Social Psych Studies

• Ask drivers to rate their driving abilities across different domains
• Less than 10% think they're less skilled than other drivers, 60% thought they were more skilled

Item clusters (factors)

The items tended to cluster together into two groups, indicating different patterns in perceived superiority

Driving ability – some people rated themselves as superior in driving ability – judgment, reflexes, skills and experience

Driving caution – some people rated themselves as superior in driving caution – (not) being as risky, obey rules, safe

• Men showed more self-enhancement on driving ability
• Women showed more self-enhancement on driving caution

Thirty Australian women and 30 men aged 18-88 years were photographed

• Asked to judge their body size, attractiveness and sexiness. Others asked to make the same judgments of them
• Both women and men judged themselves as larger than others judged them.
• Both women and men judged themselves as more attractive and sexier than others judged them.
• Body size judgments may be due to inability to compare oneself with ‘naked’ others except those who advertise underwear.

• Studied men and women from 37 cultures
• Kindness and intelligence valued by both genders
• Men prefer traits that signify fertility - symmetrical face, smooth skin, 7:10 waist - hip ratio
• "Telling men not to become aroused by signs of youth ad health is like telling them not to experience sugar as sweet" (p.71)
• Status, ambition and dominance cues appeal to women; characteristics that would provide resources to support children
• Women prefer men 2-5 years older and men prefer younger women
• Evolutionary argument:

. Younger women with the key physical characteristics more fertile

. Older men and men with high status more able to provide for children

• Polygamous marriage systems may be explained by differential parental investment
• Possible differences in jealousy explained by differential parental investment

• Recruited college students to act as prisoners and guards
• Found that they tended to assume the attitudes and behaviours associated with these roles
• Recruited college students to act as prisoners and guards
• Found that they tended to assume the attitudes and behaviours associated with these roles
• Deindividuation - a process by which behaviours become acceptable in a group context that would not be outside that context, that is they lose their personal identity
• Dehumanisation - when "victims" are not seen as a real person

• Only one-quarter of participants continued to always call out the correct answer
• Most did not see the lines differently but were exceedingly embarrassed at stating a different line to the others in public
• Did not conform to the same extent when they had an ally in non-conformity

Predicted outcome

• 14 psychology majors said maximum shock intensity would be used by 1.2% of participants
• 40 psychiatrists said that it would be used by 0.1% of participants

Obedience explained in terms of:

• The university setting, worthiness of the study and authority of the experimenter
• The feeling of commitment and obligation to the experimenter
• The subjects inability to check out the ambiguity of the situation with others
• Being another persons agent
• Ingrained habit of obedience

Variations

• If a subject only had to enable another person to administer the shock 93% were obedient
• If a subject had to put the learners hand directly on the shock, obedience dropped to 30%