Bystander Effect Definition Individuals who see or hear an emergency (but are otherwise uninvolved) are called bystanders. The bystander effect describes the phenomenon in which such individuals are less likely to seek help or give assistance when others are present. This does not mean that bystanders are apathetic to the plight of others, for bystanders
Name Letter Effect Definition The name letter effect refers to people’s tendency to favor the letters that are included in their names more than letters that are not in their names. In plain terms, people like the letters in their names better than they like the rest of the alphabet. Because the link between name
Similarity-Attraction Effect Definition The similarity-attraction effect refers to the widespread tendency of people to be attracted to others who are similar to themselves in important respects. Attraction means not strictly physical attraction but, rather, liking for or wanting to be around the person. Many different dimensions of similarity have been studied, in both friendship and
The “popout” effect refers to the subjective experience of witnesses who report virtually immediate or apparently automatic recognition of the perpetrator of a crime from a photo array or lineup. Researchers have detected this experience among witnesses by asking them to endorse one of several statements about the decision strategy they used when making their
The cross-race effect (CRE, also referred to as the own-race bias or other-race effect) is a facial recognition phenomenon in which individuals show superior performance in identifying faces of their own race when compared with memory for faces of another, less familiar race. Over three decades of research on the CRE suggests a rather robust
Discontinuity Effect Definition The interindividual-intergroup discontinuity effect is the tendency in some settings for relations between groups to be more competitive, or less cooperative, than relations between individuals. Why is this effect referred to as a discontinuity rather than just as a difference? Unpublished research has demonstrated that variation in the number of people in
Ringelmann Effect Definition The Ringelmann effect refers to individuals expending less individual effort on a task when working as part of a group than when working alone. Background and History of the Ringelmann Effect Max Ringelmann was a French agricultural engineer who was interested in examining various aspects related to agricultural efficiency. He was primarily
Halo Effect Definition Halo effect refer to the widespread human tendency in impression formation to assume that once a person possesses some positive or negative characteristic, other as yet unknown qualities will also be positive or negative, in other words, consistent with the existing impression. It seems as if known personal characteristics radiate a positive
Buffering Effect Definition A buffering effect is a process in which a psychosocial resource reduces the impact of life stress on psycho-logical well-being. Having such a resource contributes to adjustment because persons are less affected by negative life events. Social support is a known buffering agent: Persons with high support show less adverse impact from
Hot Hand Effect Definition Many sports fans, commentators, players, and even coaches share a belief that a particular player can for some period of time have the hot hand; that is, be “in the zone,” “on a roll,” “unstoppable,” or “playing their A-game.” The hot hand effect refers to the tendency for people to expect