Social Cognition and Attribution Flashcards
What is social cognition?
The way people understand their social world
What are the dual process theories?
Posit that humans have two systems/styles for processing information
What are the dual processes detailed in the theory?
System 1 - automatic processing; fast, intuitive, emotional (“hot”)
System 2 - controlled processing; slow, deliberate, logical (“cold”)
System 1 responds, system 2 corrects if motivation and resources are sufficient
What is a heuristic?
A mental shortcut or rule of thumb (a system 1 process)
What is the availability heuristic?
Assuming something happens more frequently due to the event coming to mind easily
What did the Gigerenzer (2004) study tell us about availability heuristics?
People avoided planes after the 9/11 attacks, leading to more driving fatalities → salience of memory can impact behavior
What is the representativeness heuristic?
Focusing on surface similarities to make inferences about likelihood (looks like = is like, i.e. seeing a red shirt in Target and assuming it is an employee)
What is confirmation bias?
The tendency to search for information that confirms our preconceptions
What does the Ross & Lepper (1979) study say about confirmation bias?
Information about capital punishment provided to participants supported their stance, regardless of what their stance was → search for info that supports our preconceptions
What is egocentric bias?
The tendency to focus on ourselves (better memory for personally-relevant information)
What is the spotlight effect?
The tendency for people to believe they’re being noticed more than they are (i.e. embarrassing t-shirt study)
What is self-fulfilling prophecy?
Expectations lead us to act in ways that confirm our expectations (i.e. “bloomers” vs. normal students)
What is belief perseverance?
The persistence of one’s initial conceptions even in the face of opposing evidence
What does the Andersen et al. (1980) firefighter study tell us about belief perseverance?
Participants were provided info about firefighters → maintained initial opinions despite information being revealed as fake
What is a false consensus?
The tendency to assume others share our opinions, preferences, and behaviors
What is false distinctiveness?
The tendency to assume our opinions, preferences, and behaviors are unique
What is the pattern for false consensus/distinctiveness?
Behavior is undesirable = consensus
Behavior is desirable = distinctiveness
What is the halo effect?
We tend to generalize broad impressions to specific qualities about a person (“beautiful is good” effect)
What is the optimistic bias?
The tendency to have overly positive expectations
What is the exception to the optimistic bias?
Bracing for the worst - becoming more pessimistic as the “moment of truth” draws near
What does the Shepperd et al. (1996) exam study tell us about bracing for the worst?
The expectation of earned scores on an exam drops as the day of getting grades back nears → optimism decreases as students brace for the worst
What is the bias blind spot?
The tendency to believe that we are more objective and less biased than others
What does the Pronin et al. (2002) study tell us about the bias blind spot?
85% of people believed they were less biased than the average American → people believe they are less biased than others (only 1 in 600 believed they were more biased)
What is the liking gap?
After conversations, people underestimate how much their conversation partner likes them
What is the thought gap?
After conversations, people underestimate how much their conversation partner thinks about them (relative to the reverse)
What is counterfactual thinking?
Imagining scenarios that differ from what actually happened
What are the two kinds of counterfactual thinking?
Upward counterfactuals - “if only” (better alternative), arise after bad events, make us feel worse, motivate change
Downward counterfactuals - “at least” (worse alternative), after good events, feel better, motivate repeated behavior
What does the Medvec et al. (1992) study of Olympic medal winners tell us about counterfactual thinking?
Participants saw an image of Olympic medal winners and assumed gold was the happiest and silver was the least happy → assumed silver was thinking “if only”
What are causal attributions?
Explanations people use for what caused a particular event or behavior
What is the locus of causality?
Asking whether the cause of an event or behavior can be attributed to the person (dispositional attribution) or the situation (situational/external attribution)
What is the covariation principle?
People determine locus of causality in terms of things that are present when the event occurs but absent when it does not
Consistency across situations and time = dispositional
Consistency across people, not situations and time = situational
What is the stability of causality?
Asking whether the cause of an event/behavior is likely to repeat itself in a similar situation
What do fixed vs. growth mindsets (Dweck) tell us about the stability of causality?
Seeing personal characteristics as relatively stable (fixed) vs. changeable (growth) → determines the stability of causality
What is correspondent interference?
The tendency to make dispositional attributions for others’ behavior (also called the fundamental attribution error)
What does the Ross et al. (1977) quiz show study tell us about correspondent interference?
Participants assigned as host, contestants or observers → contestants and observers assumed host was more intelligent despite random assignment
What are the cultural differences in attributions?
Collectivist cultures = more situational attributions
Lower socioeconomic status = more situational attributions
