PSYC1607 Social Psychology

What are they doing, in general terms? (Introduction)

They did two experiments on social influence and how strong its effects are. The first one was in a laboratory and the second on was in a Dictator game. They are focused on decentralized third-party punishment that is occurring withing relationships among citizen/peers rather than between legal systems of the state. 

Why are they doing it? (Introduction)

They are doing it to prove that social influence is a huge driver of agents’ third-party punishments and their decisions. To also understand the link between social influence and third-party punishment. And why they are important to understand. To show evidence that the effects that social influence has on third party punishments has important implication for social preference theories.
How did they do it? (Methods)

By measuring social influence using a framework of a modified dictator game using third party punishment. They took information on peers’ punishment decisions and combined two possible directions in which social influence affects behavior- the “need to be right” and the “need to be liked” by others. The dictator game had three possible roles: first, a receiver (participant A), Second, a dictator (participant B) and Third, a third-party (participant C). the participants did not know which role had been giving to then until when the experiment came to an end.

What did they find? (Results and Discussion)

They found that the effects of social influence are definitely higher when compliance with standards indicate increasing individual punishment. They found that the addition of two things in particular does not change participants’ third-party punishment decisions, the addition of the informational social influence treatment to the normative social influence component, 

Why does it matter? (Discussion)

It matters because human organizations and societies need enforcing mechanisms that help keep individuals from anti-social behaviors. It is also important because due to the recent uprise in the use of decentralized interventions policies which calls for a deeper understanding of the way of third-party punishment. It shows how effective social influence is and how it intensifies third party punishment.

Issue(s) raised, limitations or concerns? (Discussion)

It showed important consequences on the achievability of social influence-based policies that particularly target third-party punishment. Social influence effects are higher /stronger when individual peers are punished more.
Norm-abiding theories are best in explaining the findings.

What are they doing, in general terms? (Introduction)

This article shows a new perspective to prevention of sexual violence on college and university campuses in the US
It shows issues regarding sexual Assault

Why are they doing it? (Introduction)
 They did it to show the pros and cons of if colleges and universities got more involved in sexual assault issues and its preventions.

How did they do it? (Methods)

By conducting 4 thought experiments on possible strategies on the prevention of sexual assault based on 
specialists and students that deal with sexual assault prevention, and “personal experience with campus administrators” (and also reviewing of previous research)
Experiment 1: “What if Campuses Stopped Investing in Sexual Assault Prevention and Invested in Fighting Structural Oppression Instead?”
Experiment 2: “What if the Mission to Change Social Norms Was Not Limited to Campus, but Aimed at the Macro Level?”
Experiment 3: “What if Sexual Assault Prevention Experts Were Trained in Consent and Pleasure Related to Kink, Anal Sex, Group Sex and Other Increasingly Popular Sexual Behaviors?”
Experiment 4: What if Colleges and Universities Provided on-Campus Education and Counseling Options for People Who Perpetrate Sexual Assault?What did they find? (Results and Discussion)

They found that the best idea on the prevention of sexual assault on campus is to educate specialists preventing sexual assault in order for them to be able to give proper information about consent on any type of sexual activity and also the testing the competence of education for sexual assault perpetrators. 

Why does it matter? (Discussion)

It matters because there are students in colleges and universities that have experienced sexual assaults, and this has been an issue that has not fully come to a halt. Students are getting sexually assaulted by their peers and even professors. And to be honest ignorance has been a huge part of it. Issue(s) raised, limitations or concerns? (Discussion)

All though experiments are treated as conjecture, a presumption. Better results might come from group thought experiments.
Some places have already criticized sexual assault prevention programs because they acknowledge the very existence of same sex sexuality and kinks related to it.What are they doing, in general terms? (Introduction)

Their research investigated the convincing impact of social norms and its power on behavior. It has to do with showing how individuals in a situation underestimate the extent their actions are determined by the actions of others similar to theirs.

Why are they doing it? (Introduction)
To investigate the awareness of participants on the causal relationship between individual behavior and social norms and to better understand the psychology of conserving energy and how naïve it is. To know previous beliefs people held about the reason why they conserve energy.
How did they do it? (Methods)

By conducting two studies. The first was a large-scale telephone survey exploring people’s (California resident’s) reason for engaging in conservation of energy and factors that influenced people’s behavior of conservation. The second experiment was a field study where they extended previously existing research on normative social influence, this was done by evaluating the awareness of participants and the extent by which their behavior is affected by different messages, this provided a direct test of the causal explanations obtained from the participants in study 1 and its accuracy. 

What did they find? (Results and Discussion)

They found that people hardly believe that other people’s behavior would have an Impact on their own behavior towards conservation and that one of the main reasons people see themselves as conserving is because  they believe it provides a “happy future for children and it also saves the environment we currently live in.

Why does it matter? (Discussion)

It matters because Normative social influence had a more direct impact on the conservation behavior of residents, despite the nature of conserving energy at home and how private it is,

Issue(s) raised, limitations or concerns? (Discussion)

A limitation was the use of single item measures. The Implicit theories of energy conservation related motives were wrong.
There isn’t a lot of evidence-based programs for those individuals who are sexual assault perpetrators on campus.

What are they doing, in general terms? (Introduction)

They are examining the effect of imprisonment as punishment to actions of violent crime within individuals on the policy margin between probation sentences and prison sentences.

Why are they doing it? (Introduction)

Because violence plays a central role in decisions of policies related to the criminal justice system. And also to see if imprisonment can completely stop or at least reduce future violence.
How did they do it? (Methods)

They used a natural form of experiment with a longitudinal cohort design of the number of individuals that were sentenced for crimes between 2003 and 2006 in Michigan, USA, and used that to keep track of their convictions for violent crime in 2015 June. They use the 2SLS regression models that had judges that were assigned at random (as the individual variables) to estimate the effects of imprisonment against probation on future crimes.

What did they find? (Results and Discussion)

They found that violent crimes came at an interval of 1, 3, and 5 years after the start of the risk period by using up to 2 separate ways of estimating when the risk period began.
They found that imprisonment is not very effective in the long run mediation for the prevention on violence for the individuals in the policy margin (prison and probation).

Why does it matter? (Discussion)

It is important because imprisonment itself has a huge part in reducing violence (short term). Its like a cognitive process, majority would not want to commit the same actions they were punished for, but there is still a minority that does. 

Issue(s) raised, limitations or concerns? (Discussion)

First limitation of this study is it cannot be generalized because all together the results came from USA, just one state from it
The estimates of the results are only applicable to people that belong in the policy margin.