Week 2 Social cognition

Question 1

Social cognition

Answer 1

Cognitive processes and structures that influence and are influenced by social behavior. Influences the way we say the world and make impressions.

=/= thought because it’s mostly automatic and unconscious

Question 2

Different types of traits

Answer 2

• Central traits (characteristics we consider important when meeting someone ex: warm, cold)
• Peripheral traits (characteristics less important ex: polite, blunt)
• -> Impressions are mainly formed by central traits.
• -> Those central traits influence the meaning of other traits

Question 3

Primacy and recency effect

Answer 3

• Primacy effect: traits presented first
• Recency effect: final pieces of infos that have more impact than the earlier information

–> On the whole, first and last impressions matter a lot

Question 4

Schema

Answer 4

Interrelated thoughts that help people understand the world around them

Cues of a situation activates/triggers schemas which in turn help people to understand and adapt to the situation

Question 5

Perception

Answer 5

process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions to give meaning to their environment

–> People base their behaviors on their perception of what reality is, not on what reality really is

Question 6

Homo economicus

Answer 6

not influenced by social interactions, analytic reflections and maximize own interest

Question 7

Homo sciologicus

Answer 7

analytic and emotional reflection, unstable preferences, partial access to information

Question 8

Dual process model of decision-making

Answer 8

Homo economicus =/= Homo sociologicus

Question 9

Social inference

Answer 9

identifying and combining information to make judgments

Question 10

Heuristics

Answer 10

range of less-time consuming shortcuts people use to get a quick solution to a problem

Question 11

What does cognitive shortcuts use

Answer 11

• Representativeness:
• Availability:
• Anchoring:
• Framing:

Ex: if a pair of jeans is 200 but becomes reduced at 150, the buyer thinks he will have make a deal

Question 12

People seek to undertand by using what

Answer 12

– Personal factors = internal attribution • E.g., personality, ability

– Environmental factors = external attribution • E.g., situation, social pressure

Question 13

Covariation model

Answer 13

Analysis of the person, the situation and the time in function of the consistency of the event, the distinctiveness with others and the consensus

(ex: consensus –> do other people respond similarly?)

Question 14

Weiner’s attributional thoery

Answer 14

a success or a failure can be attributed on

• the locus (whether performance caused by the actor or the situation)
• the stability (is the cause stable or not)
• the controllability (under one’s control or not)

Question 15

Cognitive shortcuts - Availability

Answer 15

frequency or likelihood of an event

Question 16

Cognitive shortcuts - Representativeness

Answer 16

assignation to a group based on similarities and ressemblance

Question 17

Cognitive shortcuts - Anchoring

Answer 17

the inferences are tied to their mental reference point

Question 18

Congnitive shortcuts - Framing

Answer 18

inferences are influenced by the way the information is presented