Social Perception and Managing Diversity

Social Perception

The process we use to process social information -- information related to interactions with others, motives for behavior, etc.

Person Perception

influenced by 3 components

- characteristics of perceiver

- characteristics of target

- characteristics of situation

Model of Social Information Processing

1. Selective Attention / Awareness

2. Encoding and Simplification

3. Storage and Retention

4. Retrieval and Response

Selective Attention / Awareness

relates to environmental stimuli/information; retaining of salient/meaningful information (Cocktail Party Effect: we selectively pay attention while filtering out background noise)

Encoding and Simplification

interpretation and categorization

-schemas

-scripts

-categories

-stereotypes

(ex: chunking to remember phone numbers)

Storage and Retention

Memory

-semantic

-episodic

-people

Semantic memory

memory of data, facts, concepts, general knowledge of the world)

Episodic memory

memory of events

Person memory

memory of people or groups of people

Retrieval and Response

relates to judgments and decisions

Implicit cognition (aka implicit bias)

represents any thoughts or beliefs that are automatically activated from memory without our conscious awareness

Stereotype

a generalized belief about a group of people

Stereotype Formation

1. Categorize

2. Inferences

3. Expectations

4. Maintenance

Causal Attribution

suspected or inferred causes of behavior

Fundamental Attribution Bias (FA Error)

tendency to make internal attributions rather than external (ex: if a friend is late, we tend to assume that they didn't keep track of time rather than traffic problems)

Self-Serving Bias

the tendency for people to take personal credit for success but blame failure on external factors (ex: if I aced a test it's because I studied, if I fail a test it's because the test was too hard)

Halo Error

when one favorable characteristic of someone makes you see them as good in other unrelated areas

Pitchfork Error (aka Horns Error)

one unfavorable characteristic of someone makes you see them as bad in other unrelated areas

Leniency Error

too lenient on people

Severity Error

too tough on people

Central Tendency Error

tendency to assume that everyone is average

Recency Effect

when presented with a string of things, it's easiest to remember the most recent one

Primacy Effect

when presented with a string of things, it's easiest to remember the first one

Stereotyping

creating an oversimplified image of a particular group of people, usually by assuming that all members of the group are alike (ex: Asian woman: "I turn now good luck everybody else")

Projection

projecting values of yourself onto another because of a shared characteristic (ex: "I'm Asian and smart so since they are Asian they must also be smart")

Contrast Effect

thinking someone is extraordinary because the previous one is a lot worse

"Similar to Me" Effect

tendency to favor someone just because they are similar to you

Attribution Theory

to determine whether someone's behavior/result is as a result of external factors or internal ones; 3 dimensions

- Consensus

- Distinctiveness

- Consistency

Consensus

compares an individual's behavior with that of his or her peers (ex: I scored a 90 on the exam, the class average is 89 -> consensus is high)

Distinctiveness

compares a person's behavior on one task with their behavior on other tasks (ex: I scored a 90 on my Accounting exam but failed all my other exams -> high distinctiveness)

Consistency

compares an individual's behavior on a task with their behavior at different times (ex: I scored a 90 on my first Accounting exam and also aced the next two Accounting exams -> high consistency)

Attribution made to external causes (task difficulty, environmental factors, etc.)

- High consensus

- High distinctiveness

- Low consistency

Attribution made to internal causes (personal ability, characteristics, hard work, etc.)

- Low consensus

- Low distinctiveness

- High consistency

Diversity

the multitude of individual differences and similarities that exist among people; isn't automatically an advantage or disadvantage because without inclusion, it can possibly drive differences

Inclusion

the extent to which the diversity of members are brought together in a meaningful way to increase success; recognizes differences but primary focus is bring those differences together

Four Layers of Diversity

- Personality

- Internal dimensions

- External dimensions

- Organizational dimensions

Internal dimensions

surface level characteristics; quickly obvious to outsiders (ex: age, race, gender)

External dimensions

deep level characteristics; takes time to emerge through attitudes, values, etc. (ex: religion, income)

Organizational dimensions

characteristics relating to an organizational setting (ex: seniority, management status, work location)

Affirmative Action

artificial interventions that allow companies to correct imbalances, address diversity problems; can be seen as more of an "enforcement" to diversity, can be divisive and not necessarily beneficial

Managing diversity

focuses on changing organizational systems, culture, etc. to drive an inclusive work environment

3 Strategies for managing diversity

1. Educational: help people develop for success in a diverse workplace

2. Enforcement: accountability mechanism to change the system

3. Exposure: expose people to others with different backgrounds

Simple Model of Diversity in Organizations

Core Aspects: things that should be consistent

Diverse Aspects: things that can/should be different

(ex: military -> more core, less diversity)