social perception Flashcards
much of social perceptions is about forming ____________ and explaining the world - how we assign _________ responsibilities to _________.
impressions; causal; behaviours
traditionally, the study of social perception revolves around 1 question. what is that question?
what are the reasons behind a behaviour?
why do we want explanations about the way people are and why they do what they do?
- helps us understand and predict our social world
- attributing behaviour to cause satisfies effectance whereby we can say that the world follows causality and is not random and chaotic
what are the 3 functions of nonverbal cues?
- express emotional states/feelings
- convey attitude or thought
- communicate personality
what are some aspects of nonverbal communication?
- eye contact
- gestures
- facial expressions
- distance
- possession
- decorations
- body movements
which aspect of nonverbal communication, eye contact or gestures, is highly subject to interpretations like generational and cultural diff?
gestures
2 key parts of social perception is nonverbal cues and causal _________.
attribution
why do we care about the causes behind behaviours (causal attribution)?
to uncover people’s traits which is generally stable overtime and across situations, so that we can better explain and predict their behaviour in future.
the 2 classic perspectives of causal attributions are:
- heider’s attribution theory (fritz heider)
- kelly’s covariation model (harold kelly)
what are the 2 attributions under heider’s attribution theory?
- internal attribution (dispositional)
- external attribution (situational)
internal or external attributions matter a great deal because internal attributions often imply ______________ while external attributions do not.
intentions
according to heider’s attribution theory, we focus more on (actor/situation) and less on (actor/situation), thus our explanations for behaviours are biased towards (internal/external).
actor; situation; internal (dispositional)
define FAE.
fundamental attribution error.
tendency to discount or ignore external (situational) factors when explaining a behaviour
FAE aka ________
correspondence bias
(someone’s behaviours are seen to correspond to his/her disposition)
what is the empirical evidence for FAE?
Castro experiment by Jones and Harris (1967)
*Fidel Castro - former president of Cuba
- Participants listened to speeches supporting and opposing Fidel Castro and rated the speakers’ attitudes towards Castro.
- When participants believed speakers freely chose their positions, they rated pro-Castro speakers more positively.
- Contrary to expectations, even when told positions were determined by a coin toss, pro-Castro speakers were still rated more positively.
- In conclusion, participants attributed the speeches to the speakers’ attitudes and disposition