Stereotypes & social perception

social perception

making sense of other people. We sometimes do so by using automatic heuristics, stereotypes, or scripts. At other times, though, we make careful (controlled) attributions that involve logical reasoning.

attribution

a causal judgment about something. In making attributions about people, we should consider both situational ("the floor was slippery") & dispositional ("he is clumsy") reasons.

correspondence bias

the tendency to offer dispositional explanations for the behavior of others, even when situational explanations (she was paid $100,000 to say the product is great) are more logical.

script

a prototypical (average, simplified) event sequence. Scripts tell us what events to expect and in what order. Examples: There are scripts for baseball games, weddings, & dining out.

stereotype

according to Allport, this is a false or overgeneralized & typically negative belief about the members of a group.

prejudice

the positive or negative feelings people have about a social group (negative ones get more research attention).

discrimination

treating the members of a group unfairly. Such an unfair action is still discrimination (legally & psychologically) even if the harm was unintended.

physical attractiveness stereotype

the widely held belief that physically attractive people possess many positive traits (e.g., sociability, honesty, intelligence) not possessed by unattractive people.

facial babyishness biases

the tendency to assume that people with baby faces possess the properties of babies (being naïve & innocent but incompetent).

implicit personality theory

our unstated (automatic, unconscious) assumptions about exactly which physical and psychological traits tend to go together.

three functions of stereotypes

Stereotypes exist, in part, because they (1) simplify a complex world, (2) justify poor treatment of certain groups, & (3) identify (tell us who we are).

discounting

making a less dispositional attribution (causal judgment) than you otherwise would - because a situational force contributed to the behavior you're trying to explain.

augmenting

making a more dispositional attribution than you otherwise would - because a situational force interfered with the behavior you're trying to explain.