1. Social Psychology.
Student number: 13559673
1/ Outline the errors and biases that typically people demonstrate in thinking about their
social world.
People inherently believe in their own thought processes and decision making. Inevitably it is
only afterwards, when things may have gone wrong that they realise they were biased and
made errors of judgement. Sometimes even that evaluation escapes them and they proceed to
make the same mistakes again in the future. These cognitive errors are ingrained in people
sometimes so deep that it becomes almost impossible to get rid of them. They may not at
times lead to a toxic outcome and some are even necessary for leading a good life. This essay
sets out to outline the errors and biases that people typically demonstrate in their social world.
Social proof or herd instinct as it is sometimes called, occurs in individuals who believe they
are behaving correctly when they act the same as other people regardless of the outcome.
They judge that the more people who display a certain behaviour the more appropriate this
behaviour must be. An individual on his way to an event notices everyone looking at the sky
and without even thinking he too looks up. After the event people go to collect their coats at
the cloakroom. Because everyone in the queue drops a coin on a plate you do too, even
though the service is already included in the ticket price. Why do people act like this? The
strength of the herd instinct gives the individual a sense of inclusion, being part of the group
and security. In his book The Art of Thinking Clearly, Rolf Dobelli outlines a simple
experiment carried out in the 1950’s by legendary psychologist Solomun Asch which shows
how peer pressure can warp common sense. It involves a simple drawing of a line and three
other lines of various length. The task was to match one of the lines to the original line. An
individual on their own will solve that problem very simply and very quickly. However when
five actors are introduced and all give a different answer the individual changes their mind.
He answers incorrectly to match the other people’s responses being totally influenced by the
social proof error. Dobelli concludes that bubbles and stock market panic are the outcome of
social proof. It also exists in fashion, management techniques, hobbies, religion and diets and
it can paralyse whole cultures. In the wise words of W. Somerset Maugham – “If 50 million
people say something