Social Psychology. Daniel W. Barrett

earlier, psychologists of all stripes believed that human psychology was essentially the same everywhere on the planet. It is now widely recognized that humans are, in fact, a cultural species, and that human behavior cannot be adequately understood without consideration of its sociocultural context (Baumeister, 2005; Heine, 2010a; Segall, Dasen, Berry, & Poortinga, 1999). Earlier we touched on how self-concepts can differ between individualistic and collectivistic cultures. There are countless other ways that culture can affect social behavior. For instance, Robert Levine and his colleagues studied perceptions of time in Brazil and the United States (Levine, 2015; Levine, West, & Reis, 1980). They found that Brazilians tend to view time as continuous and unlimited, whereas Americans see it as separable into discrete units and treat it as if it were quickly running out! One of the consequences of these different time perspectives is that, in Brazil, being “on time” for appointments and completing tasks “on time” are not nearly as important as they are in the United States. What elements of your culture have had major impacts on how you see yourself and the world?

      These four fundamental principles—that social behavior is purposive, caused by both dispositional and situational factors, affected by construals, and cultural—provide the grounding from which we launch our social psychological project. They are assumptions upon which we can build our explanatory models, theories, and concepts, and help guide our investigation of social psychological phenomena. These principles will serve as unifying themes in the chapters that follow as we look for the causes of social behavior.

      Think Again!

      1 What are the four principles of social psychology?

      2 Think about the night you graduated from high school. How would each of the principles apply to your feelings and behavior that night?

      Science Matters: Social Psychology Is A Science

      Each of us has theories about why people (including ourselves) do what they do. As meaning-seeking creatures, we have a propensity for generating explanations for thoughts, feelings, and behavior (Malle, 2011; Weiner, 1995). Typically we conceive these explanations based on observation of only limited aspects of a person’s life—perhaps we only see her at work or in class—or on what someone else reports about what he has seen (probably also based on scant evidence). These explanations for behavior are called lay theories, because they are created by ordinary people without advanced training in psychology and without using scientific methods (Beruchashvili, Moisio, & Heisley, 2014; Kruglanski, 1989; L. Ross, 1977). Lay theories seem like common sense, such as when we say “opposites attract.” But don’t “birds of a feather flock together?” Are “two heads better than one,” or do “too many cooks spoil the broth?” Lay theories like these are often contradictory and overly simplistic. Perhaps more importantly, the validity of lay theories is frequently undermined by the scientific evidence. As we discussed at the beginning of this chapter, social psychology is a science that carefully applies scientific methods in order to develop a thorough understanding of social phenomena. Social psychology provides evidence-based explanations that may contradict commonsense psychology.

      Hindsight Bias

      One common mistake that you need to be aware of—and avoid—is that, if a social psychological explanation seems obvious, you may be tempted to think “I knew it all along.” This “knew it all along” tendency is called the hindsight bias, and it is demonstrated when people believe, after they have already learned the outcome of a particular event, that they would have correctly predicted it had they been given the chance (Arkes, 2013; Fischhoff, 1975; Roese & Vohs, 2012; Slovic & Fischhoff, 1977). Let’s say that social psychologists found that people who have very low self-esteem are more aggressive than people who have very high self-esteem. Does this seem obvious? Well, if you said yes, then you would be incorrect. Very high, not very low, self-esteem is associated with more aggression (Bushman & Baumeister, 1998; Bushman et al., 2009). As you will see, social psychology usually isn’t obvious, but when it seems to be don’t assume that you already knew it.

      It is worth noting that this hindsight bias is not one of these “obvious” findings. Let me explain. Fischhoff (1975) provided randomly assigned experimental participants with one of several possible outcomes of an historical event, such as who won a military battle. He asked them to estimate the likelihood that the outcome that they read had occurred. Participants were informed that the event and the outcome they read about had in fact happened. Other participants who were not told the outcome read the same passage but were presented with four possible outcomes and predicted how likely each outcome was. Participants who knew the actual outcome rated the likelihood of that outcome as much greater than did participants who did not know the outcome (see Figure 1.5). In other words, participants believed that they were more likely to have predicted the correct outcome than they actually were. They thought they knew it all along (Adapted from Fischhoff, B., 1975).

      Figure 1.5 Hindsight Bias: Did You Really “Know It All Along”?

      Source: Adapted from Fischhoff, B. (1975). Hindsight is not equal to foresight: The effect of outcome knowledge on judgment under uncertainty. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 1(3), 288–299.

      The general idea is that people often believe that they could have accurately predicted the occurrence of an actual event if they had been asked to predict it before it occurred: The outcome is seen as obvious or inevitable (Hoffrage, Hertwig, & Gigerenzer, 2011). Similarly, students often (erroneously) believe that they already knew the results of a given social psychological study and could have correctly predicted it. However, they fail to realize that their knowledge of the actual outcome has biased their belief that they would have known the outcome before being told. In short, once we know the answer, it suddenly seems obvious! The hindsight bias may lead you to study less than you should because you “knew it all” ahead of time: Don’t wait until your first disappointing test to find out that you didn’t. Many a student has come to me after receiving a low grade on an exam with a distraught look muttering something like “I thought I understood everything—it all seemed so straightforward.” So watch out and study well!

      Lay Theory: Explanation for social behavior that is possessed by an ordinary (lay) person without advanced training in psychology and without using scientific methods

      Hindsight Bias: Incorrect belief that, after a person has already learned the outcome of a particular event, he or she would have accurately predicted the outcome before it occurred

      Think Again!

      1 Can you think of a time when you may have fallen victim to the hindsight bias?

      2 How might you or others avoid this bias?

      Science Is Not What You Think

      In my high school science classes I was taught that science was comprised of universal truths uncovered by people with advanced degrees. For instance, I had the impression that my chemistry book was filled with unassailable scientific facts about the composition and properties of matter and that if I successfully committed them to memory, then I would understand the science of chemistry. However, the idea that science is just a collection of unchanging facts constitutes a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of science.

      One of the most important lessons that I want you to take away from this text is that science is not a collection of facts; rather, it is a process of discovery. It is true that the body of social psychological knowledge that we call “facts” constitutes the overwhelming bulk of the information in this book and, no doubt, much of what your professor will test you on. However, it is critical that you also understand the nature of science and especially of good psychological science. Science is a process of asking questions, developing hypotheses, and designing research in order to answer these questions (Hull, 1988). Briefly,