person perception Flashcards
what is person perception known as
the science of first impressions
definition of person perception
process by which we gauge others’ temporary states such as emotions, intentions, desires and enduring dispositions (beliefs/traits/abilities)
how quickly do we judge others
lasting impressions form in under 100ms (Willis and Todorov 2006)
what is impression formation
Hamilton and Sherman
-observers integrate info about others’ self presentation into unified judgement
-dynamic and continually updating process
what model demonstrates how we form impressions
Asch (1946) configural model
what are the beliefs shaping Asch’s configural model
-some traits influence us more than others
-central traits are salient and peripheral traits are less so
what is the procedure of Asch’s configural model
-American college students receive a talk from an academic
-Asch introduces the academic with a list of words e.g intelligent, skillful, determined etc and either warm or cold
-students rank talk on many factors
-when warm the agreement is high when cold there is more distribution with the rankings
-being described as warm or cold are central traits that affect perception of other traits
procedure of Asch’s variation of the configural model
-repeated word list but with blunt/polite
-these are peripheral traits so have less impact on impressions
weaknesses of Asch’s configural model
-how can you distinguish what traits are central
-centrality of a trait might be a function of context (Zanna and Hamilton 1972)
-we tend to rely on warmth and competence (Fiske 2007), politeness and bluntness are related so how come they didn’t affect perceptions similarly
what are the biases in impression formation
-primacy and recency
-positivity bias
-negativity bias
what is the primacy and recency bias
Asch (1946)
-the order you find out information affects judgement
-usually the first thing you hear drives perception
-under certain conditions e.g tiredness, recency can drive impressions
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what is positivity bias
Sears 1983
-‘benefit of the doubt’
-we assume the best in people in the absence of other evidence
-we evaluate individuals more positively than groups
-e.g in 300,000 teacher ratings 97% of students rated their teacher above average
what is negativity bias
-if we hear negative info these exert very strong influences on our impressions
-these are harder to change (Hamilton and Zanna 1974)
-negative info carries survival value for us: we avoid social costs
personal constructs
Kelly 1955
-we develop unique ways of judging people based on our preferences
Hehman 2017
-your own experiences shape the ways we see others
who came up with cognitive algebra
Anderson 1981
what are the three types of cognitive algebra
summation
averaging
weighted averaging
what is cognitive algebra
-model to understand how we arrive at an overall evaluation of a person
-assumes a mental rating scale when judging a person
what is summation
-part of cognitive algebra
-each trait has a value attached
-summing the values tells us if we have a positive or negative impression
-new info counts so the more we find out the more our impressions change
what is averaging
-part of cognitive algebra
-traits are given a positive or negative value and are then averaged to give an impression
-even positive new information can worsen impressions by averaging
what is weighted averaging
-part of cognitive algebra
-value given to traits with a weighted valuing system
-weight of new info depends on context
-compatible with Asch central trait theory
does appearance affect how we judge others
yes alike interpersonal attraction appearance weighs heavily on how we judge others
what is the halo effect
Dion (1972)
-we rate faces on traits like trustworthiness, kindness, stability, social desirability etc
-as attraction goes up, the more highly rated the traits are
according to the halo effect as attraction increases, the more highly rated traits are apart from one…
parenting ability
give an example of the halo effect in real life
anonymous marking in uni
Landy and Sigall 1974 study
-pp with good or bad essays
-either attractive or unattractive photo attached
-teacher had to grade essays
-attractive people scored higher on essay writing
reverse halo effect
-depending on rater, attractive people receive different kinds of ratings
-Dermer and Thiel 1975: low and high attractive people rate low, average and highly attractive women on positive and negative traits
-our own appearance causes us to judge others differently
are perceptions accurate
Feingold 1992
-good looking people are not what we think
-meta analysis on 40+ studies on halo effect
-strong evidence for halo effect but weak evidence for associations between attractiveness and traits
-good looking people are not more intelligent, more self absorbed, or socially experienced
what did Jussin 2017 claim
accuracy in social perception is higher than inaccuracy
-halo effect may be accurate, good looking people are less lonely/anxious, more popular and socially skilled so there is accuracy in perception
