Page 453 - The Social Animal

Glossary 435

judgmental heuristics: mental shortcuts people use to make judgments
quickly and efficiently
justification of effort: the tendency for individuals to increase their liking
for something they have worked hard to attain
lowballing: an unscrupulous strategy whereby a salesperson induces a cus-
tomer to agree to purchase a product at a very low cost, subsequently claims
it was an error, and then raises the price; frequently the customer will agree
to make the purchase at the inflated price
minimum group paradigm: the formation of meaningless groups by group-
ing strangers on the basis of trivial criteria; minimal group members still dis-
play ingroup biases
mundane realism: the extent to which an experiment is similar to situations
encountered in everyday life
opinion: that which is held to be true (without evaluation or emotion)
outgroup: a group with which an individual does not identify
passionate love: the feeling of intense longing, accompanied by physiologi-
cal arousal, for another person; when our passionate love is reciprocated, we
feel great fulfillment and ecstasy, but when it is not, we feel sadness and de-
spair
peripheral route to persuasion: a situation in which people do not elabo-
rate on the arguments in a persuasive communication but are instead swayed
by peripheral cues
pratfall effect: a phenomenon whereby some evidence of fallibility increases
the attractiveness of a nearly perfect person
prejudice: a hostile or negative attitude toward a distinguishable group of
people based solely on their membership in that group
primacy effect: under some specifiable conditions, the first argument you
hear will be particularly effective
priming: a procedure based on the notion that ideas that have been recently
encountered or frequently activated are more likely to come to mind and
thus will be used in interpreting social events
proximity: one of the major factors determining whether we like or love
someone is their physical proximity; it is more likely that we will fall in love
with someone who lives in or near our town, or attends our university, than
with someone who lives far away
random assignment: the process whereby all participants have an equal
chance of taking part in any condition of an experiment; through random