Social Cognition Psychology PDF

8/14/2024 Chapter 12 Social Cognition 1 Wired to Process Social Information? Classic Study – Heider and Simmel (1944) asked subjects to watch video of sh...

8/14/2024 Chapter 12 Social Cognition 1 Wired to Process Social Information? Classic Study – Heider and Simmel (1944) asked subjects to watch video of shapes and describe what is happening – Heider & Simmel (1944) – Subjects spontaneously described social motives and relationships Pitcher & Ungerleider (2021) – Proposed a third visual processing pathway – Specialized for processing social information – Purpose – understand and interpret actions of others – Areas involved: Biological motion Facial movement Integrates audiovisual information (speech) 2 1  8/14/2024 Social Wiring of the Brain Theory of Mind or Mentalizing – Concept that others have mental experiences – Understanding the thoughts, motivations, and intentions of others Example Theory of Mind tasks: – Understanding the intentions actors in verbal stories – Understanding visual cartoons or picture sequences – Denoting social relationships amongst moving geometric shapes These tasks activate Social Cognition Areas – Temporal Parietal Junction (1) Attributing mental states to others – Posterior Superior Temporal Sulcus (2) Biological motion (more later) – Dorsomedial Prefrontal Cortex (3) Monitoring own mental state Attributing mental states to others 3 Social Wiring of the Brain Contreras et al. (2012) – fMRI scans – subjects answered questions about objects or people – Guitars and Violins: Have six strings? (Object knowledge) – Men and Women: Watch romantic comedies? (Social knowledge) Areas more activated by social knowledge included – Dorsomedial prefrontal cortex – Temporal parietal junction Areas more active for social judgments check 4 2  8/14/2024 humanization Epley and colleagues (2008) – Examined anthropomorphizing of gadgets (e.g., alarm clock that moves away, pillows that hug) and pets Gadgets: Ratings of how much it has mind of its own; free will Pets: Ratings of possession of “human” traits: thoughtful, considerate, sympathetic, devious, jealous – Assignment of human traits positively correlated with measures of loneliness and social disconnection – Appears we are motivated to seek these human traits 5 (de)humanization Reverse true? – Waytz & Epley (2012) manipulated feelings of social connection – Some subjects were instructed to bring a friend to study // others arrived alone (normal) Completed study materials either in same room as friend // completed study materials with stranger – (Couldn’t see or interact with other person while filling out materials) Asked questions about suspected terrorists being detained Measure of dehumanization – ratings of the extent to which targets: – Did things on purpose, engaged in great deal of thought, experienced pain, experienced pleasure Measures of willingness to endorse harm – Agreement with waterboarding, level of electric shock that is OK administer during interrogation Those in the social connection group (brought a friend) – Higher dehumanization – More willing to endorse harm Humanization is effortful – need to be motivated to do so? Other studies – dehumanization correlated with less activity in social cognition areas – Activity related to attributing mental states to others declines 6 3  8/14/2024 Social Reasoning Our reasoning abilities are sometime faulty with abstract problems Ex: Wason Card Selection Task – letters and numbers – difficult Placed in a social context, task is easier – Structure of task is identical – What makes it easier? Soda Beer 7 Social Reasoning Cosmides & Tooby (1992) – Evolved system to monitor social exchanges Cooperation between two or more individuals for mutual benefit – Adaptive to not be taken advantage of – need to detect cheaters – Proposed we have special-purpose reasoning mechanisms for these situations More efficient than domain-general reasoning mechanisms – Simply adding a cover story doesn’t make task easier Ex: Every time I eat French fries, I drink soda – Needs to activate/fit these special reasoning mechanisms Is person receiving a benefit they don’t deserve? Soda check Beer 8 4  8/14/2024 First Impressions: Physical Appearance Baby Face Bias – Perceived as more honest, less competent Berry & Zebrowitz-McArthur (1988) – Simulated court cases – Defendants with baby faces More likely to lose if case involved negligence More likely to win if the case involved intentional deceit 9 First Impressions: Physical Appearance Chapter 10, described System 1 and System 2 for making decisions – System 1 – fast, automatic, uses heuristics – System 2 – slow, deliberative, cognitively taxing Should use System 2 for choosing who to vote for Pair of faces below – who is more competent? 10 5  8/14/2024 First Impressions: Physical Appearance Todorov et al. (2005) did this with – 2000, 2002, 2004 U.S. Senate races – 2002, 2004 U.S. House races – One second exposure to candidate pair (1st and 2nd place) (Excluded data if people recognized either candidate) – Correlation between Inferred Competence and % of vote won – Other factors such as charisma, attractiveness, trustworthiness had little effect – Competence correctly predicted over 2/3rds of races – Prediction even stronger when candidates matched for Gender Ethnicity 11 First Impressions: Nonverbal Behavior Part of the “Social Processing Stream” Area responsible for processing biological motion – Posterior Superior Temporal Sulcus – Point Light Walker – emotion Can process nonverbal information about a person Ambady & Rosenthal (1993) – Subjects watched silent 30 second clips of professors teaching – Rated their teaching ability based on this video clip – Positively correlated with end of semester ratings from actual students 12 6  8/14/2024 In-Groups and Out-Groups In-groups include people similar to you. Out-groups include people that are not like you. In-group identification – feeling of solidarity we have with other members of what we perceive to be “our” group. We hold many representations of ourselves, and we belong to many groups. – Self-categorization theory Hierarchy of categories we belong to Self ---------------------------------Humans – Different aspects can be primed in different situations – Ex: College student identity may be primed at Habitat for Humanity worksite 13 In-Group and Out-Groups Out-groups – typically perceived as more uniform – Ex: appreciate that some young people struggle with technology – Ex: assume all older adults struggle with technology Takes effort to individuate members of a group Typically, only make that effort for in-group members check 14 7  8/14/2024 In-Group and Out-Groups More difficulty empathizing with out-group members Cuddy et al. (2007) – Looked at extent to which people ascribed secondary emotions to in-group and out-group members (grief, sorrow, mourning, anguish, guilt, remorse) – Subjects – people at a train station in NJ 2 weeks after Hurricane Katrina – Read story about a person affected and judged how they would feel Race manipulation: names more common to Black or White Americans Story described Tanesha / Amanda Johnson – Graph shows the extent to which secondary emotions ascribed 15 Empathy Costs Cameron et al (2019) – empathizing is effortful – Tested by having subject choose which task to do – Two decks of cards with different tasks Describe a person (objective) Empathize with a person – Performed 40 trials (selections) 16 8  8/14/2024 Empathy Costs Cameron et al (2019) – empathizing is effortful – Subjects tended to avoid empathizing – No difference between positive and negative emotions Not simply avoiding vicarious distress – Empathy choices declined across task Effortful – fatiguing – Empathy deck rated as more demanding afterwards Using NASA workload scale 17 Mirror Neuron System Premotor areas of the brain activated when – Perform action – Observe someone else perform action Perception-action-coupling model – Our brains’ mirroring of other people’s actions reflects processes that enable us to vicariously experience other people’s outwardly exhibited states. – Ex: Seeing someone smiling – activation of motor movements associated with you smiling Thought to play a role in empathy – Allows you to simulate others’ actions and feelings – Enables you to better understand what others are thinking and feeling 18 9  8/14/2024 Perception-Action Coupling Gutsell & Inzlicht (2010) – Tested 30 white University of Toronto students – Measures of racism – consistent with Canadian Context East Asian (least bias) Black South Asian (most bias) – Measured EEG while subjects performed or watched someone perform action Taking a sip of water Measured Mu suppression – (Less 8-13 Hz activity over motor cortex) – Associated with motor actions – Mu suppression linked to mentally simulating actions (mirror system) 19 Perception-Action Coupling Gutsell & Inzlicht (2010) – Subjects watched a 30 second clip of people taking a sip of water – Took a sip of water themselves – Measured mu suppression Mu suppression (mirroring) – Less for outgroup than ingroup models – Predicted by amount of bias (group and individual) Other research suggests that Perception-Action Coupling sensitive to attention and motivation – Less effort put into out-group processing? check 20 10  8/14/2024 How we View Out-Group Members Stereotype Content Model: – Perceived Competence and Warmth of groups dictates how we view them Affects different types of social processing – Ex: Humanization / mentalization (theory of mind) Less for humanization for Low Competence / Low Warmth groups Less activity in Social Cognition Areas (attribution of mental states) Low competence High competence High warmth Common stereotypes: elderly, disabled Common stereotypes: middle class, US Olympic Athletes Emotion evoked: pity Emotions evoked: pride Low warmth Common stereotypes: homeless, drug addicts Common stereotypes: rich, business professionals Emotions evoked: disgust Emotions evoked: envy 21 How we View Out-Group Members People sometimes experience reward or pleasure with out-group members failure or suffering – called schadenfreude – (the New England Patriots were 4-13 in 2023) : ) Doesn’t always happen – depends on how out-group is regarded Stereotype Content Model: – Depends on how we view competence and warmth of members Low competence High competence High warmth Common stereotypes: elderly, disabled Common stereotypes: middle class, US Olympic Athletes Emotion evoked: pity Emotions evoked: pride Low warmth Common stereotypes: homeless, drug addicts Common stereotypes: rich, business professionals Emotions evoked: disgust Emotions evoked: envy 22 11  8/14/2024 Low competence High competence High warmth Pity Pride Out-Group Members Low warmth Disgust Envy Cikara & Fiske (2012) – Used pictures of people corresponding to 4 quadrants (verified in previous study) – Paired picture with neutral, negative, or positive event (e.g., Ate a really good sandwich) – Subjects had electrodes attached to their face – zygomatic muscle (ZM: activated when smiling) Graph: ZM activation for Positive Event – Negative Event Negative score if smile more to Negative Event Only happened for High Competence / Low Warmth out-group Only experience schadenfreude for people we envy 23 In-Group and Out-Groups Other Race Effect (ORE) Ability to identify faces better for faces from own race compared to faces of other races – Found with variety of races – Bidirectional (e.g., Northern European poorer with East Asian, East Asian poorer with Northern European) Possible Mechanisms – Perceptual Expertise More experience with faces of own race Suggests we may be able to offset ORE with exposure to faces from other races – Motivational-Attentional Factors Categorize people as in-group/out-group members Direct more attention to processing in-group members 24 12  8/14/2024 In-Group and Out-Groups Perceptual Expertise – more activation in Fusiform Face Area Golby et al. (2001) – fMRI experiment – Focused on FFA activity – Gave African American (AA) and European American(EA) subjects a face memory test – Used AA and EA faces as stimuli – Memory Performance: ORE (better memory for faces of same race) – FFA Activity: Stronger for same race faces Bidirectional McKone (2019) – Evidence for a critical period 5-12 years-old Exposure to other races reduces ORE – After that – little effect of exposure 25 In-Group and Out-Groups Attention and Motivation in ORE Van Bavel et al. (2011) – Created arbitrary in-groups and out-groups – Subjects randomly assigned to one of two “teams” Leopards Tigers – Given pictures of 16 male faces Half of the pictures were “Leopard” members (4 Black, 4 White) Half of the pictures were “Tiger” members (4 Black, 4 White) Given 15 minutes to learn faces of own team and the other team 26 13  8/14/2024 In-Group and Out-Groups Van Bavel et al. (2011) -- Continued – Testing – Original pictures + 8 new ones – Subjects performed two categorization tasks 1) Is this a member of your team? 2) Is this a member of the other team? FFA more activated by faces from same team – Didn’t matter which categorization task was used – No effect of race on FFA activity in this task ** Arbitrarily defined groups modulate processing in FFA Can’t be due to expertise (same exposure to in- and out-group) 27 On scale from 1 (low) to 10 (high) – To what extent are you influenced by this tendency? – To what extent is the average person in this class influenced by this tendency? 28 14  8/14/2024 Bias Blind Spot Pronin et al. 2002 – Tested subject’s perceptions of own and other’s biases Ex: self-serving bias, fundamental attribution error, halo effect, etc. – Not just image management or social desireability – Rated selves higher on other negative traits – People generally assume their judgments are the result of careful introspection and analysis – Assume their “view of the world” is objective and unbiased 29 Stereotyping, Prejudice, and Behavior We prefer fast and frugal cognitive processing when possible – Range of heuristics in Chapter 9 Will also apply this to social situations Stereotyping –Assumptions about others based on their social group membership – Benefits of categorization last chapter – Can be problematic in social contexts 30 15  8/14/2024 Dual-Process Theory of Stereotyping Devine (1989) proposed a two stage process First Stage: Stereotype Activation – Activation of traits and characteristics associated with particular social group – (elderly – drive slow, technologically challenged, eat dinner early) – Many embedded in our culture: TV, movies, news, advertisements Second Stage: Stereotype Application – Judgments, evaluations & behavior based on activated stereotypes – (trouble with your computer – who would you ask for help?) Prejudice – negative evaluation or prejudgment of others in accordance with stereotypes – Prejudice leads to real-world harm. 31 Dual-Process Theory of Stereotyping First Stage: Stereotype Activation – Thought to be largely automatic Second Stage: Stereotype Application – Thought to be a controlled process – can consciously inhibit and override – Requires cognitive resources Devine (1989): – People who score low on prejudice motivated to protect that aspect of their identity – Motivated to inhibit or replace negative stereotypes when activated – But... Need to be aware this is happening Need to have the available cognitive resources to do so 32 16  8/14/2024 Dual-Process Theory of Stereotyping Gilbert & Hixon (1991) – Examined effect of cognitive resources on stereotype activation and stereotype application – All white female subjects – examining Asian-American stereotypes Test for Stereotype Activation – Task 1: Word fragment completion task – 5 of 20 words chosen based on Asian-American stereotype example: S_Y S_ORT POLI_E – Word fragments presented on video: On cards held up by white or Asian female – Manipulation of cognitive resources (Early) Half of the subjects rehearsed an 8-digit phone number while doing task (Cognitively Busy) – # stereotype-associated completions with Asian experimenter? Fewer stereotype completions when cognitively busy Suggests we need available resources to activate stereotype – (not automatic?) 33 Dual-Process Theory of Stereotyping Gilbert & Hixon (1991) continued – Next stage Test for Stereotype Application – Listened to recording of experimenter telling a story about her day (told it was same experimenter) – Afterwards, rated the experimenter based on variety of characteristics (including characteristics stereotypically associated with Asian people) – Manipulation of cognitive resources (Late) Half of the subjects did a visual search task while listening to the story (Cognitively Busy) Always Busy and Early Busy – Stereotypes not activated Never Busy – Stereotypes activated but overridden Late Busy – Stereotypes activated and not overridden Need resources to override stereotypes 34 17  8/14/2024 Implicit Attitudes Attitude – the generally positive or negative evaluations people hold of others Explicit attitudes – attitudes or associations that people are aware of and can verbalize or describe Implicit attitudes – attitudes or associations that people exhibit unintentionally and without necessarily being aware of or able to verbalize them Often measured with Implicit Association Test (IAT) – Measures ease with which you can map two concepts onto same response – Some theories posit that Explicit and Implicit Attitudes can be different 35 Example of Implicit Association Task (IAT) IAT uses different blocks of trials with different Left Key Right Key Left Key Right Key response mappings Old Young Young Old Ex: Negative attitudes towards older adults Negative Positive Negative Positive Task: Classify pictures – Person: Old or Young – Object: Positive or Negative If there are implicit negative associations to older adults: – Faster in blocks of trials in which old/negative and young/positive are mapped to the same key (left panels) Old Young Young Old – Slower in blocks of trials in which old/positive and Negative Positive Negative Positive young/negative are mapped to the same key (right panels) 36 18  8/14/2024 IAT The IAT measures implicit stereotypes that people have regarding stigmatized groups – (e.g., age, race, gender, etc.) Implicit biases often emerge even among people who believe they hold no bias Some individual studies suggest that IAT results can predict real world behaviors – Ex: Green et al. (2008): Patient care of Black and white patients by ER physicians Doctors with higher IAT scores indicating negative associations with Black patients: – Rated Black patients as less cooperative – Less likely to prescribe heart medications to Black patients for same symptoms However, metanalyses that combine a number of studies suggest IAT a poor predictor of discrimination-related behavior (e.g., Oswald et al. 2013) More work needs to be done in this area 37 Other ways to test Implicit Associations Amodio et al. (2004) – Test of implicit association between Black people and violence – Subjects: White females – Task: Categorize object as Gun or Tool Target preceded by a prime (Black or White face) Prime was unpredictive of Target (Gun equally likely to follow Black or White Prime, same for Tool) – Results: Subjects faster and more accurate to respond “Gun” if primed with Black face 38 19  8/14/2024 Overriding Implicit Associations Amodio & Swencionis (2018) – Replicated previous study – Then, changed the task set it up so that Black primes predicted tools 80% of trials: Black → Tool; White → Gun – Subjects now had an incentive to inhibit their implicit associations If they didn’t, it would hamper their performance – Were able to inhibit associations – bias in responding disappeared 39 Emotion Regulation We sometimes need to control our emotional response to people or situations – Ex: Controlling anger at work, controlling sorrow to get through funeral Can be cognitively taxing (executive systems – Chapter 5) Inzlicht & Gutsell (2007) – studied effect of emotion suppression – Subjects watched an emotional documentary about animals suffering and dying Half of the subjects were told to suppress their emotional and physical reactions to it (Suppress) Other half were the control group – no instructions on how to view – Afterwards – given a Stroop task (red blue green orange purple) while ERPs recorded – Suppress group made more errors than control Recall ego depletion from Chapter 5 Cognitive control mechanisms diminished – Suppress group had weaker Error Related Negativities (ERN) – Weaker monitoring (and correction) of mistakes 40 20  8/14/2024 Emotion Regulation Different strategies for emotion regulation – Last study examined Expressive Suppression (negative effects on cognitive performance) – Another method is Cognitive Reappraisal Strategically reinterpreting situation to be less negative or even positive Ex: Taking a paper to the writing center: – Negative: This person is going to judge me and my abilities – Positive: This is a way to get feedback and get better, similar to practicing a sport or instrument – Cognitive Reappraisal may not be as ego depleting as Expressive Suppression 41 Motivated Reasoning & Civil Discourse In recent years, there has been an increase in the demonization of people who we disagree with Part of the problem – choice of information we consume Confirmation bias – Tendency to seek out information that supports and validates your own beliefs and attitudes Left- or right-leaning news sources – Affects memory retrieval as well – better able to bring to mind examples consistent with beliefs – Social Media algorithms also feed this – feed you content based on past consumption – Many of our interactions are with people who think like us This even affects where people choose to live All of this increases Group Polarization – People become even more firmly entrenched in their views 42 21  8/14/2024 Motivated Reasoning & Civil Discourse Motivated Reasoning – Tendency of people to fit interpretation of information to their own preexisting beliefs – When people are confronted with information counter to their own strongly held viewpoint, researchers have observed heightened activity in brain regions associated with emotion and pain 43 Motivated Reasoning Westen et al. 2006 – Fall 2004 – Presidential Election (Kerry vs. Bush) – Recruited 15 committed Democrats 14 committed Republicans Confirmed with ratings of candidates and parties – Exposed subjects to information that could make candidates look hypocritical (top right) – Rated perceived level of contradiction by each candidate Parties show mirror patterns in ratings 44 22  8/14/2024 Motivated Reasoning Westen et al. continued fMRI scanner – When presented with information that runs counter to beliefs Activates areas associated with punishment, pain, and negative affect Orbital prefrontal cortex, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, ventral anterior cingulate cortex – “Cold” reasoning areas not activated (those used with neutral information) – Different reasoning processes used when we are invested in the outcome 45 23