Question 1

The Focus on Neuroscience box "Brain Reward When Making Eye Contact with Attractive People" describes an fMRI study in which participants were scanned while looking at photographs of faces. What were the results of the study?

Accepted Answer

The study found that faces of attractive people looking directly at the viewer activated the ventral striatum, a brain area associated with the expectation of rewards.

Question 2

Natalie suggests that the aggressiveness of her brother's new friend is the result of his friend's low self-esteem. Natalie's inference about the cause of the behavior of her brother's friend is an example of:

Accepted Answer

Natalie is making an attribution, which is the process of inferring the cause of someone's behavior. She is attributing the aggressiveness to her brother's friend's low self-esteem.

Question 3

While eating at a restaurant, you see a waiter's serving tray tilt and an avalanche of food and beverages splatters on four people. "What a careless, clumsy idiot," you mumble to yourself as you resume eating. You have just committed an attributional bias called:

Accepted Answer

This scenario involves the fundamental attribution error, where the behavior of the waiter is attributed to a dispositional factor (him being careless and clumsy) rather than situational factors beyond his control (perhaps the tray was uneven or he was bumped by a customer). This bias occurs when we overestimate the influence of personal characteristics and underestimate the influence of situational factors when explaining others' behaviors.

Question 4

_____ is the tendency of people to believe that the world is fair and that people get what they deserve and deserve what they get.

Accepted Answer

The just-world hypothesis refers to the belief that people deserve the outcomes they receive, whether positive or negative. This belief can lead to victim blaming and can make it difficult for individuals to recognize and address systemic inequalities.

Question 5

When Tommy looks at Trina, who is physically attractive, it is very probable, according to the Focus on Neuroscience box "Brain Reward When Making Eye Contact with Attractive People" that:

Accepted Answer

The Focus on Neuroscience box states that when people make eye contact with someone they find physically attractive, the orbital frontal cortex, nucleus accumbens, and amygdala become activated. Therefore, it is probable that these regions will become activated when Tommy looks at Trina.

Question 6

The tendency after an event has occurred to overestimate one's ability to have foreseen or predicted the outcome is called:

Accepted Answer

The tendency to overestimate one's ability to have predicted the outcome after an event has occurred is known as the hindsight bias. This bias can lead to the belief that a particular occurrence was more predictable than it was in reality. Option A (self-serving bias) refers to the tendency to credit oneself for successes while blaming external factors for failures. Option B (self-effacing bias) is the opposite of the self-serving bias; individuals with this bias tend to attribute their successes to external factors while blaming themselves for failures. Option D (fundamental attribution error) is the tendency to attribute others' behavior to internal characteristics (e.g., personality) rather than situational factors.

Question 7

Kidnapped at knifepoint from her bedroom in the middle of the night, 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart was held captive for over nine months by a drifter and his female companion. When police finally found her and the details of her captivity were widely publicized, some observers publicly questioned why the girl never tried to escape or get the attention of the police. Such responses illustrate an attributional pattern called:

Accepted Answer

Blaming the victim involves attributing responsibility or fault to the person who has been harmed, rather than to the perpetrator of the harm. In cases of sexual assault or kidnapping, for example, victims may be unfairly criticized for their behavior or actions leading up to the event. Elizabeth Smart's captivity is a clear example of blaming the victim, as some observers suggested that she should have tried harder to escape or call for help, without taking into account the power dynamic between her and her captors.

Question 8

The mental process of inferring the causes of people's behavior, including one's own, is called:

Accepted Answer

The process of inferring the causes of people's behavior is known as attribution. Attribution involves making judgments about why people behave in certain ways, and may involve considering factors such as personality, situational factors, and other contextual factors. Altruism refers to the selfless concern for others, while ethnocentrism refers to the tendency to view one's own culture or group as superior to others. Prejudice involves preconceived ideas or judgments about individuals or groups based on stereotypes or insufficient information.

Question 9

The chapter Prologue describes how Fern labeled the man sitting on the steps with a cup in his hand as homeless on the basis of very limited information, which led her to make an embarrassing mistake. This is one disadvantage of using:

Accepted Answer

The disadvantage described in the Prologue is related to the use of social categories. Social categories are labels or classifications that people use to group others based on characteristics such as race, gender, age, education, etc. They can be helpful in making sense of the social world, but they also have some downsides, such as stereotyping and prejudice. In this case, Fern used the social category "homeless" to characterize the man, which led to her making an embarrassing mistake.

Question 10

Relying on social categories:

Accepted Answer

Relying on social categories is a natural and efficient cognitive process that provides us with basic information about people. It helps us simplify complex social environments and make quick judgments. However, it can also lead to inaccurate conclusions at times, and it's important to be aware of our biases and stereotypes. Prejudice, racism, and discrimination are not inevitable outcomes of social categorization, but they can be the result of negative attitudes and beliefs towards certain groups. Diffusion of responsibility is a separate phenomenon that is related to social influence and not directly related to social categorization.

Question 11

Before Mark had even heard the details of how Allison's car accident happened, he commented, "Allison is so absentminded, I'm sure it happened because she was probably talking on her cell phone and not paying attention." Mark's response illustrates an attributional pattern called:

Accepted Answer

Mark's immediate assumption and blame of Allison suggests that he is using the attributional pattern called blaming the victim, which is the tendency to blame individuals for their misfortunes rather than attributing the cause to external factors.

Question 12

"Hal got hit by a car when he was jogging? Really? Well, it doesn't surprise me," Erin commented. "He never wears reflective gear, so I bet the driver couldn't even see him." Erin's response illustrates an attributional pattern called:

Accepted Answer

Erin is blaming Hal for not wearing reflective gear and suggesting that he is partially responsible for getting hit by a car. This is an example of blaming the victim, which involves attributing negative events to personal characteristics or behaviors of the victim rather than to external circumstances.

Question 13

The Focus on Neuroscience box "Brain Reward When Making Eye Contact with Attractive People" describes an fMRI study. The results of the study showed that when we make direct eye contact with a physically attractive person, a brain area called the ventral striatum is activated. When the attractive person's eye gaze is shifted away from the viewer, activity in the ventral striatum decreases. The ventral striatum is the brain area that:

Accepted Answer

The ventral striatum is a brain area that plays a key role in reward processing, specifically in predicting and experiencing reward. This matches with the results of the fMRI study described in the Focus on Neuroscience box, which found increased ventral striatum activity when participants made direct eye contact with physically attractive people. Therefore, the best choice is D - the ventral striatum predicts reward.

Question 14

The common tendency in individualistic cultures to attribute the behavior of others to internal, personal characteristics while ignoring or underestimating the effects of external, situational factors is called:

Accepted Answer

The described tendency is known as the fundamental attribution error, which refers to the tendency to overemphasize dispositional (internal/personal) explanations for others' behaviors and underestimate the role of situational factors.

Question 15

The Focus on Neuroscience box "Brain Reward When Making Eye Contact with Attractive People" describes an fMRI study. The results showed that when we make direct eye contact with a physically attractive person, a specific area on each side of the brain is activated. When the attractive person's eye gaze is shifted away from the viewer, brain activity in these areas decrease. Other researchers have expanded on these findings and identified additional brain areas that are selectively responsive to the reward value of attractive faces. These are the:

Accepted Answer

The article states that "Other researchers have expanded on these findings and identified additional brain areas that are selectively responsive to the reward value of attractive faces. These are the: orbital frontal cortex, the nucleus accumbens, and the amygdala." Therefore, the best answer is C.

Question 16

Hindsight bias contributes to and reinforces the _____ explanatory pattern.

Accepted Answer

Hindsight bias often leads people to believe that victims should have predicted or avoided their misfortune, thus reinforcing a blame-the-victim explanatory pattern.

Question 17

Blaming the victim is the tendency:

Accepted Answer

Blaming the victim is the tendency to blame an innocent victim of misfortune for having somehow caused the problem or for not having taken steps to avoid or prevent it.

Question 18

When Eileen told her father that someone had stolen her new cell phone at school, he said that she should have known better than to take her phone to school. "It was bound to happen," he said. This example most clearly illustrates:

Accepted Answer

Hindsight bias is the tendency to believe that an event was more predictable than it actually was, after the event has already occurred. In this case, Eileen's father is saying that it was obvious that her phone would be stolen, even though it was not actually obvious at the time.

Question 19

The Focus on Neuroscience box "Brain Reward When Making Eye Contact with Attractive People" describes an fMRI study in which participants were scanned while looking at photographs of faces, some looking directly at the viewer (eye-contact) and some looking away (non-eye-contact). What did the results of this study show?

Accepted Answer

The results of the study showed that when participants made eye contact with attractive people, the brain area associated with the expectation of a reward (the ventral striatum) showed increased activity.

Question 20

Hindsight bias is:

Accepted Answer

Hindsight bias refers to the tendency to view events as more predictable than they really were, after they have already occurred. Essentially, people tend to believe that they would have predicted the outcome of an event (such as a political election or a stock market crash) with much greater accuracy than they actually could have. This can lead to distorted views of the past and can also influence future decision-making.

Quiz 11: Social Psychology