Topic 4 - Social Perception Flashcards
What is social perception?
the study of how we form impressions of and make inferences about other people inside our social spheres
What is nonverbal communication? Give examples.
how people communicate, intentionally or unintentionally, without words, their emotions, attitudes, moods, intentions, and personalities
ex. facial expressions, tone of voice, gestures, body position, movement, use of touch, gaze
What is proxemics?
Refers to how you are using your body position in space
ex. Can stand near you, but can do that in many different ways that communicate different things
ex. closed or open sitting position
What is the crown jewel of nonverbal communication? Why?
the facial expressions channel
Why? Communicativeness of human face is actually very remarkable
We are capable of making and reading subtle emotions through our faces
What does encoding and decoding emotion mean?
Encoding emotions: to express or emit nonverbal behaviour
Decoding emotions: to interpret the meaning of nonverbal behaviour
Can you have encoding errors? Decoding errors?
can have both encoding errors and decoding errors
ex. with RBF
What are the universal emotions?
Anger, happiness, sadness, surprise, fear, disgust
What are the 2 possible candidates that could possibly be added to the universal emotions?
Pride and shame
What is Darwin’s belief on emotions (relating to species and culture)?
Nonverbal forms of communication are species specific, not culture specific
How might facial expressions relate to evolution according to Darwin’s findings?
What evidence is there for this?
Facial expressions are vestiges of once-useful physiological reactions
evidence with fear and disgust as warnings to others AND to increase and decrease perception and sensory organ size
Why can decoding of emotions sometimes be difficult?
Because of affect blends.
Facial expressions in which one part of the face registers one emotion while another part of the face registers a different emotion.
What dictates what kinds of emotional expressions people are supposed to show (ex. in different settings)?
Are they species or culture specific?
Display rules
which are CULTURE specific
Are pride and shame seen in both sighted and blind athletes? What does this suggest?
Same for sighted and blind athletes
Tells us that is not just something that is visually learned from observing others - suggests that there is a component of universality to the expression of pride/shame
How are display rules of pride and shame often different across cultures?
Sighted athletes from highly individualistic cultures (ex. United States and Western Europe) did not show shame when they lost or didn’t perform as well because in individualistic cultures, shame is a negative and stigmatized emotion, so we tend to hide our display.
Display rules dictate that in Canada, U.S., and other Western Individualistic cultures, we tend to cover up our shame (show more disappointment, indignant, or wanting to blame others for failure).
Are there differences in display rules between groups?
Yes. Examples:
Japan - covering negative emotions, reduced facial expressions vs. West
America/Canada - men largely discouraged from emotional displays that signal vulnerability (crying) - more acceptable for women
rural vs. urban: distinct masculine ideals exist across regions, and “masculinities in rural spaces were marked with more rigidity that flexible urban areas”
Why does it matter that display norms in Western, and especially rural areas generally discourages males from showing emotion?
Display rules influence help-seeking and the availability of social support
Canadian prairies: highest suicide rates of all Canadian provinces, excluding Territorial North
Farmers: some of the highest suicide rates of any industry
Rural masculine norms and display rules can prevent talking about, seeking help for, or receiving social support related to emotional distress
Are rural men more likely to talk about mental health in the private sphere or expressing weakness in public?
might talk about mental health in private sphere
What is the display rule difference in terms of eye contact in America and Nigeria, Thailand, or Puerto Rico?
America: suspicious when people do not look them in the eye
Nigeria, Puerto Rico, Thailand: direct eye contact can be considered disrespectful
How does standing space differ between Western and Eastern countries?
West: like bubble of personal space; touching limited
Middle East, South America, Southern Europe: stand closer to each other; touch frequently
What are the types of space/distance that differ across cultures?
Intimate space
Personal space
Social space
Public space
What are emblems?
Are they universal?
Nonverbal gestures that have well-understood definitions within a given culture
Usually have direct verbal translations
They are NOT universal
Can the way we dress communicate different things?
Yes, begins to move into first impressions
What are first impressions and how are they made?
Impressions based on the slightest cues
Fast and automatic
Patterns of assumptions/judgements
Rely on person schemas - make all sorts of judgements about the person’s character, nature, intentions, etc.
Initial impressions of others based only on appearance are formed how quickly?
We form initial impressions of others solely based on appearance in less than 100 milliseconds
What is thin-slicing?
Thin-slicing explores how limited exposure to other people is enough for us to form meaningful first impressions about their abilities and personalities
(meaningful does NOT mean accurate, but in the sense of impacting the way the interaction goes)
Refers to social perceptions we make about others based on extremely brief snippets of behaviour
In terms of first impressions, what is the primacy effect?
Is it possible to change beliefs after?
the first traits we perceive in other influence how we view information that we learn about them later
possible to change beliefs, but difficult
What is belief perseverance?
the tendency to stick with an initial judgement even in the face of new information that should prompt us to reconsider
Listening to Passion Pit: Take a Walk, what did we observe?
In same way that we tend to judge the emotional feel of a song, (based on the atmosphere created and not the words), similar to judgement of people
Are first impressions more about style or content?
First impressions are about how you make other feel about what?
more about style
First impressions are about how you make other feel about themselves
What 4 social gifts should be offered for a positive first impression?
- appreciation (show recognition and respect)
- connection (locate and share interests or experience)
- elevation (providing a mood elevation - can be uplifting, smiling, being kind)
- enlightenment (help others to learn something new)
What are the 7 basic aspects of first impressions?
1) accessibility
2) showing interest
3) conversational topics (intellectual self-presentation)
4) self-disclosure (emotional self-presentation)
5) dynamics
6) perspective
7) sex appeal
What is the most common nonverbal mistake made at a job interview?
having little or no knowledge of the company is the most common
What is the recency effect?
What is the importance of this in last impressions?
tendency to remember the most recently presented information best
people remember the beginning of something, and the end of it, the best
the last thing that happens in an initial meeting also plays a disproportionate role in social perception
What are the 2 theories of causal attribution?
Who created these theories?
Attribution theory (Fritz Heider)
Covariation Model (Harold Kelley)
What is the attribution theory?
how people explain the causes of their own and other people’s behaviour
(people act as amateur scientists and piece together information to infer the cause)
they influence our impressions of others and behaviour towards them
What are the 2 possible kinds of attributions that can be made?
internal or dispositional attributions: something about the person
external or situational attribution: something in the situation
Explain how attribution tendencies tend to vary in happy/satisfied vs troubled/distressed marriages.
Negative behaviours seen as:
Happy marriage - external attribution
Distressed marriage - internal attribution
Positive behaviours seen as:
Happy marriage - internal attribution
Distressed marriage - external attribution
What is the Covariation Model?
Relates to DECIDING between internal and external attributions
we notice and think about more than one piece of information when making behavioural attributions (Harold Kelley)
we consider multiple behaviours across different times and situations - look for patterns in how a person’s behaviour “covaries” or changes
The Covariation Model looks at what 3 important types of information?
1) Consensus
2) Distinctiveness
3) Consistency
What is consensus information?
the extent to which other people behave the same way towards the same stimulus
What is distinctiveness information?
the extent to which one particular actor behaves in the same way to different stimuli
What is consistency information?
the extent to which the behaviour between one act and one stimulus is the same across time and circumstances
How do levels of consistency, consensus, and distinctiveness often relate to internal attributions?
High consistency
Low consensus
Low distinctiveness
How do levels of consistency, consensus, and distinctiveness often relate to external attributions?
High consistency
High consensus
High distinctiveness
What is the issue with low consistency information?
It’s very difficult to interpret
What is the fundamental attribution error?
Tend to make internal attributions for other people’s behaviour and underestimate the role of situational factors (when trying to explain other people’s behaviours).
Why does the fundamental attribution error occur?
tend to make internal attributions for other people’s behaviour and underestimate the role of situational factors; tend to focus on person, not the surrounding situation
perceptual salience
What is perceptual salience?
seeming importance of information that is the focus of people’s attention
What is the impact of perceptual salience and police interrogation?
For police and judges - the videotape that focused only on the suspect produced significantly higher ratings of voluntary confession than the other two videotapes
What is the 2 step attribution process?
1) automatic internal attribution made
- assume that a person’s behaviour was due to something about that person
- occurs quickly + spontaneously
2) adjust attribution by considering situation
- may fail to adjust enough in second step
- requires effort, conscious attention
What is the attributional complexity scale and what does attributional complexity mean?
attributional complexity is a construct designed to describe individual differences in more or less complex attributions for behaviour
It is a scale where higher scores are related to lower errors and greater accuracy in social judgement.
What are self-serving attributions?
Explaining one’s successes by crediting internal, dispositional factors, and blaming one’s failures on external, situational factors
When are self-serving attributions more common?
More likely when we feel we cannot improve and lack experience
What is belief in a just world (just world hypothesis)? What type of attribution is this?
Belief in a just world is another form of defensive attribution; the assumption that people get what they deserve and deserve what they get
What is the disadvantage to belief in a just world / the just world hypothesis?
That blaming the victim is very closely linked to this
can also create a distorted sense of invincibility
(most famous in the world of sexual assault victims)
What is the bias blind spot?
The blind spot bias refers to the simple fact that people tend to think that others are more susceptible to these kinds of biases (and attributional biases) than they are.
What is the American Dream?
the belief that anyone, regardless of where they were born or what class they were born into, can attain their own version of success in a society in which upward mobility (moving to a higher social class; acquiring wealth and status) is possible for everyone.
According to the American Dream case study, how does belief in a just world, fundamental attribution theory, and self-serving attributions see the reality?
Belief in a just world: people get what they deserve, people deserve what they get.
Fundamental attribution theory: if someone is losing or failing, it is because of their own defects (lazy, stupid, poor decisions, etc.)
Self-serving attributions: if I am winning it is because I am a winner and deserve it (internal). If I am losing, “am I a loser? Do I deserve this? - additional attention to situational factors.
Millennials today who are struggling to find secure jobs, purchase homes, create savings - are they lazy?
No, generally speaking, Americans today, especially young Americans, are the most educated and productive generation in US history.
What is analytic thinking?
What cultures foster values in this?
values in Western cultures foster this kind of thinking
focus on properties of object or people, pay less attention to context or situation
What is holistic thinking?
What cultures foster values in this?
values in Eastern cultures foster this kind of thinking
focus on the object or person AND the surrounding context and relationships between them
What are traits of an Individualistic culture?
- Self-sufficiency
- Uniqueness
- Autonomy
- Independence
Western cultures often seen to have more individualistic traits.
What are traits of a collectivistic culture?
- Social rules focus on
promoting selflessness - Working as a group
- Doing what’s best for society
- Families and communities have a central role
Seen more in Eastern cultures
What are the cultural differences in the fundamental attribution error and where they focus their attention when making causal explanations?
Members of more individualistic cultures (where analytical thinking is more prominent) often prefer dispositional attributions
They think like personality psychologists and assume that people do things because of their individual characteristics - focus on individual when making causal explanations.
Members of more collectivistic cultures prefer situational explanations; think like social psychologists. Greater situational focus is matter of degree.
Is self-serving bias more prevalent in Western or Eastern cultures?
more prevalent in Western individualistic cultures
How do Olympic Gold success explanations differ often between Western and Eastern cultures?
Western often focus on success as their own inherent qualities
Eastern - look more at their social support
How does attribution of failures differ in Western vs Eastern countries?
Western - often attributed to external causes
Collectivist culture - tend to blame themselves for failure (internal attributions) because self-critical attributions promote social harmony
What is the Just World Fallacy?
Just World Fallacy: cognitive bias that assumes “people get what they deserve”
In what cultures would the Just World Fallacy be more prevalent?
More prevalent in cultures with extreme differences in wealth - with larger wealth gap
