Social Psychology Glossary

A relatively stable evaluative judgment toward a person, object, or idea, comprising cognitive (beliefs), affective (emotions), and behavioral (action tendencies) components.

The inverse relationship between the number of bystanders present during an emergency and the likelihood that any one person will intervene to help.

The state of psychological tension that occurs when a person simultaneously holds two inconsistent cognitions, motivating them to restore consistency by changing beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors.

The adjustment of one's thoughts, feelings, or behaviors to align with group norms or expectations, driven by normative influence (desire to be accepted) or informational influence (belief that the group is correct).

A state of reduced self-awareness and personal accountability occurring in group situations, often facilitated by anonymity and arousal, which can lead to impulsive or normatively constrained behavior.

The reduction in personal sense of obligation to act when others are present, because each individual assumes that someone else will take responsibility.

A compliance strategy in which a small initial request is followed by a larger target request. Agreeing to the first request creates consistency pressure that increases compliance with the second.

The pervasive tendency to attribute others' behavior to their character or disposition while underestimating the impact of situational factors.

The tendency for groups to make decisions that are more extreme than the initial inclinations of individual members, shifting toward greater risk or greater caution depending on the group's prevailing tendency.

A mode of group decision-making in which the desire for unanimity overrides realistic appraisal of alternatives, often producing irrational or poorly considered outcomes.

A cognitive bias in which a positive impression in one domain (such as physical attractiveness) influences the perception of unrelated traits (such as intelligence or kindness).

Unconscious and automatically activated attitudes or stereotypes that influence judgment and behavior without the individual's awareness or intentional control.

The belief that the world is fundamentally fair and that people generally get what they deserve, which can lead to victim-blaming as a way of maintaining this belief.

Compliance with the commands or directives of an authority figure, even when those commands conflict with personal morality, as demonstrated in Milgram's experiments.

The process of changing attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors through communication, studied through models such as the Elaboration Likelihood Model and the Heuristic-Systematic Model.

A situation in which individuals privately reject a norm or belief but incorrectly assume that most others accept it, often because everyone is looking to others for cues on how to respond.

A preconceived negative attitude toward members of a social group based on their group membership, encompassing cognitive (stereotypes), affective (emotions), and behavioral (discrimination) components.

Voluntary actions intended to benefit others, including helping, sharing, cooperating, and comforting, motivated by factors such as empathy, social norms, and evolutionary mechanisms.

A cognitive framework or mental structure that organizes and interprets information about the social world, shaping expectations, attention, and memory for social events.

The tendency to attribute personal successes to internal dispositional factors and personal failures to external situational factors, functioning to protect self-esteem.

The enhancement of dominant responses in the presence of others, leading to improved performance on simple tasks and impaired performance on complex tasks.

A framework proposing that individuals derive self-esteem and identity from the social groups to which they belong, leading to in-group favoritism and intergroup discrimination.

The reduction in individual effort when working in a group compared to working alone, resulting from decreased personal accountability in collective settings.

The cognitive process of associating a set of characteristics with members of a particular group, which simplifies social perception but can lead to inaccurate generalizations and prejudice.

Goals that require the cooperation of two or more groups to achieve and cannot be accomplished by any single group alone, used as a strategy for reducing intergroup conflict.