Chapter 4 Flashcards
Social Perception
The study of how we form impressions of and
make inferences about other people
Nonverbal Communication
How people communicate, intentionally or unintentionally, without words Examples: Facial expressions Tone of voice Gestures Body position Movement Use of touch Gaze
Encode
Express or emit nonverbal behavior
Decode
Interpret the meaning of nonverbal behavior
Darwin
Nonverbal forms of communication is species, not
culture, specific
Are facial expressions of emotion universal
Yes, for the six major emotional expressions
– Anger, happiness, surprise, fear, disgust, and sadness
Affect blends
Facial expressions in which one part of the face
registers one emotion while another part of the face
registers a different emotion
Display rules
– Dictate what kinds of emotional expressions people are
supposed to show
– Are culture-specific
Examples of Display Rule Differences
- Display of emotion
- Eye contact/gaze
- Personal space
Emblems
– Nonverbal gestures that have well-understood
definitions within a given culture
– Usually have direct verbal translations, like the “OK”
sign.
• Emblems are not universal!
Judging a book by its cover
– Easily observable things we can see and hear
– Crucial to first impression
How quickly do first impressions form
Form initial impressions based on facial appearance in
less than 100 milliseconds
Limited exposure can
lead to meaningful first
impressions of abilities and personalities
Thin-slicing
– Drawing meaningful conclusions about another
person’s personality or skills based on an extremely
brief sample of behavior
Primacy Effect
When it comes to forming impressions, the first traits
we perceive in others influence how we view
information that we learn about them later
Belief Perseverance
The tendency to stick with an initial judgment even in
the face of new information that should prompt us to
reconsider
Using First Impressions and Nonverbal
Communication to Our Advantage
- Public speaking
- Job interview
- Hand shake quality
- Body language
Causal Attribution
– Attribution Theory (Fritz Heider)
– Covariation Model (Harold Kelley)
Heider
– “Father” of attribution theory
– “Naïve” or “commonsense” psychology
Viewed people as amateur scientists
– Piece together information to figure out cause
Attribution theory
The way in which people explain the causes of their
own and other people’s behavior
When deciding about causes of behavior, we can
make one of two attributions
– Internal, dispositional attribution
– External, situational attribution
Internal Attribution
Infer a person is behaving in a certain way
because of something about the person (e.g.,
attitude, character, personality)
External Attribution
• Infer a person is behaving a certain way because
of something about the situation
• Assume most people would respond the same
way in that situation
The Covariation Model
A theory that states that to form an attribution
about what caused a person’s behavior, we
systematically note the pattern between the
presence or absence of possible causal factors
and whether or not the behavior occurs
about The Covariation Model
• Focuses on how behavior “covaries”
– Across time, place, actors, and targets
• Examines how perceiver chooses an internal or
an external attribution
We make choices about internal versus external
attributions by using three pieces of information
– Consensus
– Distinctiveness
– Consistency
Consensus Information
The extent to which other people behave the
same way toward the same stimulus as the actor
does
Distinctiveness Information
The extent to which one particular actor behaves
in the same way to different stimuli
Consistency Information
The extent to which the behavior between one
actor and one stimulus is the same across time
and circumstances
Internal attribution occurs when
– Consensus = Low
Behavior is unique to the person
– Distinctiveness = Low
Person displays same behavior with different targets and in
different situations
– Consistency = High
The person’s behavior occurs reliably across occasions
External attribution occurs when
– Consensus = High
Other people behave similarly in the same situation
– Distinctiveness = High
The person’s behavior is specific to that situation or target
– Consistency = High
The person’s behavior occurs reliably across occasions
Evaluation of the Covariation Model
• Information about all three dimensions may not be
available
– People still make attributions
• Consistency and distinctiveness used more than
consensus
The Fundamental Attribution Error
Tend to make internal attributions for other
people’s behavior and underestimate the role of
situational factors
Why does the fundamental attribution error occur
– Tend to focus attention on person, not the surrounding
situation
The person is “perceptually salient”
– Use the focus of attention as a starting point
Perceptual Salience
The seeming importance of information that is the focus of
people’s attention
The Two-Step Attribution Process
- Make an internal attribution
– Assume that a person’s behavior was due to
something about that person
– Occurs quickly, spontaneously - Adjust attribution by considering the situation
– May fail to make enough adjustment in second step
– Requires effort, conscious attention
about The Two-Step Attribution Process
• Engage in the second step if:
– You consciously slow down, think carefully before
reaching a judgment
– You are motivated to reach an accurate judgment
– You are suspicious about the behavior (e.g., we
suspect lying)
• Two-step model less applicable in cultures where
internal attributions not the default
Self-Serving Attributions
Explanations for one’s successes that credit
internal, dispositional factors, and explanations for
one’s failures that blame external, situational
factors
Why do we make self-serving attributions?
- We want to maintain self-esteem.
- We want other people to think well of us and to
admire us. - We know more about the situational factors that affect
our own behavior than we do about other people’s
The Burden of Solo Athletes
One domain in which self-serving biases may be particularly common is the world
of sports, especially among solo athletes, for whom the entire weight of winning
or losing rests on their shoulders
Belief in a just world
– The assumption that people get what they deserve and
deserve what they get
– Type of defensive attribution
Advantage and Disadvantage to Belief in a Just World
• Advantage – Allows people to deal with feelings of vulnerability, mortality • Disadvantage – Blaming the victim Rape victims Battered wives
The “Bias Blind Spot”
• People realize biases in attribution can occur
• Believe other people more susceptible to
attributional biases compared to self
Members of individualistic cultures
– Prefer dispositional attributions
– Think like personality psychologists
Members of collectivistic cultures
– Prefer situational explanations
– Think like social psychologists
– Greater situational focus is matter of degree
Do they make dispositional attributions?
Are they more likely to go on to the “second step”?
How might you use what you have learned about
the power of nonverbal cues in social perception
to be more effective in daily interactions?
I am now able to better understand a person with out jumping to conclusions
