Social Cognition

Two major types of processes in our consciousness

1. Explici

Explicit Processes

correspond roughly to concious thought are deliberative, effortful, relativly slow, and generally under our intentional control (ou

Implicit Processes

comprise our unconscious thoughts: they are intuitive, effortless very fast, and operate outside of out intentional control

• Includes lower level processes that comprise the vast amount of what our brains actually do

Do explicit and implicit processes influence each other? and how?

yes, they making perceptions and evaluations.

judgement - explicit process

Categorizing them into a group - implic

Dual process models

models of behaviour that account for both implicit and explicit processes

person perception

the processes by which individuals categorize and form judgements about other people.

• first impressions rely heavily on implicit processes.

thin slice of behaviour

very samll samples of a person’s behaviour

• we make judgements on these

Self fulfilling prophecy

occur whej a first impression (or an expectation) affects one’s behaviour and than that affects other people’s behaviour, leading one to confirm” the inital impression or expectaion.

•  if you expect someone you meet to be warm and friendly, you will probably be more at ease with them and will treat them in a warm and friendly manner yourself. This warm and friendly behavior will lead them to behave in a warm and friendly way in return. 

How do humans tend to think

• Seperate us and them

• we are is the way people should be

Self serving biases

biased ways of processing self-relavent information information to enhance our positive self-evaluation.

• we take pride in our successes but blame our failures on other people, circumstances or luck.

Internal attribution

when someone explains the cause of a behvaiour or event as being due to facts within a person like their innate qualities.

External attribution

when someone explains the cause of a behviour or event as being due to factors outside that person. —- because of other people or the siutation they are in

Fundamental attribution error (FAE)

the tendency to overemphasize internal attribtuions (dispositional) and under emphasize external factors (situational) when explaining behaviour

cross-cultural differences

subjects from China are more liekly to emphasize situational explanations, whears north americans are mor eliekly to emphasize dispositional explanations

Ingroups

groups we feel positively toward and identify with

• family, coworkers, home team

Outgroups

Groups that we don’t identify with

Ingroup Bias

people see their in groups as superior to their outgroups

What happens when we try to change our predudices?

our implicit and explicit process systems are battling, usually implicit wins.

Implicit biases lay the foundation for…

predudice, sterotyping, and intergroup discrimnation

Stereotype

a set of beliefs about the traits of a specific social group, these beliefs help us quickly understand and process information about our social world.

prejudice

a strong response to members of outgroups, including holding negative attitudes and and making judgements

• based on stereotypic beleifs

discrimination

behavioir that disfavours or disadvantages members of a certain social group.

Implicit associations test (IAT)

measures how fast people can respond to images or words flshed on a computer screen

• measures prejudices.

How can we overcome implicit processes?

can be reprogrsmmed through practise, by giving people the benefit of the doubt.

Contact hypothesis

predicts that social contact between members of different groups is extremely important to overcome prejudice.

Benevolent stereotypes

positive association, ex. masculin people are more athletic and powerful

Hostile sterotypes

negative association.

implicit prejudice

refers to situations in which a person stereotypes a group of people based on hidden, unacknowledged feeling