6- Social Perception

Question 1

Social Perception

Answer 1

• how you perceive other ppl (cognition)
• heuristics/shortcuts to judge other people / get impressions

Perceiver views someone else (influenced by experiences and emotions)

Target- is viewed
–affected by how much you know target

Situation- roles of interaction, etc

Question 2

Impression bias

Answer 2

• confirmation bias for people (if you believe something, you’re more likely to believe things that support what you think)
• first time you meet someone, you get an impression
• all other actions are filtered through first impression— primacy effect

Recency effect- the more recent a behavior is, the more it will affect our impression

Reliance on central traits and stereotyping
-if some traits are important/relevant to me, I look for those in other ppl

Implicit personality theory = assumptions ppl make about how ppl’s traits and behaviors are related (based on category = stereotyping)

Question 3

Halo effect

Answer 3

If we classify someone as being good, just in general, we will call the things they do good
-your evaluation of them being good or bad has a halo around all their actions

Question 4

Just world hypothesis

Answer 4

Good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people
-it’s a bias

Question 5

Self-serving bias

Answer 5

• Good things happen to us bc we deserve it; bad things happen to us based on an external factor
• -self-enhancement says that this is needed for self-esteem and self-worth

–self-verification is looking for people who validate your self-serving bias

internal/external locus of control

Question 6

Attribution theory

Answer 6

-how we attribute the behaviors and actions of other people
Dispositional = personality/character/internal
Situational = external

Consistency cues- when someone behaves the same way all the time, dispositional

Consensus cues- if people do what is expected of them, situational / match others’ behavior
-if deviant, internal

Distinctiveness cues- if react differently in different situations, situational; if react same in similarly in dif situations, dispositional

Correspondent inference theory- when someone does something unexpected for you, you’re more likely to attribute that internally

actor-observer asymmetry / bias = self-serving bias by actor + fundamental-attribution error by observer

Question 7

Fundamental attribution error

Answer 7

• when we look at others, we are more likely to attribute behavior to disposition rather than situation
• for ourselves, we are more likely to say that bad things are situational

Individualists tend to make more fundamental attribution errors than collectivist cultures

Question 8

Attribute substitution

Answer 8

it’s hard for us to see others as individuals (hard to see complex things) so we make substitutions/heuristics/shortcuts - see them in an easier or more convenient way

• stereotypes
• not just about ppl; also painting/optical illusions of size and color
  ex) if a pencil costs $1 more than eraser and total was $1.05, how much was pencil? Many inclined to say $1

Question 9

cultural attributions

Answer 9

-the culture you’re in can dictate the way you attribute things to other ppl

individualist cultures- focus on disposition
-collectivist societies- situationally motivated

Question 10

in-group bias and out-group bias

Answer 10

in-group bias = prefer/more pos view of your group members

out-group bias = view those out of your group harshly