1. Social Beliefs: Lecture #3 topics
Observation: Elements of social perception
Attributions: From elements to dispositions
Integration: From dispositions to impressions
Confirmation: Corroborating what we believe

2. Elements of social perception
PEOPLE
first impressions are affected by physical appearance
we read traits from & _________ people’s faces

3. Elements of social perception

4. Elements of social perception
THE SITUATION
scripts:
pre-set ideas of how to act in different types of situations
provide _________ for understanding behaviour
we see what we expect
we know the reasons behind someone’s behaviour

5. Elements of social perception

6. Elements of social perception
NON-VERBAL BEHAVIOUR
emotion: ability to identify certain ones is adaptive
eye gaze: can signal _________ / _________
touch: can signal _________ / _________

7. From elements to dispositions
attributions:
explanations for people’s behaviour
can be _________ (internal factors; e.g., ability) or _________ (external factors; e.g., luck, fate)

8. From elements to dispositions

9. From elements to dispositions
correspondent inference theory
(Jones & Davis, 1965):
we infer whether an action corresponds to _________ characteristics of the actor
inferences are based on:
_________

10. From elements to dispositions
covariation theory (Kelley, 1967):
cause of behaviour should be _________ when it occurs & _________ when it doesn’t occur (_________ principle)
attributions are based on:
_________
_________ of behaviour

11. From elements to dispositions
consensus:
how do _________ react to the same stimulus?
distinctiveness:
how does the actor react to _________ stimuli?
consistency:
is the actor’s response to the stimulus _________?

12. From elements to dispositions
attribution biases can stem from heuristics:
_________ _________ that let us make quick
judgments, but that often lead to mistakes

13. From elements to dispositions
availability heuristic:
estimating the odds of an event occurring based
on how _________ examples of it come to mind
false consensus:
_________ how many people share our
opinions and (negative) traits
base-rate fallacy:
being influenced by _________ events &
insensitive to actual _________ (base rates)

14. From elements to dispositions
counterfactual thinking:
imagining outcomes that could have happened but didn’t
imagining a better outcome – _________, regret
imagining a worse outcome – relief, _________
especially likely if we were on the _________ of a better/ worse outcome
e.g., Olympic medalists

15. From elements to dispositions
illusory correlation:
seeing a relationship where _________ exists/ stronger relationship than _________ exists
more likely to recall instances that _________, rather than _________, this “relationship”
e.g., premonitions

16. From elements to dispositions
illusory control:
perception that _________ events are under one’s control/ more controllable than they really are
e.g., _________
_________ to the mean: statistical tendency for extreme scores to return to the average

17. From elements to dispositions
fundamental attribution error (FAE):
overestimating _________ factors &
underestimating _________ factors when
explaining someone else’s behaviour
e.g., Jones & Harris’ (1967) Castro study
e.g., Ross, Amabile, & Steinmetz’s (1977) quiz show study

18. From elements to dispositions
RESULTS (Jones & Harris, 1967):
PRO
ANTI

19. From elements to dispositions
A: The host of Jeopardy!
Q: Who is the smartest man
in the world?

20. From elements to dispositions
RESULTS (Ross, Amabile, & Steinmetz, 1977):
HIGH
LOW

21. From elements to dispositions
why do we commit the FAE?
actor-observer effect:
we make _________ attributions for other
people’s behaviour and _________ ones for our
own
self as actor
self as observer

22. From elements to dispositions
why else do we commit the FAE?
motivational biases:
need for _________ causes us to make positive,
self-serving attributions that make us look good
personal ideologies:
political beliefs lead us to make certain attributions
about disadvantaged peoples
stems from “_________”: we get what we deserve & deserve what we get

23. From dispositions to impressions
impression formation:
process of integrating information about a person to form a coherent impression
influenced by:
_________

24. From dispositions to impressions
perceiver’s characteristics:
mood
priming effects:
priming: tendency for _________ / _________ concepts to come to mind easily
colours our interpretation of new information
e.g., Higgins et al.’s (1977) “Donald” study

25. From dispositions to impressions
Higgins et al. (1977):

26. From dispositions to impressions
target’s characteristics:
some Big 5 traits (CANOE) are easier to read than others
trait negativity bias: negative traits are more influential than positive traits, leading us to form more _________ impressions

27. From dispositions to impressions
contextual factors:
implicit personality theories: if someone has one trait, we infer they have certain other traits as well
primacy effects: information presented _________ than _________ has more influence on the impressions we form
e.g., Asch (1946)

28. From dispositions to impressions
Asch (1946):
List 1
intelligent
industrious
impulsive
critical
stubborn
envious
List 2
envious
stubborn
critical
impulsive
industrious
intelligent

29. Corroborating our impressions
belief perseverance:
_________ of one’s initial beliefs
although a belief has been discredited, the reasons we generate to support our beliefs _________
e.g., Darley & Gross’ (1983) “Hannah” study

30. Corroborating our impressions
RESULTS (Darley & Gross, 1983):
HIGH
LOW

31. Corroborating our impressions
confirmatory hypothesis testing:
seeking evidence to confirm our expectations
self-fulfilling prophesy:
when our beliefs lead us to act in ways that
_________ them
e.g., Rosenthal & Jacobson’s (1968) “Pygmalion in the classroom” study