Social Perception PDF

Social Perception How We Come to Understand Other People What Does Social Perception cover? In this chapter you will: 1. Learn about how people come to understand the behaviors and motivations of other people in their social environments. 2. You will understand better the judgments you ma...

Social Perception How We Come to Understand Other People What Does Social Perception cover? In this chapter you will: 1. Learn about how people come to understand the behaviors and motivations of other people in their social environments. 2. You will understand better the judgments you make about your own behavior and the behavior of others. Social Perception Why are people the way they are? Why do people act the way do? Thinking about people and their behavior helps us to understand and predict our social world Why marriage TV shows so popular? Why people support current economic system? We enjoy figuring people out! Social Perception The study of how we form impressions of and make inferences about other people. People have a tendency to explain other people’s behaviors, but all we have to go on is OBSERVABLE behaviors What people do What they say Facial expressions Gestures Tone of voice We can’t know, truly and completely who they are and what they mean. Instead, we rely on our impressions and personal theories! First Impressions What do we know about people when we first meet them? We know what we see and hear! “Judging a book by its cover” Easily observable things we can see and hear Crucial to first impression With no words at all, we communicate things! What emotion do you think is being displayed on each of these faces? Research by Becker et al. (2007) suggests that you might have found it easier to detect anger on the male faces and happiness on the female faces. WHY THIS EFFECT OCCURED? Angry faces more congruent with male faces and happy faces more consistent with female feminine appearance. Implies a bottom-up emotion related perceptual process Nonverbal Behavior Nonverbal Communication The way in which people communicate, intentionally or unintentionally, without words. These photographs depict facial expressions of the six major emotions. Can you guess the emotion expressed on each face? Anger, fear, disgust, happiness, surprise, and sadness. Recent research suggests that “contempt” may be a universally recognized expression. Source: Paul Ekman Group, LLC. Nonverbal Behavior Nonverbal cues include: Facial expressions Tone of voice Gestures Body position/movement http://video.ted.com/talk/podcast/2012G/None/AmyCu ddy_2012G.mp4 https://www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/decade-power- posing-where-do-we-stand The use of touch Gaze Mirror Neurons and Nonverbal Behavior Special brain cells Activated when we perform an action and when we see someone else perform the same action Mirror neurons are the basis of ability to feel empathy. Example—when we see someone crying, mirror neurons fire automatically and involuntarily, just as if we were crying. Nonverbal Behavior Nonverbal cues serve many functions in communication. Express emotion “I’m angry” by narrowing your eyes, lowering your eyebrows, and setting your mouth in a thin, straight line. Convey an attitude “I like you” with smiles and extended eye contact. Communicate your personality Extroversion with broad gestures and frequent changes in voice pitch and inflection. Nonverbal Behavior Can contradict spoken words Sarcasm is a classic example Think about how you’d say “you are doing great” sarcastically Can substitute for verbal message The “ok” sign Often, people express more than one emotion at the same time. Can you tell which emotions these people are expressing? (Adapted from Ekman & Friesen, 1975) Facial Expressions of Emotion Are facial expressions of emotion universal? Yes, for the six major emotional expressions Anger, happiness, surprise, fear, disgust, and sadness Facial Expressions of Emotion Darwin (1872) such facial expressions then acquired evolutionary significance; being able to communicate such emotional states (e.g., the feeling of disgust, not for food but for another person or a situation) had survival value for the developing species (Hansen & Hansen, 1988; Izard, 1994; McArthur & Baron, 1983). Facial Expressions of Emotion Paul Ekman and others have conducted numerous studies indicating that the ability to interpret at least the six major emotions is cross- cultural—part of being human and not a product of people’s cultural experience. Ekman and Friesen (1971) traveled to New Guinea, where they studied the decoding ability of the South Fore, a tribe that had had no contact with Western civilization. They told the Fore people brief stories with emotional content and then showed them photographs of American men and women expressing the six emotions; the Fore’s job was to match the facial expressions of emotion to the stories. they were as accurate as Western subjects had been. https://www.pnas.org/content/113/44/12403 Facial Expressions of Emotion All humans Encode or express these emotions in the same way Decode or interpret with equal accuracy Facial Expressions of Emotion Six major emotions are first to occur in human development Other emotions develop later Guilt, shame, embarrassment, pride Other emotions Show less universality across cultures Closely tied to social interaction Is it learned or innate? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5G6ZR5lJgTI Decoding Facial Expressions of Emotion Three reasons decoding can be complicated 1. Affect blends One part of the face displays one emotion and another part, a different emotion 2. People may try to mask emotions Psychologists have studied what happens when people suppress their negative facial expressions; their results present an interesting cautionary tale 3. Culture Culture and Nonverbal Communication Paul Ekman and his colleagues have studied the influence of culture on the facial display of emotions Display rules Dictate what kinds of emotional expressions people are supposed to show What kinds of emotional expressions people are supposed to suppress https://atlasofemotions.org/#introduction/ Examples of Display Rule Differences Display of emotion Different norms for American men and women Grief or crying Our cultural norms discourage emotional displays in men, such as grief or crying, but allow the facial display of such emotions in women Smiling Japanese women hide smile behind hands (similar in Turkish cultural setting?) Western women allowed/encouraged—to smile broadly and often http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HZTIaoZZp0 Examples of Display Rule Differences Negative facial expressions Japanese cover up negative expressions with smiles, laughter Display fewer facial expressions than in the West What about Mediterranean culture? Examples of Display Rule Differences Gaze Americans suspicious when a person doesn’t “look them in the eye” Find talking to someone who is wearing dark sunglasses disconcerting Looking eyes directly may represent agression in TR Personal space Americans like a bubble of open space, a few feet in radius Other cultures, strangers standing next to each other, to the point of touching http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frQdjs9UaYA Culture and Channels of Nonverbal Communication Emblems Nonverbal gestures that have well-understood defintions within a given culture; they usually have direct verbal translations, like the “OK” sign. Emblems are not universal! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fa_GCK-Czqs Multichannel Nonverbal Communication Nonverbal information is diffused across many channels in everyday life Can use more than one channel to decode Increases ability to make accurate judgments Implicit Personality Theories: Filling in the Blanks To understand other people Observe their behavior Infer feelings, traits, and motives. To make inferences Use schemas about which personality traits go together in one person Implicit personality theories differ from culture to culture. Westerners assume that there is an artistic type of person—someone who is creative, intense, temperamental, and unconventional (for example, the artist Andy Warhol, left). The Chinese have a category of a shi gú person—someone who is worldly, devoted to his or her family, socially skillful, and somewhat reserved (right). Implicit Personality Theories: Filling in the Blanks Implicit Personality Theory A type of schema people use to group various kinds of personality traits together; for example, many people believe that someone who is kind is generous as well. Implicit Personality Theories: Filling in the Blanks Advantage Form impressions quickly Disadvantages Make incorrect assumptions Stereotypical thinking Believe that person is like all the other members of his or her group Implicit Personality Theories: How Our Culture and Language Shape Our Impressions of Others People formed an impression of other people that was consistent with the implicit personality theory contained in their language. When Chinese-English bilinguals read stories about people in English, they were likely to form impressions consistent with a Western implicit theory, the artistic personality. When Chinese-English bilinguals read the same stories in Chinese, they were likely to form impressions consistent with a Chinese implicit theory, the shi gú personality. (Hoffman, Lau, & Johnson, 1986) Culture and Implicit Personality Theories Schemas Shared by people in a culture Passed across generations Culture and Implicit Personality Theories American culture Implicit personality theory that “what is beautiful is good” People with physical beauty also have a host of other positive qualities Culture and Implicit Personality Theories Chinese culture Implicit theory of personality of traditional Chinese values Creating and maintaining interpersonal harmony, inner harmony, and ren qin (focus on relationships) Culture and Implicit Personality Theories “Artistic personality” Western cultures Person is creative, intense, and temperamental, unconventional lifestyle Chinese Do not have a schema or implicit personality theory for an “artistic type” Turkey We have an implicit personality theory for an artistic type ☺ Causal Attribution Answering the “Why” Question If one of Your Friends Says that “Nice To see You” does she really mean it? Even though nonverbal communication is sometimes easy to decode & our implicit personality theories can streamline the way we form impressions there is still substantial ambiguity as to what a person’s behavior really means. Maybe, She is right She is acting more excited than she really feels She is lying and really can’t stand you The causes of events always interest us more than the events themselves -Cicero Why do we make attributions? Sense of cognitive control To predict future To respond approriately Attribution theories deal with how the social perceiver uses information to arrive at causal explanations for events Causal Attribution Answering the “Why” Question Two theories Attribution Theory (Fritz Heider) Covariation Model (Harold Kelley) Fritz Heider We tend to see the causes of a person's behavior as internal. when a person on the street asks for money, we are likely to assume that he is at fault for being poor— perhaps lazy or drug-addicted. If we knew the person’s situation— perhaps he has lost his job due to a factory closing or has a spouse whose medical bills have bankrupted them—we might come up with a different, external attribution. Attribution Theory (Heider) Heider “Father” of attribution theory “Naïve” or “commonsense” psychology Viewed people as amateur scientists Piece together information to figure out cause Attribution theory Addresses how we infer the causes of other people’s behavior Nature of the Attribution Process When deciding about causes of behavior, we can make one of two attributions why a father has just yelled at his young daughter Internal, dispositional attribution that the cause of the father’s behavior was something about him—his disposition, personality, attitudes, or character the father has poor parenting skills and disciplines his child in inappropriate ways External, situational attribution his daughter had just stepped into the street without looking Internal Attribution Infer a person is behaving in a certain way because of something about the person (e.g., attitude, character, personality). External Attribution Infer a person is behaving a certain way because of something about the situation. Assume most people would respond the same way in that situation. Nature of the Attribution Process Example—satisfied married couples Partner’s positive behaviors Internal attributions E.g., “She helped me because she’s such a generous person.” Negative behaviors External attributions E.g., “He said something mean because he’s so stressed at work this week.” Nature of the Attribution Process Example—spouses in distressed marriages Partners’ positive behaviors external causes E.g., “She helped me because she wanted to impress our friends.” Negative behaviors internal causes E.g., “He said something mean because he’s a totally self- centered jerk.” Nature of the Attribution Process Tend to make internal attributions for other people’s behavior Why? Perceptually, we focus on people Overlook the situation (external explanation) Hard to see Difficult to describe The Covariation Model (Kelley) A theory that states that to form an attribution about what caused a person’s behavior, we systematically note the pattern between the presence or absence of possible causal factors and whether or not the behavior occurs. Covariation Model Focuses on how behavior “covaries” Across time, place, actors, & targets Examines how perceiver chooses an internal or an external attribution By discovering covariation in people’s behavior, you are able to reach a judgment about what caused their behavior e.g., your friend refuses to lend you her car Covariation Model We make choices about internal versus external attributions by using three pieces of information Consensus Distinctiveness Consistency Why did the boss yell at his employee Hannah? Consensus Information The extent to which other people behave the same way toward the same stimulus as the actor does. Every person yell at Hannah (High in Consensus) Distinctiveness Information The extent to which one particular actor behaves in the same way to different stimuli. The boss doesn’t yell at any of the other employees (High in distinctiveness) Consistency Information The extent to which the behavior between one actor and one stimulus is the same across time and circumstances. The boss yells at Hannah almost every time he sees her (High in consistency) This is the first time that the boss has yelled at Hannah (low in consistency) Internal Attribution Occurs when Consensus = Low Behavior is unique to the person Distinctiveness = Low Person displays same behavior with different targets & in different situations Consistency = High The person’s behavior is occurs reliably across occasions External Attribution Occurs when Consensus = High Other people behave similarly in the same situation Distinctiveness = High The person’s behavior is specific to that situation or target Consistency = High The person’s behavior occurs reliably across occasions Evaluation of Covariation Model Information about all three dimensions may not be available People still make attributions Consistency and distinctiveness used more than consensus The Fundamental Attribution Error Tendency to believe that people’s behavior matches (corresponds to) their dispositions Also referred to as the “correspondence bias” Pervasiveness of this error makes it “fundamental” The Fundamental Attribution Error People act like personality psychologists Attribute behavior to internal dispositions and traits Social psychologists focus on the impact of social situations on behavior—not internal factors The Fundamental Attribution Error Even when people knew that the author’s choice of an essay topic was externally caused (i.e., in the no- choice condition), they assumed that what he wrote reflected how he really felt about Castro. That is, they made an internal attribution from his behavior.(Adapted from Jones & Harris, 1967) The Fundamental Attribution Error Why does it occur? Tend to focus attention on person, not the surrounding situation The person is “perceptually salient” We can’t see the situation, so we ignore its importance. Use the focus of attention as a starting point Perceptual Salience The seeming importance of information that is the focus of people’s attention.  THE ROLE OF PERCEPTUAL SALIENCE IN THE FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION ERROR Manipulating Perceptual Salience This is the seating arrangement for two actors and the six research participants in the Taylor and Fiske study. Participants rated each actor’s impact on the conversation. Researchers found that people rated the actor they could see more clearly as having the larger role in the conversation. The Effects of Perceptual Salience These are the ratings of each actor’s causal role in the conversation. People thought that the actor they could see better had more impact on the conversation. What are the Implications of Perceptual Salience? The Two-Step Process of Attributions 1. Make an internal attribution Assume that a person’s behavior was due to something about that person Occurs quickly, spontaneously 2. Adjust attribution by considering the situation May fail to make enough adjustment in second step Requires effort, conscious attention Figure 4.7 The Two-Step Process of Attribution The Two-Step Process of Attributions Engage in the second step if: You consciously slow down, think carefully before reaching a judgment You are motivated to reach an accurate a judgment You are suspicious about the behavior (e.g., we suspect lying)  Cultural Differences in Social Perception Western Cultures Stress individual autonomy Person is self-contained, independent East Asian cultures Emphasize group autonomy Sense of self comes from group belongingness Cultural Differences in Social Perception Analytic thinking style Associated with Western cultural values Focus on objects or people Holistic thinking style Associated with Eastern cultural values Focus on “whole picture” Person or object and relationships between people What emotion do you think the central person is experiencing in these cartoons? What emotion do you think the central person is experiencing in these cartoons? Cultural Differences in Emotion Expression Expressions on the group members’ faces had little effect on Americans’ ratings of the central figure The group members’ faces had sig. effect on Japenese participants’ ratings of the central figure Cultural Differences in Social Perception Social neuroscience evidence of analytical & holistic styles fMRI East Asian vs. European Americans: judgements about the length of lines inside boxes ignore the box around each line (“ignore context”) OR pay attention to the box around each line (“attend to context”) participants were equally accurate at judging the lengths of the lines, BUT they showed significantly more brain activity when they had to follow the instructions that were the opposite of their cultural thinking style. Cultural Differences in Social Perception Social neuroscience evidence of analytical & holistic styles fMRI More effort required to use unfamiliar style American participants showed greater activation in higher- order cortical regions (frontal and parietal areas) when told to pay attention to the context. East Asian participants showed greater activity in the same brain regions when told to ignore the context. Greater cortical activation means that the participant had to exert more attention when asked to perceive objects in a way that was not typical for him or her. Cultural Differences in Social Perception Social neuroscience evidence of analytical & holistic styles ERP researchers used event-related potentials (ERPs) to measure brain activity ERPs provide a more fine-grained analysis of the onset and offset of neural firing. Researchers present participants with a series of simple perceptual tasks that involved visual information about “targets” and context. European American participants paid more attention to the targets, while the East Asian American participants paid more attention to the context surrounding the targets. Culture and the Fundamental Attribution Error Members of individualistic cultures They prefer dispositional attributions They think like personality psychologists Culture and the Fundamental Attribution Error Members of collectivistic cultures: Prefer situational explanations Think like social psychologists Greater situational focus is matter of degree Do they make dispositional attributions Are they more likely to go on to the “second step” Self-Serving Attributions Explanations for one’s successes that credit internal, dispositional factors and explanations for one’s failures that blame external, situational factors. Self-Serving Attributions Why do we make self-serving attributions? 1. We want to maintain self-esteem. 2. We want other people to think well of us and to admire us. 3. We know more about the situational factors that affect our own behavior than we do about other people’s. Self-Serving Attributions Defensive Attributions Explanations for behavior that avoid feelings of vulnerability and mortality. Defensive Attribution One form of defensive attribution is Belief in a Just World The assumption that people get what they deserve and deserve what they get Belief in a Just World Advantage Allows people to deal with feelings of vulnerability, mortality Disadvantage Blaming the victim Rape victims Battered wives Bias “Blind Spot” People realize biases in attribution can occur Believe other people more susceptible to attributional biases compared to self Culture and Other Attributional Biases Self-serving bias More prevalent in Western, individualistic cultures than Eastern collectivist cultures Belief in a Just World More prevalent in cultures with extreme differences in wealth Summary and Review Nonverbal Behavior Attribution Theory (Heider) Covariation Model (Kelley) Fundamental Attribution Error Self-Serving Attributions Defensive Attributions Role of Culture in Social Perception