32 checked facts

Social psychology

Everything on this site about social psychology — each one naming the study behind it.

You feel an unconscious pressure to justify social fairness.
People consistently defend the legitimacy of the status quo to maintain psychological stability and a sense of control…
You assume people are consistent even when they are not.
The 'Correspondence Bias' leads you to attribute behavior to personality rather than the situation.…
You judge people by their actions, but yourself by intent.
Research suggests the actor-observer asymmetry is highly context-dependent rather than a universal cognitive bias.…
The faster your city, the less likely you are to help.
A 1999 study of 31 cities found a correlation between an aggregate 'pace of life' index—which included walking speed, …
You subconsciously shift your persona for every setting.
Individuals who score high in self-monitoring intentionally adjust their behavior to match the expectations of their i…
You assume that people act according to their nature.
The correspondence bias is the tendency to explain behavior as a function of personality rather than the situational c…
You are more likely to lie when the incentive is small.
Research indicates that the level of dishonesty is largely independent of the magnitude of the reward.…
You feel worse when your friend succeeds.
Self-evaluation maintenance theory explains why your self-esteem drops when a close friend performs exceptionally well…
You overestimate how clearly your feelings show to others.
In a 1998 study, individuals consistently rated their internal anxiety as being significantly more visible to observer…
You derive your self-worth by comparing yourself to peers.
Social comparison theory posits that you evaluate your own abilities and opinions by comparing them to others.…
A tiny, unsolicited gift alters your future decision-making process.
The reciprocity norm creates an internal discomfort that compels you to repay favors.…
You subconsciously blame victims to preserve your sense of safety.
The just-world hypothesis suggests people blame victims to believe the world is inherently fair.…
You assume others see your internal nerves clearly.
People underestimate their ability to conceal their internal emotional states.…
You mistake others' circumstances for their personality traits.
The fundamental attribution error describes your tendency to blame others' actions on character rather than the enviro…
A single positive trait tricks you into seeing perfection.
A 1920 study found that when soldiers were rated high in one physical area, they were systematically rated high in int…
You view strangers as more similar than they are.
Outgroup homogeneity is the tendency to perceive members of other groups as uniform.…
You judge the actions of your group more leniently.
When a member of your own group fails, you attribute it to bad luck; when an outsider fails, you attribute it to their…
You judge a stranger's intelligence by their physical attractiveness.
The halo effect is a cognitive bias where one trait influences the overall perception of a person, which Thorndike fir…
Your chances of success rise after a blatant refusal.
The door-in-the-face technique demonstrates that you are more likely to agree to a small request after rejecting a lar…
One visible flaw blinds you to everything else.
The horns effect is the negative manifestation of the halo effect, a phenomenon first described by Edward Thorndike in…
You subconsciously blame victims to preserve your sense of order.
The just-world hypothesis is the tendency to believe that people get what they deserve, even in cases of random misfor…
You perform better around others on simple tasks.
A 1965 study demonstrated that the mere presence of others increases the likelihood of your dominant response.…
You only notice your own effort in group work.
When people are asked to estimate their contribution to a shared task, the sum of their estimates consistently exceeds…
You think others are more similar than they are.
Individuals consistently perceive members of their own group as highly diverse, while viewing outsiders as a uniform, …
You interpret neutral social interactions as deliberate attacks.
A 1980 study found that highly aggressive individuals are significantly more likely to assume others act with harmful …
The presence of others makes you less likely to act.
A 1968 study found that individuals are significantly less likely to intervene in an emergency when they believe other…
You assign positive character traits based on physical appearance.
A 1920 study by Edward Thorndike identified a general 'halo effect' in human judgment, where an overall positive impre…
You believe you see the world exactly as it is.
The study conducted by Pronin, Lin, and Ross on the bias blind spot was published in 2002.…
You assume a person's appearance reveals their inner character.
A single positive trait leads people to assume other unrelated positive qualities exist.…
You blame the victim to feel safer yourself.
People often assume that victims of misfortune deserve their fate to maintain a belief in a just world.…
You exert less effort when you are not alone.
A 1913 study found that individuals pulling on a rope in a group exert less force than when pulling individually.…
We assume new acquaintances like us less than they do.
In a 2018 study, participants consistently underestimated how much their conversation partners liked them.…