Question 1

The fundamental attribution error, hindsight bias, and the just-world hypothesis are biases that contribute to a common explanatory pattern called blaming the victim.

Accepted Answer

Blaming the victim involves attributing the responsibility of a negative situation to the victim themselves, rather than external factors. The fundamental attribution error, hindsight bias, and the just-world hypothesis can all lead to blaming the victim, either by overemphasizing personal characteristics or actions (fundamental attribution error), believing that the negative outcome was predictable and preventable (hindsight bias), or assuming that the victim deserved their fate due to their actions or circumstances (just-world hypothesis).

Question 2

According to research described in the Focus on Neuroscience box "Brain Reward When Making Eye Contact with Attractive People," there is significantly reduced activity in both the orbital frontal cortex and the amygdala when we view attractive faces.

Accepted Answer

Research indicates that there is increased activity in the orbital frontal cortex and the amygdala when viewing attractive faces, as these areas are associated with processing rewards and emotions.

Question 3

Blaming the victim is the tendency to overestimate one's ability to have foreseen or predicted the outcome of an event.

Accepted Answer

Blaming the victim refers to the tendency to blame the victim of a harmful event for their own misfortune rather than holding the perpetrator responsible. It is not related to overestimating one's ability to have foreseen or predicted the outcome of the event.

Question 4

In the fMRI study discussed in the Focus on Neuroscience box "Brain Reward When Making Eye Contact with Attractive People," researchers found that when we make direct eye contact with an attractive person, activity levels in a brain area called the ventral striatum decrease.

Accepted Answer

The statement is incorrect. The study actually found that activity levels in the ventral striatum increase when making direct eye contact with an attractive person, which indicates a heightened experience of reward.

Question 5

"We get what we deserve, and we deserve what we get" reflects a belief called the just-world hypothesis.

Accepted Answer

The statement reflects the just-world hypothesis, which suggests that people get what they deserve and deserve what they get. This belief is not necessarily true, but it is a commonly held one that can influence our judgments and behaviors towards others.

Question 6

Neuroscience research using fMRI brain imaging has shown that making direct eye contact with an attractive person activates a brain area called the ventral striatum.

Accepted Answer

Neuroscience research has shown that making direct eye contact with an attractive person activates the ventral striatum, a brain area associated with reward processing and motivation.

Question 7

The "what is beautiful is good" myth is an implicit personality theory reflecting the tendency of people to associate beauty with goodness and evil with ugliness.

Accepted Answer

The "what is beautiful is good" myth is an implicit personality theory reflecting the tendency of people to associate beauty with goodness and evil with ugliness. Therefore, the statement is true.

Question 8

Although many people believe otherwise, physical attractiveness is not correlated with intelligence, happiness, or self-esteem.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Although many people believe otherwise, physical attractiveness...

Question 9

The fundamental attribution error refers to the strong and automatic tendency to attribute the behavior of other people to internal, personal characteristics while ignoring or underestimating the effects of external, situational factors.

Accepted Answer

This is a correct description of the fundamental attribution error.

Question 10

According to the fMRI study described in the Focus on Neuroscience box "Brain Reward When Making Eye Contact with Attractive People," if we see an attractive person, a brain area called the ventral striatum is activated, and this is the same brain area that predicts reward.

Accepted Answer

This is a true statement based on the information provided in the Focus on Neuroscience box. The fMRI study found that the ventral striatum is activated when people see attractive individuals, which indicates that this brain region is involved in reward processing.

Question 11

According to the fMRI study described in the Focus on Neuroscience box "Brain Reward When Making Eye Contact with Attractive People," if we see an attractive person but cannot make eye contact with the person, there is decreased activity in a brain area called the ventral striatum.

Accepted Answer

The fMRI study found that when participants saw an attractive person but could not make eye contact, there was decreased activity in the ventral striatum, suggesting that eye contact with attractive people may be rewarding to the brain.

Question 12

Blaming the victims of misfortune for causing their own problems or for not taking steps to prevent or avoid them reflects a belief called the just-world hypothesis.

Accepted Answer

The just-world hypothesis is the belief that people deserve what they get in life and that good things happen to good people while bad things happen to bad people. Blaming the victims of misfortune for causing their own problems or for not taking steps to prevent or avoid them is one way that this belief manifests.

Question 13

Hindsight bias is the tendency to overestimate one's ability to have foreseen or predicted the outcome of an event.

Accepted Answer

Hindsight bias refers to the belief that, after an event has occurred, one would have predicted or foreseen the outcome. This bias can lead individuals to believe that an event was more predictable than it actually was, and can make it difficult to accurately assess the likelihood of future events.

Question 14

According to research described in the Focus on Neuroscience box "Brain Reward When Making Eye Contact with Attractive People," there is significantly increased activity in both the orbital frontal cortex and the amygdala when the attractive person's eye gaze is shifted away from the viewer (the non-eye-contact condition).

Accepted Answer

Research indicates that increased activity in the orbital frontal cortex and the amygdala occurs when making eye contact with attractive people, not when their gaze is shifted away.

Question 15

Psychologists use the term attribution to refer to the mental process of explaining or determining the causes of someone's behavior, including our own.

Accepted Answer

This is correct as attribution refers to the process of assigning causes or reasons for someone's behavior, including our own. It is a key concept in social psychology and helps to explain how people make sense of and interpret the behavior of others.

Question 16

When the student in front of her bumped the edge of the doorway and dropped most of her books in the classroom doorway, Vanessa immediately thought to herself, "What a klutz!" Vanessa's response illustrates the fundamental attribution error.

Accepted Answer

Vanessa is attributing the student's clumsiness to an internal, stable trait (i.e. being a klutz) rather than considering external factors, such as the student being in a rush or the doorway being crowded. This is an example of the fundamental attribution error, where we tend to overemphasize dispositional explanations for behavior rather than situational ones.

Question 17

According to research described in the Focus on Neuroscience box "Brain Reward When Making Eye Contact with Attractive People," the orbital frontal cortex, the nucleus accumbens, and the amygdala are selectively responsive to the reward value of attractive faces.

Accepted Answer

The research described in the box supports the statement that the orbital frontal cortex, the nucleus accumbens, and the amygdala are selectively responsive to the reward value of attractive faces.

Question 18

When it comes to explaining our own behavior, we tend to use external, situational attributions rather than internal, personal attributions.

Accepted Answer

This tendency is known as the actor-observer bias, where people attribute their own actions to external factors while attributing others' actions to internal factors.

Question 19

As a general rule, we tend to perceive good-looking people as self-centered, less intelligent, and less well-adjusted than most people.

Accepted Answer

This statement is actually false. There is no evidence to suggest that good-looking people are more likely to be self-centered, less intelligent, or less well-adjusted than others. In fact, studies have shown that physical attractiveness can actually lead to a number of advantages in life, including greater success in social and professional situations. So while our perceptions may sometimes lead us astray, it is important to be mindful of the ways in which we may be biased against certain groups of people based on factors like appearance.

Question 20

The ability to make rapid judgments about strangers on the basis of very limited information is probably an evolved characteristic that conferred survival value in our evolutionary past.

Accepted Answer

Making rapid judgments about strangers based on limited information could have helped our ancestors identify potential threats or allies, which could have contributed to their survival in a dangerous environment. This ability is known as "thin-slicing" and has been studied extensively by psychologists.

Quiz 11: Social Psychology