Ch 4: Perceiving Persons Part 1: Sept. 17, 2010

Social Perception Get info from people, situations, & behavior – We make quick 1 st impressions of people Attempt to read traits from faces – Baby-faced vs. mature features – Is there an evolutionary need? – Situations – Scripts indicate what should happen in certain situations

Situations & Behavior – Use situational cues to interpret behavior Behavior & social perception: – Derive meaning from physical behavior – Includes nonverbal behavior 6 primary universal emotions – happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, disgust – Expressed with similar facial expressions in all cultures

Nonverbal Behavior Importance of eye contact & touch – No link between touch & dominance Differences in nonverbal cues across cultures

Detecting Deception Can we use this info to detect deception? – Facial versus body movements – Not much better than 50/50 chance Experts aren’t much better than novices (see Table 4.2) – Apply to security screening situations - High cognitive effort tasks Strategic disclosure

Attributions Attribution = explanation about a behavior – Heider focused on personal vs. situational explanations of behavior. – Attribution theories: 1. Jones – Correspondent Inference theory: – Infer from action whether it corresponds to personality » Did the person have a choice? » Was the behavior expected? » How many positive effects were there?

Attribution theories (cont.) 2) Kelly’s Covariation theory: – Attribute behavior to internal (person) or external (situation) based on 3 questions – 1. Consensus 2. Distinctiveness 3. Consistency See fig 4.4

(cont.) If low distinctiveness & low consensus, but high consistency, which attribution? – Example? If high distinctiveness & high consensus, but low consistency, which attribution? – Example?