Lecture notes with Social Environment and Behaviour at the University of Groningen - 2014/2015

Lecture 1

Kees Keizer and Nina Hansen are this year's lecturer and they describe the course Social Environment and Behavior as an opportunity for the students to learn how social theories are applied to real-life problems. In contrast to most of the other familiar professors their work is focused outside the university and they are usually hired by parties outside to the science domain. For example, Kees has worked on projects with hospitals to stop the smoking in adjacent areas. Whereas, Nina is interested in cultural change and how it is affected by modernization, transforming economies, etc. Her work includes evaluating the introduction of different aids that are successful in the western countries, but its effects are not as clear in the context of developing countries. For instance, micro financing might help people escape poverty, but can also have negative impact on one's family life.

The goals of the course are helping students learn analyzing and explaining how various human factors relate to social problems as well as how the social and physical surrounding affect human behavior and perception. Furthermore, after the course student should be able to apply theories with the aim of evaluating societal problems. Last but not least, gaining insight into how people can be influenced in order to engage in a number of adaptive behaviors, as well as assessing the usefulness of interventions is a crucial step to solving the problem in hand.

We see it is all about addressing some societal issues, but what can these actually be? Reducing the levels of energy use, preventing accidents on the road and convincing people to stop smoking are very well-known examples. In the domain of work, we want to know how to make people more motivated and in turn more productive. Media and its influences have gained lots of attention, as people are overloaded with information. Furthermore, immigration and how people integrate is highly relevant nowadays, because our environment is getting more culturally diverse. Another maybe less well-intentioned example is developing marketing strategies for companies.

However, all of these social psychological problems are interrelated with various economic, political, geographical or historical factors. For instance, there have been numerous earthquakes in the region of Groningen due to the intensive extraction of natural gas. Here economical factor such as the Netherlands' huge profit would be crucial to consider when taking action, because just ceasing the process would lead to inevitable financial issues. Moreover, political factors should be acknowledged as many governmental institutions are involved in such issue. Overall, it is not only people's attitudes and emotions we have to recognize, but take a broader perspective.

Even though we need to be careful about different factors, social aspects are the main interest of the psychologist. Applied social psychologist aim at changing problematic behavior (e.g. consuming and polluting excessively) through influencing: (1) attitudes – how people evaluate things, (2) values - trans situational goals and norms – societal rules and expectations. In order to understand the difference between the job of a basic social psychologist and that of an applied one we need to start by looking at the relevant definitions.

• Social psychology: Science that aims at understanding the nature and causes of human behavior and cognitions in social situations.

• Applied social psychology: Application of social psychological contracts, principles, theories, intervention techniques, methods, or research results on understanding or solving social problems.

To further clarify what is the core of applied social psychology we need also the definitions of its 'ingredients'.

Constructs are latent individual characteristics that are not observable directly. This means that the constructs are inferred through the use of different methods such as tests. Attitude, values, social norms, performance motivation are all examples of constructs that we are only able to infer.

Principles are statements about how a psychological process works. For example, cognitive dissonance theory states that in order to reduce the discomfort created by discrepancies between attitudes and behavior people take one of the following actions: (1) change their behavior, (2) change their attitude or belief or (3) add cognition. If you want to have a healthy lifestyle, but you also want to eat burgers you might reduce the mental stress that is created by not eating, reevaluating 'Burgers have vegetables, so they are not so bad.' or thinking that health is not so important after all.

Another example of principle is commitment or in other words feelings of moral obligation. In some cultures commitment to preserve one's virginity until marriage is viewed as critical. Making a commitment public increases the chances of a person keeping it. Such commitment can function as a social norm and failure to fulfill it might influence how one perceives them (i.e. self-concept).

There are a number of well-established techniques that depend on commitment. For instance, the lowball technique consist of agreeing to an attractive request that is later retrieved. Then a second undesirable request follows that people tend to agree to, because of the commitment that they made earlier. The foot-in-the-door technique is a further example. In the study by Freedman and Fraser participants were asked to move a big sign and only 17% completed the request, compared to 76% of the participants that were first asked to move a smaller sign, hence committing to the task.

In order to integrate all of this principles and constructs we build a theory. Theories do not reflect directly some truth, but they are useful in explaining and predicting certain events. However, they are highly situationally dependent. For example, theory of planned behavior is good in predicting intentions, but is not as useful when trying to influence habits.

So we know all psychologists benefit from developing contracts, explaining processes and integrating them in theories, but what are the especial differences between the field of applied and the field of fundamental social psychology? Fundamental psychologist focuses on introducing and testing new theories, mostly using a deductive approach. In contrast, applied social psychology focuses more on understanding and changing various social issues, using an inductive approach. The deductive approach focuses on testing a theory in different settings. For instance, we might be interested if social comparison theory holds when people make decisions whether to use cars or public transport. However, when addressing these issues the main aim is testing the theory, not trying to resolve any problem. Contrary to this, the inductive approach starts with the problem and applies a variety of theories, thus making it a broader approach. The final goal is finding a solution to the problem.

Nevertheless, the differences are not so clear-cut. Some social problems give rise to solid theories, but also fundamental research can turn out to be very practical. For example, a study conducted in Groningen predicted that certain cues in the environment can influence our goal and in turn how likely people are to comply with rules and norms. They tested this in a small street, drawing graffiti on a wall in one of the conditions and found strong effects. Even though, this is theoretical question, some of the applications are quite obvious.

Some of the similarities between the fields of applied and basic social psychology are that researchers should always strive to use methods that allow them to make objective and accurate conclusions. Findings should not be forced, remaining skeptical to your own and your colleagues' work is crucial and research should aim at falsifying hypothesis. Open-mind is another characteristic that is important when working in any field of social psychology. Even though, applied social psychology is value oriented, the methods and results in both fields should not be influenced by expectations.

Overall, the work of an applied social psychologist is problem oriented. They are aiming at strong and long-term effects. For example, influencing energy use in households is much more impactful than simply convincing people to use recycling shopping bags. As Nina illustrated with a personal example the work of applied psychologist is often interdisciplinary. Her work involves tracking the progress of students from language minorities in school, consequently working with linguists. Moreover, research findings should be generalizable; hence the sample should be representative. Applied psychologists have to find balance between attaining the client's goals and their own goals as scientists. Cost and profits should be carefully considered beforehand. For instance, learning from mass media is far more ineffective then using customized information. However, mass media is a much cheaper way to reach many people. The goals set by the scientist should be politically feasible and communicated effectively to the public.

Lecture 2

Theories are like instruments to psychologist. A good theory would help you ask the right questions, determine which factors to consider and guide you to a solution and help you with the evaluation of an intervention. So theories enhance understanding of the problem, help you solve it and evaluate the outcome. There are clusters of theories in different domains.

First, social influence theories try to explain how people's attitudes, emotions and behavior are shaped by the environment. An example is Theory of Normative Conduct that deals with social norms and how they influence behavior. According to the theory the observable behavior of others serves as a descriptive norm, whereas an injuctive norm is what is considered appropriate in a situation. If everyone is checking Facebook during class this might serve as a descriptive norm. On the contrary, an injuctive norm would be no Facebook during class. The theory emphasizes that salience of norms is highly influential.

A model on the other hand combines theories and concepts. An example is the Elaboration-Likelihood Model that is often used in marketing. According to it the extend to which people process information differs. When people are tired or distracted, or just the processing capacity is low they tend to use the peripheral route, meaning people rely on heuristics. For example, after a long flight you are tired and you do not look for exit signs, you just follow the crowd. On the other hand, if person is interested in a topic and has processing capacity, he or she will focus on the arguments presented, using the central route. Marketing campaigns depend vastly people's use of heuristic processing. For example, in an ad for potato chip including a celebrity would be more successful than just listing all the reason chips is good.

A second cluster consists of social cognition theories. Theory of Planned Behavior is such and it predicts behavior from people's intentions. However, the gap between the two can often be big. Intentions are influenced by attitudes, perceived behavior control as well as subjective norms. Subjective norms refer to how people who are important to us often become a role models. For example, if you drive a car with your friend in the passenger seat and he/she likes speeding, you might end up adopting similar behavior. As a disadvantage the theory does not take habits into account, but people often perform behaviors without conscious consideration. For example, throwing away bottles in the appropriate recycling bins can be considered more of a habit and using Theory of Planned Behavior might not be the best choice. In addition, neither the affective the side, nor the feeling of moral obligation (i.e. personal norms) are included in the model.

Third, social relationship theories focus on interactions with other and study phenomenon such as in-group/out-group biases, stereotypes, prejudice and prosocial behavior. As a illustration of how theories can serve many purposes, Interdependence Theory can be applied to explain a failing relationship as well as customer loyalty. The theory states that attachment to someone is influence by three factors. Attachment is enhanced by feelings of satisfaction as well as by investing into a relationship. If one is playing hard to get and investment from the other partner is required, the one who invests would feel more attached. Furthermore, if you invest a lot you decrease attachment of others. The third factor is how many alternatives are available. When surrounded by many attractive people from the opposite sex, the attachment usually decreases. This idea is used is shows such as Temptation Island that surround participants who are in committed relationship with many potential partners from the opposite sex.

Overall, theories are a tool that guide us through developing interventions. However, different interventions need different methods as well. There are many practical problem that call for certain method and limit the use of others.

When trying to infer causal relationships true experiment is the best instrument. In order to have a true experiment only the independent variable should be allowed to vary, so settings are very controlled. Furthermore, participants are randomly assigned to conditions. On the other hand, sometimes such experiments may be very artificial, consequently the generalizability of the findings might suffer. Nevertheless, sometimes it is impossible to assign participants randomly to conditions. In such case we have quasi experiment. For instance, if you want research on the littering in a neighborhood you might not be able to control the setting. As a solution, you might choose time series design.

The third design researchers use is correlational. Even though, it does not provide any information about causality, it is often not possible to manipulate certain variable like gender, age, personality, etc. Last, surveys can also be used, but the data is only descriptive. However, the most useful approach is mixing methods so that limitations can be overcome. In addition, when evaluating a intervention social psychologist should be aware that side effect might be evident.

There are a number of intervention approaches one might take. First of all, applied behavior analysis is based on Skinner's behavioral approach. It focuses on the observed consequences. Behavior can be motivated by obtaining positive consequences or avoiding negative ones. An intervention might focus on changing elements prior to behavior or consequences that follow a behavior. The former is known as antecedent strategies and the latter as consequence strategies and both depend on changing elements that are controllable like penalties and rewards.

Antecedent strategies fall in a number of subcategories. First, a very common intervention approach is education and training. Education would be explaining the benefits of recycling, whereas training requires involvement such as helping one with recycling. Despite the fact that this approach is widely spread, such interventions are often unsuccessful, because knowledge is not a strong motivator. On the other hand, such campaigns are often cheap which makes them attractive. If the education and training is tailored to the specific target group more positive results are expected, but it is also more expensive.

Prompts are another intervention strategy that depends on making messages salient. In order to be successful the target behavior should be clear and it should be easy for perform. Most importantly the prompts should be provided on the spot. For example, if one wants to communicate that greasy foods are not healthy it would be most effective to do so in a supermarket next to oily products. Last but not least, the message should be communicated in a polite manner so that reactance in people is avoided. Interventions would be most effective if the communicator has authority and is considered trustworthy.

A third antecedent strategy is modeling that involves showing the behavior. Similar to prompts its successfulness depends on the credibility of the source. Such strategies often couple the behavior with a positive consequence (i.e. reward). Another successful strategy depends on the feelings of commitment and tries to enhance the sense of moral obligation.

On the other hand, strategies that focus on the consequences are penalties and rewards. Both are not very successful when looking for long-term solutions. Penalties strongly depend on enforcement and when people feel they cannot get caught the behavior goes to baseline. The same goes for rewards, which are often expensive and diminish the intrinsic motivation, leading to changes in behavior only while positive consequences follow

Overall, theories guide through the process of understanding a problem and choosing the right method to find a solution. When designing interventions and subsequently evaluating them researches take advantage of the application of theories as well.

Lecture 3

Every person is a consumer, and every one of us has to make decision about what clothes or food to buy. We try to judge which choice would make us happy, while inferring quality, taste and other characteristics of the product using limited information. The process is called consumer inference and it is defined as the process by which consumers assign a value to an attribute or item contained in an ad on the basis of other data in the ad. People are overloaded with information and ads, however, a consumer would see only a limited amount of the content, so information processing is selective. Not only our attention is drawn more to certain things, but people also interpret the information that reached them. Thus, producers try steer the perception of consumers in order to make their product appealing.

First of all, the position is a key factor. For instance in the supermarket the more expensive goods are placed at a higher isle, specifically at eye height. Furthermore, candy is put next to the cash register. The reason is people rely on self-control to buy healthy food, but self-control tends to drop so they usually feel they deserve a treat at the end. Moreover, we have all seen children crying at the isle for candy. Using the parents' feelings of embarrassment and frustration is a good sales strategy. A further example of strategic positioning is putting a product on the left upper corner on a newspaper-stand where one usually starts reading. Second, size matters and the rule usually is the bigger the better. Third, high contrast and bright color, and movement draw people's attention. In addition, the more involved a person is the deeper they process the presented information.

Individual differences play a role in the process of interpretation as well. People possess various traits and differ in their expectations. Thus, different people tend to have different interpretations. Furthermore, we use our learning skills and knowledge when making inferences. For instance, when choosing vegetables we often make our choice based on which one contains more vitamins, canned or fresh. Even thought our intuition tells us fresh is better, that is not always the case. Boundelle tried to use this idea in their marketing campaign stating that their product is richer in vitamins. However, this was not a winning strategy, because people are often skeptical and now Boundelle present their product as equally healthy. Another example of how brands design their campaigns in order to appeal to us is Ariel's ad ostensibly supporting the environment. In the past, there were huge boxes and one needed a big amount of laundry detergent, but recently Ariel came up with concentrated version that one only needs a drop. Nevertheless, nobody uses only one drop, because it does not feel right, we are prone to believe a drop is not enough. On the one hand, the product appeals to the public as environmentally friendly, on the other hand it leads to increase in the use of detergent.

Having a strong brand is a huge advantage in a sense that people attribute more value and better quality to the well-known. If one opens a bottle of wine for 25 euros they usually perceive it as tasting better. However, it is not only the quality of the wine that determines consumers' preference, because people integrate the information they received beforehand. In an experiment by Lee and colleagues, college students were given beer with little vinegar in it and were told about it either before they drink or after depending on the experimental condition they were assigned to. Participants in the former condition rated the beer the lowest, illustrating how impactful expectations can be.

A further example of how expectation can influence perception is the United Colors of Benetton's campaign evolving around social issues. They depicted two handcuffed male hands one black and one white. They received tones of letters from people outraged who thought the ad portrays a black male as a criminal. However, in the picture there are no cues showing who is the good and who is the bad guy and Benetton reached their goal by showing how expectations can alter people's perception.

The context of where you place a product or an ad matters too. This is true when one position a product among other brands, but also when placed next to goods from the same brand. Even though, details can play an important role in how people appraise a product, producers should be aware that there is limitation to picking up differences (i.e. Just-Noticeable-Difference). In the American market people are overloaded with choices and the differences can be minor often leading to frustration. It is also important where you put the ad, whether a newspaper, magazine, etc. For example, if you want to advertise an expensive watch a magazine such as the Quote would be a smarter choice than in a newspaper like Metro. The process by which we are influenced is called contextual priming. Another strategy that aims at steering the interpretation of consumer is placing appealing objects next to a marketed product. We often see beautiful models next to cars, because people tend to perceive two close objects as sharing similar qualities, thus making the car more attractive. Here market developers take advantage of the proximity principle.

Moreover, Goal Framing Theory can be useful when explaining how people make these interpretations of the product. The theory states that our behavior and choices depend on the goals we have and these can be described in three clusters. First of all, we have hedonic goals. We often set such goals at the end of a lecture or when hungry, focusing on immediate pleasure and comfort. In contrast, we also have gain goals. For example, we stay at the lecture, because we know the gained knowledge will help us pass an exam. Thus, gain goals are usually future-oriented. The third cluster is the normative goals that concern what is appropriate in a situation. These goals operate simultaneously, but their relative strength is moderated by cues in the environment. Placing a model next to a car increases the strength of the hedonic goals. However, pleasure might not be the best feeling one wants to evoke in a person. If one is marketing a financial security plan, it is better to include gain-oriented cues.

Another important influence on our interpretation are the alternatives that we are facing and this is explained by the reference point. If we have two product A and B, respectively the former is high on dimension A , but low on B and the latter being the opposite high on B, but low on A. Assume that we do not have preference for dimension A or B, placing a product D just below A would change how one perceived option A. Here D seems like an awful option, making A much more appealing. To illustrate this with a example of the interest rates a bank offers for saving assume there are two options: 3.2% interest rate for 5 year investment or 3.6% interest for 10 year investment. Most people would choose the 5 year plan, however adding a third choice 3.6% interest for 15 years makes the 10 year plan much more preferred.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is often applied when designing a marketing campaign. According to Maslow's theory people first strive to satisfy their basic needs, such as food, security, etc and throughout their life they try to fulfill higher needs, such as self-actualization. Potato chips satisfies low needs, but marketing campaigns try to make people connect chips with higher needs such as friendships and the need to belong.

In addition, we try to explain why certain behaviors exist or in other words we try to make causal inferences. There is evidence that people overestimate the role of dispositional explanation when observing the behaviors of others and underestimate the role of situational factors. This bias in human's judgment has been called the Fundamental Attribution Error. For example, viewers tend to overrate how much celebrities like and use the products they advertise. When we evaluate reviews about a product we take three types of information into account according to Kelly's Covarition Model. First of all, we check if it holds through different situations – consistency information. Additionally, we look for distinctiveness information. Is this the only product that the person gave negative comments about or is it common practice? Finally, we want to know how much other people agree (i.e. consensus). If a there is a low consensus, low distinctiveness and high consistency a bad review is attributed to the communicator, meaning If people usually do not agree with a reviewer who is often highly critical across different situations then he or she is perceived as being at fault. However, strong brands such Coca Cola would not be affected as much even by negative review that is high on the three dimensions – consistency, distinctiveness and consensus.

Furthermore, negative advertisements have proven to be ineffective, because of psychological reactance which occurs when people feel their freedom of choice is threatened. As a consequence comparative ads adopted a new less negative approach. For example, Omo changed their slogan from “Ariel is bad, but Omo is good!” to “Ariel is good, but Omol is better!” Moreover, when evaluating a problem people depend of heuristics connecting certain categories to a product. For example, a person familiar with the brand Volvo would associate it with safety. Even countries can be associated with types of products. For example, people know Germany for good cars and we often hear about Swiss watches.

In addition, attributes that belong to the product itself are crucial factors that consumers consider. The price of the product often plays a role when one tries to infer quality. Moreover, if a product comes with warranty it is usually perceived as of higher quality and new is always seen as better.

Overall, different theories can be applied to understand consumers' behavior and how they appraise a product. Students should be familiar with the different types of consumer behavior and how they are applied in product marketing.

Traffic safety

Another societal problem where social psychology can be applied is reducing the number of accidents on the street. Statistics show that there has been a steady decline of deaths on the road and this is due to improvement in infrastructure and making cars safer by adding belts, air bags, etc. Another factor is better police control on the streets, more street cameras and enhanced enforcement. Obviously technology has a major impact in the improvement of all of the mentioned above and more. However, there are 40 000 deaths per year only in Europe and 3.5 million who has suffered an injury. So why are there so many accidents on the roads after all of our efforts to make them safer?

Enforcement has played tremendous role in preventing car accidents, but it is a method that is effective only in the short-term. Drivers usually slow down only when presented with cues that they driving behavior might lead to penalties. Therefore, they are extrinsically motivated to change their driving. If we want to observe long-term changes that lead to safer behaviors on the road interventions should aim at motivating people intrinsically. Here social psychology becomes highly relevant and there have been a number of theories that have been applied in order to understand driving behaviors better.

According to the Task-Capabilities Inference model when a person's capabilities overweight the driving demands the driver is in control of the situation and avoids mishap. If the opposite is true and the demands are bigger than one's driving capabilities the result is crash. The model includes many factors that influence the demands as well as the driver's capabilities. Social psychology focuses on examining human factors that could be divided into driving skills and driving style.

Driving skills refers to basic as well as higher order skill like stepping on the brakes on time, keeping a car in control or being able to drive on a slippery road. Driver skills are enhanced by experience and they could be very helpful in managing a near accident. Nevertheless, according to statistics experienced and skilled drivers are not less prone to crash. This could be explained by the adopted driving styles or in other words one's driving habits. These are categorized as risky or safe and are determined by the driver's attitudes, values and norms. It has been shown that risky driving style is the best predictor of accidents and sanctions.

There is a questionnaire designed to measure driving behaviors that are split in three types: violations, errors and lapses. Violations measure driving styles that are considered purposeful, whereas error and lapses focus on driving skills that lead to unintentional risky behavior. For example, if a driver engages in faulty overtaking, because of sensation seeking it would be considered a violation. In contrast, an error would be a driver forgets to check the mirrors leading to faulty overtaking. Lapses are minor risky behavior that is caused by problem in attention or memory. These driving behaviors are prevalent in certain demographic groups. For example, violations are most common among males, whereas females are often perceived to be involved in more errors, though findings are inconclusive. Moreover, lapses correlate with elderly people. Even though, these are only general trends and exceptions exist, intervention should aim changing the relevant behaviors of the target group.

Another factor that has been recognized is personality differences. One such factor is sensation-seeking defined as the need for novel and exciting experience. People who score high on this dimension are often engaged in violations. Another similar trait is extraversion that has been associated with breaking speed limits. Drivers who are not emotionally stable get frustrated easily and engage in aggressive driving behaviors such as car-tailing. Moreover, aggression is another predictor of violations. Consequently, when developing interventions scientists need to think about how to satisfy drivers needs like the need for arousal. One way to do that is by promoting listening to music.

From a cognitive perspective part of driver's behavior can be explained by cognitive biases. For example, people often engage in social comparison, underestimating the chance of them being in an accident compared to other drivers. This phenomenon has been known as optimism bias or unrealistic bias. On the other hand, some drivers believe they are able to handle any situation, meaning that they have an illusion of control. McKenna hypothesized that when one evaluates the chances of accident as a passenger (i.e. low control condition) risk would be perceived as higher compared to the high control condition where one is the driver. The study found significant differences in how people rate the probability of a crash. However, we could not replicate the results among psychology students. One reason might be that most students are already familiar with the concept of cognitive biases and might be more conscious about how one perception of risk is influenced.

Theory of Planned Behavior has been widely applied in traffic safety research and intervention and to it intentions to do something predicts the behavior. However findings about its usefulness have been contradictory. It has been found that attitudes and subjective norm predict intentions to use seat belt, but intentions do not seem to be predictive of the actual behavior. The reason is that most of the driving behaviors are habitual. If putting a seat-belt is not a habit, it is very hard to change this behavior. Another disadvantage is the research methods used. Self-reports ask about current or past behaviors, whereas intention is relevant for the future, so there is mismatch between the research design and actual prediction.

Furthermore, Risk Homeostasis Theory is one of the oldest and widely used theories in the field of traffic safety. According to Wilde, people have a level of risk that they feel comfortable with, that would be target risk. If a driver scores high on this trait he/she would be more likely to engage in risky behaviors when the environment does not provide him or her with the proper stimulation. For example, if roads are empty the perceived risk lowers; consequently the driver speeds up in order to enhance the feeling of risk. Intervention that aim at educating drivers about possible risk are usually not successful, because people are very good at discrediting information when cognitive biases are operating.

Driver often increase task demands themselves by engaging in distracting activities, such as listening to music or talking on the phone, eating, etc. Some distractions like music are less influential compared to talking on a phone which requires higher cognitive demands. In an experiment with driving simulator the lecturer Ayca Unal and her colleagues found that mental effort increase with the presence of music and it varies with the demands of the situation. Nevertheless, the performance of the drivers in the music condition was better and they needed less time to react. This could be explained by the enhanced mental effort while participants were listening to music.

Overall, students should be able to identify types of driving behavior and how these can be affected by individual differences. The take home message it that everyone should also try to objectively evaluate the situation and reason how much risk they are in fact engaging in.

Lecture 4

Social psychology is often applied in the domain of politics. First of all, psychologist have tried to determine attributes that increase the chance of voting for somebody. For example, even things as superficial as appearance have influence on how political leaders appeal to the public. Furthermore, there have been a number of theories that have try to explain what makes one a good leader. It is important to not that coerciveness is not considered leadership. A true leader has a goal and he or she needs followers in order to obtain it.

The oldest approach to leadership is known trait approach. Trait theories considered leadership as quality that some people are born with. This theories focus on identifying the characteristics that distinguish good leaders. For example, leaders are most often perceived as ambitious, intelligent, energetic and honest. Another important quality that a leader is supposed to possess is task-related knowledge. This quality is especially impactful when violated. So the advantage of displaying task-related knowledge is not as big as the damage of demonstrating lack of this quality. Nevertheless, it is not enough to predict someone being a leader only because he or she possess this traits. Furthermore, it is not clear if one genetically predisposed to possess such characteristic or they can are acquired through experience. Different situation call for different qualities and traits hardly predict behavior in strong situations. Moreover, followers are not included in the theory and it is not specified which traits are more important.

On the other hand, the behavioral approach focused on how leaders conduct themselves. According psychologist who adopt this approach people can become anything if they behave accordingly. However, this turns out not to be enough and later theories included situational factors. According to situational theories leadership is not a static behavior, but the environment determines the right leadership style that has to be adopted. Last but not least, transformational theories include the relationship between followers and a leader.

According to Fraud, leaders tend to be narcissist and they need the constant reassurance of followers. This support is accomplished by the follower's identification with the leader. Therefore, followers embraces the goals of the leader. Leaders are often perceived as charismatic and their fall is associated with surrounding themselves with followers who are not critical enough.

One skill that is seen as crucial is for a leader to be fluent in speaking. Fluent speakers are perceived as more persuasive and reliable source of information. On the Big 5 leader tend to score high on all component besides neuroticm. Leaders usually have better control over their emotions compared to the general population. In contrast, characteristics that are negatively associated with leadership are offensive behavior, rigidness, ignorance as well as authoritarian leadership style. Nevertheless, this traits should not be taken for granted in every successful leader and Silvio Berlusconi serves as an example of a chosen leader who possess most of the negative characteristic mentioned above.

Even though according to the democratic ideal voting behavior should be based on choosing a leader who represents a voter's concerns the best, appearance seems to play a role. In an experiment participants were presented with pictures of past winners and runner-ups for Senate elections and had to choose who was number one only based on the appearance of the candidates. Out of 900 people 72 per cent chose the winner. In addition, people like to see consistency in appearance. Changes in appearance lead to perceived changes in a person's character. A simple example is that people often go to hairdresser or make other changes in their look after a break up with a partner. It appears the context influences the type of appearance preferred and it seems more masculine looks are favored during war times.

The Elaboration Likelihood Model can be applied to get insight into how context and emotions in turn can influences our perception of good leader. If a person is in a situation where he or she experience fear, a message would be processed by the central route. Therefore, one would focus more on the arguments presented. In contrast, if a person feels angry he or she would depend more on heuristic processes.

In a study participants had to vote for or against an increase in tax for school funding of 0.6%. More people voted in favor if the the poll was conducted in a schools, compared to setting that were not school related. Moreover, people in uniforms are perceived as more authoritative and persuasive. Another factor is how similar a leader is to the group, but such similarity is an influence when the a group identity is salient.

Additionally, people tend to vote for people they like and people who are perceived as similar are usually better liked. An approach that leaders take advantage of this is the block leader approach that tries to tap into a circle of people and use an already existing assertive leader in order to influence the group. Campaigns also put to use the fact that people value more things that are scarce, communicating messages that make loss salient. A further example of campaign strategies are giving away fliers and brochures. Here political advisers depend on the principle of reciprocity, because people usually feel they have to give back after receiving. Evoking commitment is also often used in the USA.

Last but not least, the majority is most often considered right and the phenomenon of social proof has its implication it politics. For instance, Obama made a public speech for 84.000 that much exceeding the other parties' audience. What is more, the popularity polls that are conducted during election might not only be informative of others' voting behavior, but might influence one's perception also.

When we consider the sex differences in leadership styles, there appear to be contradictory findings. Although, there are tones of studies finding no effect of one's gender people perceived women as more appropriate for job in health care, education and worse in profession that concern internal safety or defense.

Lecture 5

Diversity

Diversity is a highly relevant topic, because societies and smaller groups now include different ethnicities and cultures. Many organizations are also concerned under what circumstances diverse groups are likely to be in conflict and when a cultural diversity is beneficial. In order to gain insight into this problem, we should be first familiar with the social theories that can be applied in this domain.

First, according to the Similarity-attraction model people are attracted to others who are similar to them. Thus, diversity is groups would have negative consequences, such as less appeal. Furthermore, Social Identity Theory claims that people derive values and their identity partly from a group they feel they belong. If there is one global group, consisting of small subgroups, members of subgroups would be likely to use qualities of their subgroup to define the global group (i.e. in-group projection). For example, when the Berlin Wall fell, people of the west claim they are the real Germans, hence the population on the east had to adapt to the 'west standards'. So, if in-group members are closer to the prototype of an inclusive category, then outgroup members, such as immigrants in a company, would be perceived of less value, thus discriminated.

Moreover, members of diverse group perceive more threats, possibly to their values, norms, etc. This is a direct implication of the Intergroup Threat Theory. On the other hand, according to Optimal Distinctiveness Theory group members strive for balance between the need to belong and the need to be unique. This theory's the implications are not so clear-cut. In general, if a group is highly diverse, members should not feel threat to their need to belong and there could be beneficial consequences to the need of distinctiveness. Nevertheless, for different setting implication differ. On the positive side, Intergroup Contact Theory posits that if members of various groups communicate on regular bases, the intergroup relations are expected to improve. Furthermore, there is evidence that more prejudice can be observed, when there is less contact between people from different group.

Diversity is beneficial for creative purposes, because different people can provide various approaches to a problem. Nevertheless, diverse group suffer from often miscommunication,as well as more conflict. In turn, organizations that lean on diversity have higher turnover effect. Online survey data indicates that workers in Dutch organization very rarely experience discrimination on daily bases. Less than twenty percent of them responded that they sometimes feel excluded or discriminated. Moreover, the vast majority of employees also claim that they are satisfied their work and have trust in their organization. This claims are true both for majority and minority group members. Nevertheless, non-western minority groups score significantly higher on a rejection sensitivity scale.

Even though, there does not seem to be a severe problem of discrimination among Dutch organization, it is important to investigate when diverse group are the most beneficial. In order to do so, we should be aware of organization's goals when implementing a diverse system. (i.e. we need be aware of diversity perspectives). However, it is often the case that managers often have no clue why they adopted diversity in their organization. One perspective is the discrimination and fairness perspective (also known as the colorblind perspective) that states employees are only hired on the basis of their merits. This perspective proposes that a while after a member of a minority group enters the organization, he or she will 'lose their color' (i.e. he or she will be integrated into the majority). A second perspective is the getting-access perspective. Some organizations seek minority employees, because their customers come from similar background. For example, in a supermarket located in area where people from various ethnicity live, managers are advised to hire cashiers who come from minority groups.However, limiting the work of minority employees to only dealing with people from similar background might lead to frustration.

A third different perspective is that when culturally diverse people enter an organization, they would learn from each other, slowly changing the organization itself. This perspective is known as the integration and learning-perspective or also multiculturalism. Even though, all three types of organizations welcome members of minority groups, organizations that adopt the third perspective,namely integration and learning-perspective, are more open towards minority members. In turn, minority member feel most satisfied when working in such organizations. On the other hand, the colorblindness perspective has been associated with minority members distancing from the group.

Perceived inclusion in the group might be composed from two factors, a feeling of belonging to the group, as well as opportunities to show oneself's authenticity. High scores of both dimensions are defined as inclusive group, whereas low score mean exclusion.
Collective Actions

Collective actions are groups behaviors that aim at benefiting the group. These are often in the form of social protests. This field is quiet international, because of the ease with which ideas spread through social media nowadays. There are different types of social protest, such as petitions, demonstrations, voting and some that can be considered illegal like riots, strikes. Most of these acts aim at provoking some political change, so one might consider some terrorist actions as social protests too. Psychology can help us get insight into why people take such action and what motivates their choices. Activist are often stigmatized as irrational or a little crazy, but lay people can rarely make unbiased judgements about others. Very prototypical examples of social protests would be peace movements in Israel or other countries that experience wars. Woman fight a right to a buy morning pill legally in parts of the world where it is not just something normal. What is interesting is that students are often engaged in the organizations of protest in many parts of the world.

Collective actions is the more scientific term of protest and it has two main characteristics. First, a person's actions have to be representing a group. Second, through his or her actions, an individual is trying to benefit the whole group. Signing a petition might seem as an individualistic behavior, but if it is representative of some group, it is considered as a collective action. Thus, motivations are shared in a way by a group. Some questions that rise are under what circumstances collective actions can be observed, how individuals can be mobilized and how such behaviors can be prevented.

Even though, protests are often highly salient events in people's memory, actual collective actions are rare and the number of people participating is usually not very high. So it is important to know how such actions can be motivated and enhanced. People should be more active (e.g. in their voting behavior). Numbers show that only 3% to 5% of students who can be mobilized, are actually involved in students protests.

According to the Relative Theory of Unfairness, if a group perceives strong unfairness, then time or money constraints would be less relevant, thus actions are more likely. On the other hand, the extent to which a group considered they have resources to take actions can also be influential. Thus, if a group believes they can achieve a goal, actions are more likely (group efficacy beliefs).If people feel helpless, they would in general be hugely demotivated. The strength of identification with the group is a third factor.

In three experiments by Martijn van Zomeren, students were asked how would they feel about increase in tuition fees or increase in hours of participation in studies as course requirement. In all three experiments researchers manipulated the extend to which participants felt their opinions were being heard, hence the level of perceived procedural unfairness. In the second study, students were also presented with information about how many people support their opinion, varying it according to condition. One condition the majority was against increase in tuition fees( 95 percent), whereas in the second 65 percent were against in order to look credible, but still low. In the third experiment the strength of support for collective actions (i.e. action support) was manipulation.

The results showed that perceived procedural unfairness leads to increase in group-based anger, which in turn leads to increase in collective actions. On the other hand, the effect of perceived social opinion support did not translate into group efficacy or increased tendency to act. On reason might be that even many people agree with you, that does not necessarily mean they will actively support you. However, when people feel that many others would actively support a cause, then an active group would be formed. In a subsequent field studies, the same researchers found the more one identifies with a group, the more group-based anger is intensified. More interestingly, they found people who identify highly with a group, remain motivated to persist defending their cause, in spite of perceived low group self-efficacy.

Source

Lecture Notes from the course in 2014/2015.