Social and Cultural Bases of Behavior
Persons and situations
Fundamental attribution error: over-weighting disposition and under-weighting situation when explaining others' behavior. The actor–observer bias is the self/other version; self-serving bias credits one's successes to self and failures to circumstance.
Influence
Asch: conformity rises with a unanimous majority and with public responding. Milgram: obedience peaks with legitimate authority, proximity to the authority, and the absence of a dissenting peer. Compliance tactics (foot-in-the-door, door-in-the-face) are not conformity. Bystander nonintervention grows with the number of witnesses (diffusion of responsibility). Social facilitation: arousal improves well-learned or easy tasks and impairs complex ones.
Groups
Group polarization means deliberation pushes members toward the initially dominant position. Groupthink is a different phenomenon: high cohesion plus directive leadership suppresses dissent and yields defective decisions. Deindividuation reduces self-awareness in crowds.
Culture
Distinguish individualism/collectivism (a group-level pattern) from independent/interdependent self-construal (an individual-level pattern). Berry's acculturation strategies: integration (both cultures), assimilation (new only), separation (heritage only), marginalization (neither). Stereotype threat is situational apprehension about confirming a negative group stereotype; stereotype, prejudice, and discrimination are belief, evaluation, and behavior respectively. The contact hypothesis works best with equal status, common goals, cooperation, and institutional support.
Worked example
A jury mildly pro-conviction before deliberation returns a strongly pro-conviction verdict. That is group polarization. Choose groupthink only if the stem stresses pressure to conform, self-censorship, and an illusion of unanimity.