lecture 8

Question 1

Feeling “holier than thou”

Answer 1

People believe
they are more moral, kind, and altruistic than
the average person

• Better-than-average effect when it comes to
  morality
• Maybe because of cognitive biases?

Question 2

Feeling holier than thou (seeing self as superior) could be because of

Answer 2

• overly charitable views of self (and accurate views of their others)?
• overly cynical views of others?

Question 3

“daffodil days study 1

Answer 3

What is the source of bias for feeling holier-than-thou?

Question 4

method study 1

Answer 4

5 weeks before charity event: * “Will you buy at least one daffodil and, if so, how many?”
* “Will a peer buy at least one daffodil?”
* 3 days after event:
* “How many did you buy?”

Question 5

what does study 1 suggest

Answer 5

that feeling “holier than thou” is due to errors in judgement about self, not in judgements about others

Question 6

Across 4 studies, people overestimate likelihood that they would choose the kinder action by an average of

Answer 6

32% (but only by 4% for
others)

Question 7

what does the cogntiive bias in self perception mean

Answer 7

• Means that seeing self as uniquely kind is due to having overly favourable views of self and not due to being overly cynical about others

Question 8

types of information on which to base predictions of future behaviour

Answer 8

case-based and distributional/ base-rate

Question 9

case based

Answer 9

evidence relevant to the specific case or person under consideration

Question 10

distributional/ base rate

Answer 10

evidence about the distribution of behaviour in similar or past situtations

Question 11

people are good at estimating

Answer 11

the distribution of social behaviour in various domains

Question 12

base rate fallacy

Answer 12

we tend to assign greater value to to case-based info and often ignore distributional info

Question 13

when we make predictions about our own behaviours we use

Answer 13

case based info

Question 14

when we male predictions about average persons behaviour we use

Answer 14

base-rate info

Question 15

Idea of “average person” is vague and abstract

Answer 15

so no case-based info is available,
and therefore we have to rely on distributional info

Question 16

base rate fallacies in self perceptions?

Answer 16

do we use case-based info to predict own behaviour and base rate info to predict others behaviour

Question 17

study 2 method

Answer 17

Participants received $5.00 for participating in study

• Received info about 3 charities
• Told that future participants will have a chance of donating any or all of their study
  compensation to one of them
• If in this situation, how much would you and average peer donate?
• Then, learned about ACTUAL donations of 3, 7, then 13 people from
  earlier study and allowed to revise prediction after each new piece of
  info

Question 18

what does the study 2 show

Answer 18

evidence of base-rate fallacies in self-perceptions

Question 19

base rate info proved

Answer 19

accuracy of predictions o peers behaviours

Question 20

what did base rate info not improve

Answer 20

accuracy of predictions for own behaviour

hung on to case-based info and rejected base-rate info

Question 21

this doesnt rule out

Answer 21

self-enhancement motivation

Question 22

using case-based info to judge a specific other

Answer 22

Does presence of any case-based info prompt ignoring of distributional info?

Question 23

method study 3

Answer 23

Repeated method of previous study but added third
prediction
* Participants read a peer’s self-description
* How much would you donate?
* How much would average peer donate?
* How much would this specific peer donate?

Question 24

results of study 3

Answer 24

People ignored base-rate info for self AND for specific peer

Feeling holier than thou (better-than-average) not necessarily due to selfenhancement motivation, but base-rate fallacy

Question 25

information processing biases can lead to

Answer 25

overly pos self views

Question 26

we use case-based infor ot male

Answer 26

judgements about the self

Question 27

Some better-than-average studies show that

Answer 27

there are some domains where people tend to rate themselves as worse than others

Question 28

what are the domains where people rate themselves as worse than others

Answer 28

* Concentration * Artistic ability * Acting ability * Mechanical ability

Question 29

hypothesis for anchoring bias

Answer 29

responsible for the better-than-average and worse-than-average effects

Question 30

common human tendency to rely too heavily on .. when making a decision

Answer 30

the first piece of information that comes to mind

Question 31

what does the anchoring bias mean

Answer 31

judgements will be biased towards anchor/info that we can easily retrieve

Question 32

when comparing self and others

Answer 32

we first think about our own abilities because they come to us automatically and effortlessly

Question 33

only think about others ability after

Answer 33

effortful and thus we insufficiently take this info into account

Question 34

causes our judgements of ourselves to be biased by

Answer 34

towards how we perceive our own ability in a given domain

Question 35

anchoring bias hypothesis

Answer 35

responsible for the better-than-average and worse-than-average effects

Question 36

peoples own skills serve as ... but we fail to consider...

Answer 36

an anchor the skills of others

Question 37

better than average effect in domains are

Answer 37

easy for most people

Question 38

worse-than-average effect in domain that are

Answer 38

hard for most people

Question 39

Anchor to own experience of task feeling effortless

Answer 39

failing to take into account that others may feel similarly

Question 40

Anchor to own experience of task feeling hard

Answer 40

failing to take into account that others may feel similarly

Question 41

study 2 better than average effect and difficulty

Answer 41

Experimentally manipulated participants perceptions of their skills: * Assessed “integrative ability” using bogus test * Participants either got a hard or easy test

Question 42

outcomes of study 2

Answer 42

PARTICIPANTS RATED OWN ABILITY COMPARED WITH PEERS ABILITY

Question 43

predictions about study 2

Answer 43

Easy test: Participants will see own ability as above average Difficult test: Participants will see own ability as below average

Question 44

Difficulty of test determined whether people saw themselves as

Answer 44

better-than or worse-than average

Question 45

both motivational and cognitive processes result in

Answer 45

biased self views that may serve us well

Question 46

positive illusions are good

Answer 46

higher subjective well-being higher achievement more relationship satisfaction and commitment coping with challenges

Question 47

positive illusions are bad

Answer 47

More boasting Consequently, alienate others, which leads to loneliness in the long run Set unrealistically high goals, leading to frequent failure and, consequently, low well-being Or, no reason to self-improve and, consequently, miss opportunities to advance skills

Question 48

meta-analysis

Answer 48

200 studies with more than 10,000 participants

Question 49

positive illusions about self are good for

Answer 49

personal adjustment higher subjective well-being and lower feelings of depression

Question 50

Positive illusions have mixed effects for relationships

Answer 50

1. How long you know someone matters relationships 2. Type of traits you self-enhance on matters

Question 51

1. How long you know someone matters

Answer 51

Self-enhancement linked with more liking by strangers, but no association for longer-term relationships

Question 52

2. Type of traits you self-enhance on matters

Answer 52

Self-enhancement on collectivistic traits were seen as more likeable/warm Self-enhance on individualistic traits (independence, power, achievement) seen as more competent but also less likeable/warm

Question 53

positive illusions are associated with people

Answer 53

feeling good about themselves

Question 54

when interacting with strangers

Answer 54

its helpful to come across as confident matters less with people one knows

Question 55

if want to come across as likeable

Answer 55

enhance collectivistic traits

Question 56

if want to come across as competent

Answer 56

enhance individualistic traits