PERCEIVING PERSONS Chapter Four

Social Perception  The processes by which people come to understand one another.  Three sources:  Persons  Situations  Behavior

Do we judge a book by its cover?

Perceiving Persons  Willis & Todorov (2006): Showed pictures of unfamiliar faces and asked participants to rate attractiveness, likeability, competence, trustworthiness, aggression  1/10 of a second  1/2 a second  One second  First impressions influenced by different aspects of appearance

5/ htm He Looks Like a Bob is True

Perceiving Situations Scripts: Preset notions about certain types of situations

Perceiving Behavior  Nonverbal behavior Elfenbein & Ambady (2002)

Behavioral Evidence  How do we know if someone is telling the truth?  Words, Face, Body, Voice

Attribution Theory  Personal (Dispositional) Attributions: Attributing behavior to internal characteristics of an actor, such as ability, personality, mood or effort.  Internal locus of control  Situational Attributions: Attributing behavior to factors external to an actor, such as the task, other people or luck.  External locus of control Heider (1958)

Visual Perception  Focus on the actor --- personal attribution  “He’s an angry man.”  See actor in broader context --- situational attribution  “The crowd fires him up.”

Kelley’s Covariation Theory We make attributions using 3 kinds of info: Consensus: How do other people react to stimulus? Consistency: How does this person react to the same stimulus over time? Distinctiveness: How does this person react to other stimuli?

Kelley’s Covariation Theory

Let’s try something…  Pick a number from 1-9: _____  Subtract 5: _____  Multiply by 3: _____  Square the number (multiply by the same #): _____  Add the digits until you get only one digit (i.e., 64 = 6+4 = 10 = = 1): _____  If the number is less than 5, add five, otherwise subtract 4: _____

Let’s try something…  Multiply by 2: _____  Subtract 6: ______  Map the digit to a letter in the alphabet 1 = A, 2 = B, 3 = C, etc: _____  Pick a name of a country that begins with that letter  Take the second letter in the country name and think of a mammal that begins with that letter  Think of the color of that mammal

Heuristics = Mental shortcuts Attribution Biases

Availability Heuristics  Which state has more tornadoes: Nebraska or Kansas?

Attribution Biases  False consensus effect: we overestimate the extent to which others share our opinions.  Base-rate fallacy: we’re insensitive to probabilities.  Counterfactual thinking: we think, “what if”?

When we explain other people’s behavior we tend to overestimate the role of personal factors, and overlook the impact of situations. The Fundamental Attribution Error

Fundamental Attribution Error and the TV Quiz Show From L. Ross, T.M. Amabile, and J.L. Steinmetz, "Social Roles, Social Control, and Biases in Social Perception Processes," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35, Copyright (c) by the American Psychological Association. Adapted with permission. Ross, Amabile & Steinmetz (1977)

The Fundamental Attribution Error  Why do social perceivers consistently make assumptions about people and fail to appreciate the impact of the situation?  Two-step Model

Fundamental Attribution Error: A Western Bias? From J.G. Miller (1984) "Culture and the Development of Everyday Social Explanation," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, Copyright (c) 1984 by the American Psychological Association. Adapted with permission.

Actor-Observer Effect  Our tendency to make personal attributions for the behavior of others and situational attributions for ourselves.

Belief in a Just World

Impressions  Perceiver characteristics  Priming effects  Target characteristics Trait negativity bias

Implicit Personality Theory  A network of assumptions people make about the relationships among traits and behaviors.  Central traits Intelligent, skillful, industrious, warm, determined, practical, cautious Intelligent, skillful, industrious, cold, determined, practical, cautious

Primacy Effect - Asch (1946)  Intelligent  Industrious  Impulsive  Critical  Stubborn  Envious  Stubborn  Critical  Impulsive  Industrious  Intelligent One group read this description: Other group read this description: Rated This Person More Positively

Confirmation Biases  The tendency to seek, interpret, and create information that verifies existing beliefs.  Darley & Gross (1983)  Belief perseverance: the tendency to maintain beliefs even after they have been discredited.

Darley and Gross, Confirmation Biases

The process by which one’s expectations about a person eventually lead that person to behave in ways that confirm those expectation. Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Pygmalion in the Classroom

The Processes of Social Perception