Why We do Dumb or Irrational Things: 10 Brilliant Social Psychology Studies

"I have been primarily interested in how and why ordinary people do unusual things, things that seem alien to their natures. Why do good people sometimes act evil? Why do smart people sometimes do dumb or irrational things?" –Philip Zimbardo

1. The Halo Effect … the idea that global evaluations about a person (e.g. she is likeable) bleed over into judgements about their specific traits ( e.g. she is intelligent). Hollywood stars demonstrate the halo effect perfectly. Because they are often attractive and likeable we naturally assume they are also intelligent, friendly, display good judgement and so on.

2. How and Why We Lie to Ourselves: Cognitive Dissonance …The ground-breaking social psychological experiment provides a central insight into the stories we tell ourselves about why we think and behave the way we do. The experiment is filled with ingenious deception…

3. War, Peace and the Role of Power … a classic study of prejudice and conflict, has at least one hidden story. The well-known story emerged in the decades following the experiment as textbook writers adopted a particular retelling. With repetition people soon accepted this story as reality, forgetting it is just one version of events, one interpretation of a complex series of studies.

4. Our Dark Hearts: The Stanford Prison Experiment – The famous 'Stanford Prison Experiment' argues a strong case for the power of the situation in determining human behaviour.

5. Just Following Orders?  A psychological experiment so powerful that simply taking part might change your view of yourself and human nature? What experimental procedure could provoke some people to profuse sweating and trembling, leaving 10% extremely upset, while others broke into unexplained hysterical laughter?

6. Why We All Stink as Intuitive Psychologists: The False Consensus Bias – Many people quite naturally believe they are good 'intuitive psychologists', thinking it is relatively easy to predict other people's attitudes and behaviours. We each have information built up from countless previous experiences involving both ourselves and others so surely we should have solid insights? No such luck.

7. Why Groups and Prejudices Form So Easily: Social Identity Theory People's behaviour in groups is fascinating and frequently disturbing. As soon as humans are bunched together in groups we start to do odd things: copy other members of our group, favour members of own group over others, look for a leader to worship and fight other groups.

8. How to Avoid a Bad Bargain Bargaining is one of those activities we often engage in without quite realising it. Iit happens every time we want to reach an agreement with someone. This agreement could be as simple as choosing a restaurant with a friend, or deciding which TV channel to watch. At the other end of the scale, bargaining can affect the fate of nations…

9. Why We Don't Help Others: Bystander Apathy … the 'bystander effect'. In social psychology this is the surprising finding that the mere presence of other people inhibits our own helping behaviours in an emergency.

10. I Can't Believe My Eyes: Conforming to the Norm We all know that humans are natural born conformers – we copy each other's dress sense, ways of talking and attitudes, often without a second thought. But exactly how far does this conformity go? Do you think it is possible you would deny unambiguous information from your own senses just to conform with other people?

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