Chapter 12: Social psychology applied to health
NY city police commissioner Wm. Bratton significantly reduced the crime rate by instituting a crime-prevention-
based enforcement policy for even small offenses, in order to create new behavioural patterns.
Social Psychology and the Legal System
**Social Influence and the Legal System
Police interrogations: using social influence to get the truth
Most people prefer that police use inquisitorial approach to interrogate suspects i.e. gather info vs.
adversarial approach i.e. attempt to establish guilt/innocence.
Videotaping interrogations: whatever is the focus of the video will be the focus of attention – research
showed showing suspect only, confessing was seen as more voluntary, harsher sentences
recommended. When interrogator shown, suspect appeared less guilty and confession less voluntary.
Location: preference for threatening locations. Authority of questioner influences interrogation – tends to
reinforce a person’s belief that the questioner is a knowledgeable expert.
Additional aspects of interrogation: how social influence is actually used in such procedures
Methods based on ingratiation – “soft-sell technique”: minimize strength of evidence, seriousness of
charge, blame victim – implicit promise of mild punishment = effective and avoids legal problems
Giving false information to suspect: increases likelihood of false confession and belief in this confession.
Lineups: how subtle social pressure sometimes leads to tragic errors
Lineup – a procedure in which witnesses to a crime are shown several people, one or more of whom
may be suspects in a case, and asked to identify those that they recognise as the person who
committed the crime
Sequential vs. simultaneous lineups: sequential reducing likelihood of making error in identification.
Neutral vs. biased instructions: biased instruction (leading person to believe that the suspect is present)
– social influence – pressure to identify someone – greater likelihood of false identification.
Lineups can be improved by using a “control group” i.e. a blank lineup in which the suspect in not shown
to the witness.
.
Effects of media coverage on perception of defendants
Primacy effect - the tendency for information we receive first to strongly influence our impressions of
others.
People tend to believe the media.
Public opinion, therefore, tends to favour the prosecution and harm the defence.
The greater the amount of pre-trial publicity – the greater the likelihood of jury convicting the accused.
Techniques to assist: Canada restricts media coverage to avoid polluting the jury. Give jury reason to be
suspicious of why evidence was leaked to media (shift attention from content of leaked evidence to
underlying motivation to leak it).
**Social Cognition and the Legal System: why eyewitness testimony is often inaccurate.
Eyewitness testimony – evidence given by a persons who have witnessed a crime – plays an important tole
in many trials.
Sources of error in eyewitness testimony:
Suggestibility – e.g. being asked leading questions – a question intended to elicit a specific response.
Errors in source monitoring – eyewitnesses often attribute their memories to the wrong source e.g.
identifying someone present during a crime as the perpetrator.
The role of emotion – intense emotions tend to exert effects on information processing.
, Time and intervening information – time between witnessing and testifying allows exposure to other info
about the case – all get incorporated into memory – can’t distinguish between what is remembered
and events/experiences having occurred since the crime.
Memory distortion and construction
o Memory construction: development of false memories i.e. memories for events/experiences
that never happened – usually occur due to being “planted” in our minds by words/actions of
others.
o Fuzzy trace theory – a theory suggesting that when we make decisions or judgements, we
often focus on the general idea or gist of info stored in memory and not on the info itself. One
result is that we then remember info consistent with the gist of our real memories even
though it is false.
Increasing eyewitness accuracy
Cognitive interviews – asking eyewitnesses to report everything they remember, possibly from different
perspectives or in different orders.
Building the Science: Munsterberg’s experiment on eyewitnesses – observers of a staged event were
quite inaccurate in their memory of the of the overall gist of the event.
**The Influence of Prejudice and Stereotypes on the Legal System
Characteristics of Defendants and Jurors and how they influence legal proceedings.
African Americans more likely to be convicted of murder and receive death penalty than Caucasians.
Physically attractive, female, high socioeconomic status people = less likely to be convicted of a major
crime. More attractive people - receive lighter sentences and more sympathy from jury.
Females tend to be treated more leniently for some crimes (not assault).
Gender of jurors = important. Men more likely to see sex in sexual assault cases as consensual.
Confirmation bias – jurors, at start of trial have often already made up their minds about guilt/innocence,
then only pay attention to info that is consistent with their initial opinion.
Can the effects of prejudice on legal proceedings be reduced?
Use of jury deliberations can decrease influence of prejudice relating to race and gender.
Social Psychology and Health
Health psychology – a branch of psychology that studies the relations between psychological variables and
health.
Health psychology suggests health and illness are actually determined by a complex interaction among
genetic, psychological and social factors.
**The role of attitudes in personal health: promoting a healthy lifestyle
Levy – people with positive self-perceptions of aging tend to perceive their lives as hopeful and fulfilling
while those with negative self-perceptions of aging tend to die younger.
Individuals’ attitudes and beliefs about aging influence their behaviour and that helped those with
positive beliefs to actually live longer.
Genetic factors play some role in how old you will become.
Environmental factors, lifestyle we adopt, also plays a big role.
**Obesity: a social psychological perspective on a major threat to health.
Factors contributing to obesity:
Genetic factors – tendency to gain weight in times of plenty may be genetic.
Environmental factors – size of food portions has increased.
NY city police commissioner Wm. Bratton significantly reduced the crime rate by instituting a crime-prevention-
based enforcement policy for even small offenses, in order to create new behavioural patterns.
Social Psychology and the Legal System
**Social Influence and the Legal System
Police interrogations: using social influence to get the truth
Most people prefer that police use inquisitorial approach to interrogate suspects i.e. gather info vs.
adversarial approach i.e. attempt to establish guilt/innocence.
Videotaping interrogations: whatever is the focus of the video will be the focus of attention – research
showed showing suspect only, confessing was seen as more voluntary, harsher sentences
recommended. When interrogator shown, suspect appeared less guilty and confession less voluntary.
Location: preference for threatening locations. Authority of questioner influences interrogation – tends to
reinforce a person’s belief that the questioner is a knowledgeable expert.
Additional aspects of interrogation: how social influence is actually used in such procedures
Methods based on ingratiation – “soft-sell technique”: minimize strength of evidence, seriousness of
charge, blame victim – implicit promise of mild punishment = effective and avoids legal problems
Giving false information to suspect: increases likelihood of false confession and belief in this confession.
Lineups: how subtle social pressure sometimes leads to tragic errors
Lineup – a procedure in which witnesses to a crime are shown several people, one or more of whom
may be suspects in a case, and asked to identify those that they recognise as the person who
committed the crime
Sequential vs. simultaneous lineups: sequential reducing likelihood of making error in identification.
Neutral vs. biased instructions: biased instruction (leading person to believe that the suspect is present)
– social influence – pressure to identify someone – greater likelihood of false identification.
Lineups can be improved by using a “control group” i.e. a blank lineup in which the suspect in not shown
to the witness.
.
Effects of media coverage on perception of defendants
Primacy effect - the tendency for information we receive first to strongly influence our impressions of
others.
People tend to believe the media.
Public opinion, therefore, tends to favour the prosecution and harm the defence.
The greater the amount of pre-trial publicity – the greater the likelihood of jury convicting the accused.
Techniques to assist: Canada restricts media coverage to avoid polluting the jury. Give jury reason to be
suspicious of why evidence was leaked to media (shift attention from content of leaked evidence to
underlying motivation to leak it).
**Social Cognition and the Legal System: why eyewitness testimony is often inaccurate.
Eyewitness testimony – evidence given by a persons who have witnessed a crime – plays an important tole
in many trials.
Sources of error in eyewitness testimony:
Suggestibility – e.g. being asked leading questions – a question intended to elicit a specific response.
Errors in source monitoring – eyewitnesses often attribute their memories to the wrong source e.g.
identifying someone present during a crime as the perpetrator.
The role of emotion – intense emotions tend to exert effects on information processing.
, Time and intervening information – time between witnessing and testifying allows exposure to other info
about the case – all get incorporated into memory – can’t distinguish between what is remembered
and events/experiences having occurred since the crime.
Memory distortion and construction
o Memory construction: development of false memories i.e. memories for events/experiences
that never happened – usually occur due to being “planted” in our minds by words/actions of
others.
o Fuzzy trace theory – a theory suggesting that when we make decisions or judgements, we
often focus on the general idea or gist of info stored in memory and not on the info itself. One
result is that we then remember info consistent with the gist of our real memories even
though it is false.
Increasing eyewitness accuracy
Cognitive interviews – asking eyewitnesses to report everything they remember, possibly from different
perspectives or in different orders.
Building the Science: Munsterberg’s experiment on eyewitnesses – observers of a staged event were
quite inaccurate in their memory of the of the overall gist of the event.
**The Influence of Prejudice and Stereotypes on the Legal System
Characteristics of Defendants and Jurors and how they influence legal proceedings.
African Americans more likely to be convicted of murder and receive death penalty than Caucasians.
Physically attractive, female, high socioeconomic status people = less likely to be convicted of a major
crime. More attractive people - receive lighter sentences and more sympathy from jury.
Females tend to be treated more leniently for some crimes (not assault).
Gender of jurors = important. Men more likely to see sex in sexual assault cases as consensual.
Confirmation bias – jurors, at start of trial have often already made up their minds about guilt/innocence,
then only pay attention to info that is consistent with their initial opinion.
Can the effects of prejudice on legal proceedings be reduced?
Use of jury deliberations can decrease influence of prejudice relating to race and gender.
Social Psychology and Health
Health psychology – a branch of psychology that studies the relations between psychological variables and
health.
Health psychology suggests health and illness are actually determined by a complex interaction among
genetic, psychological and social factors.
**The role of attitudes in personal health: promoting a healthy lifestyle
Levy – people with positive self-perceptions of aging tend to perceive their lives as hopeful and fulfilling
while those with negative self-perceptions of aging tend to die younger.
Individuals’ attitudes and beliefs about aging influence their behaviour and that helped those with
positive beliefs to actually live longer.
Genetic factors play some role in how old you will become.
Environmental factors, lifestyle we adopt, also plays a big role.
**Obesity: a social psychological perspective on a major threat to health.
Factors contributing to obesity:
Genetic factors – tendency to gain weight in times of plenty may be genetic.
Environmental factors – size of food portions has increased.
