Social Cognition and Bias

Question 1

what is social cognition?

Answer 1

refers to how we process and store social information

also how this affects our perceptions and behaviours

Question 2

define attribution

Answer 2

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

(making inferences about the behaviours of others)

Question 3

define (social) schema

Answer 3

knowledge about concepts to do with others, not ourselves

used to help make sense of limited information

facilitated by top-down processing

Question 4

define category in regards to social psychology

Answer 4

organised by hierarchy

features organised around a prototype (boundaries around categories are not set in stone)

Question 5

define prototypes

Answer 5

cognitive representation of typical defining features of a category

Question 6

define causal attribution

Answer 6

an inference process through which perceivers attribute an effect to one or more causes

Question 7

what is meant by ‘naive scientist’?

Answer 7

• idea that people are rational and scientific-like in making cause-effect attributions

Question 8

what is meant by ‘people are biased/intuitionist’?

Answer 8

• the information we have is limited and driven by motivation
• leads to errors and biases

Question 9

what is meant by ‘cognitive miser’?

Answer 9

• people use least complex and demanding information processing
• leads to cognitive shortcuts

Question 10

what is meant by ‘motivated tactician’?

Answer 10

• people only think carefully/deeply when it is required
• e.g.: when it is personally important
• thinking quickly and using heuristics is used for others
• e.g.: things that are not as important so that they can do things quicker and get more done

Question 11

identify theories of attribution

Answer 11

attribution theory concerned with how people explain the causes of behaviour and events

• naive psychologist
• attributional theory
• correspondent inference theory
• covariation model

Question 12

explain the naive psychologist theory of attribution
(Heider, 1958)

Answer 12

• believes people are naive psychologists, very logical
• people trying to make sense of social world
• tend to see cause and effect relationships, even if there is none
• proposed 3 principles:
  1. people need to form a coherent view of the world
  2. people need to gain control over the environment
  3. need to identify internal (personal) vs external (situational) factors

Question 13

explain the attributional theory
(Weiner, 1979)

Answer 13

• states that an individual’s causal attributions of achievement affect subsequence behaviours and motivation
• this is a multidimensional approach to think about causality

Question 14

explain the correspondent inference theory of attribution
(Jones & Davis, 1965)

Answer 14

• looks at 5 different cues to see whether person’s behaviour reflects true character of person

Cues:
1/ act was freely chosen
2/ act produces a non-common effect (if behaviour = unusual, suggests behaviour driven by individual)
3/ not socially desirable
4/ hedonic relevance (idea that act has important consequences for person)
5/ personalism (idea that behaviour is more directly intended to impact others)

Question 15

explain the covariation model of attribution
(Harold Kelley, 1967)

Answer 15

• looks at different factors that are considered when deciding whether factor was a cause in the behaviour

(e.g.: behaviour = failed exam, looking at multiple factors that may have caused this. When looking at factors, we look at multiple theories to determine whether factor was cause for behaviour or not)

consistency
- does behaviour always co-occur with cause
(does drinking before exam always cause failure of exam)
- if low consistency -> theory is discounted
- if high consistency -> behaviour and factor are linked

distinctiveness
- looking at if behaviour is exclusively linked to cause or if it’s a common reaction
- high distinctiveness -> behaviour attributed to external cause
- low distinctiveness (behaviour is common) -> cause is attributed internally

consensus
- looking to others behaviour to see if it is consistent with yours
- if behaviour matches cause of others, strengthens attribute to external cause
- if behaviour doesn’t match others cause, internal attribute

Question 16

define attributional biases

Answer 16

systematic errors in judgement

based on:
- shortcuts
- gut feeling
- intuition

Question 17

Outline Ross et al., (1977) study into false consensus

Answer 17

• asked students on campus if they would walk around campus advertising a local café
• asked the same students what they thought other students would answer to the same question
• found that students who said yes to advertising thought that most other students would also say yes
• students who said no to advertising thought that other students asked would say no
• supports idea that we take our opinions as representative of others

Question 18

explain fundamental attribution error

Answer 18

the idea that we tend to attribute behaviour to dispositional factors (internal factors) rather than situational factors EVEN when there are clear situational causes

Question 19

outline Ross et al. (1977) knowledgeable quiz master study

Answer 19

• had an auditorium of ppts
• ppts were selected at random and assigned as either quizmaster or contestant
• quizmaster was instructed to set very hard questions
• contestants answered questions (predictably, got answers wrong)
• rest of ppts watching had to rate how knowledgeable quizmaster and contestants were
• quizmaster rated as more knowledgeable
• taken as indication that we make fundamental attribution error as we tend to discount clear situational cues

Question 20

Why does fundamental attribution error occur?

Answer 20

• tend to focus on more noticeable (salient) as internal attribution is more accessible
• dispositional shift (people are focused on the people rather than the situation)

Question 21

what is the fundamental attribution error also known as?

Answer 21

correspondence bias

Question 22

outline the actor-observer bias (Jones & Nisbett, 1972)

Answer 22

• the idea that we make situational attributions for own behaviour
• the idea that we make dispositional attributions for others behaviour

EXAMPLE:
YOU are rude to shop-assistant -> you are simply stressed (external, situational attribution)
SHOP-ASSISTANT is rude to you -> they are a rude person (internal. dispositional attribution)

Question 23

why does actor-observer bias (Jones & Nisbett, 1972) happen?

Answer 23

Perceptual focus
- idea that as observer you are focused on the person
- if you are the person acting, your focus is on the situation
- the visual change could change how you attribute behaviour

Informational difference
- informational difference between individual and the observer

Question 24

Outline self-serving bias (Olson and Ross, 1988)

Answer 24

• idea that we attribute success internally
• we attribute losses/failures externally
• shown in American politics
• those who won attributed success to internal factors (hard-work, campaign strategy)
• those who lost attributed failure to external factors (not enough money etc.)

Question 25

define heuristics

Answer 25

• mental shortcuts
• efficient strategies
• quick and easy
• used to process information

Question 26

identify the types of heuristics

Answer 26

1/ availability heuristic
2/ representative heuristic
3/ anchoring and adjustment heuristic

Question 27

explain availability heuristics

Answer 27

• judgements are based on probability/frequency of events
• based on how easy it is to think of examples (memory accessibility)

Question 28

explain representative heuristic

Answer 28

• where you use small samples to make judgements about whole category

Question 29

explain anchoring and adjustment heuristic

Answer 29

• idea that we make judgements based on a starting point
• technique often used in sales
• starting point influences following judgement