Psychology of Judgments, Attributions, and Persuasion

A comprehensive set of vocabulary cards covering mental shortcuts, attribution theories, biases, attitudes, and principles of persuasion based on lecture notes.

Heuristics

Fast, efficient strategies that help people make judgments quickly without having to process every piece of information in detail.

Availability heuristic

Occurs when people estimate how common, likely, or important something is based on how easily examples come to mind.

Representativeness heuristic

Occurs when people judge how likely something is by how much it seems to match their mental image or stereotype of a category, rather than considering actual probabilities.

Attribution theory

A theory about how we explain behavior, either our own or other people's, usually reaching for internal or external explanations.

Internal attribution

Explaining a behavior in terms of the person's personality, character, motives, or abilities.

External attribution

Explaining a behavior in terms of the situation or environment.

Distinctiveness

In Harold Kelley's model, this refers to what a person typically does across many situations and whether a specific action is atypical for them.

Consensus

In Harold Kelley's model, this data looks at what other people do in the same context to see if others match the behavior being observed.

Consistency

In Harold Kelley's model, this refers to how a person reacts when presented with exactly the same situation over time.

Augmentation principle

The tendency to make a strong internal attribution when a behavior occurs despite obstacles or costs that should have prevented it.

Discounting principle

Occurs when we reduce the internal explanation for a behavior because it can be very easily explained by environmental factors.

Motivated processing

An attribution bias where our explanations for behavior are shaped by our own desires, emotions, or goals, such as favoring in-group members.

Fundamental attribution error

The tendency to be oblivious to situational constraints and explain behavior almost immediately in terms of a person's dispositional characteristics.

Actor observer difference

The tendency to see other people's behavior differently than our own, often explaining our own actions via the situation while explaining others' actions via personality.

Attitude

In social psychology, this is a evaluation that always has a referent (a target) and typically consists of three components.

Tripartite model of attitudes

Also called the a._b._c.s of Attitudes, it includes three components: feelings (affect/A), behavior (B), and knowledge (cognition/C).

Social desirability

The tendency for people to present themselves in ways that are very positive, which can create a gap between their expressed attitude and their true attitude.

Cognitive dissonance theory

A theory by Leha infesting your stating that people have a desire to be consistent and feel psychological discomfort when their cognitions or behaviors are not in line.

Effort justification

A form of dissonance reduction where people distort the outcome of a long, sustained commitment to make the effort seem worthwhile, such as in hazing or child rearing.

Central route

A thoughtful, analytical route of persuasion where people deeply process information and elaborate on arguments.

Peripheral route

A more mindless and superficial route of persuasion that relies on heuristic thinking and quick judgments rather than deep analysis.

Sleeper effect

Occurs when an originally non-persuasive argument from a non-credible source becomes more persuasive over time because the message and source become separated in memory.

Principle of reciprocity

The principle that when someone does something for us, we feel obligated to return the favor.

Dawn the face technique

A persuasion strategy where a very large request is made first (to be rejected), followed by a smaller request that is perceived as a concession.

Foot in the door technique

A persuasion principle where a very small request is made first, followed by larger requests, capitalizing on the person's desire for consistency.

Social proof

A principle of persuasion where people determine what is correct or desirable by observing what other people are doing.