Social Perception & Attributions Social psychologists study how we think about, influence, and relate to one another.

Social Perception Social schemas  mental representations that influence how we perceive others Influence how we process & interpret info Influence what we remember because we attend to things that are consistent with our schemas Can lead to errors in judging others

Attribution Theory Internal (dispositional) attribution  assume person’s behavior is determined by personal traits External (situational) attribution  assume person’s behavior is due to external circumstances

How we explain someone’s behavior affects how we react to it Negative behavior Situational attribution “Maybe that driver is ill.” Dispositional attribution “Crazy driver!” Tolerant reaction (proceed cautiously, allow driver a wide berth) Unfavorable reaction (speed up and race past the other driver, give a dirty look)

Factors That Determine Attribution Consensus  Are other people's behavior similar to that person’s behavior in the situation? Consistency  does the person act the same way frequently or in most cases? Distinctiveness  does person respond differently in other situations? Or just this specific situation?

Consensus (general agreement) Soup Story….Bad Soup or Crabby Customer? Dispositional Situational Consensus (general agreement) Low consensus – few people act this way (i.e. few people think the soup is bad & complained) High consensus – many people act this way (i.e. many people agree that the soup is bad & complained)

Soup Story….Bad Soup or Crabby Customer? Dispositional Situational Consistency High consistency – person acts this way frequently (i.e. customer always complains about food) Low consistency – person rarely acts this way (i.e. customer rarely complains about food)

Distinctiveness of Situation Soup Story….Bad Soup or Crabby Customer? Dispositional Situational Distinctiveness of Situation Low Distinctiveness - person behaves same way in other situations (i.e. customer complains at all restaurants or about all food) High Distinctiveness – person does not behave this way in other situations (i.e. customer never complains @ other places or about other food)

Fundamental Attribution Error  overestimating internal (dispositional) attributions to others and underestimating external (situational) attributions

Actor-observer effect  attributing our own behavior to external (situational) causes & behavior of others to internal (dispositional) causes “ I was unprepared for the exam because there was a family emergency last night, but Sally was unprepared because she’s basically not good at math.”

Self-serving bias  tendency to attribute success to internal (dispositional) factors, but failures to external (situational) factors “I won the game today because I am a great athlete.” “I lost the game because the referee made bad calls.”

False consensus effect  tendency to think other people share our attitudes more than they actually do “I really like this one television show, so I assume most of my peers like it as well.”

Social Perception Self-fulfilling prophecy  occurs when our expectations cause us to unknowingly act in a way that elicits the behaviors that confirm our expectations

Rosenthal & Jacobson (1968) Teachers told that certain elementary school students would bloom (rapid academic growth) Randomly chosen bloomers showed significantly greater gains in IQ than control-group classmates Teacher expectancies about children influenced student performance The student who believes that he/she cannot pass a test will not study as hard as needed, thereby confirming that he/she was “right”

Just world hypothesis  tendency to believe that good people are rewarded, bad people are punished False consensus effect  tendency to think other people share our attitudes more than they actually do “I really like this one television show, so I assume most of my peers like it as well.”

Representative heuristic  tendency to make judgments about a person according to the group they appear to represent If you see someone wearing athletic apparel, you assume that they are in the “jock” group If you see someone wearing a white lab coat, you assume that they work in a lab or hospital What about the make-up counter at a department store?

Availability heuristic  tendency to judge probability of an event’s occurring based on how readily examples come to mind After 9/11, many people were afraid to fly, yet the increased security at airports made it safe to fly Swine flu Hindsight bias  tendency to overestimate how predictable an event was once the outcome is known “I knew it all along!”

Availability Heuristic A person claims to a group of friends that drivers of red cars get more speeding tickets. The group agrees with the statement because a member of the group, "Jim," drives a red car and frequently gets speeding tickets. The reality could be that Jim just drives fast and would get a speeding ticket regardless of the color car that he drove. Even if statistics show fewer speeding tickets were given to red cars than to other colors of cars, Jim is an available example which makes the statement seem more plausible.

Hindsight Bias For instance, suppose a person was asked to estimate how many votes John McCain would get in the Michigan primaries. If before the election, he estimated 30%, and then learned that the actual figure was 50%, he may later recall that his answer was 40%.

Gambler’s fallacy  people believe that future events are influenced by past occurrences Individuals who have lost many times while gambling assume that they “must win” the next time