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In: 02. Research Methods, 05. Attitudes, Behavior, & Persuasion, 11. Social Psychology, Intro to Psych, Principles of Social Psych

Unnamed researchers at the University of Zurich created 34 false Reddit accounts that represented diverse demographics, such as “a male rape survivor, a trauma counselor, and a Black person who disagreed with the Black Lives Matter movement” (O’Grady, 2025, p. 570). From these accounts, the researchers posted AI-generated content in the changemyview subreddit. Their hypothesis was that if AI used information about the person who originally posted their point of view, AI could create a more persuasive argument. After 1,500 posts over four months, the researchers reported that their AI-generated posts resulted in more deltas, which are what readers give for posts that were influentialRead More →

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In: 05. Attitudes, Behavior, & Persuasion, 11. Social Psychology, Intro to Psych, Principles of Social Psych

Regardless of which side of the political divide you or your students stand on, here is a real-world example of cognitive dissonance. “[F]rom 2012-2023, about half of all new [electric vehicle] registrations in the U.S. went to the 10% most Democratic counties” (Davis et al., 2025, p. 1). However, an early 2025 poll found that only 12% of Democrats have a favorable opinion of Elon Musk (Kiley & Asheer, 2025), the owner of Tesla, Inc. Those data make it unsurprising that Tesla sales are in down in states that lean politically toward Democrats, such as California (Sriram, 2025). If the politics of a company’s ownerRead More →

Breakfast Bagel

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In: 05. Attitudes, Behavior, & Persuasion, 11. Social Psychology, Intro to Psych, Principles of Social Psych

I enjoy a good bagel, and I enjoy a news story that promises to illustrate several social psychological principles. When the headline reads “The Hole in This Bagel Shop’s Business Model? It’s Too Popular” (Balk, 2024), I’m in. Apollo Bagels in New York City’s West village has become so popular that the lines stretch to 100 feet. And that was before the November 30, 2024 New York Times story. After covering the social psychology chapter in Intro Psych, ask your students to read the story (the link is gifted to you, so your students do not need a New York Times account). And, then, asRead More →