Chapter 12 Questions for Discussion

1. You’re in charge of developing a strategy for keeping a screaming group of 11- and 12-year-olds calm during a concert. Discuss the merits of treating the crowd as a physical entity (as did Helbing) versus a psychological entity (as did social psychologists in their study of social norms). [Apply]

2. Conformity (as illustrated by Asch’s study), compliance (as illustrated by the success of the foot-in-the-door technique), and obedience (as illustrated by Milgram’s study) are three forms of social influence that may seem very similar. How do they differ from one another? [Analyze]

3. Milgram conducted his first obedience to authority study in the early 1960s. Zimbardo conducted his Stanford Prison experiment in the early 1970s. Would a current-day Institutional Review Board determine that these studies are acceptable? To answer, consider the three principles that guide ethical research in psychology (discussed in more detail in Chapter 2): (1) Research participation must be voluntary; (2) participants must be informed; and (3) participants must be able to withdraw. Redesign the studies so as to minimize harm to the participants, then reflect on what knowledge would be lost or gained within these redesigns. [Synthesize, Analyze]

4. Your friend is angry because she sent an email to her chess club two weeks ago requesting that someone volunteer to host the next meeting, yet no one has responded. What recommendations will you give to her, in light of social psychological research on bystander intervention? [Apply]

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   Recall a memorable commercial and identify its central message. Did you evaluate the central message of the ad heuristically or systematically? If you processed the message heuristically, do you think you would have been more or less persuaded by it if you had processed the message systematically? Explain. [Apply]

6. We all have friends whose opinions on highly important topics differ from our own, but very few people know how to harness the power of social psychology to bend friends to their will. Capitalize on Festinger and Carlsmith’s (1959) research on dissonance-induced attitude change to hatch a plan for getting a friend to change his or her mind on a topic on which you disagree. [Apply]

7. Design an experiment that might demonstrate how being reminded of the stereotype of one’s group can enhance, rather than impair, performance in some domain. [Synthesize]

8. Identify an everyday behavior or custom in which you engage (e.g., tweeting) and describe it in such a way that individuals from other cultures might find the behavior odd (e.g., “Individuals in this culture sometimes interrupt their live social interactions to engage in computer-facilitated real-time social interactions, in which they describe how lonely they are”). How does this perspective-taking activity enhance our understanding of the role of culture in explaining human behavior? [Apply]

9. You read that intergroup contact interventions are an effective way to reduce prejudice. Why do you suppose these interventions work? Why is Sherif’s Robbers Cave study an example of an intergroup contact intervention, whereas Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison experiment is not? [Analyze]