One of the most effective demos I have used is the social trap exercise. I learned about it from one of the listserves (Sorry, I don't remember whose idea it was) and I do it after I teach about social traps. You offer to pay $20 to those students who write down $20 or $1 to those who write $1, so long as no more than 10% of the class writes down $20. If more than 10% choose $20, you don't have to pay anything. This is particularly effective because I tell them in advance that it is a social trap yet I always get more than 40% choosing $20. Another effective exercise is for ingroup bias, (Again, I'm sorry I don't remember the source, but it was from a psych list) You divide the class into two groups based on some arbitrary criterion. I usually use type of shoe, e.g. sneaker vs. non-sneaker. Each group writes down as many reasons as they can come up with for why the other group is wearing the shoe they are wearing. Usually they start off listing benign differences, e.g. they had gym today, but they often will list some negative statements about the other group. For both exercises, they can't believe that they have behaved the same way that the earlier research had predicted. It's quite an eye opener. Of course, the best source for social psych activities is Jon Mueller's website, _http://jonathan.mueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/crow/_ (http://jonathan.mueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/crow/) He also has a free monthly newsletter. Both have great ideas for other areas of Intro as well as for social psych. Riki Koenigsberg [EMAIL PROTECTED] (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
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