Social Cognition and Attribution

Question 1

What is social cognition?

Answer 1

The way people understand their social world

Question 2

What are the dual process theories?

Answer 2

Posit that humans have two systems/styles for processing information

Question 3

What are the dual processes detailed in the theory?

Answer 3

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

Question 4

What is a heuristic?

Answer 4

A mental shortcut or rule of thumb (a system 1 process)

Question 5

What is the availability heuristic?

Answer 5

Assuming something happens more frequently due to the event coming to mind easily

Question 6

What did the Gigerenzer (2004) study tell us about availability heuristics?

Answer 6

People avoided planes after the 9/11 attacks, leading to more driving fatalities → salience of memory can impact behavior

Question 7

What is the representativeness heuristic?

Answer 7

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)

Question 8

What is confirmation bias?

Answer 8

The tendency to search for information that confirms our preconceptions

Question 9

What does the Ross & Lepper (1979) study say about confirmation bias?

Answer 9

Information about capital punishment provided to participants supported their stance, regardless of what their stance was → search for info that supports our preconceptions

Question 10

What is egocentric bias?

Answer 10

The tendency to focus on ourselves (better memory for personally-relevant information)

Question 11

What is the spotlight effect?

Answer 11

The tendency for people to believe they’re being noticed more than they are (i.e. embarrassing t-shirt study)

Question 12

What is self-fulfilling prophecy?

Answer 12

Expectations lead us to act in ways that confirm our expectations (i.e. “bloomers” vs. normal students)

Question 13

What is belief perseverance?

Answer 13

The persistence of one’s initial conceptions even in the face of opposing evidence

Question 14

What does the Andersen et al. (1980) firefighter study tell us about belief perseverance?

Answer 14

Participants were provided info about firefighters → maintained initial opinions despite information being revealed as fake

Question 15

What is a false consensus?

Answer 15

The tendency to assume others share our opinions, preferences, and behaviors

Question 16

What is false distinctiveness?

Answer 16

The tendency to assume our opinions, preferences, and behaviors are unique

Question 17

What is the pattern for false consensus/distinctiveness?

Answer 17

Behavior is undesirable = consensus
Behavior is desirable = distinctiveness

Question 18

What is the halo effect?

Answer 18

We tend to generalize broad impressions to specific qualities about a person (“beautiful is good” effect)

Question 19

What is the optimistic bias?

Answer 19

The tendency to have overly positive expectations

Question 20

What is the exception to the optimistic bias?

Answer 20

Bracing for the worst - becoming more pessimistic as the “moment of truth” draws near

Question 21

What does the Shepperd et al. (1996) exam study tell us about bracing for the worst?

Answer 21

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

Question 22

What is the bias blind spot?

Answer 22

The tendency to believe that we are more objective and less biased than others

Question 23

What does the Pronin et al. (2002) study tell us about the bias blind spot?

Answer 23

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)

Question 24

What is the liking gap?

Answer 24

After conversations, people underestimate how much their conversation partner likes them

Question 25

What is the thought gap?

Answer 25

After conversations, people underestimate how much their conversation partner thinks about them (relative to the reverse)

Question 26

What is counterfactual thinking?

Answer 26

Imagining scenarios that differ from what actually happened

Question 27

What are the two kinds of counterfactual thinking?

Answer 27

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

Question 28

What does the Medvec et al. (1992) study of Olympic medal winners tell us about counterfactual thinking?

Answer 28

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”

Question 29

What are causal attributions?

Answer 29

Explanations people use for what caused a particular event or behavior

Question 30

What is the locus of causality?

Answer 30

Asking whether the cause of an event or behavior can be attributed to the person (dispositional attribution) or the situation (situational/external attribution)

Question 31

What is the covariation principle?

Answer 31

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

Question 32

What is the stability of causality?

Answer 32

Asking whether the cause of an event/behavior is likely to repeat itself in a similar situation

Question 33

What do fixed vs. growth mindsets (Dweck) tell us about the stability of causality?

Answer 33

Seeing personal characteristics as relatively stable (fixed) vs. changeable (growth) → determines the stability of causality

Question 34

What is correspondent interference?

Answer 34

The tendency to make dispositional attributions for others’ behavior (also called the fundamental attribution error)

Question 35

What does the Ross et al. (1977) quiz show study tell us about correspondent interference?

Answer 35

Participants assigned as host, contestants or observers → contestants and observers assumed host was more intelligent despite random assignment

Question 36

What are the cultural differences in attributions?

Answer 36

Collectivist cultures = more situational attributions
Lower socioeconomic status = more situational attributions