How we change what others think, feel, believe and do

Theory clusters

Explanations > Theories > Theory clusters

Inner systems | Inferred meaning | Decision-making | Behavior | Group

Here is another way to find the academic explanations for how we think, feel and behave. This groups theories, etc. into clusters covering very similar topics (sometimes extremely similar!). Note: you may find theories in more than one place. Another note: This is a very short list compared with all that's out there.  There is also an alphabetic list of these theories that includes alternative theory names that you might not find here.

• Inner systems
  • Motivators
  • Systems of understanding
  • Emotion
  • Memory
• Inferring meaning
  • Attention
  • Belief
  • About self
    • Inferring about ourselves
    • Avoiding discomfort
    • Other stuff
  • About people
    • Attributing cause
    • Expecting certain behaviors
    • Other stuff
  • About things
    • Attributing cause
    • Understanding
    • Importance
• Decision-making
  • Motivating
  • Forecasting
    • Predicting actions of others
    • Estimation error
  • Thinking
    • Conscious thought (or not)
    • Seeking alignment, avoiding discomfort
  • Selecting
    • Evidence
• Behavior
  • Responding to self
    • Doing contrary things
    • Seeking comfort, avoiding discomfort
  • Responding to others
    • Conforming to expectations
    • Acting against expectations
    • Taking cues from others
    • Caring or not caring about others
    • Using others for our gain
    • Acting against others
    • Collaborating with others
    • Other reactions to others
  • Attempting to influence others
    • Persuading
    • Creating trust
    • Telling lies
    • Using power
    • Resisting influence
  • Friendship and liking
    • Factors that increase friendship
    • Stages of friendship
    • Other friendship factors
  • Responding to events
  • Other behavior stuff
• Group behavior
  • Conforming
  • Group decisions
    • Making extreme decisions
    • In-group vs. Out-group
  • Other group behavior

Inner systems

• Attitude: predispositions and evaluations.
• Positive psychology: How we are happy.
• Commitment: public or private decision to act.

Motivators

• Acquired Needs Theory: we seek power, achievement or affiliation.
• Activation Theory: We have a need for arousal.
• Amplification Hypothesis: Certainty hardens attitude.
• Attitude-Behavior Consistency: factors that align attitude and behavior.
• Attribution Theory: we need to attribute cause, that supports our ego.
• Cognitive Dissonance: non-alignment is uncomfortable.
• Cognitive Evalution Theory: we select tasks based on how doable they are.
• Consistency Theory: we seek the comfort of internal alignment.
• Control Theory: we seek to control the world around us.
• Drive Theory: We seek to satisfy needs.
• Endowed Progress Effect: Progress is motivating.
• ERG Theory: We seek to fulfil needs of existence, relatedness and growth.
• Expectancy Theory: We are motivated by desirable things we expect we can achieve.
• Extrinsic Motivation: external: tangible rewards.
• Intrinsic Motivation: internal: value-based rewards.
• Investment Model: our commitment depends on what we have invested.
• Goal-Setting Theory: different types of goals motivate us differently.
• Opponent-Process Theory: opposite emotions interact.
• Reactance Theory: discomfort when freedom is threatened.
• Self-Determination Theory: External and internal motivation.
• Self-Discrepancy Theory: we need beliefs to be consistent.
• The Transtheoretical Model of Change: Stages in changing oneself.

Systems of understanding

• Attribution Theory: we need to attribute cause, that supports our ego.
• Constructivism: we use constructs as perceptual categories.
• Framing: mental combinations that affect perception.
• Objectification: we simplify complex things into concrete images.
• Personal Construct Theory: constructs that represent understanding.
• Schema: mental structure to organize and interpret the world.
• Symbolic Interaction Theory: we derive meaning around symbols.
• Story Model: We piece together complex situations into stories to build understanding.

Emotion

• Aggression: a learned and social act.
• Appraisal Theory: Thinking then feeling.
• Buffer effect of Social Support: supported people feel less stress.
• Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion: emotions lead to physiological changes.
• Cognitive Appraisal Theories of Emotion: we decide what to feel after interpreting events.
• Durability bias: we over-estimate how long emotions will last.
• Focalism: we think an emotion is driven by a single event.
• Impact bias: over-estimating the effect of emotional event.
• James-Lange Theory of Emotion: physiological changes lead to emotions.
• Mood memory: We recall things that match our current mood.
• Mood-Congruent Judgment: Our moods bias  our judgments.
• Opponent-Process Theory: opposite emotions interact.
• Positive psychology: How we are happy.
• Social Contagion: we catch emotions from others.
• Two-Factor Theory of Emotion: we deduce feelings from our situation.

Memory

• Availability Heuristic: recent events seem more likely.
• Choice-supportive bias: Distorting memories to make decisions seem good.
• Counterfactual Thinking: We can change our own memories.
• False Memory Syndrome: We can create memories that are false.
• Hindsight Bias: we pretend we remembered everything.
• Imagined Memory: Is not as detailed and sensory as  real memory.
• Mood memory: We recall things that match our current mood.
• Network Theory: Our minds have linked nodes of two types: semantic and affective.
• Primacy Effect: we remember what happened first.
• Priming: Setting up memory to be used later.
• Recency Effect: we remember recent stuff.
• Schema: used to interpret memories.
• Youth Bias: Remembering when we were young.

Inferring meaning

Attention

• Confirmation Bias: we seek confirmation that we made a good decision.
• Inattentional Blindness: attention to one thing makes us miss another.
• Information Processing Theory: persuasion requires attention and comparison with previous views.
• Ironic Reversal: we cannot avoid thinking about things we want to avoid thinking about.
• Selective Exposure: we avoid what will cause dissonance about a decision.

Belief

• Automatic Believing: we initially believe everything; then we think.
• Belief Bias: We accept things that fit into our belief systems.
• Belief Perseverance: once formed, a belief will persist.
• Conversion: beliefs can change suddenly when we see the light.
• Disconfirmation bias: Agreeing with what supports beliefs and vice versa.
• Just-world phenomenon: Good and bad will be rewarded and punished.
• Schema: we believe our internal models are accurate.
• Selective Perception: we see things through beliefs, not as they really are.

About self

Inferring about ourselves

• Below-Average Effect: We sometimes think we are below average in some respects.
• Ben Franklin Effect: when we do a favor, we like them even more.
• Bias Blind Spot: We do not compensate enough for our own bias.
• Choice-supportive bias: Distorting memories to make decisions seem good.
• Cognitive Appraisal Theories of Emotion: we decide our feelings after. interpreting events.
• Discounting: we underestimate less evident causes of behavior.
• Durability bias: we over-estimate how long emotions will last.
• Illusion of Asymmetric Insight: We think we understand others better than they understand us.
• Interview Illusion: after a quick discussion, we believe we can predict many behaviors.
• Lake Wobegon Effect: We over-estimate our abilities, especially compared with others.
• Looking-glass Self: we see ourselves through the eyes of others.
• Personal Validation Fallacy: We agree with general positive descriptors of us.
• Positive psychology: How we are happy.
• Social Comparison Theory: we learn about ourselves by comparing with others.
• Self-Monitoring Behavior: we are affected by how others see us.
• Self-Perception Theory: we infer our feelings from what we do.
• Two-Factor Theory of Emotion: We deduce our nature from what we do and feel.

Avoiding discomfort

• Actor-Observer Difference: others' behavior caused by disposition, ours by situation.
• Confirmation Bias: we seek confirmation that we made a good decision.
• Disconfirmation bias: Agreeing with what supports beliefs and vice versa.
• Escape Theory: We seek to escape uncomfortable realities.
• External Justification: we blame our failures on external things.
• Hindsight Bias: we pretend we knew everything all along.
• Insufficient Punishment: we devalue forbidden activity to reduce dissonance.
• Overjustification Effect: we attribute too externally for some events.
• Minimal Justification Principle: we justify what can't be explained rationally.
• Positivity Effect: we attribute disposition to good things about ourselves.
• Self-Discrepancy Theory: we need beliefs to be consistent.
• Self-Serving Bias: we take credit for success and deny failure.

Other stuff

• Counter-Attitudinal Advocacy: sometimes we tell white or gray lies.
• Overconfidence Barrier: we are too confident in our own judgments.
• Story Model: We piece together complex situations into stories to build understanding.

About people

Attributing cause

• Actor-Observer Difference: we see others' behavior caused by disposition, ours by situation.
• Correspondence Bias: We over-estimate dispositional factors over situational factors.
• Correspondent Inference Theory: we assume unusual acts are due to disposition 
• Covariation Model: we look for similarities to narrow down attribution in others.
• Fundamental Attribution Error: we overestimate dispositional factors.
• Just-world phenomenon: Good and bad will be rewarded and punished.
• Positivity Effect: we make situational attribution for those we like.
• The Pratfall Effect: Being clumsy makes you likeable.
• Scapegoat Theory: we like having someone else to blame.
• Theory of Mind: Guessing what they are thinking.

Expecting certain behaviors

• Dilution Effect: information about others reduces stereotyping.
• Expectancy Violations Theory: we have expectations of others' behavior, eg. body space.
• False Consensus Effect: we overestimate how much people agree with us.
• Halo Effect: we generalize judgment across traits.
• Illusion of asymmetric insight: We think we understand others better than they understand us.
• Implicit Personality Theory: we generalize expectation from a few central. traits.
• Information Manipulation Theory: Breaking one of the four conversational maxims to persuade.
• Interview Illusion: after a quick discussion, we believe we can predict many behaviors.
• Outcome Dependency: we are optimistic about others when we need them to cooperate. 
• Out-Group Homogeneity: we see out-group people as 'all the same'.
• Stereotypes: we classify people in broad groups.
• Social Exchange Theory: comparing give and take in relationships.
• Ultimate Attribution Error: we assume broad groups have similar disposition.
• Reciprocity Norm: expecting others to return our favors.
• Theory of Mind: Guessing what they are thinking.

Other stuff

• Language Expectancy Theory: we are shocked by unexpected language.
• Repulsion Hypothesis: we dislike people who are very different from us.
• Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: we language reality into existence.

About things

Attributing cause

• Attribution Theory: we need to attribute cause, that supports our ego.
• Clustering Illusion: Seeing patterns where there are none.
• Perceptual Salience: we over-estimate important of available information.

Understanding

• Affect Infusion Model: the effect of mood on judgment depends on how we are thinking.
• Constructivism: we use constructs to help interpret the world.
• Conversion: sometimes we suddenly see the light.
• Epistemological Weighting Hypothesis: we learn by ourselves and through others.
• Mood-Congruent Judgment: Our moods bias our judgments.
• Objectification: we simplify complex things into concrete images.
• Plasticity: things have different meaning in different contexts.
• Social Judgment Theory: we vary our judgments about an anchor position.
• Social Learning Theory: we learn much by watching others, thinking, then trying it out.
• Speech Act Theory: Speaking is acting. Meaning is context-dependent.
• Symbolic Interaction Theory: we derive meaning around symbols.

Importance

• Insufficient Punishment: we devalue forbidden activity to reduce dissonance.
• Investment Model: our commitment depends on what we have invested.
• Involvement: when we are involved we pay more attention.
• Justification of Effort: we find things we have worked on attractive.
• Mere Thought Effect: Thinking creates polarization.
• Placebo Effect: We believe and respond to fakes.

Decision-making

Decisions are also affected by inner systems and inferred meaning, of course.

Motivation

• Bias Correction: Well-meaning over-compensation.
• Cognitive Dissonance: we try to reduce the discomfort of dissonance.
• Consistency Theory: we seek the comfort of internal alignment.
• Commitment: we feel obliged to complete a public commitment.
• Certainty Effect: a certainty that becomes less likely has high impact.
• Confirmation Bias: we seek confirmation that we made a good decision.
• Scarcity Principle: we anticipate regret and so want what is scarce. 
• Sunk-Cost Effect: we are reluctant to pull out of an investment.

Forecasting

Predicting actions of others

• Interpersonal Expectancy Effect: we act towards others based on expectation.
• Planned Behavior Theory: the best predictors of deliberate behavior.

Estimation error

• Anchoring and Adjustment Heuristic: we base estimates on known anchors.
• Availability Heuristic: recent events seem more likely.
• Biased sampling: we base decisions on available small samples.
• Bounded Rationality: we only use limited logic in decisions.
• Conjunction Fallacy: an overlap seems twice as likely.
• Durability Bias: we over-estimate how long emotions will last.
• Endowment Effect: we value more highly the things we own.
• Focusing Effect: We pay more attention to some things than others.
• Gambler's Fallacy: Belief we can predict random events.
• Hot Hand Phenomenon: Assuming success breeds success.
• Illusory Correlation: we see correlation where it is not.
• Mood-Congruent Judgment: Our moods bias our judgments.
• Neglect of probability bias: Ignoring probability; assuming certainty.
• Overconfidence Barrier: we are too confident in our own judgments.
• Planning Fallacy: We underestimate how long things will take.
• Prospect Theory: we value certain gains and try to avoid certain losses.
• Psychological Accounting: we care about direct outcomes. We also compare in ratios rather than absolute amounts. 
• Representativeness Heuristic: we guess probability from a 'comparable' event.
• Restraint Bias: Assuming we can control urges.
• Social Judgment Theory: we vary our judgments about an anchor position.
• Valence Effect: We tend to be optimistic.

Thinking

Conscious thought (or not)

• Bias Blind Spot: We do not compensate enough for our own bias.
• Clustering Illusion: Seeing patterns where there are none.
• Elaboration Likelihood Model: we either think centrally or take unthinking short-cut decisions.
• Heuristic-Systematic Persuasion Model: we either use short-cuts or logic to interpret arguments.
• Information Bias: Seeking facts when making decision, even when they are irrelevant.
• Information Processing Theory: persuasion requires attention and comparison with previous views.
• Placebo Effect: We believe and respond to fakes.
• Self-Determination Theory: External and internal motivation.
• Self-Regulation Theory: Controlling urges.
• The Transtheoretical Model of Change: Stages in changing oneself.
• Unconscious Thought Theory: Letting your unconscious do the thinking.

Seeking alignment, avoiding discomfort

• Ambiguity Effect: We prefer a known probability to an unknown one.
• Informational Social Influence: when we are uncertain we copy others.
• Ironic Reversal: we cannot avoid thinking about things we want to avoid thinking about.
• Post-Decision Dissonance: after a decision we think it was a good one. 
• Prospect Theory: we value certain gains and try to avoid certain losses.
• Regret Theory: we consider and try to avoid future regret.
• Risk Preference: we seek risks around losses and avoid risks around gains.
• Selective Exposure: we avoid what will cause dissonance about a decision.
• Social-Role Theory: men and women fall into expected roles.

Selecting

• Bounded Rationality: we only use limited logic in decisions.
• Explanatory Coherence: we like simple, explainable hypotheses.
• Filter Theory: we make choices through a series of selection filters.
• Hyperbolic discounting: We prefer short-term benefits.
• Multi-Attribute Choice: we use various strategies for different types of choice.
• Mere Exposure Theory: simple exposure makes us like things more.
• Mere Thought Effect: Thinking creates polarization.
• Perceptual Contrast Effect: we decide by comparing things.

Evidence

• Augmenting Principle: evidence for a decision is accumulative.
• Involvement: when we are involved we need more information.

Behavior

Responding to self

Doing contrary things

• Counter-Attitudinal Advocacy: sometimes we say something we don't believe.
• Counterfactual Thinking: we can change our own memories.
• Rationalization Trap: justifications can lead to silly or immoral acts.

Seeking confirmation, avoiding discomfort

• Ambiguity Effect: We prefer a known probability to an unknown one.
• Amplification Hypothesis: Certainty hardens attitude.
• Consistency Theory: we seek the comfort of internal alignment.
• Commitment: we feel obliged to complete a public commitment.
• Selective Exposure: we avoid dissonance of finding a decision was wrong.
• Self-Affirmation Theory: we compensate for competence threats by affirming elsewhere.
• Self-Completion Theory: we compensate for self-concept threats by seeking social recognition.
• Self-Discrepancy Theory: we aim to align beliefs and self-perception. 
• Self-Serving Bias: we take credit for success and put blame elsewhere.
• Self-Verification Theory: we seek confirmation of our self-view, even if it is negative.
• Social-Role Theory: men and women fall into expected roles.
• Symbolic Convergence Theory: Seeking communities of agreement.

Responding to others

Conforming to expectations

• Acquiescence Effect: We answer more in the positive than negative.
• Impression Management: we behave well when we are being watched.
• Interpersonal Expectancy Effect: we act towards others based on expectation.
• Placebo Effect: We believe and respond to fakes.
• Politeness Theory: we act politely or rudely depending on whether we care.
• Reciprocity Norm: we need to return another's favor.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: acting how we are treated.
• Self-Monitoring Behavior: we are affected by how others see us.
• Social Desirability Bias: we follow social rules when we are watched.
• Social Impact Theory: how we behave depends on how many, etc. are watching.
• Social Influence: How we are strongly influenced by others.
• Spiral of Silence Theory: we keep quiet if we are in the minority (and vice versa).

Acting against expectations

• Compensation: acting to disconfirm negative perception from others.
• Expectancy Violations Theory: going against behavioral expectations. 
• Information Manipulation Theory: Breaking one of the four conversational maxims to persuade.
• Self-Evaluation Maintenance Theory: reacting to threat of others.

Taking cues from others

• Bystander Effect: the more bystanders, the less likely it is one will help
• Communication Accommodation Theory: we morph to be like others.
• Informational Social Influence: when we don't know what to do, we copy others.
• Social Learning Theory: we learn much by watching others, thinking, then trying it out.
• Social Representation Theory: special meaning of words to communicate in a group.

Caring or not caring about others

• Attachment Theory: we attach to others in reciprocal and primitive ways.
• Identifiable Victim Effect: Empathizing with one more than many.
• Politeness Theory: we act politely or rudely depending on whether we care.
• Prosocial Behavior: helping people with no thought of reward.
• Stockholm Syndrome: becoming attached to captors.

Using others for our gain

• Social Facilitation: the presence of others helps the competent and hinders the unskilled.
• Social Loafing: we hide in a crowd, using them to conceal laziness.
• Spiral of Silence Theory: we are vocal if we are in the majority (and vice versa).

Acting against others

• Realistic Conflict Theory: limited resources leads to conflict.
• Repulsion Hypothesis: we dislike those who are not like us.
• Scapegoat Theory: blaming others for problems.
• Terminating relationships: relationships break down in stages.  

Collaborating with others

• Contact Hypothesis: bringing enemies together increases understanding.
• Equity Theory: we are happiest when give and take are equal.
• Prosocial Behavior: we sometimes help without need for reward.
• Small World Theory: Six hops to anyone.
• Social Exchange Theory: perception of relationships depends on fairness perception.
• Terminating relationships: relationships break down in stages.  

Other reactions to others

• Social Contagion: being infected by feelings of other people. 
• Language Expectancy Theory: we are shocked by unexpected language.
• Urban-Overload Hypothesis: city life leads to retreat and loneliness.

Attempting to influence others

Persuading

• Amplification Hypothesis: Certainty hardens attitude.
• Conversion Theory: Minorities can convert majority people.
• Information Manipulation Theory: Breaking one of the four conversational maxims to persuade.
• Persuasion: factors important in persuasion.
• Priming: Setting up memory to be used later.
• Reciprocity Norm: we feel obliged to return favors. 
• Scarcity Principle: we want what is of limited availability.
• Sleeper Effect: when persuasive messages increase effectiveness over time.
• Social Influence: How we are strongly influenced by others.
• Subliminal Messages: famous method that is a sham.
• Yale Attitude Change Approach: factors important in persuasion.
• Ultimate Terms: some words are particularly powerful.

Creating trust

• Ben Franklin Effect: when we do a favor, we like them even more.
• Communication Accommodation Theory: we morph to be like others.
• Contact Hypothesis: bringing enemies together helps make them friends.
• Credibility: factors which increase trust and credibility.

Telling lies

• Four-factor Model: there are four underlying things happening when people lie. 
• Interpersonal Deception Theory: lying is a dynamic dance of liar and listener.

Power

• Coercion: is acting to change a person's behavior against their will.
• Least Interest Principle: the person with the least interest has most power.
• Power: is the ability to get a person to change their behavior.
• Strategic Contingencies Theory: power depends on problem skill, centrality and uniqueness of skill.

Resisting influence

• Compensation: acting to disconfirm negative perception from others.
• Inoculation: a weak argument increases ability to resist it.
• Insufficient Punishment: we devalue a resisted desired object.

Friendship and liking

Factors that increase friendship

• Ben Franklin Effect: after helping another person we like them more.
• Contact Hypothesis: bringing enemies together leads towards friendship.
• Dilution Effect: information about others reduces stereotyping.
• Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis: if we feel empathy we are likely to help.
• Friendship: there are several factors that increase chances of friendship.
• Law of Attraction: similar attitudes leads to friendship. 
• Matching Hypothesis: romantic partners tend to be similarly attractive. 
• Mere Exposure Theory: exposure to people increases liking.
• Propinquity Effect: meeting and interacting increase chance of friendship.
• Reinforcement-Affect Theory: both forms of conditioning leads us to like others.
• Repulsion Hypothesis: we prefer those with similar attitudes (and vice versa).

Stages of friendship

• Social Penetration Theory: relationships go through stages of increasing familiarity.
• Stage Theory: relationships go through several stages.
• Stimulus-Value-Role Model: we select friends through a three stage model.
• Terminating relationships: relationships break down in stages.

Other friendship factors

• Attachment Style: we attach to others in secure or anxious ways.
• Buffer Effect of Social Support: supported people feel less stress.
• Communication Accommodation Theory: we talk/act like those we like.
• Love: there are several styles of love.
• Small World Theory: Six hops to anyone.
• Weak Ties Theory: How far does influence go?

Responding to events

• Classical Conditioning: a repeated stimulus will trigger associated event.
• Extended Parallel Process Model: threat leads to danger- or fear-control.
• Frustration-Aggression Theory: when stopped from reaching goal, people turn to aggression.
• Operant Conditioning: behavior + reward = more behavior (and vice versa).
• Rationalization Trap: dissonance reduction leads to silly or immoral actions.
• Reactance Theory: prevention of action leads to action (to prove control).
• Realistic Conflict Theory: limited resources leads to conflict.
• Symbolic Interaction Theory: we interact with meaning of symbols.
• Control Theory: we seek to control the world around us.

Other general behavior stuff

• Deindividuation: losing our sense of self.
• Ego Depletion: Controlling urges is exhausting.
• Fatigue: The effects of tiredness.
• Non-Verbal Behavior: we communicate hugely without words.

Group behavior

Conforming

• Epistemological Weighting Hypothesis: conformance depends on how closely our norms match group norms.
• Group Locomotion Hypothesis: members are motivated to achieve group goals.
• Groupthink: maintenance of group cohesion becomes all-important.
• Normative Social Influence: basic group need forces us to conform.
• Politeness Theory: we are nice where respect is needed (and vice versa).
• Roles: we conform with shared expectations of behavior.
• Social Impact Theory: conformance increases with importance, immediacy and number of others.
• Social Norms: groups have rules that must be followed. 
• Pluralistic Ignorance: sometimes most people disagree with a group norm, but nobody speaks out.

Group decision

Making extreme decisions

• Group Polarization Phenomenon: groups are more extreme in decisions.
• Groupthink: maintenance needs leads to limited or blinkered decisions.
• Persuasive Arguments Theory: to sway others in group, arguments tend to be extreme.
• Risky Shift Phenomenon: groups take either more or less extreme risks.

In-group vs. out-group

• In-Group Bias: we give group members preferential treatment.
• Hostile Media Phenomenon: opposed groups see neutral people as biased.
• Linguistic Inter-group Bias: Varying abstraction in communication.
• Minority Influence: groups tolerate minorities, who should stick together.
• Out-Group Homogeneity: seeing non-group people as 'all the same'.

Other group behavior

• Conversion Theory: Minorities can convert majority people.
• Group Attribution Error: groups attribute much like individuals do.
• Minimum Group Theory: when in any group, people use group behavior.
• Leader-Member Exchange Theory: leaders and members create tacit agreements.
• Weak Ties Theory: How far does influence go?

See also

Academic Theories, Academic References