Chapter 4: Social Perceptions Flashcards
Thin slicing
Thin Slicing:
Making inferences using small information
Short videos people were shown
Social perception
Social Perception-
How we form perception and make inference about other people
This happens immediately, automatically, and unconsciously
Six universal emotions
6 universal facial expression
Happiness Anger Sadness Disgust Fear Surprise
Simulation of smiles model
Simulation of smiles model
When we perceive someone smiling our facial muscles replicate that smile when we’re making eye contact to help us understand what their smile is like
Type of mimicry
Emblems
Emblems- specific signs to a culture
Paralanguage
Paralanguage
Pitch of your voice rhythm etc
Verbal non linguistic things
Nonverbal mimicry
Nonverbal mimicry
Chameleon effect refers to nonconscious mimicry of another’s nonverbal behsvior
Facilitates smooth social interaction
Increase rapport/liking
Pro social behavior
Implicit personality theory
Implicit personality theories
Implicit personality theories are a type of schema people use to group various kinds of personality traits together
This is the general expectations that we build about a person after we know something of their central traits. For example when we believe that a happy person is also friendly.
Causal attributions
Causal attributions
We want to understand why someone acted the way they did
It is the process through which we identify the cause of things
Causal attributions psychologist?
Fritz Heider
Two types of attributions:
two types of attributions
Internal/dispositional
Because of something within them
External/situational
Action because of something outside of them
Kelly’s covariation theory
Consensus
Distinctiveness
Consistency
Kelleys covariation theory
Kelley thought we formed opinions on people through three different ways, and only after we had seen Multiple instances of a persons behavior
Three behaviors
Consensus
Do other people act the same way as this person?
Distinctiveness
Extent to which actor behaves the same way in different events compared to this one
Consistency
Extent to which actor responds in the same way towards that stimulus across time and circumstances
Kelly’s three predicted behaviors
Categories they fall into
Three behaviors
Consensus
Do other people act the same way as this person?
Distinctiveness
Extent to which actor behaves the same way in different events compared to this one
Consistency
Extent to which actor responds in the same way towards that stimulus across time and circumstances
Internal (dispositional) when concensus and distinctiveness is low
External (situational) when con census distinctiveness and consistency are high
Correspondence bias
Correspondence bias
People infer that people’s situational behavior corresponds to their overall disposition
Eg, if they kick a vending machine, they aren’t necessarily an angry person, It could be explained by their disposition
Fundamental attribution error
Fundamental attribution error-
Tendency for people to overestimate the extent to which ppl behavior is due to dispositionsl factors while underestimating the role of situational factors
People assume that someone’s actions are due to somebody’s internal not external factors
Questioner, answerer, observer experiment
Perceptual salience
Perceptual salience
We tend to over-estimate the causal role (salience) of information we have available to us.
We think we know more than we do,
Experiment at the table where they thought they knew more about the one they were watching,
Seeing a mugging on TV and avoiding going out at night
Eg we may not know all the external factors causing someone to kick a vending machine
Anchoring and adjustment as what causes FAE
Anchoring and adjustment
First, we Automatically characterize actors behavior as internally caused we try to correct this and it doesn’t work well.
Eg People watch clip of anxious woman looking uncomfortable
Were given the topic it was in
Actor observer difference and explanation
Actor observer difference
We tend to attribute others behavior to internal cause and ours to situational factors
Why?
Perceptual salience- We think we know more about our situation without considering our own personality
Informational differences, we know more about our own situation
Self serving bias
Belief in a just world
Self handicapping bias
Unrealistic optimism
Self serving bias
-If we do well we attribute it to internal attribution and if we do bad we
attribute it to situational factors
Belief in a just world
- We make attributions about the world assuming there’s “fairness”
- If something good happens they earned it If something bad happens they deserve it
Self handicapping bias
- people avoid effort in the hopes of keeping potential failure from hurting self-esteem
- Creating reasons or excuses why you can’t do something
Unrealistic optimism
- person to believes that they are less at risk of experiencing a negative event compared to others.
- “That’ll never happen to me”
