13 psychological effects that change the understanding of our psyche

Human life is very complex and multifaceted. And if we consider it from a purely psychological point of view, even more so. Each person has only his own unique traits and qualities, inner world, mental organization and specific mental properties.

People communicate with other people and interact with society every day, engage in some activity, perform certain functions and achieve results. And often, observing the process of life, you can notice certain patterns in the life of a person and society - socio-psychological phenomena that characterize the peculiarities of relationships between people. It is these patterns that the presented material is devoted to.

In this article we will talk about what psychological effects are and how they are reflected in human life and society. We will consider various features of the impact of psychological effects through interpersonal communication and mass communication. We will also learn about many effects of perception that manifest themselves in communication, work, gaming and other areas of people’s lives.

So, what is this phenomenon - psychological effects?

What are the psychological effects?

Psychological effects (socio-psychological effects) are stable and easily detectable patterns that reflect the interpersonal characteristics of people’s relationships in society and reveal the features of those processes that reflect the parameters of their communication and interaction. Simply put, psychological effects are frequently repeated phenomena that occur during human communication and human interaction with society.

Based on psychological effects, many specialists build their theories and conclusions, and ordinary people, even without special knowledge, can draw their own conclusions and identify interesting features in the life of an individual, groups of people and society as a whole. These phenomena are quite often observed in everyday life. Knowledge about psychological effects allows us to better understand the nature of man and the characteristics of his psyche. And the application of this knowledge in practice contributes to self-development, personal growth, improving relationships with others and improving the quality of life.

Below we give examples of the most famous and common psychological effects:

1. Placebo effect
2. Veblen effect
3. Zeigarnik effect
4. Cold reading
5. Pygmalion effect
6. Barnum effect/Forer effect
7. Audience effect
8. Sequence effect
9. Hawthorne effect
10. Doctor Fox Effect
11. First impression effect
12. Bystander effect
13. Halo effect

1

Placebo effect

In general, the term “placebo” refers to any substance that does not have medicinal properties, but is used as such. And the healing effect caused by this substance is associated with the patient’s belief that he is not taking a “dummy”, but a real medicine.

In psychology, the placebo effect is a great example of how what we tell people affects their perceptions. After all, the placebo effect is based on suggestion. A person is simply informed that, for example, a certain drug has a certain effect, and he begins to expect this effect. As a result, as a result of suggestion, the expected effect occurs.

You can check how true the information provided is from your own experience. The simplest example: probably one of your family or friends occasionally experiences headaches, stomach discomfort, or something similar. When an illness occurs, tell the person that in a minute you will bring medicine - a tablet dissolved in water.

Let the person wait. Go somewhere, pour a glass of water and stall for time, pretending to add medicine to the water. Then let the person drink this water, reminding once again that the medicine is very good and very soon the condition will return to normal. The probability that this person will feel better after a short period of time is 80%, despite the fact that he drank a glass of ordinary water.

You can learn more about the placebo effect here.

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#3. The paradox of choice

The more choice, the less likely we are to be satisfied with it.

Are you familiar with buyer's remorse? You buy something - and then you start to regret: you could have bought it cheaper, or a different model, or in 2 weeks at a discount. This is the effect of the Paradox of Choice.

Even if our final decision is absolutely correct, we may be unhappy if we have too many choices.

Of course, this has happened to everyone. You have dinner at a restaurant - and then you think that you should have ordered another dish. You buy a refrigerator - and then you think that you could have bought another model.

When there are too many choices, it can be difficult to find satisfaction in the decision.

To prove this paradox, psychologists Mark Lepper and Sheena Iyengar conducted the famous jam experiment. The gourmet store displayed samples of high-quality jam.

The first test had a choice of 6 varieties; in the second - 24 varieties.

The results showed:

• with less choice, 30% of people bought a jar of jam;
• with more - only 3%.

The famous jam experiment, plus a popular book and a TED interview by psychologist Barry Schwartz, have made the paradox of choice one of the most publicized (and reviled) psychological phenomena.

The paradox of choice can be explained by simple logic:

• extra effort when making difficult choices reduces pleasure;
• an excess of alternatives reduces the value of the purchase;
• the selection process becomes too tedious;
• plus the guilt weighs on us - what if our decision turns out to be not the best?

Practical consequence

A simple solution to the paradox of choice: give yourself fewer options.

As Barry Schwartz writes in his book: Focus on what makes you happy and do what gives meaning to your life.

Veblen effect

The Veblen effect is an economically unjustified increased demand for high-price goods. Moreover, the higher the price rises, the higher the demand for goods. This effect is typical mainly for goods that are inaccessible to most people due to their high prices. And this, in turn, emphasizes the social status of the owners of such things.

The Veblen effect is characteristic mainly of people who value the status of goods and are committed to a particular brand or brand. Sometimes people who move one step higher on the social ladder (career growth, more prestigious place of work, etc.) succumb to this effect. Also, the Veblen effect is an indicator that the psyche of people susceptible to it is dominated by the motives of striving for luxury and prestige.

You can clearly see the impact of the Veblen effect on the human psyche simply by paying attention to the people around you. Young people are most susceptible to its influence. Nowadays, there are a huge number of different companies, brands, and trademarks. And each of them has its own army of fans. Pay attention to what young boys and girls buy: shoes and clothes that are completely simple in appearance, but are quite expensive. Or phones that cost many thousands of rubles, although there are many budget analogues.

And, as a rule, the more expensive new items are, the more people will want to buy them. But there’s nothing you can do about it, because this is the influence of fashion. In addition, in our time, unfortunately, there is a widespread misconception: the more expensive a person’s things and the more of them, the more significant his person is. Good advice for parents: instill in your children a healthy attitude towards material values.

More information about the Veblen effect can be found here.

3

Bruce effect

When pregnant female rodents smell an unfamiliar male, they can sometimes terminate their own pregnancy. This effect, first studied by British zoologist Hilda Bruce, has been observed in some mice, voles, lemmings, gelada monkeys and even lions. For some time, the effect was studied only on animals in captivity; for the first time, the effect in the wild was studied by a researcher from the University of Michigan, Eila Roberts. The most important question in both cases is why does a mother kill her own child? Roberts spent five years studying geladas in Ethiopia and collected data on 110 females from 21 different groups.

After testing fecal samples for hormones that firmly confirmed pregnancy, Roberts discovered that where a male had established dominance by taking over a group, a significant number of females aborted their pregnancies. In groups without a dominant male, the birth rate was much higher. The answer lies in the tendency of dominant males to kill baby geladas, they do this because the females will only be able to copulate again after they have raised their babies and the males do not have the patience. Monkeys kill their unborn babies because they know they will die anyway, saving the mother wasted time, effort and money.

Zeigarnik effect

The Zeigarnik effect is a psychological phenomenon in which people tend to remember suddenly interrupted activities and tasks better than those they managed to complete. Data on this effect were obtained experimentally: several experiments were conducted in which schoolchildren and students were participants. During these experiments, subjects completed some tasks and interrupted others. At the end of the experiments, the results were summed up, where the result was always a higher percentage of remembered unfinished tasks than completed ones.

You can even try the Zeigarnik effect on yourself. Take on some task that you have chosen that is not very easy for you and see it through to the end. Take a short break. Then take a piece of paper and a pen and write down all the details of the implementation process. After that, choose another task for yourself. Bring it to half readiness and stop.

After a similar pause, write down all the details of the process. You will notice that what you did not have time to finish is recreated in your memory much easier and more clearly than what you finished. This, so to speak, technique is very practical to use to control the completion of any tasks and increase efficiency. If you get tired doing something, take a break and rest. Afterwards you will be able to continue with renewed vigor, and remembering exactly all the details of what you did.

Interesting data on the Zeigarnik effect can be found at this link.

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#1. The effect of complete failure

Others like you more when you are not perfect.

Don't be afraid to trip or fall in front of your friend - this will only make you more attractive to him. Don't be afraid to tell your friends about your failures - this will make them like you even more.

Mistakes make you more attractive through the “failure effect.”

Those who never make mistakes seem less likeable to us than those who make mistakes. Mistakes make you more human and attractive. And perfection creates distance and an annoying aura of invincibility. Those with shortcomings win.

This theory was tested by psychologist Elliot Aronson. His subjects listened to recordings of people answering a quiz. In some recordings, some participants could be heard dropping a cup of coffee. The results showed that those who spilled coffee were the cutest.

Practical use:

It's okay to make mistakes. Occasional errors are not just acceptable. They can be very helpful. If they are not critical and not too terrible, occasional mistakes will make you more attractive in the eyes of others.

Cold reading

Cold reading refers to a certain set of techniques used by psychics, mediums, fortune tellers, illusionists, etc. Cold reading is used to create the impression that the person using it knows a lot of information about another person, despite a very short acquaintance. And the practitioner is really able to learn a lot.

This is done by analyzing a person’s physical data: gender, age, clothing style, race, religion and sexuality, place of birth, level of education and other data. Basically, practitioners use guesswork: if the stated assumption finds verbal or non-verbal confirmation, then “probing” the person in the same direction continues. If there is no confirmation, then the guesses are discarded and others are found. Skillful cold reading practices can have a very powerful impact on people.

A striking example of cold reading is fortune telling on the street. Many people have found themselves in situations where a person comes up on the street and says that he can tell fortunes, predict the future, remove the evil eye, damage, etc. Stopping only for a minute, the person addressed begins to listen from a complete stranger to the details of his biography, a description of some moments of his life, personal events, and so on. The person is surprised and begins to experience a kind of awe and reverence before the “magician”.

Often, “readers” use their cold reading skills for the purpose of deception and extortion. Therefore, if suddenly a stranger begins to surprise you with his “magical” abilities, do not give in to provocations and remember that, most likely, this person is a very good psychologist and “reads” you like an open book, and all his “magic” is just a honed skill . Be carefull.

You can find out more about cold reading at this link.

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Pygmalion effect

The Pygmalion effect or Rosenthal effect is a unique psychological phenomenon, which consists in the fact that a person, convinced of the reliability of any information, subconsciously behaves in such a way that this information is confirmed. The so-called “prophecy” determines the nature of the activity of the person who believes in it. The Pygmalion effect, by the way, is often confirmed in testing paranormal phenomena: supporters are convinced that these phenomena exist, and opponents are convinced that they do not exist.

The Pygmalion effect is very effective in application. You can try this, for example, on your child, who should soon find himself in a new environment (new class, school, sports section, etc.). As a rule, many children experience discomfort from the fact that they have to communicate with strangers, think about how they will be perceived, are afraid of not being liked, etc.

Tell your child that you have already communicated with the people he will meet, and they are very kind, positive, and friendly towards him, and expect the same attitude in return. Finding yourself in a new environment, but being in a positive mood, your child will involuntarily behave, counting on what you told him. And this, in turn, will fulfill your prophecy. As a result, there is a high probability that the relationship in the new team will be pleasant and will bring pleasure to both your child and those who communicate with him.

Similarities to the Pygmalion effect can be found here.

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Background

Most human activities are collective in nature and carried out in various groups. Social psychologists have identified a number of conditions under which the costs of activity in groups can be minimal or completely absent. For a better understanding of group regulation, it is necessary to systematize knowledge about the processes and conditions of group activity, which will make it possible to more effectively manage processes in the group, improve, intersify the activities of groups, increase their productivity, etc.

People react differently to attention from others. It bothers some, makes them feel embarrassed, blush, stutter, get confused in words and actions, and even experience a state of suffocation due to the fact that their throat closes up from excitement

Others, on the contrary, rejoice, feel a surge of energy and begin to feel more confident and calm if they notice that they are attracting interest.

Such differences can be explained by some stable personality characteristics, for example, self-esteem, type of temperament, etc. But dispositional reasons are not enough to understand this phenomenon.

The same person in some situations, in the presence of outside attention, loses self-control and becomes confused, and in others, on the contrary, experiences self-confidence and joyful excitement. There are people who behave the same in all situations, for example, they are embarrassed. On the contrary, there are people who are not inclined to be embarrassed by the attention of an audience, although here the self-confidence may be feigned and not real.

It is not difficult to distinguish one from the other. If the subject of the audience’s attention is engaged in some kind of action, for example, giving a lecture, building a house or playing sports, then when he feels the attention of the audience, he has a surge of strength, coordination of movements is not impaired, a surge of vigor and inspiration is felt, the quality of his activity or action increases.

If confusion and self-doubt are hidden behind the feigned calmness, then obvious violations of normal ideomotor reactions, impaired coordination of movements are recorded, against the backdrop of an awkward desire to hide manifestations of uncertainty. One of the indicators of a lecturer’s lack of confidence is speaking “on paper,” which indicates professional failure.

From this it is clear that sometimes the presence of other people improves performance, and sometimes worsens it. Floyd Allport, analyzing these phenomena in 1920, called them “audience effects.” He also introduced terms to denote these two terms: improvement of activity in the presence of outside attention was called social facilitation, deterioration of activity in the presence of attention was called social inhibition. Today, both of these concepts are generally accepted.

Despite the fact that Allport gave a name to these terms, he could not answer the question - why and under what conditions does social facilitation and social inhibition arise?

In 1965, the first theoretical justification for the audience effect appeared, proposed by Robert Zajonc

Barnum effect/Forer effect

The Barnum effect (also known as the Forer effect or the subjective confirmation effect) is another unique phenomenon, the meaning of which is that people believe in descriptions of their personality that, in their opinion, were created specifically for them, but in fact are of a general nature and can be applied to other people. The Barnum effect, along with the cold reading discussed above, is often used by various scammers who position themselves as astrologers, palmists, and mediums. They do this for the purpose of deception.

In our daily lives, we can see plenty of evidence of the Barnum effect. For example, you may notice that many people believe in the reliability of horoscopes, astrological forecasts, descriptions of their personality in various tests, etc. Try to write a generalized description of several of your work colleagues (all the same), using the most general descriptions of personality traits, and let them read, saying that each characteristic is written individually for each of them.

Most people would agree with this description of “themselves.” So if someone suddenly tells you a lot of interesting things about you, think about the fact that this is most likely just a set of general phrases, and they are trying to influence you. You yourself can use this technique to win people over, build trusting relationships, and evoke certain emotions and reactions. But remember that you should not abuse this.

You can learn more about the Barnum effect here.

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Physical effects

6. Leidenfrost effect

If you've ever seen how droplets of water behave when dropped onto a very hot frying pan, then you've observed the Leidenfrost effect. The phenomenon is named after the German physician Johann Gottlob Leidenfrost and dates back to 1796.

This effect is a physical phenomenon that occurs when a liquid hits a surface that is significantly hotter than the boiling point of the liquid.

Under these conditions, the liquid creates a protective layer of steam that surrounds it and protects it from rapid boiling.

In the case of a drop of water on a hot frying pan, the water does eventually boil and evaporate, but does so more slowly than if the surface temperature of the pan were above the boiling point but below the Leidenfrost point.

This effect allows water, under certain conditions, to “suspend” above surfaces. This also explains why you can hold liquid nitrogen with a wet finger without getting hurt, or even hold liquid nitrogen in your mouth.

But in fact, you should not experiment, it is very dangerous.

5. Diorama effect

The diorama effect is also known as “diorama illusion” and “pseudo-micro”. When creating this effect, the photographer uses ordinary, life-size objects, but he processes them in such a way that they become like a miniature copy.

This illusion is often called the tilt shift effect.

or tilt shifting.
You can use this photographic technique in digital photography, taken in the usual way, but at the same time make it look like you were working with a special tilt-shift lens.
There are many ways to create "pseudo-micro". But, in essence, they all boil down to a few basic ones:

— The object is filmed from above;

— The edges of the photo are greatly blurred;

— Color saturation increases.

Of course, a lot can be said about this process. There are a large number of textbooks on the Internet with step-by-step guidance.

4. Overview effect

Of all the known, observed, studied psychological effects, the review effect is the least “general”, because only 534 people in the world were in conditions under which this phenomenon was visible.

Astronauts in orbit or on the surface of the Moon, seeing the Earth in its entirety for the first time, report a deep sense of scale, which is called the “overview effect.”

It was invented by writer Frank White, and the effect itself can be very touching, strange, inspiring, emotionally complex, because seeing the Earth in its entirety changes a person’s views and attitude towards reality.

Astronauts return home with a new sense of community, connectedness, the relative meaninglessness of cultural boundaries, and a desire to care for the environment.

Audience effect

The audience effect is the influence exerted on a person's activities by the presence of other people. This influence can be both positive and negative. Thanks to numerous studies, it has been noticed that if a person does an easy and familiar job, then the presence of other people improves his results, because. stimulates the occurrence of correct reactions. If the work is complex and unfamiliar, then the presence of other people worsens the results, stimulating incorrect reactions.

You can notice this effect in your daily life simply by paying attention to yourself and those around you. Athletes often perform better when they know there is an audience watching them. Workers faced with a new type of activity make more mistakes if other people (bosses, colleagues) are watching them.

Similar analogies can be drawn from any area of ​​life. Using this effect, you can learn to influence people and the results of their activities, simply by observing or not observing them. In the same way, you can influence your personal effectiveness.

You can learn more about the audience effect here.

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Situation of co-activity

Other people can act not only as indifferent observers of the activities of one or another individual, but also be involved in the activity themselves. Market traders, while simultaneously trading goods, will, of course, not remain indifferent to each other’s affairs. There will be competition between them. But they will also be spectators for each other, accordingly, their co-activity will have the same effect as the presence of a passive spectator, although taking into account the fact that this action will be strengthened by the competitive relationship between the two individuals.

Competition is one of the powerful incentives to improve quality, improve goods or services in order to surpass a rival. It is thanks to competition that the West has achieved such prosperity in science, economics, industry and other areas. Competition also has its downside: competition helps to increase the speed of activity in exchange for a possible drop in quality and accuracy.

This means that co-activity can become another source of conflict of attention. After all, rivals compare their achievements, and when one lags behind the other, the lagging behind tries, at the expense of quality, to catch up with the one who is ahead, for example, quantitatively.

Thus, co-activity perceived as competition can become another source of attentional conflict. After all, rivals, observing each other’s activities, mutually compare their results. If one succeeds more than the other, then the second, trying to achieve the same or even better results, will lose another parameter.

If the competitor’s activity is no different or even worse, then it may not be perceived as competitive at all. In this case, co-actors have the same influence on each other as ordinary spectators.

Sequence effect

The impact of the sequence effect is that people can respond differently to the same conditions if the sequence of tasks is changed. If, for example, during an experiment, a researcher changes the order of its components, then the subject’s adaptation to this experiment will be worse or better. For this reason, in psychology it is common for scientists to conduct many studies using one most effective scheme.

In people's lives, the consistency effect often influences their activities. The productivity of an organization's employees can increase or decrease depending on how their daily routine is structured. Various activities carried out at work by management can lead to premature fatigue or, conversely, a surge in worker activity.

An athlete training according to a specific program will be able to increase his performance if he varies the components of the training process. Parents can influence their children's emotional and physical well-being throughout the day by creating individual daily routines or developing their own unique approach to parenting. Teachers can improve student performance by changing the learning process in terms of rearranging its individual components, etc.

You can read more about the consistency effect here.

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Group membership effect

The group effect is the second basic group effect. In the history of social psychology, different scientists have studied this effect and called it by different terms.

At the beginning of the 20th century, theories of instincts of social behavior dominated the social sciences. In 1908, the English psychologist M. Daugo, among other instincts, singled out the feeling of belonging to the mass of people. Another English psychologist, W. Trotter, in 1916 tried to explain all mental phenomena with the herd instinct, understanding it as something primary, as the tendency of all homogeneous animals to unite. At the same time, the Italian sociologist V. Pareto described the instinct of constancy as the need to belong to a social group.

Then the 3rd Freud, in his book “Mass Psychology and Analysis of the Human Self,” introduces the concept of “identification” and defines it as a mechanism of emotional attachment to other people. In the 1930s, E. Mayo, in his Hawthorne studies, experimentally confirmed people's need to belong to a group, which he called a feeling of “sociability.” Later, in the 1960s, the founder of humanistic psychology A. Maslow also identified among the needs the need to belong to a group and believed that belonging to a group is the dominant goal of the individual. G. Murray designated this need with the term “affiliation”.

In the late 1970s, English psychologists G. Tejfel and J. Turner studied the process of an individual’s awareness of his membership in a group and called it “group identification.” They created a theory of social identity, the main provisions of which are as follows:

• an individual who identifies himself with a group tries to evaluate it positively, thereby increasing the status of the group and his own self-esteem;
• The cognitive component of group identification consists in a person’s awareness of his membership in a group and is achieved by comparing his group with other groups according to a set of significant characteristics. Thus, group identity is based on cognitive processes of perception (categorization) of the surrounding social world;
• the emotional component of group identity is inseparable from the cognitive component. The emotional side of identity lies in the experience of belonging to a group in the form of various feelings - love or hate, pride or shame;
• The behavioral component appears when a person begins to react to others from the position of his group membership, and not from the position of the individual, from the moment when the differences between his own group and the group of others become noticeable and significant for him.

In essence, group identity is a dispositional formation, that is, an attitude toward belonging to a certain group. Like any other attitude, it consists of three components - cognitive, emotional and behavioral - and regulates the behavior of a person in a group.

French psychologist S. Moscovici hypothesized that human consciousness is built as an identification matrix based on a set of group identities. Based on the ideas of S. Moscovici, we can divide group identities into three groups:

• objective natural identities - personality, gender, age;
• objective social identities - nationality, religion, culture, subculture, citizenship, profession;
• Subjective identities - role characteristics, self-esteem of personal qualities and achievements, etc.

Hawthorne effect

The Hawthorne effect is a phenomenon that manifests itself in the fact that a person’s awareness of his participation in any experiment leads to a distorted, generally better result. A person who takes part in an experiment and knows about it begins to act more efficiently, more focused and diligently than under normal conditions.

A person’s need to feel that he belongs to some special “experimental” group causes a change in his behavior and, accordingly, affects the results of his activities. The Hawthorne effect is also often referred to as a phenomenon in which any innovation leads to improved results, because it makes people enthusiastic.

Using the Hawthorne effect, you can influence the academic performance of students or the productivity of employees in an organization. There may be several options. First, you can tell people that some important experiment is being conducted, based on the results of which improvements will be made in this area. Secondly, you can simply introduce some innovation into the process of activity, as a result of which people will perform their functions with more interest than usual.

But there is another side to this issue: experiments are often carried out in order to obtain data that best corresponds to reality. In this case, people's awareness of the experiment will have a distorting effect on the results. To avoid this, it is necessary to make sure that the participants in the experiment do not know about it, or are not aware of what exactly will be established during the study.

You can find more interesting details about the Hawthorne effect here.

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Attention Conflict Theory

Robert Baron tried to resolve the dispute between N. Cottrell and R. Zajonc in his theory of conflict of attention (Baron R., 1986). He argues that members of their own species act as irritants and distractions for many reasons, including what Zajonc calls the presence of others as a source of arousal. But before the excitement begins, the presence of others, being a distracting factor, will cause a conflict of attention in the individual busy with his work. And this conflict of attention will already lead to arousal, and depending on how the individual manages to cope with it, the arousal will either facilitate or hinder the performance of his activities.

If an individual pays too much attention to the spectators present, then as a result of social inhibition his activity may cease altogether. If, instead, he switches the main focus of attention from the audience to his own activity, then increased arousal will either contribute to a well-mastered reaction, or inhibit the implementation of a poorly mastered reaction.

It turns out that the conflict between attention to one's own activities and attention to other individuals creates tension in the cognitive process, which causes arousal in the individual. It is an obvious fact that most people want to look their best in front of others.

And provided that a person does a simple action that he is used to and has mastered well and does it well, the arousal process caused as a result of a conflict of attention can help improve activity.

But when performing a complex task, things are different. Here, any mistake is accompanied by frustration, which will increase due to the process of excitation caused by the presence of observers. This leads to anxiety, panic, irritation, and, as a consequence, disorganization of activities.

It is important to note that not only outside observers can cause a conflict of attention, but the individual himself is capable of being a spectator for himself, an evaluator of his own activities and, thus, increasing the conflict, and therefore arousal. This addition to the development of the theory of R

Baron was suggested by Kat Rzymanski and Stephen Harkins

Another addition to this theory was made by Brian Mullen Roy Baumeister. This addition notes that analyzing one’s own actions in the process of activity is fraught with a conflict between accuracy and speed of action. When an individual experiences a conflict of attention when performing an action while being observed by spectators, the individual may focus on either accuracy or speed. But preference for one will come at the expense of the other, and performance will deteriorate.

Yet R. Barron's theory of conflict of attention cannot explain some facts. For example, Alexandre Dumas could write his novels anywhere: at home, on the deck of a ship, on a store counter. At the same time, there was no drop in productivity: neither the speed nor the quality of artistic activity fell. He was so passionate about his work that he was not distracted by outside glances. Given the fact that writing novels is a difficult task, the conflict of attention theory is still not comprehensive. There are many other writers who could carry out quick and productive work only in solitude.

Doctor Fox Effect

The Dr. Fox effect is that the expressiveness and impressiveness of the person providing information can be much more important to the recipient than the information itself that he presents. The talent of a storyteller can disguise poor quality, fictitiousness, uselessness and vacuity of information. But at the same time, the person who received this information will be confident that he really learned a lot and learned something.

People who have outstanding acting or speaking skills can have a powerful impact on people with their talent. For example, you are present at a lecture or seminar, and a person speaks to you with charisma, emotionality and the ability to tell a great story. At the same time, the lecturer does not understand the topic at all, and the information component of his speech is at a very low level.

After the event, you will still be under an extremely positive impression, confident that you have received a lot of useful knowledge. This once again tells us that, often, a person’s image, the characteristics of his personality and certain mental properties have a much greater influence on us than what he says. And developing and training your personal storytelling abilities will allow you to support any conversation and influence people, forming only a positive impression of yourself.

You can find out more details about the Dr. Fox effect here.

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Peculiarities

• The presence of an audience activates all the internal forces of the body, enhances the overall drive and improves the motivational aspect;
• The presence of strangers can form in a person a premonition of an assessment situation, which enhances the activation of his own available resources;
• The presence of observers can also act as a distraction. Because attention is distracted (dividing it into several aspects: partly to work, and partly to the process of observing the reactions and actions of others).

Cognitive-motivational model: the presence of an audience, on the one hand, forms the idea of ​​possible consequences in case of future failure (disapproval, censure and condemnation of people around), and on the other hand, focuses on the positive consequences in case of success (success, approval and positive evaluation own abilities). Robert Zajonc also found that an increased level of arousal in a subject can significantly improve (accelerate) the solution of simple and familiar tasks, while performing complex ones - such arousal significantly worsens

This idea is confirmed by a number of studies involving more than 25 thousand subjects.

Robert Zajonc also found that an increased level of arousal in a subject can significantly improve (speed up) the solution of simple and familiar tasks, but such arousal significantly worsens the performance of complex ones. This idea is confirmed by a number of studies involving more than 25 thousand subjects.

First impression effect

The meaning of the first impression effect is that people, when meeting other people and evaluating them, often attach importance to the impression they have in the first minutes of communication. It even happens that during further communication, all subsequent impressions and information appear to be incorrect and are discarded. First impressions can be formed intentionally or unintentionally. The first impression is influenced by such characteristics of a person as his appearance, the way he behaves and speaks, his confidence or lack of self-confidence, his voice, his gaze, etc.

When meeting strangers, pay attention to how you yourself begin to evaluate them: pay attention to the characteristics of the person with whom you are communicating, the emotions that this person evokes in you. Surely you are familiar with this situation when, when meeting with some people whom you recently met, you scroll through your memory the “information” that you received during the first meeting. If you liked a person initially, then you will subsequently treat him with sympathy.

If you didn’t like him, then your attitude towards him will be corresponding. The previously appeared feeling of positivity or negativity will persist even if the opposite behavior of this person occurs in the future. By the way, a person can learn to create a first impression on purpose: to do this, you just need to prepare for meetings with strangers, and in the process of communication, take care of yourself: speech, behavior, appearance, etc.

You can find more interesting features of the first impression effect here.

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Group effects

- these are the mechanisms of group functioning, through which group processes are carried out and group states are achieved. They are means that ensure the integration of individual actions in joint group activities and communication. Here we look at 15 major group effects:

1. The effect of social facilitation (inhibition).
2. The "group membership" effect.
3. Ringelmann effect.
4. "Synergy" effect.
5. The "groupthink" effect.
6. The "conformity" effect.
7. The effect of “fashion” (imitation).
8. "halo" effect.
9. The "group favoritism" effect.
10. The effect of “group egoism”.
11. The "pendulum" effect.
12. "Wave" effect.
13. Pulsar effect.
14. "Boomerang" effect.
15. The "us - them" effect.

The effect of social facilitation.

The effect is associated with an increase in dominant responses in the presence of others.
This effect was discovered by Norman Triplett in 1897. Triplett's experiment consisted of studying the results of the influence of the competition situation on the change in the speed of a cyclist and comparing them with the results obtained in a single race. Triplett found that cyclists clocked better times when they were racing against each other rather than against a stopwatch, and concluded that the presence of others encouraged people to perform more vigorously.
The effect of the presence of others can either increase or decrease a person's motivation. For example, the presence of others reduces the effectiveness of a person’s activity when learning nonsense syllables, going through a maze, and solving complex multiplication problems.

Increased social arousal promotes a dominant response. However, when the solution algorithm is known and the person does not see the correct answer, social arousal, i.e., an unconscious reaction to the presence of others, complicates mental operations (analysis, synthesis, establishing cause-and-effect relationships) and leads to an incorrect decision. A person’s attention switches from solving a problem to the people around him. When solving simple problems, the reaction is innate or well learned. The presence of other people turns out to be a powerful stimulant and contributes to the correct decision.

Social psychologist D. Myers believes that the determining factors of this type of reaction are:

• the number of people around. The impact of others increases with their number. A person becomes much more excited when surrounded by a large number of people;
• relationships of sympathy or antipathy within a group;
• the importance of surrounding people for a person;
• the degree of spatial proximity between people. Social arousal is stronger the closer people are to each other.

The effect of group membership.

The English psychologist McDougall in 1908, in his book “Social Psychology,” among other instincts, identified the feeling of belonging to a group of people.

English psychologists G. Tezfel and J. Turner in the late 70s studied the process of an individual’s awareness of belonging to a group, calling it “group identification.” They created a theory of social identity, the main provisions of which are as follows: a person, identifying himself with a group, strives to evaluate it positively, thus raising the status of the group and his own self-esteem.

Group identity is an attitude toward belonging to a specific group. Like any attitude, it consists of three components - cognitive, emotional and behavioral - and regulates a person’s behavior in a group.

Cognitive

The component consists in a person’s awareness of belonging to a group and is achieved by comparing one’s group with other groups according to a number of significant characteristics. Thus, the basis of group identity is the cognitive processes of cognition (categorization) of the surrounding social world.

Emotional

component is inextricably linked with the cognitive component. The emotional side of identity lies in the experience of belonging to a group in the form of various feelings - love or hate, pride or shame.

Behavioral

The component appears when a person begins to react to other people from the perspective of his group membership, and not from the perspective of an individual, from the moment when the differences between his own and other groups become noticeable and significant for him.

Ringelmann effect.
As the number of members increases, the average individual contribution to the group work decreases.
This effect was discovered by V. Mede’s student Max Ringelman. He found that the collective performance of a group does not exceed half of the sum of the performance of its members, i.e., group members are actually less motivated and put in less effort when performing joint actions than when performing individual actions. M. Ringelman experimented with lifting weights in groups and individuals. It turned out that if the productivity of one person is taken to be 100%, then two people together on average will lift a weight that is not twice as much, but is only 93% of the total weight lifted by two separately working people. The “efficiency factor” of a group of three people will be equal to 85%, and of eight people - only 49%. Ringelman proposed a formula for determining the average individual contribution of participants in groups of different sizes:

C = 100 - 7 * (K-1),

where C is the average individual contribution of participants; K is the number of group members.

B. Latain in 1979 described the phenomenon of a non-interfering witness. After conducting a series of various experiments, he proved that the sheer number of witnesses to a tragic incident prevents any of them from providing assistance. An accident victim is less likely to get help if a large number of people are watching to see them suffer. The following pattern was discovered: the likelihood of receiving help is higher if a person is in a small group, and much lower if he is surrounded by a large number of people.

Factors of social laziness

are:

• the presence of individual responsibility for the results of their work. The higher the responsibility, the lower the social laziness;
• group cohesion and friendships. People in groups mess around less if they are friends rather than strangers;
• group size. The larger the group size, the higher the social laziness;
• cross-cultural differences. Members of collectivistic cultures exhibit less social loafing than members of individualistic cultures;
• gender differences. Women are less socially lazy than men.

"Synergy" effect.

This is the additional intellectual energy that arises when people unite into an integral group and is expressed in a group result that exceeds the sum of individual results, that is, it meets the requirement 1+1>2.
This group effect was studied by V. M. Bekhterev. In his works and the works of M.V. Lange, it was established that a group’s success at work can indeed exceed the individual success of individuals.
This is manifested not only in the intellectual sphere, but also in increasing the observation of people in the group, the accuracy of their perception and assessments, the amount of memory and attention, the effectiveness of solving relatively simple problems that do not require complex and coordinated interaction. However, when solving complex problems, when logic and consistency are necessary, “especially gifted people,” in Bekhterev’s terminology, can exceed the group average achievements.

The effect of “synergy” is most clearly manifested during “brainstorming” - a “brainstorming”, when the group needs to propose many new ideas without critical analysis and logical comprehension.

Groupthink effect.

It is a way of thinking that people acquire in situations where
the search for agreement becomes so dominant in a cohesive group that it begins to overpower a realistic assessment of possible alternative actions.
The discovery of this phenomenon and the invention of the term “groupthink,”
or
“groupthink,” belongs to the American psychologist Irving Janis. The “groupthink” effect occurs in a situation where the criterion of truth is the united opinion of the group, which is opposed to the opinion of an individual. When group members are faced with the threat of disagreement, disputes and conflicts, they try to reduce group cognitive dissonance and eliminate the resulting negative feelings, trying to find a solution that suits everyone, even if this solution is not objective and reasonable from the point of view of each individual member groups.

Typically, for a group involved in such a decision-making strategy, the search for consensus becomes so important that group members voluntarily give up any doubts and opportunities to look at the problem with a new, original, unconventional view. Individual members of the group can even turn into a kind of “thought guards”, quickly recording and harshly punishing any dissent.

Thus, a person is dependent on the group in his contacts with the outside world; in the overwhelming majority of cases, he is inclined to yield to the group. Even a person's sensory information can be distorted by social pressure.

The effect of conformity.

In 1956, Solomon Ash coined the term "conformity" and described the results of his experiments with a dummy group and naive subjects. A group of seven people was asked to participate in an experiment to study the perception of the length of segments. It was necessary to determine which of the three segments drawn on the poster corresponded to the reference one. At the first stage, dummy subjects alone gave, as a rule, the correct answer. At the second stage, the group gathered together and the group members gave a false answer, unknown to the naive subject. With their categorical opinions, the group members exerted pressure on the subject’s opinion. According to Ash, 37% of his subjects listened to the group's opinion and showed conformity. The study of the conformity effect is very popular in social psychology. There are several conditions for the emergence of conformity:

• personality type:
  people with low self-esteem are more susceptible to group pressure than people with high self-esteem;
• group size:
  people show the greatest degree of conformity when they are faced with the unanimous opinion of three or more people;
• group composition:
  conformity increases if, firstly, the group consists of experts, secondly, the group members are significant people for the person, thirdly, the group members belong to the same social environment;
• the trap of “groupthink”
  among people;
• cohesion:
  the greater the degree of cohesion of a group, the more power it has over its members;
• status, authority:
  people with the highest status also have the greatest influence, it is easier for them to exert pressure, they are more often obeyed;
• the presence of an ally:
  if a person defending his opinion or doubting the unanimous opinion of the group is joined by at least one ally who gave the correct answer, then the tendency to submit to group pressure decreases;
• public response:
  People show a higher level of conformity when they have to speak in front of others, and not when they write down their answers in their notebooks. Having expressed an opinion publicly, people, as a rule, continue to adhere to it.

The degree of conformity increases if the task is difficult or the subject feels incompetent.

D. Myers names three reasons for conformist behavior. First, the persistent and stubborn behavior of other people can convince a person that his initial opinion is wrong. Secondly, a group member consciously or unconsciously strives to avoid punishment, reproach, condemnation, or ostracism from the group for disagreement and disobedience. Thirdly, the uncertainty of the situation and the lack of clarity of information contribute to a person’s orientation towards the opinions of other people; they become specific and clear sources of information.

In group interaction, the effect of conformity plays a significant role, since it is one of the mechanisms for making a group decision.

Fashion effect (imitation).

Imitation is one of the main mechanisms of group integration. In the process of group interaction, group members develop common standards and behavioral stereotypes, adherence to which emphasizes and strengthens their membership in the group. In external expression, such stereotyping can even result in a uniform (for example, a military uniform, a businessman’s business suit, a doctor’s white coat), which shows others what social group this or that person belongs to, what norms, rules and stereotypes govern his behavior. People are more likely to follow the example of someone who is similar to them than someone who is unlike them.

The imitation effect underlies any learning and contributes to people’s adaptation to each other, the consistency of their actions, and their preparedness to solve a group problem. It is close to the conformism effect. However, if with conformism the group somehow puts pressure on its member, then with imitation, following group requirements is voluntary.

"halo" effect.

This is
the influence on the content of knowledge, opinions, and personality assessments of a specific attitude that one person has in relation to another.
The “halo” effect, or “halo effect,” is a phenomenon that occurs in people’s perception and evaluation of each other in the process of communication.

The halo effect occurs under the following conditions:

• lack of time.
  A person does not have time to get to know another person in detail and carefully consider his personal qualities or the situation in which he finds himself;
• information overload.
  A person is so overloaded with information about various people that he does not have the opportunity or time to think in detail about each individual;
• the insignificance of another person.
  Accordingly, a vague, indefinite idea of ​​the other, his “halo” arises;
• stereotype of perception.
  It arises on the basis of a generalized idea of ​​a large group of people to which a given person belongs according to certain parameters;
• brightness, originality of personality.
  One personality trait catches the eye of others and pushes all other qualities into the background. Physical attractiveness is often such a characteristic.

In a negative sense, this effect manifests itself in downplaying the merits of the object of perception, which leads to prejudice in relation to it on the part of the perceiver. Prejudice is a specific attitude of subjects based on information about the negative qualities of an object. Such information, as a rule, is not checked for accuracy and reliability, but is taken for granted.

The effect of group favoritism.

This is
the tendency to favor in some way members of one's own group over members of another group.
The effect of group favoritism is based on the “us and them” effect and, as it were, establishes a “line of demarcation” between those people who, according to some criteria, are perceived as “insiders”, and those who, according to the same criteria, are perceived as “strangers”.

Here are some patterns of the mechanism of group favoritism:

• the effect of group favoritism is more pronounced in cases where the criteria for comparison based on the results of activities and the specifics of relationships with other groups are very significant for the group, i.e. when the groups are in a situation of competition with each other;
• group favoritism manifests itself more strongly in relation to those groups whose criteria for comparison with the activities of which are not only significant for the group, but also correspond to its own criteria, i.e. in this case, the possibility of clear, unambiguous comparability of groups arises;
• membership in a group turns out to be more important than interpersonal similarity: people more often prefer “their own”, although they are not similar to themselves in personal qualities, and refuse to prefer “strangers”, although they are similar to them in views, interests, and personal characteristics;
• group members tend to explain the possible success of their group by intra-group factors, and its possible failure by external factors, i.e. if a group achieves success, then it attributes this result to itself (its professionalism, favorable socio-psychological climate, business qualities of leaders and etc.), but if a group fails, then people look for those to blame outside the group and try to shift the blame onto other groups.

The effect of group egoism.

This is the direction of group interests, goals and norms of behavior against the interests, goals and norms of behavior of individual members of a group or the whole society. The goals of the group are achieved by infringing on the interests of its individual members, to the detriment of the interests of society. Group egoism manifests itself when the goals, values ​​of the group, and the stability of its existence become more important than the individual, more significant than the goals of society. Then the individual is usually sacrificed to the integrity of the group and completely submits to its requirements and standards of behavior. The effect of group egoism can play a very negative role in the further life of the group and the fate of its individual members.

The "pendulum" effect.

This is
a cyclic alternation of group emotional states
of a sthenic and asthenic nature. The intensity of manifestation and the temporary extent of emotional states are determined by the conditions and events of their joint activity that are significant for group members.

The experimental-emotional potentials of the group were studied by Russian psychologist A. N. Lutoshkin. Mood depends on several factors:

• time of day and day of the week:
  at the end of the working day and week, the mood of workers worsens as fatigue accumulates;
• features of the psychological structure
  of the group, leadership processes;
• level of labor discipline in the group:
  the higher the labor discipline, the better the mood and emotional state of the group members;
• the existing system of relationships
  in the group, the level of conflict or cohesion: the higher the level of conflict, the worse the mood.

"Wave" effect.

This is
the dissemination of ideas, goals, norms and values ​​in a group.
A new idea arises in the head of one person, he shares it with his immediate circle, who discuss, correct, complement and develop the proposed idea. Then the idea is spread among other members of the group, and a group skit and discussion take place. Like a pebble thrown into water, the idea spreads and embraces more and more people. True, a ripple effect is only possible when a new idea meets the needs and interests of people, and does not contradict them. In the first case, it is understood and developed by people, serving as a stimulus for their activity, and in the second, the ripple effect fades.

Pulsar effect.

This is
a change in group activity depending on various stimuli.
Group activity goes through the cycle “optimal activity necessary for the normal functioning of the group - increase in activity - decline in activity - return to the optimal level of activity.” This cycle can depend both on external stimuli (for example, the group receiving an urgent task) and on internal subjective incentives for activity (for example, the desire of group members to solve a problem). The “pulsar” effect, as a manifestation of group activity, consists of a sharp increase in activity at the beginning of the activity process, then, when the task is solved, in a decline in activity, i.e. people need rest. Then group activity returns to the optimal level necessary for normal, coordinated, uninterrupted work of the group.

"Boomerang" effect.

The “boomerang” effect was first recorded in the activities of mass media. It is as follows: a person who perceives information does not recognize its contents or conclusions as true and continues to adhere to a pre-existing attitude or develops a new value judgment in relation to the event being covered, but this judgment or attitude, as a rule, turns out to be opposite to the attitude that they tried to instill in him through means mass communication. The “boomerang” effect can occur in case of contradictory information, distrust of its source, methods of persuasion, etc.

This effect also manifests itself in direct communication and interaction between people. Often, aggressive actions or words of one person directed against another ultimately turn against the one who committed these actions or uttered these words. For example, in a conflict situation, it is more likely that group members will psychologically be on the side of a calm, balanced person than on the side of his aggressive opponent.

The “us and them” effect.

This is a feeling of belonging to a certain group of people (the “we” effect) and, accordingly, a feeling of detachment from others, demarcation from other groups (the “they” effect).

The effect of group membership includes two more specific effects - the effect of belonging

and
the effect of emotional support
. The first is expressed in the fact that a group member feels involved in the problems, affairs, successes and failures of the group to which he actually belongs or subjectively identifies himself. Based on the effect of involvement, a sense of responsibility for the results of the group’s activities is formed. The effect of emotional support is manifested in the fact that a group member expects emotional support, sympathy, empathy, and help from other group members. It also involves not only emotional, but also real support through the actions of other group members. If such support is not provided to a group member, then his sense of “we” - belonging to the group, involvement in its affairs - is destroyed and a feeling of “they” arises, i.e. a group member who has not received emotional support is able to perceive his group as a group of strangers, not sharing his interests and concerns.

The “we” effect turns out to be an effective psychological mechanism for group functioning. Hyperbolization of the sense of “we” can lead a group to overestimate its capabilities and merits, to separation from other groups, to “group egoism.” At the same time, insufficient development of the sense of “we” leads to the loss of the value-oriented unity of the group.

Yuri Platonov

Bystander effect

The bystander effect (also known as the bystander effect or Genovese syndrome) manifests itself in the fact that people who witness any emergency situations do not try to help those who suffered, remaining on the sidelines. The interesting thing is that the more witnesses, the less likely it is that someone will help, because... each of them believes that someone else should help. And if there is only one eyewitness, then the likelihood of his help increases significantly.

The manifestation of the eyewitness effect is clearly illustrated by various news reports about incidents, which report that people who witnessed the tragic events did not provide any assistance to the victims. Perhaps you yourself could observe situations when, for example, a person became ill in a crowded place and he fell, and the crowd of onlookers nearby simply continued to watch.

Everyone could help, but they thought that someone else would help. In fact, this is a manifestation of indifference and inhumanity. If you suddenly become an eyewitness to some incident, do not think that others will help, do not remain indifferent, but rush to help the victim. Perhaps you will save someone's life. It doesn't matter how others react to the situation. What matters is how you react.

Interesting information about the bystander effect can be found at this link.

13

Sleeper effect

The Sleeper Effect is an often-studied, controversial psychological effect that shows how information influences a person's opinions. Basically, when you see an advertisement with a positive slogan, positive associations arise with it (and with the advertised product). However, after some time, these positive associations disappear and, in the end, there are no associations left with this advertisement at all. But under certain conditions, for example if the message was accompanied by a “discounting cue,” the positive association may remain for a longer time.

The “discounting remark” is usually presented in the form of a source of information that is not credible, or the message comes with a reservation, or the source of information is some kind of unusual. When you see a negative political ad paid for by an opponent, you may initially be suspicious of the message, but after a while you will begin to believe it. Research claims that the sleeper effect is real, but difficult to implement in reality, so for it to be effective, you must strictly follow a strict set of recommendations.