Social Judgments PowerPoint Presentation

Social Judgments And Still More Bias We respond not to reality, but to how we perceive reality. We are susceptible to a number of overt and subtle influences. One of these is priming. Priming The awakening or activating of certain associations Priming prepares us to view things in...

Social Judgments And Still More Bias We respond not to reality, but to how we perceive reality. We are susceptible to a number of overt and subtle influences. One of these is priming. Priming The awakening or activating of certain associations Priming prepares us to view things in a particular way. Sometimes priming is fairly obvious. However, priming cues can be subtle, even unconscious and subliminal. Social Thinking We have two types of processing: Controlled—reflective, deliberate, conscious Logic, analysis, deliberate recall Automatic—impulsive, effortless, unconscious Schemas, expertise, emotional reactions Our automatic processing does much more work. We remember and know more than we Automatic Errors Most of our thinking is automatic. Much of the time, this is fine. It is also prone to some pretty significant errors, though. Overconfidence Heuristics—mental shortcuts Illusory thinking Mood effects Overconfidence We tend to have too much confidence in our own judgments, abilities, etc. The more incompetent you are, the more overconfident you tend to be. This only applies to relatively easy tasks, however. Why Overconfidence? People tend to recall being wrong as being almost right. Conformation bias—we are eager to verify our beliefs, but discount evidence against them Conformation bias helps keep our self- images and worldviews stable. However, it makes us overconfident and unable to admit when we are wrong. Reducing Overconfidence Three proven ways: Prompt feedback for being incorrect Unpacking—breaking things into their components Forcing people to think of at least one way that their answer could be wrong Heuristics Representativeness—judging something by how closely it resembles a mental representation This saves time and effort. It also means we don’t allow for individual differences. Nothing is ever 100% representative of any group. Heuristics Availability—the more easily we can recall something, the more likely it seems In other words, the more we hear something, the more we believe that it’s true. We also think big, emotional, or unusual events happen more often than they actually do. Heuristics Counterfactual thinking—“what might have been” Second place finishers tend to feel worse than third place finishers. The “narrower” the miss, the more intense the counterfactual thinking. These may cause us to second-guess ourselves or mistrust information. Illusory Thinking Illusory correlation—thinking two things are related when they aren’t Illusion of control—the idea that chance- based events are within our control Regression towards the mean—things eventually end up being average So, doing very well on a test means you are likely to do worse on the next test, and vice versa. Mood Effects When we’re happy, we tend to judge things positively. When we’re upset, we tend to judge things negatively. We are completely unaware of this. Perception and the World People on two sides of a conflict will see the same news reports as biased against their side. We also are far more accepting of evidence that supports our side… …but very critical of evidence against it. We also tend to attach traits to people who mention them frequently. Belief Perseverance Once we have a belief, it is very hard to break it, even in the face of strong evidence against it. We hear information We form a belief based on that. We eventually come up with an explanation for why our belief is true. At that point, it’s set, even if the original information is discredited. The best relief is to force someone to think through their belief. The Illusion of Memory Our memories aren’t exact copies of events. Our current feelings impact our past memories. Misinformation effect—if given incorrect information about a past event, we can incorporate it into our memories People tend to insist that they have “always” believed something or held an attitude, even when they haven’t. Judging Others—Attribution Theory Is a person’s behavior guided more by their personal characteristics or the situation? We are very eager to infer traits based on as little as one observation. Spontaneous trait inference Less common in (collectivist) Asians Attribution Theory Three components: Consistency—does the person usually act this way? Distinctiveness—does the person behave differently in this situation than in others? Consensus—do other people behave the same way in this situation? The “Fundamental” Attribution Error A tendency to give too much weight to disposition and not enough to the situation We assume traits to people that they may not have. On the other hand, we use the situation to excuse our own behavior. Why? Partly from self-serving bias It probably also has to do with how we perceive ourselves and others. When we act, the environment takes up our attention. When we watch others act, they are the center of our attention. We are also acutely aware of how our own behavior changes with the situation. That’s too much thinking to apply to others. Culture! People everywhere are prone to the “fundamental” attribution error. However, collectivists/Easterners are somewhat less prone to it. In Sum… Remember, we have these biases and tendencies because they help as well as harm. We CAN’T individually analyze every single person and situation we come across. Recognize your own imperfect judgment. Catch yourself when you start to judge. Don’t let others get away with these errors. Call them on it.