Social Psychology Flashcards
The tendency to overestimate the role of dispositional factors and underestimate the role of situational factors when making attributions about the behaviors of another person
Fundamental Attribution Error
(can also be influenced by culture with North Americans making more dispositional attributions than Asian Indians who made more situational attributions about others)
Tendency to attribute our own behavior to situational factors and the behavior of others to dispositional factors
Actor-observer effect
Tendency to attribute our own behaviors to dispositional factors when the behaviors have desirable outcomes and situational factors when the behaviors have undesirable outcomes
Self-serving bias
Applies to attributions made about members of entire groups. The negative behaviors of one’s own in-group are attributed to situational factors while negative behaviors of out groups are attributed to dispositional factors and vice versa for position behaviors
Ultimate attribution error
Has been used to explain the prejudice of members of a majority group towards members of minority groups
Applies to attributions made about a group and it’s members; People believe an individual group member’s beliefs, attitudes, and preferences are representative of the group as a whole.
Group Attribution Error
Or, that the decisions/conclusions drawn by a group reflects that of each individual group member even when there’s evidence to the contrary
Kelley’s covariation model proposes that people make attributions about another person’s behavior by considering 3 types of information which is what?
Consensus
Consistency
Distinctiveness
When consensus, consistency, and distinctiveness are all high, what kind of attribution are people likely to make about another’s bx
external attribution
When consensus is low, consistency is high, and distinctiveness is low people are likely to make what kind of attribution about another’s bx
internal attribution
The question, “would others do the same thing as the person in the same situation” is asking about what
consensus
If the answer is yes, there is high consensus
The question, “does the person usually act this way in this type of situation” is asking about what
consistency
If the answer is yes, there is high consistency
The question, “does this person usually act differently in other types of situations” is asking about what
distinctiveness
If yes, high distinctiveness
Tendency to seek and pay attention to information that confirms our attitudes and beliefs and ignore information that refutes them
Confirmation bias
Self verification theory is related to confirmation bias. What is self verification theory
regardless of their self-concept (positive or negative) people prefer to spend time with others who confirm their self concept
Overestimate the relationship between two variables that are not related or are only slightly related.
Exp: tendency to overestimate the frequency of behaviors that are consistent with negative stereotypes of members of certain minority groups
Illusory Correlation
Tendency to ignore or underuse base rate information (information about most people) and instead be influenced by the distinctive feature of the case being judged
Base Rate Fallacy
Tendency to overestimate the extent to which other people share our opinions, values, beliefs and has been found to effect judgments in a variety of situations
False consensus effect
Exp: students who were told they passed a social sensitivity test assumed most others passed. When told they failed, assumed most others failed
People believe a particular chance event is effected by previous events and that chance events will even out in the short run
Gambler’s fallacy
Tendency to imagine what might have happened but didn’t and can involve imagining either better or worse outcomes. It’s most likely to occur when the outcome is personally significant and relatively easy to imagine an alternative outcome
Counterfactual thinking
Occurs when people believe they can influence events outside of their control. It can be used to explain superstitious behaviors to maximize probability of success
Illusory control
People believe more people take notice of their actions and appearance than is actually the case. This is common in people who have social anxiety. Can occur when you believe everyone is staring at you when you go out to eat alone or show up to a meeting late
Spotlight effect
Occurs when people overestimate the extent to which others can discern their internal states, thoughts, or feelings. It’s related to the spotlight effect
Illusion of transparency
Also know as the knew it all along effect in which people inaccurately believe they predicted the event would occur or to over estimate the likelihood that an event would occur
exp: pre-election memories about election outcomes
Hindsight bias
The tendency of people to continue investing resources (time, money) in an endeavor when they have already invested significant resources that have not produced desired outcomes and are not recoverable
sunk cost fallacy
(one reason for this is that people do not want to be wasteful or admit they made a mistake; evidence that older adults are less susceptible this than younger adults)
Mental shortcuts that provide quick estimates about the likelihood of uncertain events
Heuristics
