Question: Written Assignment
1. Your friend Alejandra has raved about a new movie that she saw in the theater. You see ads for it online and you are thinking about buying tickets to see it. However, you can't get a very good sense of the movie from the little information provided in the ads and trailers. With movie ticket prices being so high these days, and money being tight, you want to choose a movie carefully. Plus, you usually buy snacks at the theater, ever since that one time you burned yourself trying to smuggle in hot chicken fingers in your sweatshirt. What else would you want to know before taking Alejandra up on her recommendation? Use Kelley's consensus, consistency, and distinctiveness dimensions to determine if this movie is worth taking out a small bank loan to see in the theater.
2. Imagine the following situation: you are driving along a local highway when your car has a flat tire. It is ten miles to the next exit, so you pull to the side of the road. Your soft, tender hands have never experienced manual labor, so you cannot change the tire yourself. As you stand there waiting for help, you see a good friend drive by without stopping, leaving you stranded. As you continue to stand there, you now fume about why your friend didn't stop and help you. What would you want to know before deciding that your friend isn't your friend after all (i.e., before you make a dispositional attributionandblock him on Facebook forever)? Describe some of the possible explanations for his behavior and relate them to the idea of internal versus external attributions. Indicate how you would feel (emotionally) if each proposed explanationended up being true.
3. How do the ideas of the fundamental attribution error, defensive attributions, and the belief in a just world explain many people's reactions to homeless people?
4. How might belief in a just world affect people's reactions to those who are injured or killed by police officers? How might bias blind spots make it difficult for those who believe that police officers have become increasingly brutal and racist and those who believe that victims of police brutality brought it on themselves to have a productive conversation. How are your own beliefs on this issue influenced by the biases from Chapter 4 (the fundamental attribution error, self-serving attributions, and belief in a just world)? What would thinking beyond those biases look like? For example, instead of blaming victims of police violence, what should that person consider instead? What about someone who believes police violence is due to individual officers who are especially cruel?