Chapter 3 - Social Beliefs and Judgements

Question 1

define the 2 kinds of systems we have

Answer 1

System 1 is automatic and based on our gut feeling, where system 2 require our conscious attention and effort.

Question 2

define priming

Answer 2

activating particular associations in memory. unattended stimuli (something you don’t focus on) can subtly influence how we later perceive, judge, and behave.

ex. watching a scary move at night can activate emotions and make you think there is a possible murderer in your house from a bunch of little noises that normally occur.

studies with word scrambling made people walk slower, hot or cold coffee change the way you would rate another person

Question 3

define embodied cognition

Answer 3

the mutual influence of bodily sensations on cognitive preferences and social judgements

Question 4

define automatic processing

Answer 4

like system 1, it is impulsive, effortless and without awarness

Question 5

define controlled processing

Answer 5

like system 2, its reflective, deliberate, and consciuos

Question 6

define overconfidence phenomenon

Answer 6

tendency to be more confident than correct, to overestimate the accuracy of one’s beliefs

Question 7

define confirmation bias

Answer 7

a tendency to search for information that confirms one’s preconceptions, it seems to be a system 1 snap judgement

Question 8

define heuristics

Answer 8

mental shortcut, simple and effective thinking strategies

Question 9

define representative heuristic

Answer 9

we estimate the likelihood of an event by comparing it to an existing prototype that already exists in our mind.

Question 10

define availability heuristic

Answer 10

the more easily we can recall something, the more likely it seems. we also can overestimate the work that we put in if we never say the other person do their portion of the work.

ex. crime rate in the major cities in Canada

Question 11

define counterfactual thinking

Answer 11

imagining alternative scenarios and outcomes that might have happened, but did not

the student who got a B-, just by a point feels better, than a student who got a B+, instead of an A- just by a mark

Question 12

define illusory correlation

Answer 12

a perception of a relationship where none exist or a perception of a stronger relationship that actually exists

Question 13

define belief perseverance

Answer 13

persistence of your initial conception, as when the basis for your belief is discredited but an explanation of why the belief might be true survives

Question 14

define the misinformation effect

Answer 14

incorporating misinformation into one’s memory of an event, after witnessing and event and then receiving misleading info about it

Question 15

define misattribution

Answer 15

mistakenly attributing a behaviour to the wrong case

Question 16

define attribution theory

Answer 16

analyzing how we explain poeples behaviour and what we infer from it, whether ti be internal to external causes.

Question 17

define the fundamental attribution error

Answer 17

tendency for observers to underestimate situational influences and overestimate dispositional influence on others behaviuor

Question 18

what are the main things that contribute to us making attribution error?

Answer 18

• perspective and situational awareness
• cultural differences

Question 19

define self-sulfilling prophecies

Answer 19

beliefs that lead to thier own fulfillment

Question 20

define behavioural confirmation

Answer 20

a type of self-fulfilling prophecy whereby people’s social expectations lead them to act in ways that cause others to confirm their expectations

Question 21

where do first impressions come from?

Answer 21

• what people say about themselves (true or not)
• what people don’t say (facial expression, eye contact, posture, gestures, pitch/volume)

Question 22

how quickly can we create an impression of someone?

Answer 22

as quickly as before we finish blinking, we unconsciously decide the importance of this person

Question 23

is our automatic thinking accurate?

Answer 23

from a study conducted with the faces of politicians, people were able to pretty accurately guess which person looked more competent just based on their facial features. this suggests that our initial reactions (automatic judgements) are not too far off from the truth.

Question 24

how quickly can we judge someone?

Answer 24

in 50ms, we can judge people about extraversion, sexual orientation, and success at above chance-levels

Question 25

can we detect a narcissist?

Answer 25

in a experiment, people were shown pictures of many people and than had a better than 50/50 odds to say if they were a narcissist or not. we need someones whole face in order to determine these things.

Question 26

can unrelated event influence our judgement?

Answer 26

yes! whether it is postive or negative, it can influence our judgements of people and things.

ex. shoppers that receive a free gift along side a large purchase tend to report higher levels of satisfaction with the purchase.

Question 27

what are the 3 things poeple are insensitive to when it comes to the representative heuristic?

Answer 27

1. base rate frequencies: whether a person represents a typical member of that group or not
2. sample size: expect small sample to show the same effect as large samples (ex. flipping a coin 10 times vs. 100 times)
3. misconceptio of chance: small changes in the probability will be corrected in short term, Gambler’s Fallacy (every event is independent on their on, having 3 boys in a row, you would think that a girl has to be next, but it is still 50/50 odds)

Question 28

what are the 3 things in correlation with performance evaluations?

Answer 28

egocentric bias (assume one contributed more than one’s fair shard to a joint task, ex. group project), availability heuristic (only recall our own actions so tend to overestimate ours and underestimate others) and practical implications (just being honest)

Question 29

how can memories be reconstructed by our attitudes?

Answer 29

we reconstruct on memories all the time, and from this, we can incorporate our current beliefs. we reconstruct memories with current emotions all the time.

ex. if someone asked you how your first date went, after being 2 years into date, people can say it was love at first sight because they love them now . they input today’s belief on past experiences even when its intentional and a lie.

Question 30

define fundamental attribution error

Answer 30

tendency to overlook the impact of a situation and attribute someone’s actions to his or her disposition (give evidence of their behaviour)

same situation = same behaviuor

Question 31

What are the 2 attributions?

Answer 31

• internal (behaviuor is caused by internal factors like personality, attitudes, and motives)

-external (behaviour is caused by situational factors)

Question 32

give an example of an situation with internal and external attributions that someone could make.

Answer 32

internal: my boyfriend was later to our data because he doesn’t actually love me

external: my boyfriend was late because he got help up in bad traffic

Question 33

define Kelley’s Covariation Model

Answer 33

the type of attribution is determined by weighing 3 pieces of info:
- consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency

all can be low or high

Question 34

define the 3 peices of kelleys model

Answer 34

consensus: do others act the same in the same situation
distinctiveness: does this person act this way with certain stimulus
consistency: do they respond with the same stimulus the same way

example on slide 7 of part 2

Question 35

give an example of fundamental attribution error

Answer 35

an example is when poeple stayed when a huge hurricane was coming. people were surveyed and they thought that they wanted to stay at their homes because they were irresponsible and didn’t wanna put the effort in to go somewhere else, like most people did. but when the people that stayed were asked, they said they stayed to help their community and one another. they felt they had more responsibility to stay then to leave.

Question 36

why are our attributions important?

Answer 36

people tend to act on their belief, regardless if its true or not.

our attitudes towards others are based on our explanations.

other peoples attitudes towards us are based on their explanations.

errors can have a large cost (ex.damaging relationship, compassion)

Question 37

what are the 2 main reasons that FEA occurs?

Answer 37

1. perceptual salience
2. automatic vs. controlled reasoning

Question 38

define perceptual salience

Answer 38

we believe that what we focus on must be important (if it drew my attention, it must mean something to me). Situational factors are usually not observable and that can cause great error.

ex. 2 people talking while other people stared at them. then they were asked who contributed most to the discussion, and the person they looked at the most was always the one they said did.

Question 39

define controlled vs. automatic reasoning

Answer 39

automatic: personal/internal attributions

controlled: situational correction (only if we have time,cognitive energy and motivation to correct our mistake made by automatic reasoning)

Question 40

explain the parts of gilbert’s model

Answer 40

Automatic 1st step: we see a behaviour and automatically make a personal attribution

effortful 2nd step: this is where we have to put our energy into coming up with situational attributions that have nothing to do with us.

3rd: always ends on a dispositional interference but it depend which path you take to see what this interference states.

example on slide 20 of part 2

Question 41

define self-fulfilling prophecies

Answer 41

when we believe something about someone, we may behave in ways that confirm our initial attitudes. Also called the pymalion effect by rosanthal.

ex. someone seems to be rude to you, so you distant yourself and are not as friendly. then this person also thinks you are rude cause your not talking to them.

Question 42

how do we use confirmation bias to verify our beliefs?

Answer 42

we seek and interpert info that validates existing beliefs, whether or not they are true.

ex. we say that tom is nice, so we only notice nice behaviour to validate our thoughts.

Think of example of guy being shot by 6 different photographers and how they all portrayed him differently based on what they were told.

Question 43

what are the 3 steps in self-fulfilling prophecies?

Answer 43

1. perceivers expectations (mary thinks dave is shy)
2. perceivers beahviuor toward the target (mary treats dave with less warmth)
3. targets beahviuor towards the perceiver (dave responds by withdrawing)

Question 44

can prejudice create self-fulling prophecies?

Answer 44

YES! Can lead to disadvantages for stigmatized groups. prejudice and stereotypes can become self-fulfilling prophecies.

think of example where black and white candidate acting the same but interviewers still went with with people to be more competent of the job.