Soc-Psyc Chapt 3 Flashcards
What is social perception?
Social perception is the process of observing others, collecting information to form impressions and judgments (inferences), and using those judgments to guide attitudes and behaviors. Social perception also includes managing the information we reveal to others (Impression Management)
What is the cognitive confirmation effect?
The cognitive confirmation effect is when a perceiver selectively interprets, attributes, or recalls information about a person to fit their expectations about that person. This occurs even if there is no interaction between the perceiver and the person they’re observing.
How did Darley and Gross (1983) study the cognitive confirmation effect?
Participants watched videos of a fourth-grade girl and were given information suggesting she was from a high or low socioeconomic background. Half of the participants watched a second video of her academic performance. Participants then rated the child’s ability.
What were the results and implications of Darley and Gross (1983)?
Those who watched the performance video rated the girl’s ability higher if they believed she came from a high socioeconomic background. This showed that pre-existing biases can influence how we interpret information
What is a cognitive miser?
The idea of a “cognitive miser” reflects the fact that thinking requires effort, and we have a limited capacity for attention and complex thought at one time. This motivates us to save mental effort.
What are three goals/motives that influence social cognition?
○ The need to be accurate, especially when being wrong has negative consequences
○ The need to reach closure quickly, especially when under time pressure or when the stakes are low
○ The need to confirm what we already believe, especially when beliefs, values, or personal worth are threatened
What are the two systems of thinking in dual-process theory?
○ System 1: fast, automatic, uses heuristics, efficient, prone to bias
○ System 2: slow, controlled, effortful, limited capacity
What is a schema?
A schema is a knowledge structure that represents information about a concept. They are organized packets of information stored in memory that act like templates to integrate new information
Give some examples of schemas.
○ Self-schema: beliefs about ourselves
○ Person schema: beliefs about other people, their traits
○ Role schema: beliefs about expected behaviors in social situations or roles
○ Event schema/script: beliefs about the typical sequence of events in a situation
What is priming?
Priming is the activation of certain associations in memory, making a concept or schema more accessible due to a prior experience.
Describe the study by Bargh, Chen, and Burrows (1996)
Participants unscrambled words that primed them to think of rudeness, politeness, or a neutral condition. Then, they encountered an experimenter engaged in a long conversation. The dependent variables were whether the participant interrupted and how long it took them to interrupt
What were the results of Bargh, Chen, and Burrows (1996)
Participants primed with rude words were more likely and faster to interrupt the conversation.
What did Wenzel (2004) find about scripts in people with social anxiety?
Socially anxious participants generated scripts for social events that contained more negative emotions and cognitions than non-anxious participants. (effective tone)
What is a heuristic?
A heuristic is a mental shortcut used to make judgments or decisions. It’s not always biased, but it introduces the possibility of bias because it simplifies thinking
What is the availability heuristic?
The availability heuristic is the tendency to judge the likelihood of an event by how easily examples come to mind. (form of bias)
How did Schwarz et al. (1991) study the availability heuristic?
Participants were asked to describe either 6 or 12 examples of assertive or unassertive behaviors. Later, they rated their overall assertiveness
What were the results of Schwarz et al. (1991)?
Participants who described 6 assertive behaviors rated themselves as more assertive than those who described 12, and those who described 6 unassertive behaviors rated themselves as less assertive than those who described 12. This is because it’s easier to recall 6 examples, leading to judgments based on ease of recall.
What is the representativeness heuristic?
The tendency to judge the likelihood of something belonging to a category based on how much it resembles a typical case, even if it ignores base rate information. (a form of bias)
What is the base rate fallacy?
The tendency to ignore statistical information (base rates) when making judgments, favoring representativeness information instead.
Describe the study by Fischhoff and Bar-Hillel (1984).
Participants read a description of “James” that sounded like a stereotypical lawyer, even though the base rate suggested he was more likely to be an engineer. Most participants judged him to be a lawyer.
What is a self-fulfilling prophecy?
A self-fulfilling prophecy occurs when a perceiver’s expectations about a person lead them to behave in a way that elicits expectancy-confirming behaviors from that person. Essentially, initially false expectations become true due to the perceiver’s actions.
How did Rosenthal and Jacobsen (1966) demonstrate the self-fulfilling prophecy?
Teachers were told that certain students were “bloomers” who would show intellectual growth. These students, randomly selected, performed better on IQ tests later, likely due to teachers’ expectations and behavior toward them.
What is embodied cognition?
Embodied cognition refers to the link between our physical sensations and our thoughts and feelings.
Describe a study that supports the concept of embodied cognition.
One study found that participants holding an ice pack felt lonelier than those holding a warm pack (Bargh & Shalev, 2012).. Another found that nodding while listening to a message led to greater agreement than shaking one’s head (Wells & Petty,
1980).
