1. Chapter 4: Social Cognition and Person Perception

2. Learning Objectives
How can our schemas unconsciously influence our thinking and behavior?
In what ways are heuristics an illustration of human beings' capacity for "useful thinking" versus "stupid thinking"?
How might gossiping have given our human ancestors an adaptive advantage?
Why do people from individualist cultures tend to explain others' actions as being caused by their personalities more so than by the situation?

3. Categorization
Category: mental grouping of objects, ideas, or events that share common properties
Prototype: most representative member of category
Categorization reduces information overload.
Categorization can lead to mistakes in judgment.

4. Schema Organized structure of knowledge
Built from experience
Contains causal relations
Is a theory about how the social world operates
People with expertise on a topic have a well- developed schema about that topic.
Scripts: schemas about events in well known situations

5. Gender Schema
Cognitive structure for processing information according to perceived maleness and femaleness
The use of gender schema reinforces social stereotypes about gender.
Not everyone is "gender schematic."

6. Schemas Affect Information Processing.
Once a schema is activated, we see more information consistent with the schema.
We process the information more quickly.
We remember it better.
Schemas can be activated outside conscious awareness.

7. Figure 4.1 Schemas and Misremembering the Past

8. Figure 4. 2. Activated Schemas Can Affect Behavior:
Figure 4.2 Activated Schemas Can Affect Behavior: The Word Puzzle Study

9. Heuristics "Rules of thumb" that:
Save time
Conserve mental energy
Reasonably, but not extremely, accurate

10. Specific Kinds of Heuristics
Representativeness
Something is likely to belong to the category if it resembles the category prototype.
Availability
Something is likely to occur, or is common, if I can easily think of an example.
Anchoring and adjustment
My estimate of a numerical value is influenced by a number—even an unrelated number—I hear before I make the estimate.

11. Deliberate Thinking About Past Events
Hindsight bias: overconfidence in our own ability to have foreseen an outcome, after it has happened
Helps to make sense out of the unpredictable
Counterfactual thinking: imagining alternative outcomes to what actually occurred
Can help avoid future problems
Can help us feel better
Can be counterproductive after trauma

12. Thought Suppression
Please do not think about a blue giraffe right now.
Requires monitoring for the unwanted thought
Which requires that some part of your thoughts must be focused on the unwanted idea
After suppression efforts end, thoughts rebound into consciousness.
Are you thinking about the blue giraffe?

13. Facial Expression Emotions signal others of our intentions.
Some emotions are easily recognized across cultures, such as anger, surprise, and happiness.
Darwin argued that the ability to decode emotional expression is an aid to survival.
Especially negative emotions that signal potential danger

14. Body Movements Posture and motion convey social information.
We often subtly mimic the movements of others.
We don't know we are doing it.
Mimicry can increase liking.

15. Figure 4.3 Rounded, Diagonal, and Angular Body Displays

16. Social Role
A cluster of socially defined expectations for behavior in a situation
Social roles in many societies differ between men and women.
Women are often socialized to pay attention to nonverbal communication.

17. Negativity
Negative information carries more weight than positive information when forming impressions.
It is more unusual and therefore distinctive.
It may signal danger and is adaptive.
Gossip is a frequent way of conveying and receiving negative information.

18. Figure 4.4 Gossiping May Have Survival Value

19. Detecting Deception
We are generally about as good at detecting deception as we are at guessing coin flips.
Unintentional "expressions given off" are better indicators than intentional "expressions given."
We overestimate importance of facial expressions, which are relatively controllable.
With training, we can improve at detecting deception, but error rates remain high.

20. Implicit Personality Theories
Naïve assumptions about certain "types" of people
Type of schema
Based on "central traits"
People who believe personalities are fixed are more influenced by implicit personality theories than those who believe traits can change.

21. Confirmation Bias
Tendency to seek out confirming information and avoid disconfirming information
Once we form an impression, we seek to confirm it.
Perpetuates incorrect stereotypes

22. Attributions The way we explain the cause of an event or behavior
Locus of causality
Internal attribution: behavior caused by qualities of the person (personality, abilities, effort), also called dispositional attribution
External attribution: behavior caused by outside factors (other people, luck, nature of situation), also called situational attribution

23. Stability and Controllability
In addition to locus of causality, observers decide if cause is:
Stable (permanent, lasting)
Controllable
People use these three dimensions to decide why things have happened, and how to respond to others.

24. Covariation Model of Attributions
Attributions are made based on multiple observations of behavior.
Causes are assessed based on behavior's
Consensus
Consistency
Distinctiveness
Internal attribution is likely when consensus and distinctiveness are low and consistency is high.

25. Biases in Attribution Fundamental attribution error (FAE)
Underestimate situational factors in explaining others' behavior, and overestimate dispositional factors
Significant cultural variation tendency to commit FAE
Actor-observer effect
Explains one's own behavior as owing to situation while others' behavior is explained as owing to their dispositions

26. Figure 4.5 Fundamental Attribution Error and the TV Quiz Game

27. Figure 4.6 Perceptual Salience and the Fundamental Attribution Error

28. Figure 4.7 Cultural Differences in Attentional Focus

29. Figure 4.8 Perceptual Salience and the Actor-Observer Effect

30. Dual Process Model of Attributions
First attributions are spontaneous and effortless.
In North American culture they are likely to be dispositional.
Second attributions are deliberate and effortful.
May correct first judgments
If cognitively busy, this process may not take place, and initial attributions remain uncorrected

31. Figure 4.9 A Dual-Process Model of Attribution