Unit 01

How do Social Psychologists Think about Good and Evil?

We'll start with a broad overview of some of central concepts in the field that help inform how we think about human thought, feeling, and behavior.  Underlying it all is the role that both nature (our genetics) and nurture (the environment) play... and even more importantly, how they interact with each other.

01-A: The ABCs of Psychology

• What does the A, B, and C stand for?  What examples can you offer related to a particular social situation (e.g., studying in the library, riding on a bus, attending a UMD football game).

For example, later in the course we will learn about research on the effect of violent video games.  We will see examples of how exposure can cause an increase in anger towards others (affect), more painful punishments delivered to another person (behavior), and an increase in the frequency of aggressive thoughts (cognition).

Throughout this course we will be dissecting what we observe in ourselves and others in terms of how these three things interact with each other.  That is, if you want to understand human behavior, you have to understand how thoughts and feelings both influence and are influenced by it.

01-B: Disposition

• What does it mean to explain something evil as being caused by the disposition of the person?  In your answer, provide examples of:

  • • Genetically-inherited characteristics (e.g., MAO-A gene)

    • Traumatic brain injuries

      • • What area of the brain was trauma linked to increases in aggressive tendencies?

        • How was the MAO-A gene involved?

    • Personality traits - Provide a definition and examples for each of the "Big 5" factors known as OCEAN

      • • Openness

        • Conscientiousness

        • Extraversion

        • Agreeableness

        • Neuroticism 

When we offer dispositional explanations for someone's actions, we are suggesting that there is something about that particular person that made it more likely to happen.  You and I are different from each other in some ways, and those differences in our disposition mean that we will think, feel, and act differently at times, even if we are in the same exact situation.

So how do we describe the characteristics of a person that determine how they will tend to behave?  At the most basic level, we can consider the unique genetic code we inherited from our biological parents that shapes the development and function of our bodies and minds.  For example, are you the kind of person that is likely to react aggressively if someone frustrates you, or will you calmly react and avoid conflict?  A gene called the MAO-A gene is related to dispositional levels of aggression (Tiihonen et al., 2015).  Normally, MAO-A is responsible for the breakdown of neurotransmitters in your brain, such as dopamine.  The less active variant of the MAO-A gene results in the build up of these neurotransmitters, and the increased levels of these chemicals is associated with more aggressive and antisocial behavior.

Of course, the genetic differences between brains is not the only influence on disposition.  One person might inherit this variant of MAO-A but, having the benefit of a safe and nurturing upbringing, may not be a violent person at all.  However, an identical twin separated at birth who experiences neglect, abuse, or trauma may be far more likely to become violent than another child who suffered the same but does not have the gene.  Our genetic traits interact with our personal experience, and both play a role in our overall dispositions.

Genetics are the blueprint for the brain that is built within your skull, but that brain can also be affected by things that happen to it.  Different parts of your brain are involved in different aspects of your thought and behavior, so what kind of traumatic brain injuries are linked to more aggressive dispositions?

READ: Brain Injury Location Tied To Higher Risk of Aggression

OPTIONAL: Here is the full research paper the article is referencing in case you are interested in learning more.

How else might you describe your disposition?  There are a lot of personality tests and quizzes that claim to offer measures of who you are, but even some of the most widely used have little or no actual scientific validity.  The most widely used and well-supported measure of dispositional personality characteristics that reliably predicts differences in behavior is known as the Big 5.

OPTIONAL: Before you learn about the Big 5 traits, use this online form to see how you score on each one.  Do you agree with the results?  Why or why not?

01-C: The Social Situation

• • How do other people influence our own thoughts, feelings, and behavior?

  • Differentiate between two types of social influence and, for each, provide a research example:

    • • Informational Influence - How did Latene & Darley (1968) demonstrate that when unsure about a situation, the behavior of other people informs our judgements and behavior?  Be detailed about their methodology and results.

      • Normative Influence - How did Asch (1972) demonstrate that many people are willing to be wrong in order to avoid being different?

        • • What factors influenced whether or not they conformed to the group?

          • How do we know this was largely normative influence (and not informational)?

READ: Informational Social Influence

Latane and Darley conducted a famous series of experiments to understand how what is happening around us shapes the way we think about, and react in, situations where there may be some sort of emergency or person in need of help.  In their classic Smoke Filled Room Study (1968), participants were seated in a room to complete some surveys.  Half of them were in the room by themselves, while the other half were in a room with two confederates -- people were pretending to be other participants but were really part of the study.  A few minutes in, the experimenters pumped smoke into the room through the bottom of a door and observed to see whether the participant would investigate or exit to alert someone about the smoke.

What would you do if you saw smoke coming into the room you were sitting in?  When people were alone, they did what you would expect them to do... on average the person got up to exit the room in 2 minutes.  However, when participants were with two other people that just sat there and pretended like nothing was happening, only 10% of them got up.  The rest sat there for 15 minutes, until the smoke was thick and the researchers stopped the experiment.

Why?  One explanation is that we form our judgments based on the information we have.  When we are alone, we can't imagine there is a reason for smoke coming into the room (other than a fire) so we assume something is wrong and take action.  However, when we are with other people who seem to be unbothered, we might take that as valuable information... they must know that this is ok, or perhaps part of the study, so everything is probably fine.

READ: Normative Influence

01-D: Making Attributions

• How can the attributions you make for yourself and others be categorized as dispositional or situational?  Provide examples of the various attributions you might make for a kind or evil behavior.

• What biases might influence the attributions you make?  Provide personal examples of:

  • • The Fundamental Attribution Error

    • Self-Serving Bias

    • Confirmation Bias

• How can we explain the confirmation bias in terms of...

  • • What we seek out

    • How we interpret what we find

    • What we remember

Cognitive, attributional and emotional processes help us define and understand evil. But what exactly are these processes?

Cognitive processes - the ways in which information (e.g., facts, beliefs, memories, evaluations of things as good or bad) is handled by our brains to allow us to make decisions and judgments.

Attributional processes - Humans, as self-aware and social creatures, are wired not only to observe behavior, but to explain it.  Attribution is the process of assigning a cause to an event -- why did I just do that? 

Emotional processes - the physiological and cognitive activity that allows us to experience and label emotions (I’m feeling happy vs. I’m feeling scared).

READ: The first two sections of Our View of Self and Others (stop when you get to the section on attraction)

The confirmation bias extends beyond attributions - it influences the way we react to any information related to a belief we consider important to our own identity.

I could not help but include this cartoon, which does a nice job of capturing how we tend to seek out information...

01-E: Defining & Explaining Evil

• Why is evil so challenging to define?

• What is "latent evil" and what does it imply about human nature?

• Why do people tend to overestimate the role of disposition and underestimate how much they are (or could be) influenced by the social situation?

• How do self-presentational motives influence your behavior and the attributions that other people make for it?

• What effect does making attributions for the evil actions of others have on our thoughts and feelings about appropriate consequences?

Throughout this course you will encounter different perspectives on what can be called "evil" but it will ultimately be up to you do define it for yourself. That is harder than it sounds, particularly because there are so many factors that influence the way we think about the dispositional and situational causes of behavior, good and bad.

As you have already seen, we are often biased towards the dispositional attributions when we consider the behavior of others. That might be particularly tempting when thinking about evil because there can be something comforting about the notion that there are some evil people out there, and if we can just find and imprison them, we'll all be safe. Someone who stands by and allows thousands to be murdered must be an evil person, because a "normal" and "good" person like me would never going along with that. It's hard to see something we consider extreme and imagine that a social situation could be so powerful as to overwhelm our own disposition.

Humans are notoriously bad at predicting what they will do in extreme situations, and yet we often think we know our own dispositions well enough to make those predictions. We also tend to focus on our sense of free will, and as a result we overestimate the role of disposition and underestimate how much we are (or could be) influenced by the social situation. Disposition does indeed matter, as different people respond to the same situation in different ways, but when you look at the big picture social psychological research demonstrates that that personality has less of an effect on behavior than the situation does.

We have some of the same challenges when defining good. Self-presentation refers to the way we alter our behavior in order to create a favorable impression in the eyes of others.  For example, imagine that you are on your way into an office building to interview for a job and you pause to hold the door open for an elderly person approaching.  It could be that you did so because you believe it is the right thing to do… but it is also possible that you did that because you want other people to notice and believe you are a considerate and courteous person.  Even on a subconscious level, we often adjust our behavior to satisfy self-presentational motivations. Is it just as good if you did it to look good?

Explaining evil does seem to shift the way people think about how to address it. Miller and other researchers (1999) have conducted experiments where some people are asked to generate potential explanations for the aggressive behavior of another person. When later asked what an appropriate punishment would be, those that spent time making attributions for the aggression tended to favor less harsh consequences.

One concept omitted from the updated edition of this book is "latent evil" -- the idea that within every living human being there lies, within its nature, the potential for evil. Whatever genetic differences that might make it more or less likely, any human exposed to sufficient social pressure has the psychological mechanisms necessary to adapt and respond in a way that one might define as evil. That is not to argue that human nature is inherently evil, as the same can be said for the latent potential for good. The point is that we, as a species, are by our nature psychologically flexible.

Closing Thoughts...

Your thoughts, feelings, and behavior are all linked together and, on a subconscious level, influence each other without intention or awareness.  That can lead us to think, feel, and do things that are biased by our deep desire to feel good, be correct, and be liked and accepted by others.  As you move forward in this course, think about some of the situational forces that have shaped your behavior, and reflect on how those same forces might also shape how you define and feel about evil.

If you're interested in learning more...

Disgust Sensitivity

Morality is another factor that can influence disposition which we will discuss in class. However, if you are interested in learning more about morality feel free to locate Pond et al's (2012) study entitled "Repulsed By Violence: Disgust Sensitivity Buffers Trait, Behavioral and Daily Aggression." In this study the researchers discuss morality in terms of disgust sensitivity. In short, disgust sensitivity means that things that disgust us are classified as "immoral". Thus, perhaps people who have greater disgust sensitivity tend to be less likely to do immoral things. Pond et al. (2012) performed a number of studies relating one's disgust sensitivity to one's propensity for aggression.

MAO-A Gene

If you would like to learn more about the MAO-A gene, you can visit the US Library of Medicine's Genetic Home Reference: ghr.nlm.nih.gov/gene/MAOA