We care about what others think of us, and our romantic relationships, too. The support we receive from our social networks, such as family and friends, influences the quality of our relationships. Continue reading
Posted in Attitudes, Psychology, Relationships, Social Psychology
Tagged attachment, dating, relationship, romantic relationships
We “lie” to ourselves as we like our thoughts to be consonant.
The cognitive dissonance theory was coined by Leon Festinger (1957). Festinger suggests that our thoughts can show three relationships Continue reading
Posted in Attitudes, Psychology, Social Psychology
Tagged attitudes, justification, leon festinger, rationalization
Why is it that some people hold extreme political or religious attitudes? First, we need to understand the nature of such attitudes. Here are two quotes, which I think, emphasize it:
Prejudices might originate from an innate “behavioral immune system”.
Prejudices have plausibly existed since the origins of humanity. In an evolutionary sense, prejudices might have solved an adaptive problem. Continue reading
Posted in Attitudes, Behaviors, Evolutionary Psychology, Social Psychology
Tagged evolution, instincts, prejudices
Father and son. How do they look alike?
This article considers a strongly disputed topic in social psychology: the formation of attitudes, prejudices, and stereotypes. A new meta-analysis by Degner & Dalege (2013) synthesizes the evidence for the past 60 years, and it is a rather exhaustive analysis that includes 131 studies of over 45,000 parent-child dyads. Continue reading
Have you ever wondered how people can live with themselves after having done something terrible to others? Read on.
It seems like most people are capable of doing harm to others, as shown in Stanley Milgram’s obedience experiment. However, self-reports have also revealed that obeying to hurt others may lead to feelings of anxiety, guilt and agitation. Continue reading
Hi! I’m Simon Moesgaard, a psychologist from Denmark, and this is my blog about psychology and mental health. Take a look.
