Episode #1 of 10

A quick introduction to social psychology

What is Social Psychology?
by Andy Luttrell
Welcome to this Highbrow course about social psychology. In each lesson,
youll first discover an amazing fact about the human mind and then see
how a carefully designed experiment was able to reveal that facet of
human psychology.
Before getting into those studies, though, lets take this opportunity today
to get a better understanding of what social psychology is in the first
place.
Some people think that psychology is just a bunch of mumbo jumbo. They
think that we can understand people perfectly well by simply observing
peoples behaviors in everyday situations. The reality is that psychology is
a careful science relying on the scientific method and sophisticated
statistics to understand how people really think.
So, how would we define social psychology? A good place to start is the
definition given by Gordon Allport, a pioneer of social psychology:
The scientific study of the way in which individuals thoughts, feelings, and
behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people.
A few pieces of that definition are worth highlighting:
scientific study: Social psychologists use carefully designed studies and
statistical analysis to understand questions of the mind. We don't just sit
around writing down observations and musings; we ask questions, collect
data, analyze that data, and slowly understand whether these effects are
reliable.
individuals: contrary to other disciplines like sociology, which look at
societies as a unit, social psychology wants to know how individual people
operate within social worlds.
thoughts, feelings, and behaviors: psychology is interested in all three of
these things. They are interrelated, of course, but it's important to
understand the full range of human experience.
influenced by...other people: This is what makes it social psychology. At the
core, the questions that social psychologists ask (vs. other psychologists)
involve the ways in which social factors influence us. We're social
creatures by nature, so other people have a big impact on us!
To define social psychology by example, consider that all of the following
(and more!) are topics that social psychologists study: persuasion,
opinions, relationships, self-esteem, group decision-making, helping

behavior, aggression, self-control, goals, conformity, prejudice,

stereotyping, feelings of rejection, cooperation, perceiving other people,
social memory, etc.
Over the next nine lessons, you will learn about new, fascinating insights
about social psychology and the experiments that revealed them to us.
These arent the classic studies you may already know about. I want to
show you the quirkier side of psychology and get you thinking about how
scientific methods can reveal the strange patterns that people follow.

Episode #2 of 10

The Power of Because

The Psychology
Would you please read this whole lesson, because I want you to read this
whole email?
Is that persuasive? If youre really paying attention, it probably sounds like
a stupid way to ask someone to do something, but if you were only sort of
paying attention, it would be reasonably persuasive.
This is all about mindless compliance. As we move through life, we dont
have the brain capacity to carefully consider everything we see and hear,
so we rely on little shortcuts to get by. If youre shopping for a new
toothbrush, are you really going to read the full packaging on every
toothbrush in the store? Or are you going to just pick the one that says
#1 Recommended by Dentists?
In psychology, heuristics are little shortcut that let you bypass all of the
careful thinking that it can take to make a choice.
One powerful heuristic our brains use is: if theres a reason, it must be
valid. So when you hear me say because, it basically says to your brain,
Hey, dont worry! Hes got a reason for asking for a favor. Go ahead and
do him that favor.
The Evidence
One early study sent an undercover researcher to a library that had a copy
machine in it. As library patrons were about to use the copy machine, the
researcher would approach them, posing as another library patron who
needed to use the machine.
The goal was to get the person at the copy machine to let the researcher
use it first, and they tried out three different versions of that request.

Sometimes the researcher just asked, Excuse me, I have 5 pages. May I
use the Xerox machine? Other times, the researcher gave a reason for
needing to cut in line, asking, Excuse me, I have 5 pages. May I use the
Xerox machine because Im in a rush? Obviously, people would be more
inclined to let you cut in line if you have a reasonable excuse. 60% of
people allowed the researcher to cut in line when he simply asked, and
94% complied when he offered the excuse (Im in a rush).
But could the word because still be effective if the actual reason is
terrible? To test that possibility, sometimes the researcher asked, Excuse
me, I have 5 pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I have to make
copies?
To a rational person, this excuse is nonsense! But if youre not paying
much attention, you hear that word because and you think, Oh, this
person has a reason for cutting me in line. Amazingly, 93% of people still
allowed the researcher to cut in line when he gave this dumb reason.
The point is that we rely on little tricks to help us make quicker decisions.
So the next time you have a small request to make, toss in a because
just for good measure.

Episode #3 of 10

Mind-Body Connections

The Psychology

You say your feelings are hurt, but you dont mean it feels like you
stubbed your toe, right?
You say you get a warm feeling when your fianc is around, but your body
temperature hasnt gone up, right?
We often use metaphors to express abstract, psychological experiences,
but recent research suggests that there might be more than mere
wordplay going on. Theres more overlap between the physical and the
emotional than you initially thought.
Psychologists have recently discovered many cases of embodiment, which
is what happens when physical sensations affect our psychological
experience.
The Evidence
Heres one examplewe use the word warm to describe people who are
generous and caring, but thats weird, isnt it? We dont actually think that
the person is warm to the touch, but we still use the metaphor.

In one experiment, people read some information about a person whom

theyd never met. Their only job was to form an impression of this person
and rate their personality on a handful of traits.
Some of these traits were about how warm the person seemedhow
generous and caring the person seemed. The other traits were personality
characteristics that werent related to warmth.
The critical moment, though, happened before the participants thought
the experiment started. When they arrived for the study, they were met by
a researcher in the lobby, and they rode the elevator to the room where
the study would happen. On this elevator ride, the experimenter asked the
participant to briefly hold her cup of coffee. Sometimes it was a hot cup of
coffee, and sometimes it was an iced coffee. By the time they got to the
research room, everyone had given back the coffee cup and was ready to
read about the person I described earlier.
The question is: would the coffee cups temperature change peoples
perception of a warm personality? If you look at peoples responses to the
personality questions that werent about warm traits, the answers
werent any different between people who held a warm coffee and people
who held an iced coffee.
When you look at peoples perceptions of personality warmth, though, the
people who had briefly held onto a hot cup of coffee gave higher ratings
for warm personality traits than the people who had briefly held a cold
cup of coffee.
The idea here is that the physical feeling of warmth got people thinking
about warmth in general, which biased their perception of this other
person. Thus, we can see that metaphors can reflect real links between
the physical and the psychological.

Episode #4 of 10

Self-Control Psychology

The Psychology

It happened to me just this morninga cookie sat right in front of me,

begging to be eaten. I know Im trying to eat more healthfully, but the
buttery sweet treat beckoned, and I caved.
This is a classic self-control conflict. There was an immediate temptation
that would give me momentary pleasure, but it conflicted with a long-term
goal to eat more healthfully.
When it comes to these self-control conflicts, we can think about things in
two ways. One way is to think concretelyfocusing on the details and the

present moment. The soft texture, the melty chocolate chips, the buttery
richnessyou get it.
The other way is to think abstractlyfocusing more on the bigger picture.
This includes thinking about the future, my health, and my long-term goals
for myself.
Research has shown that if you want to resist temptation, youd best adopt
the abstract mindset.
The Evidence
To see whether people could improve their self-control by changing their
mindset, researchers ran a bunch of experiments subtly nudging people to
think in more abstract or concrete ways.
In one study, they looked at students and the self-control it can take to
keep studyingbecause when it comes to studying, there are a ton of
possible temptations: playing video games, reading Highbrow lessons,
watching TV, etc.
To get people thinking abstractly or concretely, they asked the students to
do a quick mental exercise at the start of the study. The activity was to
think about categories associated with 40 different words, but the
instructions could come in two slightly different variations.
To get half of the students into an abstract mindset, they had them think
about what category each word belonged to (e.g., pasta is an example of
what?). To get the other students into a concrete mindset, they had them
think about those words as categories of their own and asked them to get
more specific (e.g., an example of pasta is what?) See how each version
of the activity gets you thinking in a different way?
Finally, all of the students rated a bunch of possible studying-related
temptations (partying, television, etc.). The results showed that the
students who were in the abstract mindset found the temptations less
alluring than the students who were in the concrete mindset! This was
especially the case for people with a strong goal to study. In other words,
especially when a goal is important to you, thinking more abstractly helps
diminish a temptations allure.
The next time you feel pulled toward a sinful diet-busting treat or any
other temptation, take note of how youre thinking about the situation.
Refocus your attention away from the concrete details that make the thing
so tempting and consider the big picture. Pull the camera back like its a
movie and think more long-term.\

Episode #5 of 10

Random Social Interactions and

Happiness
The Psychology
If you look through the zillions of self-help books published every year,
youll find a lot of people claiming to know the secrets to happiness and a
fulfilling life. Clearly, people are interested in happiness psychology.
Psychologist Martin Seligman and his colleagues wrote that at least 100
interventions claiming to increase happiness have been proposed.
Although plenty of those claims are probably based on speculation or a
single person's experience, recent research in positive psychology has
applied the research methods of psychological science to the tricky
question of happiness.
In general, social psychological research tends to show that the more we
connect with the people in our lives, the happier we are.
The funny thing is that we sometimes think talking to people will make us
less happy! Imagine youre taking the train to work and a stranger sits
down next to you. Most people think that their commute will go more
smoothly if they just keep to themselves and do their own thing. We tend
to think that striking up a conversation will just waste time, and well be
frustrated that we gave up our precious time in order to small talk with a
stranger.
But it turns out that striking up that conversation on the train would
actually make us happier!
The Evidence
A group of researchers designed an interesting experiment. They went up
to people in the train station and asked if they would participate in a
simple study. They asked these commuters to ride the train that morning
in one of three ways. Some people were asked to make a connection with
a stranger on the train. Some people were asked to sit in solitude on the
train, and the rest were told to ride the train as they always do.
Everyone was given an envelope with a short survey to complete when
they reached their destination. The survey asked questions about how
they were feeling and how pleasant their ride was. The commuters
completed the survey and mailed it back to the researchers.
Does connecting with strangers really work? Contrary to what people
expected, the commuters had significantly more positive experiences
when they were asked to form a connection with a stranger on the train

compared to when they kept to themselves. Not only did they feel as
though they had a more pleasant commute, but they felt better overall
and they didnt feel like they were any less productive.
The lesson here is to have what some have called social snacks. Form
social connections during times when you otherwise might not. Get to
know other people in the world, even if it wont turn into a long-term
friendship. By finding little moments to connect with people around you,
you may find yourself leading a happier, more positive life.

Episode #6 of 10

Thinking About What Could Have Been

The Psychology

Despite the advice of innumerable life coaches, we cant help but compare
ourselves to others and think hypothetically. We seem to only understand
ourselves in context, and one of those contexts is the world of what if
and if only.
Oftentimes, we gauge our happiness and satisfaction by thinking about
how things could have gone better or worse. This style of thinking is
counterfactual thinking, and its all about what didnt happen.
The Evidence
To show the prevalence of counterfactual thinking, Thomas Gilovich and
his colleagues analyzed the reactions of athletes in the 1992 Summer
Olympics. They wanted to know who was happier: athletes who took 2nd
place silver medals or athletes who took 3rd place bronze medals.
Rationally, the silver medalists should be happier because they did better!
If they based their satisfaction on their objective performance, they should
be more satisfied. But if athletes use counterfactual thinking, then the
silver medalists may be less happy than the bronze medalists.
To understand why, consider what each of them must have been thinking.
The silver medalist is thinking, I could have gotten the gold! I came so
close! This is an upward counterfactual, which is thinking about how
things could have been better.
The bronze medalist, though, is thinking, I got an Olympic medal! I was so
close to not getting one, but I have one! This a downward counterfactual,
which is thinking about how things could have been worse.
The researchers went through all the TV coverage of the 1992 Summer
Olympics and made clips of every recorded instance of a silver or bronze

medalist at the moment they finished their event (i.e., when they first
found out how they did) and as they were receiving their medals.
They took these clips and gave them to a bunch of people who didnt know
who got silver medals or bronze medals. They watched these clips without
sound and simply rated how happy each person in the videos seemed,
from agony to ecstasy.
When they analyzed all of those ratings, the researchers found a clear
case of counterfactual thinking. Across all of these silver and bronze
medalists, the emotions of the 3rd place bronze medalists appeared much
happier than the emotions of the 2nd place silver medalists.
Counterfactual thinking, of course, isnt just the stuff of Olympic athletes.
We all succumb to such thinking at one point or another. Keep in mind,
though, that downward counterfactual thinking feels a whole lot better
than upward counterfactual thinking, so for the sake of your own
happiness, be sure to consider how things could be much, much worse
than they are right now.