social cognition and biases Flashcards
what is social cognition?
how we process and store social information
how this affects our perceptions and behaviours
what is attribution?
assigning a cause to our own and others’ behaviour
what are social schemas?
knowledge about concepts
allows top down processing
what is a category?
organised hierachically
features organised around a prototype
what are prototypes?
cognitive representation of typical defining features of a category
what is causal attribution?
inference process, where the perceiver attributes an effect to one or more causes
-happens when we are trying to explain/justify a situation
what is the naive scientist?
people are rational
make cause and effect attributions
what is the biased/intutionist?
information is limited and driven by motivations
this leads to errors and biases
what is the cognitive miser?
people use cognitive short cuts for the least demanding processing
what is the motivated tactician?
think carefully and scientifically about certain things when they are important
think quickly and use heuristics for others
what are the four theories of attribution?
naive psychologist
attributional theory
correspondent inference theory
covariation model
who proposed the naive scientist?
Heider
what is the theory of the naive scientist?
analytical and logical
hypothesis testing
attribute causes to effects to make the world make sense
what are the three principles of the naive scientist?
-need to form a coherent view of the world
-need to gain control over the environment
-need to identify internal vs external factors
what did Heider and Simmel find out when investigating the naive scientist?
people were asked to watch a short film, of a circle and two triangles changing co ordinates
had to describe what they saw
instead viewers reported a story, eg) love story, chase etc
suggests how readily we perceive social intention all around us
what is attributional theory?
theory proposing that people attempt to understand the behaviour of others by attributing feelings, beliefs and intentions to them
causality of success or failure based on:
-locus (internal/external)
-stability (eg, natural ability, mood)
-controllability (eg, effort, luck)
who proposed attributional theory?
Weiner
who proposed correspondent inference theory?
Jones and Davis
what is correspondent inference theory?
judgement that a person’s personality corresponds to their behaviour
cues= act was freely chosen/act produced a non-common effect/not socially desirable/hdeonic relevance/personalism
correspondent inference- act reflects a true characteristic of the person
who proposed the co variation model?
Kelley
what is the co variation model?
use multiple observations to identify factors that co vary with behaviour
assign causal role to the factors
affected by whether behaviour is internal or external
what are three features of the co variation model?
consistency
distinctiveness
consensus
what is consistency?
does this behaviour always co occur with the cause
low= look for different cause eg) never failed exam after going out the night before
high= these are linked eg) always fail exam if gone out the night before
what is distinctiveness?
is the behaviour exclusively linked to this cause or is it a common reaction
low= internal attribution eg) I normally fail exams
high= external attribution eg) I never normally fail exams
what is consensus?
do other people react in the same way to the cause/situation
low= internal attribution eg) going out the night before an exam must just affect me
high= external attribution eg) realise not to drink before an exam
what are the strengths and weaknesses of the naive scientist?
separated into internal/external
but is this a valid distinction?
what are the strengths and weaknesses of the correspondent inference model?
infer behaviour due to internal attributes
but is this automatic/deliberate?
what are the strengths and weaknesses of co variation model?
considers the role of consistent and deliberate behaviours
however, covariation doesn’t result in causation
what are attributional biases?
systematic errors indicative of shortcuts/gut feelings/intuition
what did Ross et al find out about attributional biases?
asked ppts if they would walk around the campus advertising the cafeteria
of those saying yes, 62% thought others would also say yes
of those saying no, 67% thought others would also say no
what were the reasons given for attributional biases?
seek out similar opinions
salience of own opinion
self esteem maintenance
what is fundamental attribution error?
people have a cognitive bias to assume that a person’s interactions depend on what kind of a person is, rather than the social/environmental factors influencing that person
this is because the internal attribution is most accessible, so we are more likely to forget situational causes
what did Ross et al find out about fundamental attribution error?
investigated whether the allocated social roles in a quiz would affect the judgement of participants
contestants rated the general knowledge of the questioners as superior to the contenstants
ignored the fact that the reason for this advantage was not due to the social role, but was because questioners could choose the questions
who proposed actor observer bias?
Jones and Nisbett
what is actor observer bias?
tend to attribute internally for others, but externally for ourselves
due to perceptual focus and informational difference
who proposed self serving bias?
Oslon and Ross
what is self serving bias?
attribute success as internal, and failure as external
due to cognitive expectations and self esteem
operates at both personal and group level
what are heuristics?
cognitive shortcuts
avoids effort
who proposed heuristics?
Tversky and Kahneman
what is the availability heuristic?
judge frequency/probability of events by how easy it is to think of examples
what is the representative heuristic?
categorise based on similarity between instance and prototypical category members
allocate a set of attributes
what are anchoring and adjustment heuristics?
starting point/initial standard influences subsequent judgements
