Understanding Social Psychology Biases and Influence

📋 Course Outline

1. Attribution Theory
2. Fundamental Attribution Error
3. Self-Serving Bias
4. Bystander Effect
5. Diffusion of Responsibility
6. Altruism and Helping
7. Prejudice and Discrimination
8. In-Group Bias and Out-Group Homogeneity
9. Just-World Hypothesis
10. Implicit Bias and Stereotypes
11. Persuasion Techniques
12. Self-Perception and Barnum Effect

📖 1. Attribution Theory

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

Attribution: The cognitive process of explaining the causes of behavior, whether our own or others’ (see section 1). It involves assigning internal or external causes to observed actions.

Fundamental Attribution Error: The tendency to overemphasize personality or dispositional factors and underestimate situational influences when explaining others’ behavior (Ross (1977)). For example, assuming someone is rude for cutting in line without considering external factors like urgency.

Self-Serving Bias: The tendency to attribute personal successes to internal factors (like ability) and failures to external factors (like luck or task difficulty) (see section 2). For example, claiming credit for a promotion but blaming a poor performance on unfair evaluation.

Correspondent Inference Theory: The idea that people infer that a person's behavior corresponds to their personality traits, especially when the behavior is freely chosen, unusual, or has a high degree of personal effort (not explicitly in source but relevant to attribution).