Notes on the Social Animal by Elliot Aronson

1. The Social Animal
Elliot Aronson

2. Conformity
• Connotation of words have a strong influence on our perception of
the words
Both conformity and nonconformity have advantages at time
• Conformists seem to be more liked at the time, while
nonconformists seem to be more liked in retrospect
Nonconformists’ voices are often ignored, especially closer to a
deadline
• Groupthink
When, in a private, closed-off think, no dissenting opinion is ever
offered
• Conformity is the change in the behavior of a person based on
perceived pressures from outside influences
Soloman Ache experiment; four lines, which is closest to first one
We underestimate how much we actually conform

3. Conformity
• Unanimity
Greatly increases conformity
If even one dissenter, conformity drops sharply
• Commitment
Making someone make a statement at first leads to them backing up their original
statement to save face
Consistency is important to people
• Accountability
Accountability to a group increases conformity
Accountability to truth decreases conformity
• Social Dynamics
People with low self-esteem conform more quickly
People who feel secure in a group are more likely to voice dissent
Perception of the group can influence conformity (popularity, etc…)
We conform more to individuals who are similar to us
We conform more to individuals with a position of authority/expertise

4. Conformity
• When physical reality becomes uncertain, people rely more on social reality
E.g. on how to act, etc…
• William James stated that emotions have a feeling component and cognitive input
We may manipulate our emotions based on the emotions of others
• Compliance
Conformity in hopes of avoiding punishment or gaining a reward; least permanent
Important trait is power
• Identification
Conformity in hopes of being like the influencer
Important trait is attractiveness
• Internalization
When a conformed belief becomes intrinsic; most permanent
Important trait is credibility

5. Conformity
• Obedience
Acts of compliance are short-lived; however they are important
“Teacher-Learner” shock experiment
People are taught to obey authority
The more legitimate the authority, the more obedient the subjects
The further from the authority an individual is, the more likely he is to disobey a
command he disagrees with
People are less likely to cause pain to someone if they have to witness the pain they
caused
• The Bystander Effect
Kitty Genovese and Eleanor Bradley
People are more likely to help if they know they can; less likely if they can’t
People are more likely to help someone with mutuality, and if whether or not they will
be held accountable at some future point; people will help people they identify with
Ambiguity and help are inversely proportional
Personal Cost influences help as well; the greater it is, the less likely the help is

6. Persuasion and Propaganda
• Emotional Contagion
When there is an outbreak of something (Say, Swine Flu), people panic
and fake cases are reported in massive amounts
Suicides follow en masse following a story about it
• Even if we know about persuasion, we are not immune to it
• With all else being equal, we opt for familiarity over the unknown
• Facts don’t persuade well
• Central Persuasion
Weighing and considering the important facts before making a
decision
• Peripheral Persuasion
Allowing yourself to be persuades through psychological means, more
than just facts

7. Persuasion and Propaganda
• Emotional appeals, in most cases, are far more powerful than
logical appeals
Rhymes are very powerful as well in persuasion on a mass scale
People with low self-esteem are easily overwhelmed by too much fear
and emotional conviction in an argument
By overwhelming someone with high self-esteem, you can
make them behave like people with low self-esteem
Giving instructions can motivate someone to act on their intentions,
but won’t influence their opinions
Fear-arousal and specific instructions are very effective
• When something gets in the way of what someone wants, they will
rationalize their behavior; it can’t happen to me, etc…
For example, if someone wants to have sex, no matter how much you
warn them about AIDS, they will refuse to associate sex and death

8. Persuasion and Propaganda
•
•
Real life, personal examples are more powerful than consensual statistics
The more educated an audience is, the more influential an argument that says both sides of
the argument will be
An argument is more persuasive, when arguing for the other side, if you state their position and
arguments as well
• Primacy Effect vs. Recency Effect
Primacy Effect (Stating your side first) is more powerful when there is little time between the
speakers
Recency Effect (Stating your side last) is more powerful when the audience must make up their
mind their minds immediately after
• Discrepancy between you and the target audience
Curvilinear
More extreme differing opinions are more powerful up to a point, where they become
miniscule
Moderate difference is more powerful than extreme; it must remain in the
targets latitude of acceptance
The higher the credibility of the speaker, the greater the discrepancy can
be

9. Persuasion and Propaganda
• Characteristics of the Audience
Higher self-esteem audiences are harder to influence
• Experience of the Audience
Being in a good mood, or doing something pleasant at the time of the
argument, makes the argument more persuasive
Forewarning an audience greatly decreases the influence
Theory of Reactance
When our sense of freedom is threatened, we attempt to restore it
IMPORTANT; when people think we are trying to influence them (Say by gifts
or compliments), their guards are raised
When something is so blatant that we feel it threatening, we will go against
it
When challenging someone’s core beliefs, they will invent refutations on the
spot if they feel threatened
However, by distracting them while arguing, they will be more
receptive

10. Persuasion and Propaganda
• Inoculation Theory
If exposed to a brief argument that they can easily refute, then people
will become more immune to a full blown argument of the same thing
• When someone is feeling less confident, they are less likely to
willingly defend their beliefs
To influence someone effectively, you must not make it seem like
you’re influencing them
• Opinion
What someone believes is a fact
Nonemotional opinions are easily changed
Emotional opinions are not
Emotionally Charged opinions are called attitudes

11. Social Cognition
• Jeremy Bentham
Felicific Calculus
We use happiness to determine what is good and
bad
• Harold Kelly
Believes people behave like naïve scientists
We look for consistency (Do they always do
this), Consensus (Do other people do this), and
Distinctiveness (Is he the only one who does this)
• Other people believe we are cognitive misers
We tend to conserve mental energy whenever possible

12. Social Cognition
• Remember that all judgment is relative
Contrast Effect
• Social Cognition
How we interpret social events usually depends on what we’re
currently thinking about, as well as our beliefs
• Priming
Frequently encountered ideas and more recently encountered events
greatly influence our perceptions
Word choice can hugely influence someone’s impressions
Positive words (Self-confident) generally are positive with
someone, negative words (Reckless) are negative
“Mass media may not be good at telling people what to believe, but is
very effective at telling them what to think about”

13. Social Cognition
• Framing
How a decision or situation is presented to make it seem like something is
being gained or lost
***Remember it is more painful to lose something than to gain something***
It is worse to lose $20 than to gain $20
• Primacy Effect
The things that come first form the strongest impression in people
First impressions are very important
• Dilution Effect
Irrelevant and superfluous information can weaken our judgment
• Judgmental Heuristics
Mental shortcuts
Three types; representative, availability, and attitude

14. Social Cognition
• Representative Heuristic
Focus on similarity of one object to another to determine its qualities
Expensive=Better, etc…
• Availability Heuristic
Make judgments about something based on how easy it is to bring specific
examples to mind
• Attitude Heuristic
Assign something to either a positive category or a negative category
E.g. Stoners are bad, etc…
Halo Effect
We will discredit the bad stuff something we like is associate with
it, exaggerate the good stuff
False-Consensus Effect
Tendency to believe more people agree with us than actually do

15. Social Cognition
• When do we use Heuristics
When we don’t have time to make a decision
When we are overloaded with information
When the issues aren’t very important
When we don’t know much about our decision
• Categorization
Once we categorize something, we are limited to that category in the eyes of
others
Stereotypes
Expectations greatly influence the way we think
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
When we act on our impressions of others
Teachers were told random students were gifted, students
actual IQ scores skyrocketed by the end of the year

16. Social Cognition
• The Illusory Correlation
When people create a correlation when none exists
E.g. People believe lesbians have a higher rate of
AIDS, because they are homosexual, when in fact they have a lower
rate than both heterosexual humans and homosexual men
• Ingrouping/Outgrouping
When we take on an “us vs them” mentality
Homogeneity Effect
We tend to see members of the outgroup as more similar to
each other than members in our groups
Ingroup Favoritism
We look more favorably on people associated with us
Doesn’t matter how irrelevant the association is

17. Social Cognition
•
We tend to do what we think would make us happiest and what avoids the most
pain
We overestimate the intensity and durability of emotional reactions in both negative
and positive events
We adjust to whatever situation we’re in
Winning the lottery will make you happy for a few weeks or
months, but eventually the effects will linger and we will be back to the same state
emotionally
• Our memories are reconstructive, not infallible
We recreate events as we perceived them to have been
Suggestive questioning can influence our memories
“How fast were they going when they smashed into each other vs.
how fast were they going when they hit into each other”
• Self-Schemas
We remember our past in coherent memories and feelings that recreate our opinions
towards our personal history

18. Social Cognition
• Recovered Memory Phenomenon
“Recovering” false memories based on the subtle suggestions of others
• Confirmation Bias
We look for evidence for what we initially support
• Hindsight Bias
We believe we knew what was going to happen all along
• Human cognition is conservative
We try to preserve what’s already been established
• Our attitudes barely effect our behavior
In 1928, 128 people surveyed said that they wouldn’t give service to a
Chinese man
However, only one establishment actually refused service
Our attributes effect our behaviors much more than our attitudes

19. Social Cognition
•
•
Attitude Accessibility
If an attitude is more prominent, we will be more likely to use it in the decision
making process
• The Fundamental Attribution Error
People overestimate the importance of personality relative to situations
• The Actor-Observer Bias
We stress the situational part
• The Self-Biases
Egocentric Thoughts
We believe ourselves to be more central than we actually are
Barnum Statement
A personality statement vague enough to be attributed to almost anyone
E.g. a horoscope
The Self-Serving Bias
People’s tendency to blame negatives on situations, and attribute positives
to their qualities

20. Self-Justification
• We try to justify our actions as logical, rational, and the best
decision given the circumstances, both to ourselves and to others
• Cognitive Dissonance
Occurs when an individual holds two ideas/beliefs/attitudes that are
inconsistent
We need to convince ourselves our existence is not absurd
We try to make the two cognitions consistent
E.g. suppose a smoker learns about the dangers of smoking
Will either quit smoking, or, more likely, convince
himself that the studies we not conclusive/legitimate
May decide smoking is necessary for relaxation
May convince himself his smoking habit isn’t that bad

21. Self-Justification
• Dissonance Reduction behavior is irrational behavior
However it does serve the purpose of maintaining the ego
Don’t take yourself seriously, and always be open-minded; your beliefs can
be wrong upon further introspection
• We experience dissonance after making a decision
We try to remain consistent with our decisions
Foot in the door technique
• Self-Justification manifests itself mainly with irrevocable decisions
• Immorality and self-justification
Someone moral who decides to cheat will eventually become more lenient regarding
cheating
Deciding not to will lead to a hatred of cheating
Happens with everything that someone will consider immoral if they decide to do it
People most likely to throw stones are the ones who were most tempted to do it
***I disagree with his assessment on this matter; if you take things as they are, and
nothing more nothing less, self-justification won’t be necessary and it won’t lead to
more leniency/hatred regarding something; most people don’t do this though

22. Self-Justification
• If you want someone to form positive attitudes towards an object, get
them to commit to it
• If you want someone to soften their moral attitudes towards
something, tempt them so that they do it
If you want them to harden it, tempt them but not enough so that they do it
• External Justification
Justification that is situation-dependent
E.g. telling a friend his terrible painting is good
• Internal Justification
Changing your attitudes to fit with your actions
• Saying is believing paradigm
We believe our own lies, unless there is ample external justification
E.g. such as rewards
The greater a reward for something, the less of a chance for a change in
attitude

23. Self-Justification
• Keep in mind the external justification principle
If a friend offered you fried grasshopper, and an enemy did, and you ate both, you’d
like the second one more
People need to justify their actions
For the friend, it’s a favor to the friend; for the enemy, there is no
justification
Can this be the reason why girls loveeeeeee guys who treat them like shit?
Quick Answer: Yes
• Dissonance is most powerful people feel responsible for their actions, and believe
it will have an impact on others
• Justification of Effort
If we work hard for something, suffer for something, we will appreciate it more
• Justification of Cruelty
If someone suffers adverse punishment as a direct result of us, we tend to blame them
for it
When someone is able to retaliate (Such as an opposing soldier), we don’t tend to
blame them as much

24. Self-Justification
• Inevitability makes the heart grow fonder
Knowing we will have to do something makes us rationalize and hate it less;
believing we have choice however makes us hate it more
When inevitable disaster seems immanent however, those worse off for it do
less to prepare
By not thinking about it, they can cope with it
• Cognitive Dissonance happens relatively slowly and unconsciously
• People with the highest self-esteem experience the most dissonance
If someone’s self-esteem takes a temporary hit, they are more likely to
commit a misdeed
Narcissists tend to seek revenge on someone who inflicts damage on
their self-esteem
• If someone is hypocritical in beliefs, you would need to expose the
hypocrisy to see results

25. Human Aggression
•
Human Aggression is intentional behavior designed to cause physical or emotional
pain towards another
Depends 100% on the intent
• Hostile Aggression is aggression due to anger with the intent to harm someone
• Instrumental Aggression is aggression with some goal other than inflicting pain
(Such as hitting in football)
• Hydraulic Theory
If we don’t have a vent for anger, it will build up until it explodes
• Aggression doesn’t have to be learned, but it can be modified by experience
• People may argue that aggression is necessary for survival
Survival of the fittest
Elephant Seals; Alpha Seal can mate with up to 100% of females
However, it’s shown cooperation is very beneficial for survival
Success doesn’t necessarily equate to victory

26. Human Aggression
• Altruism
Unselfishness
Shown that many aggressive animals, such as a chimpanzee, have altruistic
roots in them
Will give excess food to a begging chimpanzee, who has no food
• Catharsis
Release of energy
With anger, numerous studies have proven that responding to anger with
something such as physical activity just produces more aggression and anger
• Following anger targeted at someone, it becomes easier to remain
consistent with the idea that we hate someone else
We tend to retaliate, and our retaliations are often overkill
More severe than the initial insult or attack

27. Human Aggression
• Aggression can be caused by chemicals such as testosterone
Men have higher levels of testosterone than women
Women however, are more likely to commit relational
aggression (Not surprisingly)
• Frustration is one of the major causes of aggression
Rejection is also a major cause of aggression
Columbine High School is an example of this
• People who aren’t accountable (Such as anonymous people) act
more aggressively
• Video Games and TV can numb people to actions
• As Aristotle said, most people cannot be curtailed by rational
reasoning

28. Prejudice
• All white people are evil

29. Attraction
• We like people who provide us with maximum reward at the lowest cost
Beautiful people provide aesthetic value easily
People with similar belief systems provide us with validation
• Praise
A negative evaluation raises our admiration for someone as long as they’re not
criticizing us
A negative stance seems more sophisticated
People need to know what a reward is and what is required to get it
Besides thinking we are being manipulative, a person who receives excessive
praise from another may be confused by the reward
We like favors, even if accidental, if it doesn’t threaten our freedom
If we think there’s a string attached, we don’t like it
Getting someone to do you a favor makes you more likable
• Competence makes someone favorable
A perfect person who makes a mistake is best, then perfect, then average, and worst is
an average person who makes a mistake, when grading attractiveness of game show
participants (Pratfall Effect)

30. Attraction
• Pratfall Effect
Most powerful when a sense of competition is implied
• Attractiveness
The single most important character trait in likability
• Similarity
The lower our self-esteem, the more we like someone similar to us
• Gain-Loss Theory
Increases in positive, rewarding behavior is better than constantly rewarding
behavior
Change of Heart must be made explicit
Gradual Change is Best
After one becomes used to the gain, it basically declines relative to others
Always keep someone guessing, don’t reward too much
Study: We give more to generous strangers and stingy friends, and take more
from stingy strangers and generous friends

31. Attraction
• Self-Disclosure is important for long-term
relationship help
• The best indicator of the health of a
relationship is if someone can feel positive at
their partners accomplishments
• After the initial thrill, authenticity is the most
important thing for stability
• Honesty and communication when you reach
that level of no bullshit