CHAPTER 3 - Social Beliefs and Judgments.pdf

PSY 313: SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY SOCIAL THINKING CHAPTER 3: Social Beliefs and Judgments Perceiving and Interpreting Events Differing reactions illustrate the extent to which we ✓ first impres...

PSY 313: SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY SOCIAL THINKING CHAPTER 3: Social Beliefs and Judgments Perceiving and Interpreting Events Differing reactions illustrate the extent to which we ✓ first impressions of one another are more often construct social perceptions and beliefs as we right than wrong ✓ the better we know people, the more ✓ perceive and recall events through the filters of accurately we can read their minds and feelings our own assumptions; ✓ judge events, informed by our intuition, by Kulechov effect – filmmakers control people’s implicit rules that guide our snap judgments, perceptions of emotion by manipulating the setting and by our moods; in which they see a face ✓ explain events by sometimes attributing them to the situation, sometimes to the person; and ✓ expect certain events, which sometimes helps bring them about. Perceiving Our Social Worlds Striking research reveals the extent to which our assumptions and prejudgments guide our perceptions, interpretations, and recall. We respond not to reality as it is but to reality as we construe it. Priming Priming – Activating particular associations in memory. Spontaneous trait transference – Construal processes also color others’ perceptions of us. Priming experiments (Bargh, 2006) have their When we say something good or bad about counterparts in everyday life: another, people spontaneously tend to associate Watching a scary movie alone at home can that trait with us activate emotions that, without our We view our social worlds through the spectacles realizing it, cause us to interpret furnace of our beliefs, attitudes, and values. That is one noises as a possible intruder. reason our beliefs are so important; they shape Depressed moods prime negative our interpretation of every thing else. associations. Put people in a good mood and suddenly their past seems more Belief Perseverance wonderful, their future brighter. Belief Perseverance – persistence of one’s Watching violence primes people to initial conceptions, as when the basis for one’s interpret ambiguous actions (a shove) and belief is discredited but an explanation of why words (“punch”) as aggressive. the belief might be true survives. For many psychology students, reading about psychological disorders primes how o implanted a belief, either by they interpret their own anxieties and proclaiming it to be true or by showing gloomy moods. Reading about disease the participants some anecdotal symptoms similarly primes medical evidence students to worry about their congestion, o explain why it is true fever, or headache. o researchers totally discredited the initial information by telling the Priming effects surface even when the stimuli participants the truth are presented subliminally—too briefly to be perceived consciously. K.A.M.L.F.  PSY 313: SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY ✓ Our beliefs and expectations powerfully affect how we mentally construct events. Intuitive Judgments Usually, we benefit from our preconceptions, just as scientists benefit The powers of intuition from creating theories that guide them in noticing and interpreting events. “The heart has its reasons which reason does not know.” – Blaise Pascal Is there a remedy for belief perseverance? There is: Explain the opposite. Studies of our unconscious information processing confirm our limited access to o “as objective and unbiased as what’s going on in our minds. possible”; that instruction accomplished nothing Controlled thinking (reflective, deliberate, o consider the opposite and conscious) Automatic thinking (impulsive, effortless, Constructing Memories of Ourselves and Our Worlds and without our awareness) Do you agree or disagree with this statement? o Schemas o Emotional reactions Memory can be likened to a storage chest in the brain o Expertise into which we deposit material and from which we can o Faced with a decision but lacking withdraw it later if needed. Occasionally, something is the expertise to make an informed lost from the “chest,” and then we say we have snap judgment, our unconscious forgotten. thinking may guide us toward a satisfying choice Misinformation effect – Incorporating “misinformation” into one’s memory of the Overconfidence event, after witnessing an event and receiving misleading information about it. Overconfidence phenomenon – The tendency to be more confident than correct—to Reconstructing Our Past Attitudes overestimate the accuracy of one’s beliefs rosy retrospection —they recall mildly o Planning fallacy pleasant events more favorably than o Stockbroker overconfidence they experienced them o Political overconfidence Reconstructing Our Past Behavior Confirmation Bias – A tendency to search for information that confirms one’s Memory construction enables us to preconceptions revise our own histories. Remedies for Overconfidence Sometimes our present view is that we’ve improved—in which case we ✓ prompt feedback may misrecall our past as more unlike ✓ To reduce “planning fallacy” the present than it actually was. overconfidence, people can be asked to unpack a task —to break it down into its subcomponents Judging Our Social Worlds ✓ get people to think of one good reason why their judgments might be wrong; As we have already noted, our cognitive mechanisms that is, force them to consider are efficient and adaptive, yet occasionally error- disconfirming information prone. Usually they serve us well. But sometimes clinicians misjudge patients, employers misjudge Heuristics: Mental Shortcuts employees, people of one race misjudge people of Heuristics – simple, efficient thinking strategies another, and spouses misjudge their mates. The results can be misdiagnoses, labor strife, prejudices, The Representativeness Heuristic and divorces. So, how—and how well—do we make intuitive social judgments? K.A.M.L.F.  PSY 313: SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Representativeness heuristic – The tendency ✓ And by distracting us, moods can also to presume, sometimes despite contrary odds, influence how deeply or superficially that someone or something belongs to a we think when making judgments. particular group if resembling (representing) a typical member. Explaining Our Social Worlds The Availability Heuristic People make it their business to explain other people, Availability Heuristic – A cognitive rule that and social psychologists make it their business to judges the likelihood of things in terms of their explain people’s explanations. So, how—and how availability in memory. If instances of accurately—do people explain others’ behavior? something come readily to mind, we presume Attribution theory suggests some answers. it to be commonplace. Attributing Causality: To the Person or the Situation Attribution theory analyzes how we explain people’s behavior. Dispositional attribution – Attributing behavior to the person’s disposition and traits. Situational attribution – Attributing behavior Counterfactual Thinking to the environment. Counterfactual Thinking – Imagining Inferring Traits alternative scenarios and outcomes that might Spontaneous trait inference – An have happened, but didn’t. effortless, automatic inference of a Illusory Thinking trait after exposure to someone’s behavior. Another influence on everyday thinking is our search for order in random events, a tendency Commonsense Attributions that can lead us down all sorts of wrong paths. Harold Kelley’s Theory of Attributions Illusory Correlation – Perception of a – Three factors—consistency, relationship where none exists, or perception distinctiveness, and consensus— of a stronger relationship than actually exists. influence whether we attribute someone’s behavior to internal or Illusion of control – the idea that chance external causes. events are subject to our influence Consistency: How consistent is the person’s Regression toward the average – The behavior in this situation? statistical tendency for extreme scores or extreme behavior to return toward one’s Distinctiveness: How specific is the person’s average. behavior to this particular situation? Moods and Judgments Consensus: To what extent do others in this situation behave similarly? Social judgment involves efficient, though fallible, information processing. It also involves our feelings: Our moods infuse our judgments. ✓ Good and bad moods trigger memories of experiences associated with those moods. ✓ Moods color our interpretations of current experiences. K.A.M.L.F.  PSY 313: SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY The Fundamental Attribution Error Rosenthal effect – situations where high expectations lead to improved performance, Fundamental attribution error – The tendency while low expectations lead to poor for observers to underestimate situational performance; Pygmalion effect influences and overestimate dispositional influences upon others‘ behavior. Teacher Expectations and Student Performance Also called correspondence bias, because we so often see behavior as corresponding to a disposition. Why Do We Make the Attribution Error? ✓ Perspective and situational awareness Actor versus Observer Perspectives? Getting from Others What We Expect Attribution theorists pointed out that we Behavioral confirmation – A type of self- observe others from a different fulfilling prophecy whereby people’s social perspective than we observe ourselves. expectations lead them to behave in ways that o When we act, the environment cause others to confirm their expectations. commands our attention. o When we watch another person act, that person occupies the center of our attention and the environment becomes relatively invisible. The Camera Perspective Bias Perspectives Change with Time. As the once-visible person recedes in their memory, observers often give more and more credit to the situation. Self-awareness – A self-conscious state in which attention focuses on oneself. It makes people more sensitive to their own attitudes and dispositions. All these experiments point to a reason for the attribution error: We find causes where we look for them. ✓ Cultural Differences – cultures also influence attribution error Expectations of Our Social Worlds Having considered how we explain and judge others— efficiently, adaptively, but sometimes erroneously—we conclude this chapter by pondering the effects of our social judgments. Do our social beliefs matter? Do they change reality? Focus On: The Self-Fulfilling Psychology of the Stock Market Self-fulfilling prophecy – A belief that leads to its own fulfillment. K.A.M.L.F.