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SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN
THE DESIGN SCHOOL
FOUNDATION IN NATURAL AND BUILT
ENVIRONMENTS
NAME(S): CLAUDWIE TAN WAN SIEN 0317997
ANG WEI YI 0317885
NHAT DINH 0313309
SUBJECT: SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY (PSYC0103)
LECTURER: MR. T. SHANKAR
SESSION: MONDAY 12-3PM
SUBMISSION: 8th DECEMBER, 2014

A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T
In the process of carrying out this assignment for Social
Psychology module, we had received a lot of great cooperation and
support from many parties and we would like to express my gratitude to
them.
First are foremost, we would like to express our deepest gratitude
to Mr. Shankar, our lecturer of our Social Psychology module, for giving
us an opportunity to produce a conceptual video clip and a presentation
for our final assignment. We were really grateful that Mr. Shankar had
given us a very clear guideline that facilitated us to complete this
assignment on time.
On the other hand, we would also like to thank our parents for
giving us boundless support and financial resources for us to successfully
carry out all of the progress of video filming, as well as the editing.
Lastly, we would like to extend out sincere regards to all
participants who had involved in our video for their kind cooperation.

T A B L E O F C O N T E N T
I N T R O D U C T I O N
M E T H O D S
Design:
A survey is designed, aiming people of different gender, age and race in
our location, i.e. Sunway Pyramid, to investigate how people will react
and respond to stranger, local and non-local, who ask them for help to
give him or her a ride back to the campus because his or her phone has
run out of battery and he or she has no money. The expressions and
reactions of the passers-by are observed and recorded.
Participants:
Our target setting is limited within the boundary of Sunway Pyramid,
aiming people from all walks of life. The partic ipants’ gender, age group,
race and reactions are the key points that we have recorded and organized
in chart (see Results).
Materials:
A hidden camera is placed around the area of targeted passers-by to
record the participants’ expressions and reactions to our approach.
Procedures:
1. The team members were assigned separately to approach any
passer-by and ask for help, and record the process of
approaching the participants as well as their reactions.

2. Different settings were chosen for video recording.
3. All of the physical traits of the participants were recorded.
4. After the participants gave respond, by either saying yes or no,
the analyzer went to the participant to inform him or her that the
whole process of approaching them and their reactions were
recorded for our conceptual video clip assignment for Social
Psychology module.
5. All steps were repeated in different settings to obtain various
outcomes.
.

R E S U L T S
Number of participants and their races
Race(s) No. of participants
Chinese 18
Malay 13
Indian 9
Foreigners 5
Table 1.
Sales
Chinese Malay Indian Foreigner
Figure 1.
45%
17%
31%
7%

Participants who agreed to help non-local
(based on their races)
Chinese 0
Malay 0
Indian 0
Foreigners 0
Table 2.
Participants who agreed to help non-local
(based on their races)
Chinese 12
Malay 9
Indian 5
Foreigners 4
Table 3.
Chinese Malay Indian Foreigner
Figure 3.
40%
30%
17%
13%

Participants and their gender.
Gender No. of Participants
Male 31
Female 14
Table 4.
Figure 4.
Participants who agreed to help to non-local.
Male 0
Female 0
Table 5.
69%
31%
Male Female

Participants who agreed to help to non-local.
Male 24
Female 6
Table 6.
Sales
Male Female
80%
20%
Figure 6.
C O N C E P T S
We have included 5 concepts or theories in the video which comprise of
theory of first impression, stereotype, the halo effect, confirmation bias
and emotional expression of non-verbal communication.
First Impression
In social psychology, first impression is the event when one person first
encounters another person and forms a mental image of that person. First

impressions are not deliberate and they may be instantaneous. It takes just
a quick glance, maybe just three seconds, for someone to evaluate you
when you meet him or her for the first time. First impressions are based
on a wide range of characteristics: age, race, culture, language, gender,
physical appearance, accent, posture and time allowed to process.
Linking to the video content, whenever Dinh asked for help from passers-by
to give him a ride back from Sunway Pyramid to Taylor’s University
Lakeside Campus, almost all of them rejected him and refused to give
him a hand. This is because they formed a mental image of him as a
foreign student from Vietnam because of his accent.
Halo Effect and Stereotype
People tend to associate a good quality with other positive qualities, and
vice versa. The halo effect is a cognitive bias in which an observer's
overall impression of a person influences his or her feelings and thoughts
about that entity's character. This also speaks to the importance of a good
first impression. Halo effect occurs without our active awareness.
On the other hand, stereotyping is the process by which we draw
inferences about others base on knowledge of the categories to which
they belong. The stereotype acts as a self-fulfilling prophecy where the
perception of attractive people are more valuable members of the society,
leading to them receiving preferential treatment and tangible benefit.
Similarly, what is beautiful or attractive is good effect relies on the
assumption that physically attractive people are superior to others on
many other traits, such as overall personality.
From our video, we could clearly see that the passers-by involuntarily
formed a mental image and interpret Dinh as a ‘dangerous’ stranger to
them as he is from Vietnam just because Vietnam gives people a first
impression of it is a very ‘perilous and unsafe’ place. Whereas, when
Winnie and Claudwie were asking them for help, most of them willingly
agreed to give us a hand. In conclusion, these decisions are made easily
and instantaneously because a person’s physical appearance is a personal
characteristic that is the most obvious and accessible to others in social
interaction.
Confirmation Bias

The concept of confirmation bias also applies in our video when three of
us started to ask for help from the passers-by. Confirmation bias defined
as the tendency of people to favor information that confirms their belief
or opinion. The passers-by’s belief of Dinh being a ‘dangerous’ Vietnam
student is confirmed as he started to speak to them.
Non-verbal Communication
Non-verbal cues are behaviors, gestures, eye contacts and expressions
that convey thoughts or emotions without words. Emotional expression in
social psychology is observable verbal and non-verbal behaviors that
communicate an ind ividual’s internal emotions to others. Facial
expressions are responsible for a huge proportion of non-verbal
communication, considering how much information can be conveyed
with a smile or a frown. The look on a person face is often the first thing
we see, even before we hear what they have to say.
Examples of non-verbal communication in the video are portrayed when
three of us asked for help and different passer-by showed different facial
expressions or gestures as we spoke to them. Non-verbal communication
can occur with or without self-awareness.
S U M M A R Y
R E F E R E N C E
1. Robby K. (2012). Don't Judge Foreign English Speakers by Their
Mistakes. English Harmony. Retrieved December 7, 2014. From
http://englishharmony.com/don’t-judge-by-mistakes/.
2. Rob Capps. (2012). First Impressions: The Science of Meeting
People. WIRED. Retrieved December 7, 2014. From
http://www.wired.com/2012/11/amy-cuddy-first-impressions/.

3. Chia, Y.P. (2014). Conformity and Group Behaviour [PowerPoint].
Retrieved December 7, 2014. From http://goo.gl/0pSKzQ.

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