. They don't want to lose face ". Vengeful behavior has been found across a majority of human societies throughout history. Some societies encourage vengeful behavior, which

178-484: A heritage that passes from generation to generation. Whenever it is compromised, the affected family or community members might feel compelled to retaliate against an offender to restore the initial "balance of honor" that preceded the perceived injury. This cycle of honor might expand by bringing the family members and then the entire community of the new victim into the brand-new, endless cycle of revenge that may pervade generations. Francis Bacon described revenge as

267-675: A change in attitudes or behavior. Research on attitudes has examined the distinction between traditional, self-reported attitudes and implicit, unconscious attitudes . Experiments using the Implicit Association Test (IAT) , for instance, have found that people often demonstrate implicit bias against other races, even when their explicit responses profess impartiality. Likewise, one study found that in interracial interactions, explicit attitudes correlate with verbal behavior, while implicit attitudes correlate with nonverbal behavior. Attitudes are also involved in several other areas of

356-419: A common identity. They have a number of emergent qualities that distinguish them from coincidental, temporary gatherings, which are termed social aggregates: The shared social identity of individuals within a group influences intergroup behavior , which denotes the way in which groups behave towards and perceive each other. These perceptions and behaviors in turn define the social identity of individuals within

445-461: A cultural context. It was also in this period where situationism , the theory that human behavior changes based on situational factors, emerged and challenged the relevance of self and personality in psychology. By the 1980s and 1990s, social psychology had developed a number of solutions to these issues with regard to theory and methodology . At present, ethical standards regulate research, and pluralistic and multicultural perspectives to

534-584: A kind of "wild justice" that "does [..]. offend the law [and] putteth the law out of office." Feuds are cycles of provocation and retaliation, fueled by a desire for revenge and carried out over long periods of time by familial or tribal groups. They were an important part of many pre-industrial societies , especially in the Mediterranean region. They still persist in some areas, notably in Albania with its tradition of gjakmarrja or "blood feuds", revenge that

623-511: A later squabble. Chimpanzees are one of the most common species that show revenge due to their desire for dominance. Studies have also been performed on less cognitive species such as fish to demonstrate that not only intellectual animals execute revenge. Studies of crows by Professor John Marzluff have also shown that some animals can carry "blood feuds" in similar ways to humans. Using a "dangerous" mask to cover their face and trap, band, and then release crows, Marzluff observed that within two weeks,

712-753: A masked or disguised identity include sex, power, and even cannibalism . Examples of sex and power being used as themes can be seen in the novel Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn , as well as the aforementioned drama, Titus Andronicus . The emergence of the internet has provided new ways of exacting revenge. Customer revenge targets businesses and corporations with the intent to cause damage or harm. In general, people tend to place more credence in online reviews rather than corporate communications . With technology becoming more readily available, corporations and firms are more likely to experience damage caused by negative reviews posted online going viral . Recent studies indicate this type of consumer rage aimed at corporations

801-550: A means of justice restoration. A growing body of research reveals that a vengeful disposition is correlated to adverse health outcomes: strong desires for revenge and greater willingness to act on these desires have been correlated with post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and psychiatric morbidity. The popular expression "revenge is a dish best served cold" suggests that revenge is more satisfying if enacted when unexpected or long-feared, inverting traditional civilized revulsion toward "cold-blooded" violence. The idea's origin

890-410: A person may generally value the environment but may not recycle a plastic bottle because of specific factors on a given day. One of the most influential 20th century attitude theories was Cognitive dissonance theory . According to this theory, attitudes must be logically consistent with each other. Noticing incongruence among one’s attitudes leads to an uncomfortable state of tension, which may motivate

979-517: A popular literary theme historically and continues to play a role in contemporary works. Examples of literature that feature revenge as a theme include the plays Hamlet and Othello by William Shakespeare , the novel The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas , and the short story " The Cask of Amontillado " by Edgar Allan Poe . More modern examples include the novels Carrie by Stephen King , Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn , and The Princess Bride by William Goldman . Although revenge

SECTION 10

#1732845680407

1068-497: A population. This type of research is usually descriptive or correlational because there is no experimental control over variables. Some psychologists have raised concerns for social psychological research relying too heavily on studies conducted on university undergraduates in academic settings, or participants from crowdsourcing labor markets such as Amazon Mechanical Turk . In a 1986 study by David O. Sears , over 70% of experiments used North American undergraduates as subjects,

1157-522: A proverbial saying, and translated "revenge is very good eaten cold". The phrase has been wrongly credited to the novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses (1782). The phrase has also been credited to the Pashtuns of Afghanistan. Earlier speakers of English might use the set phrase "with a wanion " rather than the more modern standard "with a vengeance" to express intensity. A Japanese proverb states, "If you want revenge, then dig two graves". While this reference

1246-440: A restaurant, doing laundry) are known as scripts . Self-concept is the whole sum of beliefs that people have about themselves. The self-concept is made up of cognitive aspects called self-schemas —beliefs that people have about themselves and that guide the processing of self-referential information. For example, an athlete at a university would have multiple selves that would process different information pertinent to each self:

1335-402: A result of the relationship between mental states and social situations, studying the social conditions under which thoughts, feelings, and behaviors occur, and how these variables influence social interactions . In the 19th century, social psychology began to emerge from the larger field of psychology . At the time, many psychologists were concerned with developing concrete explanations for

1424-465: A sense of pleasure through the harm, embarrassment, and humiliation being inflicted on the victim. The allowance of anonymity on revenge porn sites encourages further incivility by empowering and encouraging this type of behavior. In many instances, the original poster provides the victim's personal information, including links to social media accounts, furthering the harassment. Online revenge porn's origins can be traced to 2010 when Hunter Moore created

1513-411: A significant percentage of crows encountered - 26%, to be exact - would "scold" the people wearing the dangerous mask, proving that crows pass information pertaining to feuds within their family units to spread awareness about dangers they may face. This included crows not initially trapped by the mask-wearing researchers, seeing as some of the crows were un-banded. This was further proven three years after

1602-447: A simulated exercise involving students playing at being prison guards and inmates, attempted to show how far people would go in role playing. In just a few days, the guards became brutal and cruel, and the prisoners became miserable and compliant. This was initially argued to be an important demonstration of the power of the immediate social situation and its capacity to overwhelm normal personality traits. Subsequent research has contested

1691-793: A source for Maurice Joly in his 1864 work Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu , a book attacking Napoleon III and his political ambitions. The two are depicted in Will Eisner 's cartoon book The Plot , co-authored with Eco. After the French Revolution of 1848 , Sue was elected to the Legislative Assembly from the Paris-Seine constituency in April 1850. He was exiled from Paris in consequence of his protest against

1780-497: A state of consummate love. According to social exchange theory , relationships are based on rational choice and cost-benefit analysis. A person may leave a relationship if their partner's "costs" begin to outweigh their benefits, especially if there are good alternatives available. This theory is similar to the minimax principle proposed by mathematicians and economists. With time, long-term relationships tend to become communal rather than simply based on exchange. Social psychology

1869-439: A subset of the population that is unrepresentative of the population as a whole. Regardless of which method has been chosen, social psychologists statistically review the significance of their results before accepting them in evaluating an underlying hypothesis. Statistics and probability testing define what constitutes a significant finding, which can be as low as 5% or less, and is unlikely due to chance. Replication testing

SECTION 20

#1732845680407

1958-510: Is obedience ; this is a change in behavior that is the result of a direct order or command from another person. Obedience as a form of compliance was dramatically highlighted by the Milgram study , wherein people were ready to administer shocks to a person in distress on a researcher's command. An unusual kind of social influence is the self-fulfilling prophecy . This is a prediction that, by being made, causes itself to become true. For example, in

2047-607: Is a false memory of having predicted events, or an exaggeration of actual predictions, after becoming aware of the outcome. The confirmation bias is a type of bias leading to the tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions. Schemas are generalized mental representations that organize knowledge and guide information processing. They organize social information and experiences. Schemas often operate automatically and unconsciously. This leads to biases in perception and memory. Schemas may induce expectations that lead us to see something that

2136-450: Is a compliance method in which the persuader requests a small favor and then follows up with a larger favor (e.g., asking for the time and then asking for ten dollars). A related trick is the bait and switch , which is a disingenuous sales strategy that involves enticing potential customers with advertisements of low-priced items which turn out to be unavailable in order to sell a more expensive item. The third major form of social influence

2225-434: Is a literary device in which the audience possesses knowledge unavailable to characters in a novel, play, or film. Its purpose is to intensify the tragic events that are going to unfold by creating tension between the audience and the actions of the characters. The most common theme within the genre of revenge is the recurring violent murders that take place throughout the text, especially in the final act or scene. The root of

2314-487: Is a tendency to work harder and faster in the presence of others. Another important concept in this area is deindividuation , a reduced state of self-awareness that can be caused by feelings of anonymity. Deindividuation is associated with uninhibited and sometimes dangerous behavior. It is common in crowds and mobs, but it can also be caused by a disguise, a uniform, alcohol, dark environments, or online anonymity. A major area of study of people's relations to each other

2403-445: Is a theme in itself, it is also considered to be a genre . Revenge as a genre has been consistent with a variety of themes that have frequently appeared in different texts over the last few centuries. Such themes include but are not limited to: disguise , masking , sex , cannibalism , the grotesque , bodily fluids, power, violent murders, and secrecy. Each theme is usually coupled with the concept of dramatic irony . Dramatic irony

2492-419: Is a theme in various woodblock prints depicting the forty-seven rōnin by many well-known and influential artists, including Utagawa Kuniyoshi . The Chinese playwright Ji Junxiang used revenge as the central theme in his theatrical work The Orphan of Zhao ; it depicts more specifically familial revenge, which is placed in the context of Confucian morality and social hierarchical structure. Revenge has been

2581-399: Is also important in ensuring that the results are valid and not due to chance. False positive conclusions, often resulting from the pressure to publish or the author's own confirmation bias , are a hazard in the field. The Asch conformity experiments used a line-length estimation task to demonstrate the power of people's impulses to conform with other members in a small group. The task

2670-544: Is an empirical science that attempts to answer questions about human behavior by testing hypotheses. Careful attention to research design, sampling, and statistical analysis is important in social psychology. Whenever possible, social psychologists rely on controlled experimentation , which requires the manipulation of one or more independent variables in order to examine the effect on a dependent variable . Experiments are useful in social psychology because they are high in internal validity , meaning that they are free from

2759-607: Is an extension of the theory, positing that tendency exists to make dispositional attributions for other people's behavior and situational attributions for one's own. The self-serving bias is the tendency to attribute dispositional causes for successes, and situational causes for failure, particularly when self-esteem is threatened. This leads to assuming one's successes are from innate traits, and one's failures are due to situations. Heuristics are cognitive shortcuts which are used to make decisions in lieu of conscious reasoning. The availability heuristic occurs when people estimate

Revenge - Misplaced Pages Continue

2848-517: Is an overarching term that denotes the persuasive effects people have on each other. It is seen as a fundamental concept in social psychology. The study of it overlaps considerably with research on attitudes and persuasion. The three main areas of social influence include conformity , compliance , and obedience . Social influence is also closely related to the study of group dynamics, as most effects of influence are strongest when they take place in social groups. The first major area of social influence

2937-480: Is becoming more common, especially in Western societies . The rise of social media sites like Facebook , Twitter , and YouTube act as public platforms for exacting new forms of revenge. Revenge porn involves the vengeful public dissemination of intimate pictures and videos of another person's sexual activity with the intent of creating widespread shame . Participation in online revenge porn activities incites

3026-487: Is carried out not only by the individual, but by their extended relations for generations to come. Blood feuds are still practised in many parts of the world, including Kurdish regions of Turkey and in Papua New Guinea . In Japan, honouring one's family, clan, or lord through the practice of revenge killings is called "katakiuchi" (敵討ち). These killings could also involve the relatives of an offender. Today, katakiuchi

3115-424: Is conducted by an ethics committee or institutional review board , which examines the proposed research to make sure that no harm is likely to come to the participants, and that the study's benefits outweigh any possible risks or discomforts to people participating. Eug%C3%A8ne Sue Marie-Joseph " Eugène " Sue ( French pronunciation: [øʒɛn sy] ; 26 January 1804 – 3 August 1857)

3204-543: Is conformity. Conformity is defined as the tendency to act or think like other members of a group. The identity of members within a group (i.e., status), similarity, expertise, as well as cohesion, prior commitment, and accountability to the group help to determine the level of conformity of an individual. Conformity is often driven by two types of social influences: informational social influence, which involves conforming to gain accurate information, and normative social influence, which involves conforming to be accepted or liked by

3293-415: Is due to a request or suggestion from another person. Two common compliance strategies are 'foot-in-the-door,' which involves getting a person to agree to a small request to increase the likelihood of agreeing to a larger one, and 'door-in-the-face,' which involves making a large request that is likely to be refused to make a subsequent smaller request more likely to be accepted. The foot-in-the-door technique

3382-526: Is frequently misunderstood by Western audiences, the Japanese reader understands that this proverb means that enactors of revenge must be more dedicated to killing their enemy than to surviving the ordeal themselves. Revenge is a popular subject across many forms of art. Some examples include the painting Herodias' Revenge by Juan de Flandes and the operas Don Giovanni and The Marriage of Figaro , both by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart . In Japanese art, revenge

3471-452: Is interpersonal attraction, which refers to all factors that lead people to like each other, establish relationships, and in some cases fall in love. Several general principles of attraction have been discovered by social psychologists. One of the most important factors in interpersonal attraction is how similar two particular people are. The more similar two people are in general attitudes, backgrounds, environments, worldviews, and other traits,

3560-494: Is most often pursued by peaceful means, but revenge remains an important part of Japanese culture. Philosophers tend to believe that to punish and to take revenge are vastly different activities: "One who undertakes to punish rationally does not do so for the sake of the wrongdoing, which is now in the past - but for the sake of the future, that the wrongdoing shall not be repeated, either by him, or by others who see him, or by others who see him punished". In contrast, seeking revenge

3649-447: Is motivated by a yearning to see a transgressor suffer; revenge is necessarily preceded by anger, whereas punishment does not have to be. Indeed, Kaiser, Vick, and Major point out the following: "An important psychological implication of the various efforts to define revenge is that there is no objective standard for declaring an act to be motivated by revenge or not. Revenge is a label that is ascribed based on perceivers’ attributions for

Revenge - Misplaced Pages Continue

3738-407: Is not there. One experiment found that people are more likely to misperceive a weapon in the hands of a black man than a white man. This type of schema is a stereotype , a generalized set of beliefs about a particular group of people (when incorrect, an ultimate attribution error ). Stereotypes are often related to negative or preferential attitudes and behavior. Schemas for behaviors (e.g., going to

3827-525: Is obscure. The French diplomat Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1754–1838) has been credited with the saying, "La vengeance est un met que l'on doit manger froid" ["Revenge is a dish that must be eaten cold"], albeit without supporting detail. The concept has been in the English language at least since the 1846 translation of the 1845 French novel Mathilde by Joseph Marie Eugène Sue : " la vengeance se mange très bien froide ", there italicized as if quoting

3916-435: Is then called a feud . These societies usually regard the honor of individuals and groups as of central importance. Thus, while protecting their reputation, an avenger feels as if they restore the previous state of dignity and justice . According to Michael Ignatieff , "Revenge is a profound moral desire to keep faith with the dead, to honor their memory by taking up their cause where they left off". Thus, honor may become

4005-556: The 1823 French campaign in Spain and at the Battle of Navarino in 1827. In 1829 his father's death put him in possession of a considerable fortune, and he settled in Paris. Sue's naval experiences supplied much of the material for his first novels, Kernock le pirate (1830), Atar-Gull (1831), La Salamandre (2 vols, 1832), La Coucaratcha (4 vols, 1832–1834), and others, written at the height of

4094-643: The French Revolution ( Sword of Honor ). The novels were translated into English (as the "Mysteries of the People") and published in New York by Daniel De Leon and his son, Solon . Some of Sue's books, among them The Wandering Jew and The Mysteries of Paris , were dramatized by himself, usually in collaboration with others. His period of greatest success and popularity coincided with that of Alexandre Dumas , with whom he has been compared. According to Umberto Eco , parts of Sue's book Les Mystères du peuple served as

4183-736: The Roman Empire ( The Iron Collar ). Other Les Mystères du peuple novels dealt with Early Christianity ( The Silver Cross ), King Clovis I ( The Poniard's Hilt ), the founding of the Duchy of Normandy ( The Iron Arrow-Head ), the Crusades in Palestine ( The Pilgrim's Shell ), the Albigensian Crusade ( The Iron Pincers ), the Jacquerie ( The Iron Trevet ), Joan of Arc ( The Executioner's Knife ) and

4272-449: The Romantic movement of 1830 . In the quasi-historical style he wrote Jean Cavalier, ou Les Fanatiques des Cevennes (4 vols, 1840) and Latréaumont (2 vols, 1837). His Mathilde (6 vols, 1841) contains the first known expression of the popular proverb " La vengeance se mange très-bien froide ", translated in 1846 as " Revenge is very good eaten cold " by D. G. Osborne, also constituting

4361-548: The elaboration likelihood model ) maintain that persuasion is mediated by two separate routes: central and peripheral. The central route of persuasion is influenced by facts and results in longer-lasting change, but requires motivation to process. The peripheral route is influenced by superficial factors (e.g. smiling, clothing) and results in shorter-lasting change, but does not require as much motivation to process. Social cognition studies how people perceive, recognize, and remember information about others. Much research rests on

4450-455: The probability of an outcome based on how easy that outcome is to imagine. As such, vivid or highly memorable possibilities will be perceived as more likely than those that are harder to picture or difficult to understand. The representativeness heuristic is a shortcut people use to categorize something based on how similar it is to a prototype they know of. Several other biases have been found by social cognition researchers. The hindsight bias

4539-437: The seven deadly sins ; Les Mystères du peuple (1849–1856), a long series of historical novels which was suppressed by the censor in 1857; and several others, all on a very large scale, though the number of volumes gives an exaggerated idea of their length. Les Mystères du peuple is a lengthy series of novels and novellas dealing with French history. Les Mystères du peuple begins with a novel graphically depicting slavery in

SECTION 50

#1732845680407

4628-539: The 1960s, there was growing interest in topics such as cognitive dissonance , bystander intervention , and aggression . These developments were part of a trend of increasingly sophisticated laboratory experiments using college students as participants and analysis of variance designs. In the 1970s, a number of conceptual challenges to social psychology emerged over issues such as ethical concerns about laboratory experimentation, whether attitudes could accurately predict behavior, and to what extent science could be done in

4717-404: The U.S. military (see also psychological warfare ). Following the war, researchers became interested in a variety of social problems, including issues of gender and racial prejudice . Social stigma , which refers to the disapproval or discrimination against individuals based on perceived differences, became increasingly prevalent as societies sought to redefine norms and group boundaries after

4806-471: The act. Revenge is an inference, regardless of whether the individuals making the inference are the harmdoers themselves, the injured parties, or outsiders. Because revenge is an inference, various individuals can disagree on whether the same action is revenge or not." Belief in the just-world fallacy is also associated with revenge: in particular, having strong experiences or challenges against, can increase distress and motivate individuals to seek revenge, as

4895-432: The assertion that people think about other people differently than they do non-social, or non-human, targets. This assertion is supported by the social-cognitive deficits exhibited by people with Williams syndrome and autism . A major research topic in social cognition is attribution . Attributions are explanations of behavior, either one's own behavior or the behavior of others. One element of attribution ascribes

4984-445: The behavior will be repeated or changed under similar circumstances). Individuals also attribute causes of behavior to controllable and uncontrollable factors (i.e., how much control one has over the situation at hand). Numerous biases in the attribution process have been discovered. For instance, the fundamental attribution error is the bias towards making dispositional attributions for other people's behavior. The actor-observer bias

5073-436: The cause of behavior to internal and external factors. An internal, or dispositional, attribution reasons that a behavior is caused by inner traits such as personality, disposition, character, and ability. An external, or situational, attribution reasons that a behavior is caused by situational elements such as the weather. A second element of attribution ascribes the cause of behavior to stable and unstable factors (i.e., whether

5162-406: The different aspects of human nature . They attempted to discover concrete cause-and-effect relationships that explained social interactions. In order to do so, they applied the scientific method to human behavior. One of the first published studies in the field was Norman Triplett 's 1898 experiment on the phenomenon of social facilitation . These psychological experiments later went on to form

5251-521: The discipline, such as conformity , interpersonal attraction , social perception, and prejudice . Persuasion is an active method of influencing that attempts to guide people toward the adoption of an attitude, idea, or behavior by rational or emotive means. Persuasion relies on appeals rather than strong pressure or coercion . The process of persuasion has been found to be influenced by numerous variables that generally fall into one of five major categories: Dual-process theories of persuasion (such as

5340-438: The financial field, if it is widely believed that a crash is imminent, investors may lose confidence, sell most of their stock, and thus cause a crash. Similarly, people may expect hostility in others and induce this hostility by their own behavior. Psychologists have spent decades studying the power of social influence, and the way in which it manipulates people's opinions and behavior. Specifically, social influence refers to

5429-512: The first known English usage of the proverb later expressed in English as "Revenge is a dish best served cold" . He was strongly affected by the socialist ideas of the day, and these prompted his most famous works, the anti-Catholic novels: The Mysteries of Paris ( Les Mystères de Paris ) (published in Journal des débats from 19 June 1842 until 15 October 1843) and The Wandering Jew ( Le Juif errant ; 10 vols, 1844–1845), which were among

SECTION 60

#1732845680407

5518-701: The first site, IsAnyoneUp , to share nude photos of his girlfriend. Humans are not the only species known to take revenge. There are several species such as camels , elephants , fish , lions , coots , crows , and many species of primates ( chimpanzees , macaques , baboons , etc.) that have been recognized to seek revenge. Primatologists Frans de Waal and Lesleigh Luttrellave conducted numerous studies that provide evidence of revenge in many species of primates. They observed chimpanzees and noticed patterns of revenge. For example, if chimpanzee A helped chimpanzee B defeat his opponent, chimpanzee C, then chimpanzee C would be more likely to help chimpanzee A's opponent in

5607-506: The foundation of much of 20th century social psychological findings. According to Wolfgang Stroebe , modern social psychology began in 1924 with the publication of a classic textbook by Floyd Allport , which defined the field as the experimental study of social behavior. An early, influential research program in social psychology was established by Kurt Lewin and his students. During World War II , social psychologists were mostly concerned with studies of persuasion and propaganda for

5696-476: The group. Individual variations among group members play a key role in the dynamic of how willing people will be to conform. Conformity is usually viewed as a negative tendency in American culture, but a certain amount of conformity is adaptive in some situations, as is nonconformity in other situations. The second major area of social influence research is compliance , which refers to any change in behavior that

5785-413: The individual began conforming or withdrew from the experiment. Also, participant conformity increased substantially as the number of "incorrect" individuals increased from one to three, and remained high as the incorrect majority grew. Participants with three other, incorrect participants made mistakes 31.8% of the time, while those with one or two incorrect participants made mistakes only 3.6% and 13.6% of

5874-414: The influence of confounding or extraneous variables, and so are more likely to accurately indicate a causal relationship. However, the small samples used in controlled experiments are typically low in external validity , or the degree to which the results can be generalized to the larger population. There is usually a trade-off between experimental control (internal validity) and being able to generalize to

5963-495: The initial conclusions of the study. For example, it has been pointed out that participant self-selection may have affected the participants' behavior, and that the participants' personalities influenced their reactions in a variety of ways, including how long they chose to remain in the study. The 2002 BBC prison study , designed to replicate the conditions in the Stanford study, produced conclusions that were drastically different from

6052-416: The initial findings. Albert Bandura 's Bobo doll experiment attempted to demonstrate how aggression is learned by imitation . In the experiment, 72 children, grouped based on similar levels of pre-tested aggressivity, either witnessed an aggressive or a non-aggressive actor interact with a "bobo doll." The children were then placed alone in the room with the doll and observed to see if they would imitate

6141-418: The initial study, as the percentage of "scolding" crows increased to 66% from the initial 26%. [REDACTED] Media related to Revenge at Wikimedia Commons Social psychology Social psychology is the scientific study of how thoughts , feelings , and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. Social psychologists typically explain human behavior as

6230-500: The interacting groups. The tendency to define oneself by membership in a group may lead to intergroup discrimination, which involves favorable perceptions and behaviors directed towards the in-group, but negative perceptions and behaviors directed towards the out-group. Groups often moderate and improve decision making , and are frequently relied upon for these benefits, such as in committees and juries. Groups also affect performance and productivity . Social facilitation, for example,

6319-559: The more likely they will be attracted to each other. Physical attractiveness is an important element of romantic relationships, particularly in the early stages characterized by high levels of passion . Later on, similarity and other compatibility factors become more important, and the type of love people experience shifts from passionate to companionate. In 1986, Robert Sternberg suggested that there are actually three components of love: intimacy, passion, and commitment. When two (or more) people experience all three, they are said to be in

6408-659: The most popular specimens of the serial novel . The Wandering Jew is a Gothic novel depicting the titular character in conflict with the villain, a murderous Jesuit named Rodin. These works depicted the intrigues of the nobility and the harsh life of the underclass to a wide public. Les Mystères de Paris spawned a class of imitations all over the world, the city mysteries . Sue's books caused controversy because of their strongly violent scenes, and also because of their socialist and anti-clerical subtexts. He followed up with some singular books: Les Sept pêchés capitaux (16 vols, 1847–1849) contained stories to illustrate each of

6497-423: The perception of our own behavior. Leon Festinger 's 1954 social comparison theory posits that people evaluate their own abilities and opinions by comparing themselves to others when they are uncertain of their own ability or opinions. Daryl Bem 's 1972 self-perception theory claims that when internal cues are difficult to interpret, people gain self-insight by observing their own behavior. Social influence

6586-406: The population (external validity). Because it is usually impossible to test everyone, research tends to be conducted on a sample of persons from the wider population . Social psychologists frequently use survey research when they are interested in results that are high in external validity. Surveys use various forms of random sampling to obtain a sample of respondents that is representative of

6675-417: The same behavior of the actor they had observed. As hypothesized, the children who had witnessed the aggressive actor, imitated the behavior and proceeded to act aggressively towards the doll. Both male and female children who witnessed the non-aggressive actor behaved less aggressively towards the doll. However, boys were more likely to exhibit aggression, especially after observing the behavior from an actor of

6764-435: The same gender. In addition, boys were found to imitate more physical aggression, while girls displayed more verbal aggression. The goal of social psychology is to understand cognition and behavior as they naturally occur in a social context, but the very act of observing people can influence and alter their behavior. For this reason, many social psychology experiments utilize deception to conceal or distort certain aspects of

6853-429: The same lie. The first group ($ 1) later reported liking the task better than the second group ($ 20). Festinger's explanation was that for people in the first group, being paid only $ 1 was not sufficient incentive. This led them to experience dissonance, or discomfort and internal conflict. They could only overcome that dissonance by justifying their lies. They did this by changing their previously unfavorable attitudes about

6942-457: The same results as deception studies, and this has cast doubt on their validity. In addition to deception, experimenters have at times put people in potentially uncomfortable or embarrassing situations (e.g., the Milgram experiment and Stanford prison experiment ), and this has also been criticized for ethical reasons. Virtually all social psychology research in the modern day must pass an ethical review. At most colleges and universities, this

7031-621: The social sciences have emerged. Most modern researchers in the 21st century are interested in phenomena such as attribution , social cognition , and self-concept . During the COVID-19 pandemic, social psychologists examined the effects of social isolation, fear, and misinformation on collective behavior. Research also focused on how pandemic-related stress affected mental health and social cohesion. Social psychologists are, in addition, concerned with applied psychology , contributing towards applications of social psychology in health, education, law, and

7120-424: The student would be oneself, who would process information pertinent to a student (taking notes in class, completing a homework assignment, etc.); the athlete would be the self who processes information about things related to being an athlete. These selves are part of one's identity and the self-referential information is that which relies on the appropriate self to process and react to it. There are many theories on

7209-500: The study. Deception may include false cover stories, false participants (known as confederates or stooges), false feedback given to the participants, and other techniques that help remove potential obstacles to participation. The practice of deception has been challenged by psychologists who maintain that deception under any circumstances is unethical and that other research strategies (e.g., role-playing ) should be used instead. Research has shown that role-playing studies do not produce

7298-426: The task. Being paid $ 20 provided a reason for doing the boring task, which resulted in no dissonance. The Milgram experiment was designed to study how far people would go in obeying an authority figure. The experiment showed that normal American citizens would follow orders even when they believed they were causing an innocent person to suffer or even apparently die. Philip Zimbardo 's Stanford prison study ,

7387-444: The time, respectively. In Leon Festinger 's cognitive dissonance experiment, participants were divided into two groups and were asked to perform a boring task. Both groups were later asked to dishonestly give their opinion of the task, but were rewarded according to two different pay scales. At the end of the study, some participants were paid $ 1 to say that they enjoyed the task, while the group of participants were paid $ 20 to tell

7476-440: The violence is usually derived from the characters' childhood development. The themes of masking and disguise have the ability to go hand in hand with each other. A character may employ disguise literally or metaphorically . A mask is the literal example of this theme; while pretending to be something one is not is considered to be the metaphoric example. Additional themes that may cause the protagonist and antagonist to develop

7565-451: The war. During the years immediately following World War II , there were frequent collaborations between psychologists and sociologists . The two disciplines, however, have become increasingly specialized and isolated from each other in recent years, with sociologists generally focusing on high-level, large-scale examinations of society, and psychologists generally focusing on more small-scale studies of individual human behaviors. During

7654-455: The way in which individuals change their ideas and actions to meet the demands of a social group, received authority, social role, or a minority within a group wielding influence over the majority. Social psychologists study group-related phenomena such as the behavior of crowds . A group can be defined as two or more individuals who are connected to each other by social relationships . Groups tend to interact, influence each other, and share

7743-488: The workplace . In social psychology, an attitude is a learned, global evaluation that influences thought and action. Attitudes are basic expressions of approval and disapproval or likes and dislikes. For example, enjoying chocolate ice cream or endorsing the values of a particular political party are examples of attitudes. Because people are influenced by multiple factors in any given situation, general attitudes are not always good predictors of specific behavior. For example,

7832-534: Was a French novelist. He was one of several authors who popularized the genre of the serial novel in France with his very popular and widely imitated The Mysteries of Paris , which was published in a newspaper from 1842 to 1843. Sue was born in Paris, France. He was the son of a distinguished surgeon in Napoleon 's army, Jean-Joseph Sue , and had Empress Joséphine as his godmother. Sue himself acted as surgeon both in

7921-515: Was designed to be easy to assess but wrong answers were deliberately given by at least some, oftentimes most, of the other participants. In well over a third of the trials, participants conformed to the majority, even though the majority judgment was clearly wrong. Seventy-five percent of the participants conformed at least once during the experiment. Additional manipulations of the experiment showed that participant conformity decreased when at least one other individual failed to conform but increased when

#406593