BAPSY Social Psychology 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Robert Cialdini's principle of 'scarcity' as a tool of influence works primarily because:
- Rare things are objectively more valuable
- People desire things more when they are less available (Correct answer)
- Scarcity signals quality to consumers
- People enjoy exclusivity for its own sake
Correct answer: People desire things more when they are less available
Scarcity triggers psychological reactance — the perception that freedom to obtain something is threatened increases its desirability.
Question 2: The 'foot-in-the-door' technique achieves compliance with a large request by first securing agreement to:
- A very large request
- A small, reasonable request (Correct answer)
- An ambiguous request
- A request from a different domain
Correct answer: A small, reasonable request
Agreeing to a small initial request shifts self-perception toward seeing oneself as cooperative, increasing compliance with larger follow-up requests.
Question 3: Leon Festinger's concept of social comparison theory proposes that we evaluate our opinions and abilities by comparing ourselves to:
- Idealized media figures
- Similar others (Correct answer)
- Our past selves
- Objective standards
Correct answer: Similar others
Festinger argued that in the absence of objective criteria, people turn to similar others as a benchmark for self-evaluation.
Question 4: Which of the following is an example of the 'door-in-the-face' compliance technique?
- Asking for $5 after someone agreed to lend $1
- Asking someone to volunteer 40 hours per week, then settling for 2 hours (Correct answer)
- Requesting a favor and immediately justifying it
- Offering a gift before making a request
Correct answer: Asking someone to volunteer 40 hours per week, then settling for 2 hours
Door-in-the-face works by making a large request first, then retreating to a smaller target request that seems reasonable by comparison.
Question 5: Stereotype threat, as described by Claude Steele, refers to the risk of:
- Being physically threatened due to one's group membership
- Confirming a negative stereotype about one's group through performance (Correct answer)
- Developing negative stereotypes about out-groups
- Encountering stereotyped media representations
Correct answer: Confirming a negative stereotype about one's group through performance
Stereotype threat occurs when awareness of a negative group stereotype creates anxiety that impairs performance on tasks relevant to that stereotype.
Question 6: The 'mere exposure effect' in social psychology refers to the finding that:
- Repeated exposure to violent media increases aggression
- Familiarity with a stimulus increases liking for it (Correct answer)
- Exposure to persuasive messages always changes attitudes
- People are attracted to novel, unfamiliar stimuli
Correct answer: Familiarity with a stimulus increases liking for it
Robert Zajonc demonstrated that simply being exposed to a stimulus repeatedly tends to increase positive affect toward it.
Question 7: According to terror management theory, thoughts of mortality increase people's defense of their:
- Personal finances
- Cultural worldviews (Correct answer)
- Physical health behaviors
- Social media presence
Correct answer: Cultural worldviews
Terror management theory holds that cultural worldviews provide symbolic immortality, so mortality salience intensifies their defense as a buffer against death anxiety.
BAPSY Social Psychology 3
Robert Cialdini's principle of 'scarcity' as a tool of influence works primarily because: