Social Perception PDF

SOCIAL PERCEPTION Ms. Princy Thobias Assistant Professor Dept. of Psychology  Social perception is a term used in social psychology to refer to the process of interpreting and making judgments about the behavior and characteristics of other people. It involves using infor...

SOCIAL PERCEPTION Ms. Princy Thobias Assistant Professor Dept. of Psychology  Social perception is a term used in social psychology to refer to the process of interpreting and making judgments about the behavior and characteristics of other people. It involves using information gathered through observation and interaction with others to form impressions, make inferences, and understand social situations.  Functions of social perception Forming Impressions: Social perception helps people form initial impressions of others based on their appearance, behavior, and other social cues. Understanding Social Situations: Social perception helps people understand the social context in which interactions take place, including the roles and expectations of different individuals and groups. Making Judgments: Social perception allows people to make judgments and attributions about the behavior of others, such as whether someone is trustworthy, competent, or likeable. These judgments can guide subsequent interactions and influence the outcomes of social interactions.  Facilitating Social Influence: Social perception can influence the extent to which people are influenced by others, such as by shaping their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. By understanding how others perceive them, people can tailor their communication strategies to be more persuasive and effective. Enhancing Social Identity: Social perception can strengthen people’s sense of social identity by reinforcing their membership in certain groups and distinguishing them from others. This can foster feelings of belonging and social connection, which can have important psychological and social benefits. Nonverbal Communication Communicating Without Words Nonverbal communication is the process of sending and receiving messages without using words, either spoken or written. Common examples of manual language include facial expressions, gestures, body posture, and eye contact. The term nonverbal communication was introduced in 1956 by psychiatrist Jurgen Ruesch and author Weldon Kees in the book Nonverbal Communication: Notes on the Visual Perception of Human Relations. Nonverbal messages have been essential to human relations for centuries and continue to be a critical aspect of communication.  Facial expressions Facial expressions are powerful non-verbal cues that convey emotions and intentions. The human face is extremely expressive, able to convey countless emotions without saying a word. And unlike some forms of nonverbal communication, facial expressions are universal. The facial expressions for happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, fear, and disgust are the same across cultures.  Facial Feedback Hypothesis The facial feedback hypothesis states that our facial expressions affect our emotions. If the facial-feedback hypothesis is correct, then not only do we smile when we feel happy, but smiling can also make us feel happy.  Touch We communicate a great deal through touch. Different messages are given by a weak handshake, a warm bear hug, a patronizing pat on the head, or a controlling grip on the arm, for example. Touching depends on several factors relating to the person, nature of touch and the context in which it takes place. Depending on such factors, touch can suggest affection, sexual interest, dominance, caring or even aggression.  Gazes and stares Though the common meaning of these words is, to fix both the eyes upon an object, and look at it with wonder, intently and earnestly; yet, there is a great difference between them. Staring implies looking with wonder and impudence; gazing, with wonder and respect. To stare another, in the face, has, always, been considered, as a breach of good manners.  Body language Body language (Gestures, postures and movement) is the use of physical behavior, expressions, and mannerisms to communicate nonverbally, often done instinctively rather than consciously. Our emotions are always accompanied by physiological arousal and changes. Every emotion has a relatively same set of physiological reactions which have come to us by evolution. For example: when you are angry, your face becomes red, your fists are drawn together and you are ready to attack. When you are afraid, your legs start shivering but you are ready to run or faint. When you are sad, your face becomes pale, and you have a drained down feelings Body language is a natural, unconscious language that broadcasts the true feelings and intentions. In fact, it’s not the words that you use but your nonverbal cues or body language that speak the loudest. They can put people at ease, build trust, and draw others towards you, or they can offend, confuse, and undermine what you’re trying to convey. These messages don’t stop when you stop speaking either. Even when you’re silent, you’re still communicating nonverbally.  Deception Deception is the act of misleading or wrongly informing someone about the true nature of a situation. Deception refers to the act—big or small, cruel or kind—of encouraging people to believe information that is not true. Lying is a common form of deception. Studies show that the average person lies several times a day. Some of those lies are big (“I’ve never cheated on you!”) but more often, they are little white lies (“That dress looks fine”) deployed to avoid uncomfortable situations or spare someone's feelings.  Theories of Attribution Kelley’s Covariation Model Jones & Davis Correspondent Inference Theory Heider's 'Common Sense' Theory Weiner’s 3 dimensional model  Microexpressions A micro expression is an involuntary facial display of one's true emotion that is much harder to see because it only lasts for a fraction of a second, sometimes as fast as 1/25th of a second. They are gestures, or expressions of the face that do occur without conscious prompting and which leak or reveal our true feelings or sentiments.  Non-verbal cues of deception Micro expression – fleeting facial expressions Interchannel discrepancy – Inconsistency between different channels Eye contact – Blink more, dilated pupil, Low or high level of eye contact Exaggerated facial expression Linguistic style – High pitch of voice, Longer to begin a sentence, repetition  ATTRIBUTION They are inferences that people make about the causes of events and behaviour. A formal definition is provided by Fiske and Taylor (1991) is “Attribution theory deals with how the social perceiver uses information to arrive at causal explanations for events. It examines what information is gathered and how it is combined to form a causal judgment”. Researchers classify attributions along 2 dimensions.  Dispositional and situational In a dispositional (internal) attribution, people infer an event or a person’s behaviour is due to personal factors such as traits, abilities or personalities. In situational (external) attribution, people infer that a person’s behaviour is due to situational factors. For example, is someone angry because they are bad- tempered or because something bad happened? Dispositional and situational  Types of attributions Interpersonal attribution occurs when the cause of an event may involve two or more people. While making attributions to the event, the narrator tries to show themselves in the best possible light. Predictive attribution occurs when people try to make attributions by connecting different events and making predictions for the future. Explanatory attribution refers to the way in which people explain certain events in their lives. While some people may associate a positive cause with an event, others may attribute a negative cause.  Theories of Attribution Kelley’s Covariation Model Jones & Davis Correspondent Inference Theory Heider's 'Common Sense' Theory Weiner’s 3 dimensional model Kelley’s Covariation Model Kelly developed a logical model for judging whether a particular action should be attributed to some characteristic (dispositional) of the person or the environment (situational). The term covariation simply means that a person has information from multiple observations at different times and situations and can perceive the covariation of an observed effect and its causes. Kelley’s Covariation Model More specifically, they take into account three kinds of evidence: Consensus: the extent to which other people behave in the same way in a similar situation. Distinctiveness: the extent to which the person behaves in the same way in similar situations. Consistency: the extent to which the person behaves like this every time the situation occurs. Kelley’s Covariation Model 1. Consensus If everybody in the audience is laughing, the consensus is high. If only Tom is laughing, the consensus is low. 2. Distinctiveness If Tom only laughs at this comedian, the distinctiveness is high. If Tom laughs at everything, then distinctiveness is low. 3. Consistency If Tom always laughs at this comedian, the consistency is high. If Tom rarely laughs at this comedian, then consistency is low. Now, if everybody laughs at this comedian if they don’t laugh at the comedian who follows, and if this comedian always raises a laugh, then we would make an external attribution, i.e., we assume that Tom is laughing because the comedian is very funny. On the other hand, if Tom is the only person who laughs at this comedian, if Tom laughs at all comedians, and if Tom always laughs at the comedian, then we would make an internal attribution, i.e., we assume that Tom is laughing because he is the kind of person who laughs a lot. Jones & Davis Correspondent Inference Theory Jones and Davis believed that people pay particular attention to intentional behavior as opposed to accidental behavior. The theory helps us understand the process of making an internal attribution. Davis used the term ‘correspondent inference’ to refer to an occasion when an individual observes that an actor’s action corresponds with his personality. So, what leads us to make a correspondent inference? Degree of choice: If the behavior is freely chosen, it is believed to be due to internal (dispositional) factors. Expectedness: If the behaviour is expected. Behaviors low in sociable desirability (non-conforming) lead us to make (internal) dispositional inferences more than socially undesirable behaviors. Effects: If the consequences of the behavior is certain, then people make an internal inference. Jones & Davis Correspondent Inference Theory Heider's 'Common Sense' Theory In his 1958 book, "The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations," Fritz Heider suggested that people observe others, analyze their behavior, and come up with their own common-sense explanations for their actions. Heider groups these explanations into either external attributions or internal attributions. External attributions are those that are blamed on situational forces, while internal attributions are blamed on individual characteristics and traits. Weiner’s 3 dimensional model Bernard Weiner theorized that people try to determine the likelihood of positive outcomes in the future based on their attribution of negative outcomes in the past. In other words, individuals own perceptions or attributions as to why they succeeded or failed at an activity determine the amount of effort they will put for that same activity in the future. Weiner’s 3 dimensional model Weiner believed that we attribute our actions to the following three causes: Locus of causality (Internal or external) Stability (do causes change over time or not?) Controllability (causes one can control such as skills v/s causes that one cannot control such as luck, other’s action etc.) Basic errors of attributions Fundamental attribution error Actor-observer bias Self-serving bias Magical thinking  Fundamental Attribution Error The fundamental attribution error is a person's tendency to attribute another's actions to their character or personality or internal circumstances rather than external factors such as the environment. Even though situational variables are very likely present, we automatically attribute the cause to internal characteristics. Introduced by Johns in 1971 and is also known as correspondence bias.  Actor observer effect When something happens to us, we are more likely to blame external forces than our personal characteristics. This tendency is known as the actor-observer bias. How can we explain this tendency? One possible reason is that we simply have more information about our own situation than we do about other people's. When it comes to explaining your own actions, you have more information about yourself and the situational variables at play. When you're trying to explain another person's behavior, you are at a bit of a disadvantage; you only have the information that is readily observable.  Self-serving Bias It is the tendency where individuals attribute their successes to internal factors like talent or effort, while blaming external factors like luck or other people for their failures. This bias serves to maintain self- esteem and protect one’s ego.  Magical Thinking It is the belief that one’s ideas, thoughts, actions or words can influence the course of events in the physical world. Magical thinking presumes a causal link between one’s inner, personal experience and the external physical world. Modern science shows that magical thinking, or the attribution of a false causal relationship between actions and events, is common even among well-educated people who consider themselves to be rational.  Attributions and Depression Two employees at the same company are fired from their jobs. The first employee thinks, “The boss was pretty unfair! I need to pay better attention to the boss’s expectations so that I can do better on the next job.” The second employee thinks, “I’m an idiot! I will never get another job, and I’m a failure at everything I try.” Attribution theories of depression propose that depression- prone individuals have a depressogenic inferential style that predisposes them to view the causes of negative life events as being internal (“my fault”), global (“affects everything in my life”), and stable (“always going to happen”). Therapies focus on getting depressed people change their attributions- By taking personal credits for successful outcomes Stop blaming themselves for negative outcomes View atleast some failures as the result of external factors beyond their control