Chapter 4 - Social Perception Flashcards
Social perception
the study of how people form impressions of others and make inferences about others
Nonverbal communication
the ways in which people communicate either intentionally or unintentionally without using words
- facial expressions
- gaze
- touch
- voice tone
- body movement
- body position
- etc.
Decoding
the interpretation of nonverbal behavior other people express
Encoding
the expression of nonverbal behavior
Six univeral emotional expressions
- anger
- happiness
- surprise
- sadness
- fear
- disgust
Affect blends
facial expressions where one part of the face is registering one emotion, while another part of the face is registering a different emotion
Display rules
culturally determined rules about which nonverbal behaviors are appropriate to display in social situations
Emblems
nonverbal gestures that have a well-understood definition within a specific culture, and also a direct verbal translation
Thin-slicing
the process of drawing meaningful conclusions about another person’s personality or skills based on a very brief sample of behavior
Primacy effect
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 judgement even when people are shown new information that should change their previous judgement
Attribution theory
a discription of the ways in which people explain the causes of their own and other people’s behavior
- internal attribution
- external attribution
Internal attribution
a person behaves a certain way because of something about that person such as attitude, character, or personality
External attribution
a person behaves in a certain way because of the situation that person is in, with the assumption that most people would respond the same way in that situation
Covariation model
a theory that states that to form an attribution about what caused a person’s behavior, we note the pattern between when the behavior occured and the presence or absence of possible causal factors
Consensus information
the extent to which other people behave in the same way toward the same stimulus as the actor does
Distinctiveness information
the extent to which a particular actor behaves in the way toward different stimuli
Consistency information
the extent to which the behavior between one actor and one stimulus is the same across time and circumstances
Fundamental attribution error
the tendency people have to overestimate the extent to which other people’s behavior results from internal, dispositional factors and to underestimate the role of situational factors
Perceptual salience
we pay attention to other people rather than their situation, and think that they are the cause of the behavior
Two-step attribution process
- we make an internal attribution, assuming that the persons behavior was due to something about that person
- sometimes we adjust the attribution, but we often don’t take this extra step
Self-serving attribution
people tend to take credit for their success by making internal attributions, however, when people fail they blame others or the situation
Belief in a just world
people believe that bad things happen only to bad people
Bias blind spot
the tendency to think that other people are more susceptible to attribution biases
