Social Perception

How we form impressions (of people) and make inferences (about people) Perception is imperfect Need to fill-in-the-blanks

Implicit Personality Theories Ways we fill in the missing pieces Nonverbal behavior (Universal recognition of 6 emotional expressions of anger, happiness, surprise, fear, disgust, sadness) Implicit Personality Theories (Inferring feelings, traits, motives via “schemas” about types of people, including cultural schemas) Halo Effect (If we consider someone good (or bad), we are likely to make similar evaluations with other aspects of the person) “What is beautiful is good” (If we consider someone beautiful, we are likely to believe they have other positive qualities)

GOAL: Seeking accuracy GOAL: Seeking accuracy Accuracy Strategies: Kelly’s covariation model Discounting principle Augmenting principle Basic desire to avoid mistakes Want to control outcomes in life

Attributional Processes Covariation model - people determine the cause of an actor’s behavior by assessing Consensus - how other people behave toward same stimulus Distinctiveness – how the person responds to other stimuli Consistency – frequency of person-stimulus across time and situations

Why does Jack want to marry Jill?

Internal Attribution (Jack is Desperate) Distinctiveness is Low (Jack will marry anyone) Consensus is Low (Others aren’t interested in Jill) Consistency is High (Jack’s proposed every day this week)

External Attribution (Jill is desirable) Distinctiveness is High (Jack wants only Jill) Consensus is High (Everyone wants to marry Jill) Consistency is High (Jack’s proposed every day this week).

Interaction Attribution (Jack and Jill have that special magic) Distinctiveness is High (Jack wants only Jill) Consensus is Low (Others aren’t interested in Jill) Consistency is High (Jack’s proposed every day this week).

Attributional Logic: Discounting principle - as the number of possible causes for an event increases, our confidence that any particular cause is the true one decreasesDiscounting principle - as the number of possible causes for an event increases, our confidence that any particular cause is the true one decreases Example: If a guy gives a girl flowers, what could be the cause?Example: If a guy gives a girl flowers, what could be the cause? Augmenting principle - if an event occurs despite the presence of strong opposing forces, we give more weight to factors that lead towards the eventAugmenting principle - if an event occurs despite the presence of strong opposing forces, we give more weight to factors that lead towards the event Example: If a guy gives a girl flowers, we are more likely to think he really likes her if he had to walk through a rainstorm to get them.Example: If a guy gives a girl flowers, we are more likely to think he really likes her if he had to walk through a rainstorm to get them.

GOAL: Managing self-image GOAL: Managing self-image Self-image Strategies: Self-serving attributions Basic desire to avoid mistakes Want to control outcomes in life