College 2

Question 1

What is the definition of attribution?

Answer 1

Ascribing causes to social events

Question 2

What are the possible causes of attribution?

Answer 2

• The self
  E.g., did not study
• Another person
  E.g., bad teacher/book
• Circumstances/chance
  E.g., lack of sleep/heat

Question 3

Bem’s Self-Perception Theory

Answer 3

Self-attribution

• People derive their motives, attitudes and emotions (self-definition) from observing their own behaviour.
• So, based on the way we behave, we infer what our attitudes/motivations/emotions are.

Question 4

What was the study on the Bem’s self perception theory?

Answer 4

People did a boring task for 30 minutes, then they were told to tell the next person it was a fun task. One half only got 1 dollar as a reward for telling this, the other half got 20 dollars for telling the lie.

• The group that only got 1 dollar had such a low external motivation that by telling the lie they intrinsically thought they must have liked the task better then they thought, why would they otherwise tell the lie?
• The group that got 20 dollars had a high external motivation and didn’t feel any intrinsic motivation.

Conclusion: over-rewarding behaviour is bad for intrinsic motivation.

Question 5

Perceived Consumer Effectiveness

Answer 5

Consumers are more likely to act when they feel that their behaviour will make a difference.

Question 6

What is Perceived Consumer Effectiveness similar to?

Answer 6

Self-efficacy, perceived behavioural control and internal locus of control.

Question 7

Guilt

Answer 7

A negative emotion associated with problem-focused coping, leading consumers to avoid feeling guilty in the future, and repair previous wrongdoing.

Question 8

Pride

Answer 8

A positive emotion associated with a sense of achievement and self-worth, motivates people to behave responsibly in the future.

Question 9

True or false: Guilt, not pride, is associated with internal causal attributions (I did this!)

Answer 9

False. Guilt and pride are both associated with internal causal attributions.

Question 10

What was the experiment of Antonetti & Maklan (2014) on coffee brands?

Answer 10

They showed the participants two brands of coffee, one sustainable and somewhat more expensive and the other one was cheap but not sustainable. The participants were told they were in the supermarket, were in a rush and could only choose between those two brands. The taste was the same. They were told which one they chose, so they couldn’t choose themselves. Then they were shown a newspaper article that said the cheap brand was bad. This made them feel either guilty or proud.

Question 11

Wat was found in the experiment of Antonetti & Maklan (2014) on coffee brands?

Answer 11

Experienced guilt and pride result in more sustainable purchase intentions, because they increase perceived consumer effectiveness (PCE); they feel responsible.

If you feel proud, you feel like you had an effect. If you feel guilty you feel that you didn’t have much of an effect and they reflect the guilt on someone or something else.

Question 12

Freedman & Fraser (1966) on asking people to put a sign in their garden

Answer 12

By going door to door, they asked: “Can we place this sign in your garden?”

Without first request:

• 17% agree to sign in garden (‘drive carefully’)

Small, comparable first request

• Sticker saying: ‘be a safe driver’ (almost 100% OK)
• 67% agree to sign in garden (‘drive carefully’)
• You want to align with yourself

Small, different fist request

• Sticker with ‘keep California beautiful’ (almost 100% OK)
• 50% agree to sign in garden (‘drive carefully’)
• People would still infer from their behaviour that they are a good citizen, and that would mean they would also promote driving carefully. (A self-perception effect)
• You could also say that putting a sign in your garden makes California less beautiful, that would mean they only said “yes” because they said “yes” the first time.

Question 13

‘Foot in the door’ effect explanation in terms of self-attribution

Answer 13

Self-image is adjusted after agreeing to first small request.

With second, big request people act according to their (adjusted) self-image.

Question 14

When do we know we actually caused an effect in our environment according to Wegner’s theory of apparent mental causation?

Answer 14

Causation cannot be directly observed (Hume).

Although fluently and quickly, it is an inference and can be biased.

Question 15

What 3 parts does Wegner’s theory of apparent mental causation consist of?

Answer 15

Priority

• Thought needs to occur just before action.

Consistency

• Thought needs to be consistent with the action(-outcome).

Exclusivity

• Are other potential causes present?

Question 16

Illusion of mental causation

Answer 16

There are circumstances in which we think we controlled something, but we didn’t.

Sometimes it’s obvious that it was you, but a lot of the times you cannot be sure.

Question 17

Wegner’s theory of apparent mental causation

Answer 17

Feeling that you intended to do a certain thing…

That you were not actually intending to do!

• Illusory experience of ‘self-agency’

Question 18

Illusory agency experiences

Answer 18

Primes are most effective in creating a sense of self-agency when

• We do not have a direct explanation for (the outcomes of) our behavior.
  For example, in novel situations.
• The prime seems to offer a logical explanation for (the outcomes of) our behavior.

But… sensitive to your own beliefs of what is possible.

Question 19

Motivation vs. cognition (attribution bias)

Answer 19

When something is positive, we like to think it’s because of our doing; when something is negative, we like to think this was out of our hands.

We expect our actions to have positive consequences because that is what we aim for.

Negative consequences are unexpected and trigger a search for causes in the environment.

Question 20

Actor vs. observer (attribution bias)

Answer 20

We know less well what others want and will do.

• We are less surprised by negative consequences.

Behaviour is more salient than context

• “Behaviour engulfs the field”

Situational attribution more demanding

• What exactly is the situation?
• Often complex, many factors.
• How would others behave/react here?

Question 21

Fundamental Attribution Error

Answer 21

Underestimate situation; overestimate person.

Question 22

Jones & Harris (1967) on reading a speech about Fidel Castro

Answer 22

Someone reads out a speech for/ against Fidel Castro

• Condition 1: written self
• Condition 2: speech already written

Question to the participant

• How pro-Castro is the reader?

Conclusion:
People underestimate the influence of the situation on behaviour.

People overestimate the degree to which behaviour has a dispositional cause.

Question 23

Does Fundamental Attribution Error always occur?

Answer 23

No, it occurrs less with

• Moral (in contrast to competent and immoral) behaviour.
  If someone shows one moral action, we don’t assume that person is moral. Vs. if someone shows one immoral action, we jump to the conclusion that that person is immoral.
• Collectivistic cultures
• Accountability (system 2)
• Negative mood (system 2)
• Dependence upon target person (system 2)

Question 24

Actor-observer effect

Answer 24

The Fundamental Attribution Error mainly occurs for the behaviour of others and less for our own behaviour.

Question 25

What does system 1 do?

Answer 25

Maintains and updates a model of our personal world.

Associates circumstances, events, actions, outcomes.

Determines interpretation of the present as well as future expectations.

Question 26

Benign violation theory

Answer 26

Violation must impose physical or psychological threat.

Violation must occur in safe and playful context.

An interpretative process should help reconcile violation and sense of safety (i.e., wrong but okay).

Question 27

Prankvertising

Answer 27

Can be used in commercials to promote their brand.

Question 28

Prankvertising and humor

Answer 28

Victim surprise only induces humor when victim fear is relatively low.

It works best when people feel safe.

Question 29

Prankvertising and morality

Answer 29

Norm violations (surprise) likely trigger moral reasoning.

• Balancing of risks and benefits.

Both perceptions of fear and morality can be generated by System 1.

Conflicts between risks and benefits call for reflection by System 2.

Question 30

Prank benefits

Answer 30

Close connections with

• Campaign themes
• Product features
• Brand positioning

… facilitate observers’ understanding of the motives for staging the pranks.

Relaxation of moral scrutiny.

If it facilitates the promotion of the brand and shows of the product there is more understanding.

Question 31

When is prankvertising perceived as more moral?

Answer 31

When there is low fear and/or high meaningfulness

Also: Morality + –> Humor + –> Brand attitude +

Question 32

Definition confirmation bias

Answer 32

Finding, remembering and interpreting evidence in line with your ideas and ignoring contradictory evidence.

Question 33

Snyder & Swann (1978) on the interview paradigm

Answer 33

Interview paradigm: “You are about to interview someone”.
Try to determine whether this person is extroverted.
Choose 3 questions that will help you determine this?

Question 34

Which three questions of the interview paradigm would you choose if you suffer from confirmation bias? And what type of questions would be better in order to find out if someone is extraverted?

A) What would you do if you wanted to liven things up at a party?
B) In what situation do you wish you could be more outgoing?
C) What kind of situations do you seek out if you want to meet new people?
D) What factors make it hard for you to really open up to people?
E) In what situations are you most talkative? What is it about these situations that makes you like to talk?
F) What things do you dislike about loud parties?

Answer 34

Questions C and E are the questions you would ask if you suffer from a confirmation bias.

If you want to know if someone is extraverted you also have to falsify and select questions to find out if someone is introverted.

Question 35

What kind of information do people seek?

Answer 35

It depends on their hypothesis.

They ask questions that will confirm their hypothesis; and do not tend to ask questions to falsify their hypothesis.

Question 36

Wason card selection task

Answer 36

Each of these cards has a letter on one side and a number on the other. Which two cards should you turn over to allow you to decide if the following statement is true: “If there is a D on one side, there is a 5 on the other”?
The cards read: D, A, 2 and 5

The correct answer is: D & 2. You need to try and falsify the statement. The A isn’t in the statement so you need to turn the D. By turning over the 5 there might be a D on the other side, but it doesn’t matter.

Question 37

What is the following question an example of? “Does everyone here speak English?”

Answer 37

If you don’t speak English, you wouldn’t understand the question and thus can’t deny the question.

Question 38

What is the confirmation bias also called in criminal justice and investigation?

Answer 38

Tunnel vision. “Is this person guilty?”

Question 39

What is the implication of the confirmation bias?

Answer 39

Lack of falsification in science.

Question 40

Positive testing

Answer 40

Looking for evidence to support your idea.

Question 41

Why do people often find confirmation for their expectations?

Answer 41

Because they are looking for evidence to support their idea (positive testing).

This builds on general and common principles:

• Limited capacity (Lecture 1)
  o Negative testing is much less efficient.
   The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.
• Satisficing
  o If we find an answer that is satisfactory to us, why should we continue searching?
• Anchoring and adjustment (next lecture)

We also stimulate confirmative behavior in others (self-fulfilling prophecy).

Question 42

What is the following an example of?

Expect recession –> Limit spending –> Less economic growth –> Expect recession –> Etc.

Answer 42

Self-fulfilling prophecy

Question 43

Self-fulfilling prophecy

Answer 43

Your actions based on what you expect lead to the thing actually happening.

Question 44

What can you say about the following statement: “Primes can make people think that they caused a certain thing to happen.”

Answer 44

It depends on your beliefs.

Question 45

What can you say about the following statement: “Our actions define us.”

Answer 45

Depends, context also matters.

Question 46

What can you say about the following statement: “Threats are funny.”

Answer 46

Depends, you have to feel safe; the threat cannot be too serious.

Question 47

What can you say about the following statement: “Our expectations tend to be met.”

Answer 47

It depends on your stance on the confirmation bias.