lesson 2 - social cognition and biases

Question 1

what is social psychology?

Answer 1

social psychology is the study of perception and behaviour, and how it is influenced by others.

Question 2

what is social cognition?

Answer 2

how we process and store social information. How this affects our perceptions and behaviour.

Question 3

what is attribution?

Answer 3

the process of assigning a cause to one and other’s behaviour

Question 4

what are social schemas?

Answer 4

they are knowledge abut concepts relating to social situations. They help:
- make sense with limited information
- facilitate top-down (theory driven) processing
- can provide intelligence of what is likely to occur in a social situation (what a person should expect)

Question 5

what is a category?

Answer 5

it is organised hierarchically, an associative network. It is a set of blurry features organised around a prototype e.g., if a horse is considered a vehicle.

Question 6

what is a prototype?

Answer 6

cognitive representation of typical defining features of a category (average category member)

Question 7

what is causal attribution?

Answer 7

An inference process through which perceivers attribute an effect to one or more causes. For example, if you studied for an exam but didn’t do as well as expected, person tries to understand ‘why’/ This is causal attribution.

Question 8

we all practice psychology:

Answer 8

Naive scientist: people are rational and scientific like in making cause and effect attributions.
Biased/intuitionist: but information is limited and driven by motivations –> leads to errors and biases.
cognitive miser: people use the least complex and demanding information processing methods, known as cognitive short-cuts.

Question 9

motivated tactician

Answer 9

*Stingy in how we process information because we are efficient.
*Put more effort and deep thought when it is important/required.
*Think carefully and scientifically about certain things.
*Think quickly and use heuristics (mental shortcuts) for others. When less important so that can do things quickly and get more done

Question 10

The naïve scientist: Fritz Heider (1958)

Answer 10

• Our need to find motive in the world. We ascribe motive to the geometric shapes.

Question 11

the naïve scientist: Fritz Heider (1958) 3 principles

Answer 11

1) need to form a coherent view of the world. Search for the motives in others’ behaviour.
2) Need to gain control over the environment. Search for enduring properties that cause behaviour.
3) Need to identify internal (personal) vs external (situational) factors.

Question 12

Attribution theory: causality of success or failure

Answer 12

Cycle:
performance (success/failure) –> feelings (positive/negative) –> attributions –> specific emotion (e.g., pride) –> expectations –> links back around.

Factors that influence perception of success/failure:
- locus of control (internal vs external)
- stability (natural ability - is it the same over time? mood on the day, consistency)
- controllability (effort, luck)

Question 13

What is the correspondent inference theory by Jones and Davis (1965)?

Answer 13

Cues:
- acts are freely chosen
- act produced a non common effect (is the behaviour distinctive? mundane? if act was unusual, may suggest it was driven by the individual)
- not socially desirable (conforming? may not represent your disposition?)
- hedonic (connected with feelings of pleasure) relevance
- personalism (emphasises the importance of humans)

Question 14

correspondent inference:

Answer 14

acts reflects a true characteristic of the person.
deciding if behaviour was caused by dispositional or situational factors.

Question 15

What is the co-variation model? Harold Kelley 1967
what are 3 key aspects of this?

Answer 15

*use multiple observations to try and identify factors that co-vary with behaviour.
*assign causal roles to the factor(s).
*whether behaviour is internal or external is key.

3 key aspects:
- consistency
- distinctiveness
- consensus

Question 16

Harold kelley’s co-variation model:
* consistency
* distinctiveness
* consensus

Answer 16

consistency: does this behaviour always co-occur with the cause
o Low (never failed before after nights out) -> discounting – look for different cause
o High (always fail if go out night before) -> these are linked

Distinctiveness: is the behaviour exclusively linked to this cause or is it a common reaction.
o High (I never failed other exams) -> attribute to external cause
o Low (I generally fail exams) -> internal attribution

Consensus:do other people react in the same way to the cause/situation
o High - strengthens attribution to external cause (realise not to drink before exam);
o low: internal attribution (may just affect me in an adverse way)

Question 17

Summary flashcard - the verdict of the naïve scientist. Different theories used to explain if behaviour is internally or externally caused.

Answer 17

Heider’s naïve scientist:
- Internal/ stable or external/ situational
- BUT: Inverse relationship? Validity of distinction?

Correspondent inference model:
- infer behaviour to internal attributes (e.g. traits)
- BUT: Intentionality? Is ignored in this model. Automatic or deliberate attribution?

Kelley’s co-variation model:
- Consistency, Distinctiveness, Consensus
- BUT: Covariation really used? Salience (importance) of prior info?
- Covariation = Correlation ≠ Causation! (cannot distinguish cause and effect, just shows the relationship between factors)

Question 18

Attribution biases

Answer 18

Systematic errors indicative of shortcuts, gut feeling, intuition. Generalise own thoughts and feelings. Your opinion is salient (important) to you.

Question 19

Ross et al’s study - supporting attribution bias

Answer 19

Students were asked to walk around campus and say if they would promote a cafeteria. They were then asked what they thought other people would say. People who said yes wee more likely to guess that other people also said yes.
 Yes (62% also yes)
 No (67% also no)

Question 20

Ross et al - explanation of study and attribution bias

Answer 20

-Seek out similar others
-Salience of own opinion
-Self-esteem maintenance

Validating our own behaviour – think it is correct, other people acting in a similar way validates us.

Question 21

Fundamental attribution error

Answer 21

• Tendency to attribute behaviour to enduring dispositions.
• Even when clear situational causes

Question 22

Ross et al knowledgeable quiz master study - attribution bias

Answer 22

Allocated some people to the role of quiz master and contestants. Quiz masters were asked to set some tricky questions for contestants. Contestants got all of them wrong. Audience were asked to rate how knowledgeable quiz master and participants were. Quiz masters were rated as more knowledgeable. We make this fundamental attribution error. Discount situational cues.

Question 23

why does the fundamental attribution error occur? Ross et al quizmaster study.

Answer 23

• Target most salient -> internal attribution most accessible.
• more likely to forget situational causes -> dispositional shift. Attention of observer focused on the person answering the question in the quizmaster scenario.

Question 24

fundamental attribution bias is also known as…

Answer 24

Correspondence Bias:
 Robust, but not universal!
 Not evident in young children
 Primarily found in western cultures, not found in India – may be linked to cultural norms.

Question 25

Acter-observer bias: shop assistant example

Answer 25

A shop-assistant is rude to you…
 They are a rude person OR simply stressed. (tend to think dispositionally - internally)
You are rude to a shop-assistant…
 Are you a rude person OR simply stressed? (Tend to think situationally – externally)

Question 26

why is there acter-observer bias?

Answer 26

• Perceptual focus – visual change attributes how we view behaviour.
• Informational difference – you know that you don’t go around being rude to people all the time.
• Moderators – can change the relationship seen.
• Positive behaviour – dispositional more likely
• Perspective taking reverses effect.

Question 27

self serving bias

Answer 27

Success – internally (I am smart, hardworking)
Failure – externally (the exam was hard, political campaign lacked funding)

Question 28

why do we have a self serving bias?

Answer 28

Expectations and self-esteem
-Motivational: maintenance of self-esteem
-Split into self-enhancing and self-protecting bias
-Cognitive: intend/expect to succeed -> attribute internal causes to expected events
*Operates at a group level too (e.g. football wins/losses) – end of match commentary in sports – if they win attribute it internally e.g., good management vs if they lose externally, e.g., pitch conditions.

Question 29

Attribution heuristics: Tversky & Kahneman, 1974

Answer 29

Cognitive shortcut
- Avoid effort, resources expenditure – reduce reliance on mental effort, quick and easy.
- Rule of thumb, not complex mental judgment
- Quick & Easy

Question 30

What are the types of heuristics? (3)

Answer 30

• Availability heuristics
• Representative heuristics
• Anchoring and adjustment heuristics

Question 31

Availability heuristics

Answer 31

Prompt - what is deadlier, a shark or a horse?
Judge frequency or probability of events by how easy it is to think of examples (memory accessibility). Even though you are more likely to be killed or injured by a horse, sharks are wifely regarded as more scary.

Question 32

Representative heuristic

Answer 32

Categorise based on similarity between instance and prototypical category members – e.g., meet someone from Iceland who is rude, then generalize this expectation and think that all people from Iceland are rude after experiencing the small sample.

Question 33

Anchoring and Adjustment Heuristic

Answer 33

Starting point (or initial standard) influences subsequent judgments – often used in salesman. Show you something expensive, gives you an initial expectation of how much to send on a given good. This can influence subsequent judgements.