Social Perception and Nonverbal Behavior

Social Perception

• Examines how we understand the behaviors and motivations of others.
• Helps interpret our own behavior and the behavior of others.
• We rely on observable behaviors: what people do, say, facial expressions, gestures, and tone of voice.

First Impressions

• Based on observable things we see and hear.
• We communicate things nonverbally.
• Research suggests it is easier to detect anger on male faces and happiness on female faces.

Nonverbal Behavior

• Involves communication without words.
• Includes facial expressions, tone of voice, gestures, body position, use of touch, and gaze.
• Mirror neurons activate when we perform an action or see someone else perform it.
• Empathy is based on mirror neurons.

Functions of Nonverbal Behavior

• Expressing emotions: anger, happiness, surprise, fear, disgust, and sadness.
• Conveying attitudes: liking someone through smiles and eye contact.
• Communicating personality: extroversion through broad gestures and voice pitch.
• Contradicting spoken words: sarcasm.
• Substituting for verbal messages: the "ok" sign.

Facial Expressions of Emotion

• Research suggests that the six main emotions are universally recognized.
• Evolutionary significance in communicating emotional states for survival.

Culture and Nonverbal Communication

• Display rules differ across cultures.
• Gaze: In America, avoiding eye contact is suspicious; in some cultures, it can represent aggression.
• Personal space: Americans prefer distance, while other cultures are comfortable with closer proximity.

Emblems in Nonverbal Communication

• Nonverbal gestures with well-defined meanings within a culture.
• Have direct verbal translations, like the "ok" sign.
• Not universal.

Multichannel Nonverbal Communication

• Nonverbal information is present across different channels.
• Decoding accuracy increases when multiple channels are used.

Implicit Personality Theories

• Schemas that group personality traits together.
• Used to form impressions of people quickly.
• Can lead to incorrect assumptions and stereotypical thinking.

Internal Attribution

• Occurs when consensus is low, distinctiveness is low, and consistency is high.
• Suggests behavior is unique to the person and consistent across situations.

External Attribution

• Occurs when consensus is high, distinctiveness is high, and consistency is high.
• Suggests behavior is influenced by the situation and target.

Evaluation of Covariation Model

• Information about all attribution dimensions may not always be available.
• People still make attributions, relying more on consistency and distinctiveness.

The Fundamental Attribution Error

• Tendency to attribute behavior to internal disposition, ignoring situational factors.
• Also known as correspondence bias.
• Focus on the person, not the situation, leading to the error.

The Fundamental Attribution Error: Perceptual Salience

• The person is more perceptually salient than the situation.
• We focus attention on the person and are unable to see the situation.

Cultural Differences in Social Perception

• Social neuroscience evidence suggests analytical and holistic cognitive styles.
• Westerners are more analytical, focusing on individual elements.
• Easterners are more holistic, considering context and relationships.

Culture and the Fundamental Attribution Error

• Individualistic cultures prefer dispositional attributions.
• Collectivistic cultures prefer situational explanations.

Self-Serving Attributions

• Explanations for successes credit internal factors, and failures blame external factors.
• Help maintain self-esteem and a positive self-image.