1. Chapter 4
Perceiving Persons

2. Social Perception
The process by which people come to understand one another.
We’ll look at:
The “raw data” of social perception
How we explain and analyze behavior
How we integrate our observations into coherent impressions of other persons
How our impressions can subtly create a distorted picture of reality
We’re both perceiver and target

3. Observation: The Elements of Social Perception—Persons
First impressions are often subtly influenced by different aspects of a person’s appearance.
We prejudge people based on facial features.
We read traits from faces, as well as read traits into faces, based on prior information.
We judge “baby-faced” adults differently than “mature-faced” adults.
Why? Explain the explanation.

4. Silent Language of Nonverbal Behavior
Behavioral cues are used to identify a person’s inner states, as well as his or her actions.
What kinds of nonverbal cues do people use?
Facial expressions of emotion and ….

5. Distinguishing Truth from Deception
Freud: “No mortal can keep a secret… betrayal oozes out of him at every pore.”
Channels of communication differ in terms of ease of control.
Face is relatively easier for deceivers to control.
Nervous movements of our body are somewhat harder to control.

6. Why Do We Have Difficulty Detecting Deception?
Mismatch between the behavioral cues that actually signal deception and the ones used to detect deception.
Four channels of communication provide relevant information:
Words: Cannot be trusted
Face: Controllable
Body: Somewhat more revealing than face
Voice: Most revealing cue
Perceivers tune in to the wrong channels

7. Attribution Theories
Dispositions: stable characteristics, such as personality traits, attitudes, and abilities
Attribution theories describe how people explain the causes of behavior
Heider: Explanations can be grouped into two categories:
Personal Attributions (Internal disposition)
Situational Attributions (External)

8. Attributional Biases
Do we really analyze behavior in a rational, logical manner?
Do we really have the time, motivation, or cognitive capacity for such elaborate and mindful processes?
The answer?
Sometimes yes…Sometimes no.

9. Cognitive Heuristics
Cognitive heuristics are information-processing rules of thumb.
Enable us to think in ways that are quick and easy
Problem is that using cognitive heuristics can frequently lead to error.

10. Availability Heuristic
The tendency to estimate the likelihood that an event will occur by how easily instances of it come to mind.
Problems with relying on the availability heuristic:
False-consensus effect

11. Fundamental Attribution Error
When we explain other people’s behavior we tend to:
Overestimate the role of personal factors, and
Overlook the impact of situations

12. The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
The process by which one’s expectations about a person eventually lead that person to behave in ways that confirm those expectations.
Rosenthal & Jacobson’s (1968) “Pygmalion in the Classroom” study