Showing papers in "Advances in Experimental Social Psychology in 1986"

The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter outlines the two basic routes to persuasion. One route is based on the thoughtful consideration of arguments central to the issue, whereas the other is based on the affective associations or simple inferences tied to peripheral cues in the persuasion context. This chapter discusses a wide variety of variables that proved instrumental in affecting the elaboration likelihood, and thus the route to persuasion. One of the basic postulates of the Elaboration Likelihood Model—that variables may affect persuasion by increasing or decreasing scrutiny of message arguments—has been highly useful in accounting for the effects of a seemingly diverse list of variables. The reviewers of the attitude change literature have been disappointed with the many conflicting effects observed, even for ostensibly simple variables. The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) attempts to place these many conflicting results and theories under one conceptual umbrella by specifying the major processes underlying persuasion and indicating the way many of the traditionally studied variables and theories relate to these basic processes. The ELM may prove useful in providing a guiding set of postulates from which to interpret previous work and in suggesting new hypotheses to be explored in future research.

Recent Research on Selective Exposure to Information

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter highlights the recent research on the selective exposure to information. The term “selective exposure” implies several assumptions concerning the decision-making process. It assumes that the seeking out of decision relevant information does not cease once a decision is made. This notion also implies that this post-decisional information seeking and evaluation is not impartial but, rather, is biased by certain factors activated during the decision-making process. This chapter discusses the fundamental theses of dissonance theory as it relates to selective exposure and gives a short overview of the early research. This chapter describes new research, including the experiments designed to specify those factors most important in influencing informational selectivity: the effects of choice and commitment on selective information seeking, selectivity and refutability of arguments, the amount of available information and its usefulness, the usefulness of decision reversibility, as well as the intensity of dissonance. This chapter reports the results on some additional variables-cost of information, the reliability of dissonant information, and the effects of personality.

Distraction-Conflict Theory: Progress and Problems

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the progress and problems of distraction–conflict theory. Distraction–conflict theory suggests that attentional conflict might be the key mediator of drive in research settings. This chapter reviews the research and argues that—despite a good deal of corroborating data for some of the major contentions of distraction–conflict theory—attentional mechanisms may offer a more parsimonious account of social facilitation phenomena than does a drive perspective. Distraction–conflict theory can account post hoc for the findings that indicate that evaluative or competitive pressure heightens social facilitation or impairment; mere presence occasionally produces social facilitation in the absence of evaluative or competitive pressure; social loafing can occur on simple well-learned tasks; and hidden audiences produce social facilitation. The attentional emphasis suggests that distraction may have a variety of effects on cognition, attitude change, and social behavior.

Social Categorization: Implications for Creation and Reduction of Intergroup Bias

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter presents implications for creations and reduction of intergroup bias It presents the observation that persons organize their social environment by categorizing themselves and others into groups Categorization serves two functions, enables to simplify the present social environment and to predict future social behavior Although reliance on categories is efficient, there is a risk error when using a category based on phenotypic similarities to infer genotypic properties (Thus, members of a group may share similar opinions on matters relevant to the group but that similarity may not reflect an underlying similarity of motives or dispositions) Categorizing others into ingroups and outgroups produces a set of consistent and quite logical effects, including assumptions of similarity within and dissimilarity between groups, assumed homogeneity of the outgroup, and overreliance on information that supports these assumptions Further, categorization leads to intergroup comparisons and ingroup favoritism over outgroups even when no obvious justifications are present for bias

The Role of Threat to Self-Esteem and Perceived Control in Recipient Reaction to Help: Theory Development and Empirical Validation

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on one theoretical orientation—the threat to self-esteem model of reactions to aid—with the goal of introducing a conceptual development to it. The chapter discusses the basic postulates of the original Fisher et al. formulation and then examines the implications of it on the models of effective helping and coping. It discusses the way the findings of research on donor recipient similarity support the theoretical postulates. The chapter also describes the applied implications of the research and its place within the context of social psychology. This chapter illustrates that orientation opens the door for a true link between social psychological research and theory on helping and the world of social problems. Knowing recipients' immediate and long-term responses to help are likely to result in an enhanced ability to create helping programs that can truly help the recipient and enable the person to be self-reliant.

Paradigms and Groups

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter presents the dominant paradigmatic preferences of social psychology to describe whose actions should be studied and the way observations should be related to one another. Substantively and methodologically, the contemporary version of social psychology so thoroughly overlaps other areas of psychology that it has little claim to distinctiveness, and social psychology has failed to provide a very supportive intellectual environment for the study of groups. As these characteristics of the discipline reflect the dominant paradigmatic preferences of the field, they are unlikely to change very rapidly in the near future. The fact that social psychology has not provided a very nurturing environment for the study of groups seems self-evident. A discipline that highlights the proximal (often internal) antecedents of the individual's behavior in experimental situations focuses on specific acts of individuals rather than upon sequences of acts and relies heavily on self-report data that is not likely to encourage scholars, who wish to examine the system-like the qualities of groups. Many social psychologists complain about the restrictive impact of experimental designs, but social psychology remains an overwhelmingly experimental endeavor and strongly dominated by laboratory research.

Natural Experiments on the Effects of Mass Media Violence on Fatal Aggression: Strengths and Weaknesses of a New Approach

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter highlights the strengths and weaknesses of a new approach of natural experiments on the effects of mass media violence on fatal aggression. This chapter reviews the nonlaboratory experiments linking mass media violence with subsequent fluctuations in suicide, homicide, and accidents. Taken together, these natural experiments provide the first systematic body of evidence suggesting that some types of mass media violence tend to elicit fatal aggression among the United States adults. This evidence provides a valuable supplement to laboratory and field experiments and suggests that mass media violence exerts serious effects not only in the laboratory but in the real world as well. The laboratory experiment provides the social psychologist with an exceptionally powerful tool for testing causal hypotheses. In contrast to some other approaches, the experiment allows the investigator to assess hypotheses quickly, cheaply, and rigorously. Finally, these advantages are counterbalanced by a well-known limitation—it is difficult to generalize confidently from the behavior studied in the laboratory to everyday behavior in the real world.