Alphabetical Glossary

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base rate information
information about the frequency of members of different categories in the population

basic research
studies that are designed to find the best answer to the question of why people behave the way they do and that are conducted purely for reasons of intellectual curiosity

behaviorally based attitude
an attitude based on observations of how one behaves toward an attitude object

behaviorism
a school of psychology maintaining that to understand human behavior, one need only consider the reinforcing properties of the environment-that is, how positive and negative events in the environment are associated with specific behaviors

belief in a just world
a form of defensive attribution wherein people assume that bad things happen to bad people and that good things happen to good people

biased sampling
making generalizations from samples of information that are known to be biased or atypical

blaming the victim
our tendency to blame individuals (make dispositional attributions) for their victimization, typically motivated by a desire to see the world as a fair place

bookkeeping model
information inconsistent with a stereotype that leads to a modification of the stereotype

bystander effect
the finding that the greater the number of bystanders who witness an emergency, the less likely any one of them is to help.