Social Thinking

self-serving bias

• to preserve one’s self-esteem, one attributes their success to their own expertise and their failure to outside factors

• EX: I passed the math exam because I knew the content well, but I failed the history exam because the room was too cold

attribute substitution

• substituting a simple solution or applying a heuristic when making complex judgements

fundamental attribution error

• in group settings, people are biased to contributing other people’s failure to negative personal characteristics (laziness, intelligence…) rather than to situational causes (illness, being over worked, death in family)

self-enhancement

• tendency to take sole credit for group success

esteem support

• affirms the qualities and skills of a person

network support

• provides a sense of belonging

• shown by gestures, group activities, group hugs, and shared experiences

cognitive neoassociation model

• people are more likely to respond aggressively when they experience negative emotions (tiredness, hunger, sick, frustrated)

altruism

• donor provides a benefit to the recipient at a cost to the donor

cooperation

• donor and recipient both benefit

• 2 people share food

spite

• both donor and recipient are negatively impacted

• 2 people refuse to share food with each other

selfishness

• the donor benefits while the recipient is negatively impacted

polygyny

• mating with multiple females

polyandry

• mating with multiple males

indirect benefits

• attributes of a mate that promote better survival in offspring

• provide advantages to offspring

direct benefits

• attributes of a mate that will provide material advantages, protection, or emotional support

• provide advantages to the mate

phenotypic benefits

• observable traits that make a potential mate more attractive

• traits indicate an increased production and survival of offspring

sensory bias

• development of a trait to match a pre-existing preference in the population

runaway selection

• a trait that becomes exaggerated despite no effect on survival b/c it is more sexually desirable

indicator traits

• traits that signify the overall good health and well-being of an organism

• increases attractiveness to mates

• do not have to be genetic in origin

genetic compatibility

• the creation of mate pairs that have complementary (different) genetics

• to avoid recessive diseases

hawk-dove game

• competing for access to shared resources

• aggressive hawk vs pacifist dove

• altruism

• spite

• cooperation

• selfishness

just-world hypothesis

• good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people

paternalistic stereotype

• a group is looked down upon as inferior, dismissed, or ignored

contemptuous stereotypes

• a group is viewed with resentment, annoyance or anger

envious stereotype

• a group is viewed with jealousy and bitterness (or distrust)

admiration stereotype

• a group is viewed with pride or other positive feelings

power

• ability for people to achieve their goals despite any obstacles

• ability to control resources