Social Psychology - David Myers: Chapter 3

priming

the activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response

embodied cognition

the influence of bodily sensations, gestures, and other states on cognitive preferences and judgements

belief perseverance

tendency to stick to our initial beliefs even when evidence contradicts them

misinformation effect

incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event

controlled processing

"explicit" thinking that is deliberate, reflective, and conscious

automatic processing

"implicit" thinking that is effortless, habitual, and without awareness; roughly corresponds to "intuition"

overconfidence phenomenon

the tendency to be more confident than correct - to overestimate the accuracy of one's beliefs

confirmation bias

a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence

Heuristic

a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than algorithms

representativeness heuristic

the tendency to presume, sometimes despite contrary odds, that someone or something belongs to a particular group if resembling (representing) a typical member

counterfactual thinking

imagining alternative scenarios and outcomes that might have happened, but didn't

illusory correlation

perception of a relationship where none exists, or perception of a stronger relationship than actually exists

illusion of control

perception of uncontrollable events as subject to one's control or as more controllable than they are

regression toward the average

statistical tendency for extreme scores or behavior to return toward one's average