CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

LECTURE 9
 SOCIAL THINKING

Fundamental attribution error – the theory that

we explain someone’s behavior by crediting either
the situation or the person’s disposition.
 CONTAGION

Contagion:
• Cultural products: Art, Movies, Music

How do people come to like a certain piece of art or a

particular movie?
People don’t fall in love with art for its own sake, but
also in order to feel that they belong to a community.
By imitating, we get closer to others.
- It fights solitude.
 CONFORMITY

Conformity – adjusting our behavior or thinking to

coincide with a group standard

Why?
Avoid embarrassment, awkwardness, and even hostile
behavior from others.
 CONFORMITY

Solomon Asch (1951, 1956) had participants guess which line

in the right box is the same length as the line on the left. Almost
everyone easily gets this right – when alone.
 CONFORMITY

Why we conform?
Normative social influence – resulting from a person’s
desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval.
Informational social influence – resulting from one’s
willingness to accept other’s opinions about reality.
 MILGRAM STUDY

Stanley Milgram Study (1960’s)

 What processes led to the Nazi Holocaust?
 What leads people to be willing to obey orders?
 Could similar levels of obedience be found elsewhere?

Dispositional view: Is it unique to the German people and their culture?

 Personal factors
Situational view: The situation leads to cruelty and atrocities can happen when
people are led by authority figures.
 Authority factors
 Procedure factors
 ZIMBARDO DEMONSTRATION

Philip Zimbardo (1970’s)

How much power does the situation have over
people?
How is conformity strengthened in the group?
Can behavior be modified to fit the group stereotype
or the individual role?
 OBEDIENCE

Why did people obey? (Burger 2009)

• Obedience to Authority
• A need for Consistency
• A change in Self-perception
• Escalation of Commitment
• Limited Sources of Information
• Lack of Personal Responsibility
THE WISDOM OF CROWDS (2004)
JAMES SUROWIECKI

25cm high x 18cm at the widest part x 10cm deep

 GROUP INFLUENCE

Social facilitation – improved performance on simple

or well-learned tasks in the presence of others.
Social loafing – the tendency for people in a group to
exert less effort than otherwise would do individually.
Deindividuation – the loss of self-awareness and self-
restraint in group situations.
 GROUP INFLUENCE

Group polarization – the enhancement of a group’s

prevailing inclinations through discussion within the
group.
Groupthink – the mode of thinking that occurs when
the desire for harmony in a decision-making group
overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives.
 CULTURAL STEREOTYPES

Stereotypes of women:
Perception women need
protection and are the property
of their family.

Consequences?
• “Honor killings”
• Female circumcision (genital
mutilation)
• Breast ironing or flattening
 PREJUDICE

Our brain processes thoughts, memories, and attitudes on

two different tracks.
1) Explicit – processing with awareness
2) Implicit – processing without awareness
- “unconscious prejudices” can cause discrimination
even when people don’t consciously intend to do so.
 PREJUDICE

Roots of prejudice:
• Social inequalities and division
- Just-world phenomenon – the tendency for people
to believe the world is just and people get what they
deserve and deserve what they get.
- Ingroup-bias – the tendency to favor our own group.
 ATTRACTION

Relationship Factors Situational Factors

• We like people that are • The closer and more
similar in attitudes, familiar we are to others
values, and interests. the more attractive they
• We like people who become; proximity and
return like us; mere exposure.
reciprocity. • Physiological arousal
• Contrast effect is
comparing potential
dating partners.
 ATTRACTION

What makes a face attractive?

Average = Attractive
 AVERAGENESS

The average of composite photos will create a more

symmetrical face, which people prefer.
 PSYCHOLOGY OF ATTRACTION

Why do we fall in love?

• Proximity
- Mere exposure effect
• Physical attractiveness
- Golden ratio (1.618)
• Similarity
 PSYCHOLOGY OF ATTRACTION

• Passionate love – an aroused state of intense positive

absorption in another person.
- Intense desire to be with your partner.
- Craving and obsession.
• Companionate love – the deep affectionate
attachment we feel for those with whom our lives are
intertwined.
- Equity.