impression formation

pareidolia

perceiving faces human faces in random, innate stimuli — face pop-out effect

what 3 characteristics makeup ppl’s impression based off ur face & how does gender play into perception of traits

trustworthy, dominance, & attractiveness

• women tend to look more trustworthy

• men tend to look more dominant

point of subjective equality

point at which people can distinguish person’s face from doll

over-generalization hypothesis w/ example

tendency to infer personality characteristics based on similarity’s of one’s appearance w/ learned associations

ex: ppl w/ babyface perceived as warmer, more innocent

emotional overgeneralization w/ example

resemblance to happy/sad/mad expressions lead observers to heuristically associate ppl w. what their face gives off

ex: ppl w resting bitch face treated as more standoffish

how accurate are assumptions abt ppl based on their faces — when r they accurate?

usually not very accurate

• only accurate when determining level of extroversion, openness, & narcissim

  • attractiveness is gaged similarly to extroversion

example of how assumptions abt ppl’s faces can have real world impact (in court)

ppl w/ more dominant faces receive harsher punishments

ppl w/ warmer faces receive less punishments

how well r emotions recognized across diff cultures

basic emotions recognized pretty universally across dif cultures, but ppl r still 10% better at recognzining emotions from their in-group

face-in-crowd effect

ppl better at recognizing certain emotions (anger) in homogenous group when emotions are directed at person observing

dispositional/personal attribution w/ example

attributing actions to someone’s intrinsic character

ex: they were being impatient bc they’re a hostile person

• fundamental attribution error

situational attribution

attribute actions to external circumstances (extrinsic)

• they were being impatient bc they might have an emergency to tend to

diff in cultures with personal/dispositional & situational attribution

east asian cultures usually better at acknowledging context when perceiving fish tank

fundamental attribution error

overwhelmingly attribute actions to one’s character

ex: characterizing self vs others as introvert/extrovert

• less blurred lines for friends but for us we have more info available & more likely to say a mix of both

impression formation steps (2— whats needed for each)

• form impression (automatic)

• correct/alter impression w/ context (effortful)

  • usually skipped— too much going on cognitively to account for other’s situations

smoke detector principle/hypothesis

humans often overreact to uncertain threats to minimize potential harm, cost of overreacting is lower than cost of missing actual threat

belief in a just-world

humans believing ppl get what they deserve in the world

• explains why SA victims still can be blamed— “what was she wearing”

negativity bias— example

we prioritize negative info over positive

• online discourse abt celebrities & cancelling

primacy effect w/ applied example

remembering earlier learned info abt someoen when forming impression

intelligent, industrious, stubborn, envious → more likely to make someone likeable than

stubborn, envious, industrious, intelligent

belief perserverance

tendency to remain by ur opinion even after its been discredited

self-fufilling prophecies

ur diff expectations lead to diff outcomes

• “bloomers” labeled in classroom ended up performing better down the line than control group

False consensus effect

tendency for people to overestimate the extent to which others share their opinions, attributes and behaviors