CHAPTER 3 SOCIAL BELIEFS AND JUDGEMENTS

Question 1

System 1 thinking

Answer 1

The intuitive, automatic, unconscious, and fast way of thinking.

Question 2

System 2 thinking

Answer 2

The deliberate, controlled, and slower way of thinking.

Question 3

priming

Answer 3

Activating particular associations in memory.

Question 4

embodied cognition

Answer 4

The mutual influence of bodily sensations on cognitive preferences and social judgments.

Question 5

automatic processing

Answer 5

“Implicit” thinking that is effortless, habitual, and without awareness; roughly corresponds to “intuition.” Also known as System 1.

Question 6

controlled processing

Answer 6

“Explicit” thinking that is deliberate, reflective, and conscious. Also known as System 2.

Question 7

schemas

Answer 7

mental concepts or templates that intuitively guide our perceptions and interpretations of our experience; Whether we hear someone speaking of religious sects or sex depends on how we auto- matically interpret the sound.

Question 8

overconfidence phenomenon

Answer 8

The tendency to be more confident than correct—to overestimate the accuracy of one’s beliefs. We recognize that we’ve fallen short of our goals in the past, but we have more positive expectations for our future performance in meeting deadlines, managing relationships, following an exercise routine, and so on.

Question 9

confirmation bias

Answer 9

A tendency to search for information that confirms one’s preconceptions.

Question 10

heuristics

Answer 10

A thinking strategy that enables quick, efficient judgments

Question 11

representativeness heuristic

Answer 11

The tendency to presume, sometimes despite contrary odds, that someone or something belongs to a particular group if resembling (representing) a typical member.

Question 12

availability heuristic

Answer 12

A cognitive rule that judges the likelihood of things in terms of their availability in memory. If instances of something come readily to mind, we presume it to be commonplace.

Question 13

counterfactual thinking

Answer 13

Imagining alternative scenarios and outcomes that might have happened, but didn’t. Imagining better (or worse) alternatives, and pondering what we might do differently next time, helps us prepare to do better in the future.

Question 14

illusory correlation

Answer 14

A perception of a relationship where none exists or a perception of a stronger relationship than actually exists.

Question 15

regression toward the average

Answer 15

The statistical tendency for extreme scores or extreme behaviour to return toward the person’s average. Often, though, we fail to recognize this regression effect. We puzzle at why baseball’s rookie-of-the-year often has a more ordinary second year: Did they become overconfident? Self-conscious? No, we just forgot that exceptional performance tends to regress toward normality.

Question 16

belief perseverance

Answer 16

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

Question 17

misinformation effect

Answer 17

incorporating “misinformation” into one’s memory of an event, after witnessing an event and then receiving misleading information about it.

Question 18

misattribution

Answer 18

Mistakenly attributing a behaviour to the wrong cause.

Question 19

attribution theory

Answer 19

The theory of how people explain the behaviour of others—for example, by attributing it either to internal dispositions (enduring traits, motives, and attitudes) or to external situations, (what might have happened to them in the past, wether that be from an hour ago or things that happened to them since they were a child).

Question 20

dispositional attribution

Answer 20

Attributing behaviour to the person’s disposition and traits.

Question 21

situational attribution

Answer 21

Attributing behaviour to the environment

Question 22

fundamental attribution error

Answer 22

The tendency for observers to underestimate situational influences and overestimate dispositional influences on others’ behaviour; also called correspondence bias because we so often see behaviour as corresponding to a disposition.

Question 23

self-fulfilling prophecies

Answer 23

Beliefs that lead to their own fulfillment. This can be seen in some student teacher expectations.

Question 24

behavioural confirmation

Answer 24

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