cold theories and hot theories Flashcards
Cold theories
range effects, misinformation effect, availability heuristic, functional fixedness, self-perception theory
hours spent on social media study
showed range effect, 0->2.5 hers a day vs 2.5->4.5 yielded different results
Range effects
responses are influenced by the range of responses available (people infer average, like anchoring)
- biases can impact subsequent responses
misinformation effect
new info leads to errors in memory
- memory = faulty reconstruction
- E.g. leading questions “How fast were the cars going when they ____ each other?”
Availability heuristic
we judge the frequency of something by how easily we can remember examples
- last names
- heuristic = mental shortcut -> create biases
functional fixedness
tendency to think in terms of traditional uses for objects - limits create problem solving
- Emma screwdriver is used… to screw, pendulum weight
Hot cognition
cognitive dissonance, motivated reasoning, framing effect, confirmation bias
cognitive dissonance (CD)
discomfort created by conflict between 2 thoughts, or between a thought and behavior
- we react by adjusting beliefs and behaviors to make ourselves seem consistent
insufficient justification
social situation causes our behaviors, but threat/reward is insufficient to make us realize it
- study: boring task, asked to lie and say it was fun (group 1: $1 group 2: $20)
- results: those who were paid $1, began to believe they had fun (had dissonance, unlike $20 group)
study on CD
rate 8 items on desirability
- free choice paradigm: make choice between 2 items (high vs low CD)
- results: changed rating after choosing
biases are driven by…
both hot and cold processes
Cold explanation : self perception theory (SPT)
we judge our own attitudes using the same cognitive processes used to judge other people’s attitudes
motivated reasoning neural basis: political study
- participants: right handed males, Republican and Democrats
- contradictory statements rated 1-4
- rated their candidates contradictory statements as significant less contradictory
Hot explanation - neural areas had more activity…
Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC): anxiety, negative emotion etc…
Ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC): judging value (i.e. emotional value)
fMRI studies are consistent with CD theory’s claim that…
that contradictions create a state of discomfort, which then motivates a change in one’s stated attitude or behavior (to appear more consistent))
Study: boring taks in fMRI
hot neural regions:
- ACC
- Insula: involved in pain perception, disgust, visceral “gut” feelings
more activation = greater attitude change
- ACC and insult may drive change
- dissonance = state of discomfort
Emotion-related brain activity (ACC, etc…) is associated with
- politically biased judgements
- attitude change in the insufficient justification effect
Marijuana Study (CD)
3.50$ or 35$$ to state opposite opinion to a proc, con or uncommitted audience
- attitude change was greatest where there was only $3.50 and communicating with an uncommitted audience
- suggested CD and insufficient justification effect is increased when our behavior have potential negative consequences
Framing Effect study
600 people
1. A. 200 live B. 1/3 600 live, 2/3 600 die (chose A)
2. A. 400 die B. 1/3 600 live, 2/3 600 die (chose B
- people are more willing to take a risk when their is risk of losing something
Framing effect
the way information is presented impacted how we interpret that information
Loss Aversion
stronger motivation to avoid bad things than to seek good things
- proposed explanation for endowment effect: selling price > buying price because selling involves losing the item
Pizza study
build up or scale down
- scale down ended with more ingredients, loss aversion
organ donation study
opt in less likely than opt out
could be…
- misinformation effect
- effort avoidance
- loss aversion
Effort avoidance
given 2 paths we choose less work path
confirmation bias
finds info that will prove us right
- type of motivated reasoning
motivated reasoning
we rely on biased cognitive processes, which we choose selectively based on our goals
- accuracy goals
-directional goals
accuracy goals
one where we are motivated to arrive at the most accurate possible conclusion. These occur when the cost of being inaccurate is high.
directional goals
one where we are motivated to arrive at a particular conclusion. We will thus narrow our thinking, selecting beliefs, etc. that support the conclusion.
