In-group bias – tendency to favor people who belong to the same association that we do

Out-group bias – tendency to see external members as being pretty much all alike

Realistic-conflict theory – proposes that prejudice stems from competition for scarce resources

Scapegoat – external group that is blamed for many of society’s problems

Cognitive consistency – idea that we strive to have attitudes and behaviors that do not contradict

one another

Cognitive dissonance theory – motivation to change our attitudes causing us to be in an

uncomfortable physical state

Central route to persuasion – careful evaluation of persuasive arguments and generation of

counterarguments; requires motivation and available cognitive resources

Impression formation – way that we understand and make judgements about others

Trait attribution – assigns the cause of a behavior to the characteristics of the person being

judged

Situational attribution – assigns the cause of a behavior to some characteristic of the environment

of occurrence

Fundamental attribution error – tendency to overuse trait information when making

generalizations about others

Individualistic culture – personal accomplishments are valued over group accomplishments

Collectivistic culture – group accomplishments are valued over individual accomplishments

Actor/observer bias – use of fundamental attribution error when judging others instead of when

making attributions about ourselves

Aversive racism – European americans feel apathetic emotions around African americans, which

may lead them to discriminate

Stereotype threat – phenomenon in which fears of being discriminated against elicit stereotype-

confirming behaviors

Contact hypothesis – theory that connections between groups is an effective means of reducing

prejudice between them

Matching hypothesis – theory of attraction to people whose level of physical attractiveness is

similar to our own

Deindividuation – behavior becomes controlled more by external norms than by an individual’s

internal values

Social facilitation – performing better on a task in the presence of others than if you were alone

Groupthink – fixation on one decision and members blindly assume that it is the correct decision

Foot-in-the-door compliance – asking people for a small request, which leads to compliance with

a larger request

Door-in-the-face compliance – asking people for a large request and, after refusal, asking for a

smaller request

Low-balling – getting someone to agree to a deal then changing the terms to be more favorable

That’s-not-all – increasing compliance by sweetening the deal with additional incentives

Destructive obedience – adhering to immoral, unethical demands that cause harm to others

Slippery slope – use of foot-in-the-door compliance in an obedience situation to get people to

obey increasing demands

Psychological distance – degree to which one can disassociate oneself from the consequences of

his/her actions

Instrumental aggression – aggression that is used to facilitate the attainment of a goal

Cognitive neoassociation theory – cues present during an aggressive event can become

associated with the emotions experienced during that event

Frustration-aggression hypothesis – idea that frustration causes aggressive behavior

Prosocial behavior – actions that help others

Altruism – helping another without being motivated by self-gain

Diffusion of responsibility – idea that obligation for taking action is dispersed across all the

people witnessing an event