Social Psychology Quiz
From Milgram's shocking obedience study to the bystander effect, social psychology is full of unforgettable findings. Test yourself on twelve of the classics, with an explanation after every question.
If you enjoyed this, you might love studying it for real. Explore accredited psychology programs matched to students like you.
Social psychology studies how other people, real or imagined, shape our thoughts and actions. Its classic experiments are some of the most famous in all of science, and they show up constantly in intro and AP Psychology courses.
These ideas are not just trivia. They explain headlines, workplaces, and relationships, and they are central to careers like industrial-organizational psychology.
All 12 questions and answers
- Milgram's famous experiment is best known for studying... Answer: Obedience to an authority figure
Stanley Milgram showed that ordinary people would deliver what they believed were dangerous shocks simply because an authority figure told them to.
- The bystander effect describes how people are... Answer: Less likely to help when other people are around
When others are present, responsibility feels diffused, so any single person becomes less likely to step in and help.
- Cognitive dissonance is best defined as the discomfort caused by... Answer: Holding conflicting beliefs or acting against your values
Leon Festinger described the mental tension we feel when our beliefs and actions clash, which often pushes us to change one of them.
- The Stanford Prison Experiment was conducted by... Answer: Philip Zimbardo
Philip Zimbardo's 1971 study assigned students to be guards or prisoners and is famous for how quickly the assigned roles shaped behavior.
- Solomon Asch's line-judgment studies are best known for demonstrating... Answer: Conformity to a unanimous group
Asch showed that people will often agree with an obviously wrong group answer rather than stand out, demonstrating the power of conformity.
- The fundamental attribution error is the tendency to... Answer: Blame behavior on character and ignore the situation
We tend to assume others act the way they do because of who they are, while excusing our own behavior based on circumstances.
- The mere exposure effect means we tend to... Answer: Like things more the more often we encounter them
Familiarity breeds liking. Repeated exposure to a song, face, or logo generally makes us favor it more.
- Groupthink occurs when a group's desire for harmony leads to... Answer: Poor decisions and the suppression of dissent
When a group prizes agreement over critical thinking, it can silence doubts and arrive at badly flawed decisions.
- In-group bias is the tendency to favor... Answer: Members of your own group over outsiders
People naturally extend more trust, generosity, and benefit of the doubt to those they see as part of their own group.
- The self-serving bias is the tendency to... Answer: Credit your success but blame failure on outside forces
We protect our self-esteem by attributing wins to our own ability and losses to bad luck or circumstances.
- Social facilitation is the tendency to... Answer: Perform easy tasks better when others are watching
An audience tends to boost performance on easy or well-practiced tasks, though it can hurt performance on difficult ones.
- Deindividuation describes a state in which people... Answer: Lose self-awareness and restraint within a group
In large or anonymous groups, people can lose their sense of individual responsibility, which sometimes leads to behavior they would never show alone.