Hamilton Flashcards
What did McGarty et al (1993) criticise about Hamilton and Gifford’s (1976) cognitive explanation of the illusory correlation effect?
Flawed assumptions about people’s ability to estimate
According to Hamilton & Gifford (1976), which characteristic is usually better remembered and therefore more likely to create illusory correlation?
Distinctiveness
What is person in the social cognition understanding
= faulty information processing device due to limited capacity -> People are ‘cognitive misers’
what is a cognitive miser
not always wanting to do a lot of hard work
What is the aim of social cognition
Social phenomena can be explained without political and sociological theories but with social cognition instead
How did Lippmann say we avoid info overload?
• Avoid information overload by – Summarising information – Selecting information – Generalising All hallmarks of stereotypes!
What does Hamilton and Gifford say the consequence of the need to simplify is
we only pay attention to those things that demand attention
What is a disticntive info
often novel and rare
How may statistical infrequency create bias
by creating distinctiveness
How are negative things remembered
• Negative things also tend to stick in the mind more as they are less frequent
Where were illusory correlations first used
in clinical psych
Who first used the term illusory correlation
Loren and Jean Chapman (1967)
What did Chapman use illusory correlation to refer to
unrelated clinical concepts that are seen as related because they were expected to relate to each other
What did Hamilton and Gifford say about negatvie behaviour in a minority grouo
Negative behaviour by minority group members is thus doubly distinct, and therefore particularly attention grabbing
What is an illusory correlation
false impression that two variables correlate
What was the design of Hamilton and Gifford’s study 1
– 26 statements about Group A, 13 statements about Group B
– 27 statements about positive behaviour, 12 about negative behaviour
What was the predicton of study 1
Participants rate Group B more negatively than Group A, despite the ratio of desirable to undesirable behaviour being the same for both groups.
what were the measurements used in study 1
assignment task,
frequency estimation,
trait ratings
What were the results of study 1
People underrated desirable behaviours in the minority group.
In the frequency estimate, there was an overestimation for the minority.
How was study 2 different from1
Undesirable behaviour > Desirable behaviour
There is more undesirable behaviour statements than positive
What were the results of study 2
that statistically infrequent behaviour (in this case desirable (!) behaviour) is more frequently remembered for the minority group
Illusory correlation
People underrated the desirable acts done by the majority and overrated the desirable acts done by the minority.
How did Zajonc criticise about the study
Mere exposure
– If you see it quite often, you start liking it
– Greater frequency of Group A members occurring leads to familiarity, which leads to liking
– BUT: would not explain Study 2 findings!
What is the conceptual criticism
Distinctiveness may not be the key explanatory feature but skewed distribution combined with statistical infrequency
How did Fiedler criticise the stufy
– Random information loss likely because of large number of behaviours that need to be remembered
– Random information loss will disadvantage small groups
• Lose informative info about small groups. Need to rely on the info you know. They may overestimate positivity of the positive group as they can remember it as the majority group are thought of frequently
How did Smith criticise the study
– Focus on absolute number (i.e. 10 more pieces of positive information for the larger group) creates overly positive impression
How did McGarty criticise the theory
based on self-categorisation theory
• Participants will try to find out how the groups differ, as this will help them to operate in a complex environment (‘differentiated meaning’)
• Stereotypes are not inherently negative but are as flexible, complex and accurate as they need to be to be adaptive
• Motivated to distinguish: There is support to see Group A as positive (18-8) but not much about Group B (9-4)
• If just cognitive bias, shouldn’t matter if it is A or B
• Would work better if personal (e.g. Exeter v Bath)
What did Haslam’s follow up study show
• Replication of original study except…
– Participants were told of a difference between the groups (e.g. left-handed group v right-handed group) before given the information about behaviour
– Hypothesis: No illusory correlation because there is no more need to differentiate between the groups
– Result: No illusory correlation effect
What is the most widely citd account of stereotype formation
hamilton
