week 3 Flashcards
perceiving other people
what are thin slices
when you have very little information to draw attributions from
what is the smallest form of thin slices
a photograph
what happens when we look at faces
when people view faces, they do it extremely fast eg. how trustworthy, likeable, attractive etc.
when people view faces do most people either agree or disagree with the attributions given to the face
most people agree with the same given attributes based on someones appearance
does time matter when determining attributes to a face
no Willis and Todorov 2006 found that the attributions given to a face is the same with seconds and unlimited time eg. whether someone looks aggressive or trustworthy
how are people at detecting when someone is lying
we are not good at judging truth and deception, even those with relevant training eg. police, CIA, psychiatrists
what groups of people are better than chance (not just guessing) at detecting lies
secret service agents and clinical psychiatrists with deception experience
why are we bad at detecting lies
we focus too much on peoples facial expressions
alot of the available cues are not good indicators eg. fidgeting or minimal eye contact
what helps indicate lying
their voice
- hesitate and then speed up and raise pitch
there’s cognitive effort in their story
- lying is harder to do than telling the truth so easier to detect if you add a cognitive challenge such as telling the story backwards
attribution theories
correspondent inference theory
covariation model
what is attribution
how people explain the causes of behaviour
eg. the answer to the question why
what was Heider, 1958s idea
people are naive psychologists in their everyday life
why are people naive psychologists
construct theories to explain behaviour
draw upon personal/dispositional and situational explanations (personal or situational attributions)
types of attributions
personal attribution
situational attributions
what is personal attribution
an internal characteristic of the person caused the behaviour
eg. ability, personality, mood, effort
what is situational attribution
an external factor caused the behaviour
eg. the task, weather, other people, luck
what is helpful for predictions and control
attributing outcomes to stable factors eg. someone lost tennis because they’re bad at tennis allows you to assume they will be bad at tennis next game
what is correspondent inference theory
attribute behaviour to a corresponding personality trait or disposition
eg. aggressive action due to aggressive personality
based on correspondent inference theory (Jones and Davis), behaviour is more informative of an enduring disposition when it is:
freely chosen
unexpected, departs from what norms and roles dictate
produces fewer desirable effects
based on correspondent inference theory: Which option reveals more about the actor’s enduring dispositions?
1. Sarah receives a book for her birthday
a) She says it looks great, I can’t wait to read it
b) She says, oh I don’t really like reading
b because it is slightly unexpected as most people even if they didnt like reading would say thank you
based on correspondent inference theory: Chris accepts a job
a) $150K/year, easy commute, interesting work
b) $150K/year, long commute, boring work
b because theres only one positive attribute (the money) so we know chris is likely motivated by money
based on correspondent inference theory: Alex has the vegetarian pasta for his meal on a flight
a) He can choose between the vegetarian pasta or chicken
b) They have run out of everything else
a because we learn more about someone when they have free choice
what did Jones and Harris (1967) supported correspondent inference theory discover
participants made more correspondent inferences regarding speeches that were freely chosen vs. assigned. Therefore finding that it tells you more about a person when they get to choose (free choice)
what did Kelley’s (1967) Covariation Model believe
people are naive scientists (covariation principle)
it looked at whether behaviour would be the same or different with different people, stimuli and occasions
what is the covariation principle
the cause of a behaviour should be present when the behaviour occurs and absent when it does not
example of covariation model
rachel is nice to bart, we need to know if Rachel is nice or if bart is whats causing rachel to be nice.
utilise 3 types of information
1. consensus (do other people react similarly to this stimulus) eg. are other people nice to bart
- if yes then high consensus
2. distinctiveness (does this person react different to other stimuli) eg. is rachel nice to other people
- if no high distinctiveness
3. consistency (does this person react similarly to this stimulus on other occasions) eg. is rachel always nice to bart
if yes high consistency