The web sites listed on this page have been compiled over the past few years by students and the teaching staff of Social Psychology (Psychology 260) at Wesleyan University. Each week corresponds to topics covered in the textbook and lectures during the preceding week.  Table of Contents (click on a topic of interest) Week 1    Research Methods and Social Construction    Self-Esteem and Self-Handicapping Week 2    Social Perception and Misperception    Cognitive Heuristics    Compare Yourself with Others    Atrribution Theory and Biases Week 3    Attitude-Behavior Inconsistency    Cognitive Dissonance Week 4    Gender Roles    Transgender Topics    Deindividuation    Dehumanization    Stanford Prison Experiment Week 5    Animal Obedience/Conformity Cartoons    Political Obedience/Conformity Cartoons    More on Obedience and Conformity Week 6    Using Persuasion Effectively    Persuasion and the Iraq War    Propaganda and Cults    Advertising and Counter-Advertising    Don't Get Smoked    Compliance Techniques    Dealing with Dealers Week 7    Negotiation    Group Dynamics    Evaluation Apprehension and Social Loafing Week 8    Racism, Ethnocentrism, and Stereotyping    Color and Colorism    Racial Biases in Punishment and Justice    Anti-Racism and Prejudice Reduction    Speciesism Week 9    The Language of Prejudice    Sexism and Gender Equality    Heterosexism and Homophobia    Other Links on Prejudice Week 10    Aggression Cartoon Gallery    Research on Media Violence    Other Links on Media Violence    Sexual Violence and Rape    News Stories on Aggression    Other Topics on Aggression Week 11    Interpersonal Attraction    Physical Attractiveness    Love and Relationships    Bystander Intervention    Altruism and Helping    Some Ways to Give Week 12    Clinical Applications and the Barnum Effect Week 13    Terrorism and the War in Iraq    Peace and Conflict Resolution    Climate Change    How to Reduce Climate Change

Week 1: Sites of the Week

Research Methods and Social Construction: Seeing What You Expect to See (try the "Mysterious Rabbit") The Crystal Cabobble (an interactive Flash mind reader) Truth Uncovered: Were They Weapons of Mass Confirmation? A Dangerous Mix: CIA Predictions and Self-Fulfilling Conflicts "Looting" Caption Stirs Storm of Controversy After Hurricane Case Study in Research Design: The T.W.I.N.K.I.E.S. Project Psychic Prediction: You Will Fall Prey to Confirmation Biases Self-Esteem and Self-Handicapping: Tuning Out Low Self-Esteem with Television Get a Boost from the National Association for Self-Esteem Girl Power! A U.S. Government Program to Empower Girls What Others Think: The Down Side of Self-Handicapping

Week 2: Sites of the Week

Social Perception and Misperception: Interpersonal Perception Task: Is the Man in the Video Lying? QuickTime Video Format RealPlayer Video Format Change Blindness in Social Perception: A 500-Pound Gorilla How Often Do People Wearing White Pass the Ball? (Java applet) Misperceiving Friendliness: The Case of Date Rape Contrast Principle Takes to the Big Screen How the Misinformation Effect Can Lead to False Memories of Abuse Cognitive Heuristics: If Only Gay Sex Caused Global Warming... Is the Representativeness Heuristic Deadly to Women? Before You Give Up on Volvos, Visit the Fallacy Files Search Google Scholar for Research on the Availability Heuristic Compare Yourself with Others: Who Me, Overconfident? Take a Self-Test and See Self-Monitoring: Do You Censor What You Say? Assess Your Locus of Control and Attributional Style For Upward Spirits, Try Downward Social Comparison Attribution Theory and Biases: Motoring Down Misattribution Highway Using Attributions to Reduce Littering and Boost Exam Scores An Attributional Mystery: Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

Week 3: Sites of the Week

Attitude-Behavior Inconsistency: 24-Hour Fitness: Survival of the Inconsistent The Price of Non-Discrimination: $20,000 Environmental Movement Hits a Bump in the Road Picking Up the Trash of Wesleyan Tree-Huggers Cognitive Dissonance: Belief Perserverance in Love: Change at a Snail's Pace Why It's Hard to Admit Being Wrong: Elliot Aronson on NPR Cognitive Dissonance: "There's No Success Like Failure" Poof! Cognitive Dissonance Goes Up in Smoke Getting Attitudes to Follow Behavior: "I Pledge Allegiance..." Measure Your Attitude-Behavior Consistency with the Infidelity Test

Week 4: Sites of the Week

Gender Roles: Mattel's Guide to Gender Roles: Barbie versus Hot Wheels The Male Privilege Checklist: A Starter Set of 43 Items FBI's 10 Most Wanted--Notice Any Gender Differences? One Woman's View of the Difference Between Sex and Gender Women of Our Time: A National Portrait Gallery Exhibit GenderWatchers.org (International Gender Organization) Transgender Topics: Moving Beyond the Question "Boy or Girl?" Pediatric Academy Consensus Statement on Intersexuality Hate Crimes Against Transgender and LGB People: Off the Books Other Transgender Resources (from UnderstandingPrejudice.org) Deindividuation: Nude Olympics Strip Deindividuation to Its Basics StopHazing.org: An Anti-Deindividuation Web Site Deindividuation Strikes Wesleyan "Boogie Club" Dancers Woodstock 99: Three Days of Love, Peace, and Rape Dehumanization: A Drought of Humanity: Dehumanization Hits the Sudan Firsthand Accounts of Torture by U.S. Army in Iraq Dehumanization from the German Propaganda Archive Image Gallery of Women Dehumanized in Advertisements Deindividuation and Dehumanization Hit Central Park Stanford Prison Experiment: The Lucifer Effect (Zimbardo's definitive account) Zimbardo: The Movie (social psych to the rescue!) Quite Rage (YouTube trailer of the documentary) Everything You'd Like to Know But Are Afraid to Ask

Week 5: Sites of the Week

Animal Obedience/Conformity Cartoons: How to Really Succeed As a Dog Obedience: A Form of Feline Psychopathology Abe Takes a Vacation Break from Conformity Conformity on the Range, Where the Deer and Antelope Play Political Obedience/Conformity Cartoons: Ain't Gonna Study War No More? A Sheep in Fox's Clothing An Attack of Conformity: Simon Says, "Go To War" Simmons: A Yes-Man Who's Not Afraid to Say "Yes" Non-Conformist Row: "Been There, Done That, Got the T-Shirt" More on Obedience and Conformity: Non-Conformists Union, Local 404: Join Now! Brain's "Social Norm Enforcer" Identified Crimes of Obedience: A Hoax Most Cruel Asch's Conformity Experiment Makes It to YouTube Conformity Versus Change in Sexual Orientation The Milgram Obedience Song: Painful to Hear Crazy Fads from the 1920s Through the 1990s Not Wedded to Norms: The Alternatives to Marriage Project

Week 6: Sites of the Week

Using Persuasion Effectively: Campaign Spots from Joe Lieberman Fear Appeal with Peripheral Cues Attack on Lamont's Level of Experience Endorsements and Norm of Reciprocity Campaign Spots from Ned Lamont Parody of Lieberman's Attack Ads Broken Vows with Sound of Gavel at End Blend of Central and Peripheral Routes The Democratic National Committee Attacking John McCain An Attack Ad Against Thomas Jefferson from 1800 What Nursery Rhymes Sound Like As Attack Ads The Amazing "Send Me A Dollar" Web Site Crafting Persuasive Pro-Environment Messages Artificially Intelligent Computer Seduces Students with Mimicry Persuasion and the Iraq War: White House Report on Iraqi Propaganda Efforts Leaflets Dropped Over Iraq (part of Psychological Operations) The Al-Qaeda/Iraq Connection: Held Together by Duct Tape Is Moore Less? Oscar Winner's Speech Ignites Controversy Propaganda and Cults: Powers of Persuasion: Poster Art from World War II Nazi Propaganda: Presenting Hitler as a Sower of Peace The Cult Indoctrination of Quadrupeds FACTNet: Breaking News on Cults and Mind Control Halloween Hell Houses Use Fear Appeals to Gain Converts Advertising and Counter-Advertising: Presidential Campaign Commercials, 1952-2004 Advertisements We Could Probably Do Without A Real Big Mac Attack: Did Somebody Say McDead? Six Steps to Effective Public Service Announcements Don't Get Smoked: How Bogus Antismoking Campaigns Increase Smoking BADvertising Country, Home of Honest Tobacco Ads Using Posters to Fight Smoking, HIV/AIDS, and More Collection of Anti-Smoking TV Ads from Around the World Compliance Techniques: How to Get Rid of a Telemarketer Influence at Work: What's Your NQ? The Foot-in-Your-Wallet Technique The Power of Norms: "Join the Millions Who..." A Closer Look at Foot-in-the-Door and Door-in-the-Face Dealing with Dealers: How to Beat Car Dealers at Their Own Game Avoiding the Infamous "Yo-Yo" Car Sale Trap Car Dealer Confessions: There's Psychology Under the Hood

Week 7: Sites of the Week

Negotiation: Could Negotiation Have Prevented the Iraq War? An Integrative Solution: The Camp David Accords Getting to Yes: Negotiating Without Giving In Negotiation Tips on How to Buy a Used Car Other Links on Negotiation (from SPN) Group Dynamics: Did "Groupthink" Drive the U.S. to War with Iraq? Senate Report Cites Groupthink on WMD (see p. 18) Documents on the Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb Social Faciliation in Peace Rallies Around the World How Bystanders to Bullying Can Wind Up in Abilene Other Links on Group Behavior (from SPN) Evaluation Apprehension and Social Loafing: Evaluation Apprehension Takes Center Stage Why Do We Choke Under Pressure? Don't Be a Social Loafer -- Vote! Welcome to the Social Phobia/Social Anxiety Association

Week 8: Sites of the Week

Racism, Ethnocentrism, and Stereotyping: More Than Being in the Right Place at the Right Time Test Yourself for Racial Bias: The Implicit Association Test See No Bias: A Washington Post Story on the IAT Can a Black-Sounding Name Affect Job Prospects? Fairness and Acuracy in Reporting: Race and Racism How Illusory Correlation Can Lead to Stereotyping Reaction to Hurricane Katrina Split on Racial Lines Color and Colorism: Colorism and the Paper Bag Test A History of Racism Written in Crayons Tanzania Counts the Cost of "White Skin" Racial Biases in Punishment and Justice: Learn About the Jena 6 in Under 4 Minutes SPSSI Position Statement on the Death Penalty A U.S. Record: 12% of Young Black Men Imprisoned Death Penalty Statistics and Human Rights Education See How Eyewitness Testimony Can Go Wrong Death Row Information for the State of Texas Racial Disparities in the War on Drugs (see here too) U.S. Poll Results on Attitudes Toward Racial Profiling Anti-Racism and Prejudice Reduction: Links on Reducing Prejudice (see Reading Room too) Expert Testimony on Racial Differences in Test Scores Read, Watch, or Listen: Martin Luther King Has a Dream Lesson of a Lifetime: A Smithsonian Article on Jane Elliott Speciesism: Putting Down Animals: A Change in Perspective You Wouldn't Believe the Wacky Dreams Animals Have When Alligator Shoes Are on the Other Foot If You Wouldn't Do This to a Dog, Why Do It to a Fish? Move Beyond the Matrix: Learn About the Meatrix Hard to Swallow: Video Clips on Meat Production Also Hard to Digest: The Effects on Global Warming

Week 9: Sites of the Week

The Language of Prejudice: Preferences for Various Racial and Ethnic Terms Report Suggests That Hispanics Resist Racial Labels National Survey Finds "Hispanic" More Popular Than "Latino" Gallup Asks: Black, African American, or Doesn't Matter? Another Debate: "American Indian" or "Native American"? The Term Oriental: A Dictionary Definition of Bias Sexism and Gender Equality: Measure Your Level of Ambivalent Sexism Links on Sexism from UnderstandingPrejudice.org Take the Gender IAT and See If You Have Hidden Biases The Feminine Critique: A Double-Bind for Women A Person Paper on Purity in Language Sexist Ads: How to See Through the Soft Sell Why Is It Called "Women's Basketball" When Females Play? Heterosexism and Homophobia: Links on Heterosexism from UnderstandingPrejudice.org Boy Scouts Pleased with Exclusion of "Avowed Homosexuals" Scouting for All: An Alternative to the Boy Scouts Malaysia's Morality Police and the Crime of Homosexuality Bill's Story: Portrait of a Bisexual Son's Suicide Daytime Television Gets Its First Lesbian Kiss Other Links on Prejudice: Affirmative Action: Plous in Favor, Bush Opposed Test Your Native IQ: A 10-Item Quiz That May Surprise You U.S. Government Statistics on Hate Crimes Special Registration Rules for Certain U.S. Nonimmigrants Can You Really Be Sure You're Not Fattist? Should Large Passengers Be Required to Buy Two Air Tickets?

Week 10: Sites of the Week

Aggression Cartoon Gallery: Remote Controls: As Dangerous As Handguns? Driving Under the Influence of Testosterone The Right to Bear Arms: A Monument You'll Never See Research on Media Violence: Do Video Games Numb Players to Real-Life Violence? Fifteen-Year Study Links TV Violence to Aggression Violent Video Games May Be More Harmful Than TV Violent Video Games: Myths, Facts, and Unanswered Questions American Academy of Pediatrics on Violence Prevention and TV FTC Report on Marketing Violent Entertainment to Children Exposure to TV Violence Alters Brain Activation in Children Other Links on Media Violence: Killer's Favorite Video Game: "Super Columbine Massacre" 5-Year-Old Imitates TV Wrestling "Piledriver" on Baby MTV Says of Teenage Tragedy, We "Played No Part" California's Governor Takes a Tough Stand on Media Violence Helping Kids Cope with Media Coverage of War and Trauma Sexual Violence and Rape: Beware of Roofies, the "Date Rape" Drug of Choice 10 Things Men Can Do to Prevent Gender Violence A Few Strategies for Fighting Rape Culture Pediatricians Urged to Ask Patients About Rape MenCanStopRape.com: Working to Redefine Strength Recovering from Rape (from Selfhelp Magazine) News Stories on Aggression: Can Steroid Abuse Contribute to Police Brutality? Childhood Hostility Is a Risk Factor for Later Heart Disease Proposed Gun Law Called "Most Stupid Piece of Legislation" Other Topics on Aggression: Who Sells the Most Weapons to Developing Nations? TV Turnoff Network: "Turn off TV, Turn on Life" StopSpanking.com: Why Spanking Doesn't Work Test Yourself: Are You an Aggressive Driver? Thank You for Not Shooting Me While I Bowl If You're Bullied at Work, Visit Bully OnLine for Help Start 'Em Young: Recruitment of Kids to the Gun Culture Relative Deprivation Hits Wesleyan Faculty in the Wallet

Week 11: Sites of the Week

Interpersonal Attraction: A Picture of the Capilano Suspension Bridge When Dog Meets Cat: Similarity in Attitudes Win Out The Power of Proximity Shows Up in "Dormcest" Using the Mere-Exposure Effect to Increase Photo Sales Paula Abdul Flunks Social Psychology Physical Attractiveness: The Matching Hypothesis: Do People Look Like Their Dogs? An Inverted Halo: The Link Between Ugliness and Evil Virtual Attractiveness: When Beauty Is Less Than Skin Deep Asian Americans Criticize Eyelid Surgery Craze Can Hormone Levels Predict the Attractiveness of Women? Love and Relationships: WesMatch: The Post-Post-Modernist Solution to Dating How to Write a Good Personal Advertisement Quantify Your Odds of Success With the Love Calculator Test Your Attachment Style: Are You a Secure Lover? Finishing Touches: Sex and the Senior Citizen APA Supports Legalization of Same-Sex Civil Marriages Read About Same-Sex Marriage in the United States Bystander Intervention: Epilogue to the Killing of Kitty Genovese Kitty Genovese: Why the Popular Account Is Wrong A Hidden Camera Test of the Bystander Effect Man Urinates on Dying Woman While Others Watch David Letterman Interviews New York Subway Hero Ripple Effects: Teaching Young Teens to Intervene Good Samaritan Laws Mandate Bystander Intervention First They Came for the Jews and I Did Not Speak Out... Altruism and Helping: Campus Efforts to Prevent Genocide in the Sudan Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation: "Never Give Up" Random Acts of Kindness Foundation Promotes Altruism MyHero.com: A Directory of Lifesavers and Other Heros A Case Study in Altruism: Mother Teresa Another Case Study in Altruism: International Adoptions Some Ways to Give: Changing the Present, One Gift at a Time TisBest Charity Gift Card: Give a Better World Free Rice: Learn New Words As You Reduce Hunger The Hunger Site: Altruism with the Click of a Mouse Quit Smoking by Helping Others Links on Activism and Volunteerism: The Peace Corps AmeriCorps Habitat for Humanity International Teach for America Big Brothers Big Sisters of America

Week 12: Sites of the Week

Clinical Applications and the Barnum Effect: Personality Test or Barnum Effect? You Be the Judge Software Predicts Murder 40 Times Better Than Caseworker Better Than the Phineas Personality Inventory: Your Horoscope Recieve a Personalized Analysis of What's in Your Name When Moon Gives Way to Moon: Lunar, Looney, or Illusory?

Week 13: Sites of the Week

Terrorism and the War in Iraq: IraqTheVote.org: A Practical, Peaceful Way to End the War Iraq and the Danger of Psychological Entrapment Terrorism: Perspectives from the Behavioral and Social Sciences GAO Report: Violence "Remains High" After Military Surge The White House Strategy for Victory in Iraq Was Iraq an Ally of Al-Qaeda? Did It Have WMD? Radio Hoax Exposes Anti-Muslim Sentiment in U.S. More Links on the Psychology of Terrorism Peace and Conflict Resolution: Social Psychology Network Links on Peace Psychology Try Your Hand at the Prisoners' Dilemma The Conflict Map: An Overview of 20th Century War Urban Sprawl: A Tragedy of the Commons File an Online Claim with the National Arbitration Forum Climate Change: Is There Diffusion of Responsibility for Climate Change? An Inconvenient Future: New York Under 20 Feet of Water What the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Says What the Pew Center on Global Climate Change Says What the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Says How to Reduce Climate Change: We Can Solve the Climate Crisis Shrink Your Methane Footprint, Not Just CO2 Join the Virtual March to Stop Global Warming Help Your School Focus the Nation on Global Warming Buy from Companies That Care About Climate Change

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