Page 452 - The Social Animal

434 Glossary

hostile sexism: holding stereotypically negative views of women—for exam-
ple, that women are less intelligent than men
hydraulic theory: the theory that unexpressed emotions build up pressure
and must be expressed to relieve that pressure
hypocrisy: an aspect of cognitive dissonance brought about by confronting in-
dividuals with the discrepancy between what they practice and what they preach
identification: a response to social influence brought about by an individ-
ual’s desire to be like the influencer

illusory correlation: a tendency to see relationships or correlations between
events that are actually unrelated

ingroup: the group with which an individual identifies and feels a belong-
ing to
ingroup favoritism: positive feelings and special treatment for people we have
defined as being part of our ingroup, and negative feelings and unfair treatment
for others simply because we have defined them as being in the outgroup
independent variable: the variable an experimenter changes or varies to see
if it has an effect on some other variable; this is the variable the researcher
predicts will cause a change in some other variable
information; as in informational social influence: the influence of other
people that leads us to conform because we see them as a source of informa-
tion to guide our behavior; we conform because we believe that others’ inter-
pretation of an ambiguous situation is more correct than ours
inoculation effect: the process of making people immune to attempts to
change their attitudes by initially exposing them to small doses of the argu-
ments against their position
instrumental aggression: aggression as a means to some goal other than
causing pain

insufficient punishment: the dissonance aroused when individuals lack suf-
ficient external justification for having resisted a desired activity or object,
usually resulting in their devaluing that activity or object
internal justification: the reduction of dissonance by changing something
about oneself (e.g., one’s attitude or behavior)

internalization: a response to social influence brought about by an individ-
ual’s desire to be right
jigsaw technique: a classroom structure designed to reduce prejudice and
raise the self-esteem of children by placing them in small, racially-mixed, co-
operative groups