Lecture 2: Perception, Attribution and Decision Making Flashcards
what are the 3 steps of perception?
- register sensory information (see, hear etc)
- interpret/make judgements (intellectually, emotionally, psychologically, cognitively)
- respond to the data thru your behaviour
what is social cognition?
how we process, store and apply info in the social context… and how this informs our behaviour
what is the theory of mind test?
sally and anne looking for the ball in the basket v the box
what do people sometimes forget influences theory of mind?
their culture and experience, and these influences can muddy our interpretation of what we think others are thinking
how do our brains fail us with ambiguous stimuli?
we form patterns from an ambiguous image and these patterns or what we see can be very stubborn, and even after the actual image is pointed out, our brain can sometimes be unable to reject the patterns originally saw
in what 3 main ways are we expected to pass judgement on others in organisations?
- attribute motives - draw conclusions about why people do things
- performance mgmt - conclude on how well people did things in the past
- recruitment, selection and promotion - predict how well people will do things in the future
what does attribution theory suggest?
that humans are intentional and do things for a reason
what is the self “serving nature of attribution errors”?
I succeed because of internal factors and fail because of external factors - whereas for others it is vice a versa
what is the contrast effect?
“if you want to look attractive, stand next to someone unattractive”
- highlights that one may not be using objective criteria to measure performance
what is confirmation bias?
we see what confirms the assumption that we already had… we look for data that confirms what we were already thinking
what is the halo effect?
the assumption that if someone is good/bad at something, then they are good/bad at everything
what is the effect of anchoring? give eg
basically first impressions sticking - it is the tendency to use the first piece of information that we get about someone to be the yard stick against subsequent experiences, and place more value on that first piece of information
eg, 30 second recruitment seminar
what is the availability effect? give eg
tendency for people to base judgements on info that is readily available.
eg, beautiful is good, someone who is good looking is therefore good
what is escalation of commitment?
an increased commitment to a previous decisions even if it is not the best course of action (in spite of negative info on this decision)
what is “non-decision making”?
relying on taken for granted conventions to make decisions for us… not making decisions as we let the circumstances around us influence the progress
T or F, people prescribe height to leadership? give example?
ceos in america are taller than average
why are interviews, when used alone, not the best way of hiring people?
because they are a poor predictor of performance
what are the two organisational impacts of biases?
recruitment and selection
performance mgmt
how can biases impact performance mgmt?
we tend to overestimate the performance of above avg performers going forward, and vice a versa for below avg performers
what is the double curse theory?
that our lack of skill deprives us of the ability to recognise our performance is poor in the first place, as well as depriving us of the ability to improve on poor performance
when are we less likely to recognise our deficiencies?
when we are less skilled and knowledgeable
outline dunning 2003 study
asked students to predict their performance before an exam… found that bottom 75% overestimated their performance while top 25% underestimated their ranking in the class
what is another name for the double curse theory?
the dunning kruger effect
who wrote about bounded rationality?
herbert simon
