Lecture 4 Social Perception Flashcards
Social Perception
Forming impressions of other people
- What people are like
- Make inferences about them
– How we explain their behavior
First Impression
- Facial Structure: warmth or competence
- Behavior
- Social information: Room tidiness
Schema & First Impression
- Primacy effect
- Halo effect
Primacy effect in Social Perception
The first description of traits have more impact than later description
- e.g. intelligent - stubborn
Halo effect
A positive impression of someone, we presume that the person has many other good qualities
- e.g. capable people are also seen as powerful and dominant
Belief Perseverance
- Tendency to stand by and commit to our INITIAL conclusions
- Even when subsequently learned information suggests we were WRONG
Attribution Theory
The study of how human explain other’s behavior – including their own behavior
People as Naïve Scientists
Human try to understand others by piecing together available information to arrive at a reasonable explanation or cause
Internal Attribution
Personality trait, An attitude, or the person’s character.
External Attribution
- The situation a person is in.
- The assumption is that other people would behave similarly in that situation.
What is the consequences of making external attribution?
- Our impression of the person would not change
- We will respond differently now
What is the consequence of making internal attribution?
- A more negative impression of the person
- We will treat the person differently in the future
Kelly’s Covariation Model
Humans decide whether external or internal attribution based on time, place, and people.
- Consensus
- Distinctiveness
- Consistency
Consensus
PEOPLE
How others would behave in the same situation
Distinctiveness
PLACE
How the same person would behave
in the different situation
Consistency
TIME
How the same people would behave in similar situation across time
Criticism of Kelly’s Covariation Model
- Consensus information is used less frequently than Kelley’s theory predicted
- Often lack information about 1 or more dimensions
- Limited information is used
- Absent information dimensions are guessed
Errors in Attribution
- Fundamental Attribution Error
- Perceptual Salience
- Two-step Attribution Process
- Self-serving Attributions
- The Bias Blindspot
Fundamental Attribution Error
Naïve psychologists think more like personality psychologists
- Inferring a correspondence between people’s behavior and their personality
- Even when there are powerful situational explanations
Perceptual Salience
When an object stands out and captures our attention
- Situational causes are often invisible or nearly invisible to us
What does “people are perceptually prominent” mean?
Human attention naturally gravitates toward people in our environment
- Inferring that people have a large role
Who have better impact on audiences: the one they can see or the other one who the can’t?
The one they could see better had a greater impact on the conversation
Two-step Attribution Process
- Automatic: internal attribution
- Controlled: external attribution
Why do people fail to use the controlled process?
- Distraction
- Lack of Motivation
Criticisms of the Two-step Attribution Process
Cultural difference: Collectivists seem
to involve situations or external attribution more
Self-serving Attributions
- Making internal attributions that give themselves credit for their successes
- Making external attributions that blame situations or other people
What is the common cause of the self-serving attributions?
- Self-esteem being threatened
- Lack of information
Criticisms of the Self-serving Attributions
- They are less common in East Asia than in the West
- They do not necessarily credit people individually but credits the entire team for their success
Belief in a Just World
Belief that good things happen to good people, while bad things happen to people who do bad things
Why do people choose to believe in a just world
- It’s DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND and come to terms with tragic events even when it happens to others
- It’s allows us to relax and feel ASSURED that bad things won’t happen to us because we won’t be that careless
What are the consequence of the belief in a just world
Victim Blaming
The Bias Blindspot
Bing unaware that we are just as likely to be biased as anyone else
