Social Cognition

Person perception, Attribution

Social cognition

The way in which people process, remember, and use information in social contexts to explain and predict their own behaviour and that of others. 

Person perception

the mental processes used to form impressions and draw conclusions about the personal characteristics of other people.

The halo effect

a cognitive bias in which the overall impression of a person is influenced by their positive or negative characteristics in one particular area

Human communication - Mehrabian (1981)

• 55% Body Language

• 38% Tone of Voice

• 7% Spoken Words

Attribution

Dispositional attribution

Situational attribution

Dimensions of attribution theory

internality, stability, controllability, and globality.

Internality

the perceived source of the cause, whether internal or external.

Stability

whether the cause is perceived to be permanent or transient.

Controllability

whether the cause is perceived to be controllable or not.

Globality

whether the cause is perceived to affect many other situations or not.

Fundamental attribution error

the tendency to overestimate the influence of dispositional factors and underestimate the impact of situational factors on other people’s behaviour.

Self-serving bias

the tendency for individuals to attribute their successes to dispositional factors while attributing their failures to situational factors.