Social Cognition and Biases

Flashcards covering key concepts, theories, biases, and heuristics discussed in the lecture on Social Cognition and Biases.

What is Social Cognition?

How we process and store social information, and how this affects our perceptions and behavior.

What is Attribution?

The process of assigning a cause to our own and others’ behavior.

What are Social Schemas?

Knowledge about concepts that help us make sense with limited information and facilitate top-down processing.

What is a Prototype?

Cognitive representation of typical defining features of a category; the average category member.

What is Causal Attribution?

An inference process through which perceivers attribute an effect to one or more causes.

What is a Naive Scientist?

A model of social cognition where people are rational and scientific-like in making cause-effect attributions.

What is a Cognitive Miser?

A model of social cognition where people use the least complex and demanding information processing to conserve cognitive resources.

What is a Motivated Tactician?

A model suggesting people think carefully about certain things when personally important, and use heuristics for others.

Name the four key attribution theories discussed in the lecture.

Naïve psychologist (Heider, 1958), Attributional theory (Weiner, 1979), Correspondent inference theory (Jones & Davis, 1965), Covariation model (Kelley, 1967)

What are the three principles of the Naïve Scientist theory according to Heider?

Need to form a coherent view of the world, need to gain control over the environment, and need to identify internal vs external factors.

According to Weiner's attributional theory, what are the three dimensions of causality?

Locus (internal / external), Stability and Controllability

What is the focus of Correspondent Inference Theory?

Whether an act reflects a true characteristic of the person, considering factors like personalism, hedonic relevance and if the act was freely chosen.

What are the three components of Kelley's Covariation Model?

Consistency, Distinctiveness, and Consensus.

What is the False Consensus Bias?

Overestimating how common one's own opinions are.

What is the Fundamental Attribution Error?

The tendency to attribute behavior to enduring dispositions, even when clear situational causes are present.

What is the Actor-Observer Bias?

The tendency to attribute our own behavior to situational causes and others' behavior to dispositional causes.

What is the Self-Serving Bias?

The tendency to attribute successes to internal factors and failures to external factors.

What is a Heuristic?

A cognitive shortcut that avoids effort and resource expenditure; a rule of thumb for quick and easy judgments.

Name three types of heuristics discussed in the lecture.

Availability Heuristic, Representative Heuristic, and Anchoring and Adjustment Heuristic.

What is the Availability Heuristic?

Judging the frequency or probability of events by how easy it is to think of examples.

What is the Representative Heuristic?

Categorising based on similarity between an instance and prototypical category members.

What is the Anchoring and Adjustment Heuristic?

Using a starting point (or initial standard) to influence subsequent judgments.