Chapter 12 - Social Cognition

Heider and Simmel (1944)

Asked subjects to watch videos of shapes and describe what was happening. Subjects spontaneously described social motives and relationships

Pitcher & Ungerleider (2021)

Proposed a third visual processing pathway specialized for processing social information such as understanding and interpreting actions of others. 

Areas involved in Pitcher & Ungerleider (2021) processing

• Biological motion

• Facial movement

• Integrates audiovisual information (speech)

Theory of Mind or Mentalizing

Concept that others have mental experiences

– Understanding the thoughts, motivations, and intentions of others

Example Theory of Mind tasks

Understanding the intentions of actors in verbal stories and visual cartoons or picture sequences.(Denoting social relationships amongst moving geometric shapes)

Theory of Mind tasks activate which Social Cognition Areas:

1. Temporal Parietal Junction (1)

   1. Attributing mental states to others

2. Posterior Superior Temporal Sulcus (2)

   1. Biological motion (more later)

3. Dorsomedial Prefrontal Cortex (3)

   1. Monitoring own mental state

   2. Attributing mental states to others

Contreras et al. (2012) – fMRI scans - Subjects answered questions about objects or people and it was found that areas more activated by social knowledge included:

• Dorsomedial prefrontal cortex

• Temporal parietal junction

Epley and colleagues (2008)

Examined anthropomorphizing of gadgets (e.g., alarm clock that moves away, pillows that hug) and pets

• Gadgets: Ratings of how much it has mind of its own; free will

• Pets: Ratings of possession of “human” traits(thoughtful, considerate, sympathetic, devious, jealous

Epley and colleagues (2008) Findings

• Assignment of human traits positively correlated with measures of loneliness and social disconnection

• Appears we are motivated to seek these human traits(de)humanization

Waytz & Epley (2012): Social Connection & Dehumanization

• Some participants brought a friend (social connection) and Others arrived alone (control)

• Completed study in same room as friend or stranger (no interaction)

• Task: Judged suspected terrorists

• Dehumanization Measures: Attributions of intent, thought, pleasure, pain

Harm Endorsement: Approval of waterboarding, acceptable electric shock levels

Waytz & Epley (2012) Findings:

• Social connection group showed higher dehumanization and more likely to endorse harm

• Implication: Humanizing others requires cognitive effort and motivation. Dehumanization linked to reduced activity in brain regions for mental state attribution.

Cosmides & Tooby (1992)

Proposed we have special-purpose reasoning mechanisms for social exchanges and cheating situations (More efficient than domain-general reasoning mechanisms)

Baby Face Bias

Perceived as more honest, less competent

Berry & Zebrowitz-McArthur (1988)

• Simulated court cases

• Defendants with baby faces were more likely to

  •  lose if case involved negligence

  • win if the case involved intentional deceit

Why should we use System 2  in making decisions based of of physical appearance?

• System 1 – fast, automatic, uses heuristics

• System 2 – slow, deliberative, cognitively taxing

Todorov et al. (2005) - Senate and Houses Races

• One second exposure to candidate pair (1st and 2nd place)

• Correlation between Inferred Competence and % of vote won

• Competence correctly predicted over 2/3rds of races. Prediction even stronger when candidates matched for

  • Gender

  • Ethnicity

First Impressions

Nonverbal Behavior is part of the “Social Processing Stream”

Area responsible for processing biological motion

• Posterior Superior Temporal Sulcus

• Point Light Walker – emotion

Ambady & Rosenthal (1993)

Subjects watched silent 30 second clips of professors teaching and rated their teaching ability based on a video clip. Positively correlated with end of semester ratings from actual students.

In-groups include people …

In-groups include people similar to you.

Out-groups include people ...

Out-groups include people that are not like you.

In-group identification

feeling of solidarity we have with other members of what we perceive it to be “our” group.

Self-categorization theory

• Hierarchy of categories we belong to

• Self ---------------------------------Humans

• Different aspects can be primed in different situations

Out-groups are typically perceived as more …

uniform

• Ex: appreciate that some young people struggle with technology

• Ex: assume all older adults struggle with technology

More difficulty empathizing with ___-group members

More difficulty empathizing with out-group members

Cuddy et al. (2007)

Study Focus: Investigated how people attribute secondary emotions (e.g., grief, guilt) to in-group vs. out-group members.
Method: Participants at a NJ train station read about a Hurricane Katrina victim (Black-sounding name: Tanesha / White-sounding name: Amanda) and judged the emotions they'd feel.
Finding: Participants attributed more secondary emotions to victims of their own racial group.

Cameron et al. (2019) – Empathizing Is Effortful

Study Focus: Tested whether people avoid empathizing because it requires effort.
Method: Participants completed 40 trials choosing between two decks:

• Describe a person (objective task)

• Empathize with a person (emotional task)
  Findings: Participants consistently avoided the empathy task—even with positive emotions—indicating it wasn’t just about avoiding distress. Preference for empathy decreased over time, and empathy was rated as more demanding on the NASA workload scale.

Premotor areas of the brain activated when

• Perform action

• Observe someone else perform action

Perception-action-coupling model…

our brains’ mirroring of other people’s actions reflects processes that enable us to vicariously experience other people’s outwardly exhibited states.

Ex: Seeing someone smiling – activation of motor movements associated with you smiling

The Mirror Neuron System is thought to play a role in empathy because:

• Allows you to simulate others’ actions and feelings

• Enables you to better understand what others are thinking and feeling

Gutsell & Inzlicht (2010)

Tested 30 white University of Toronto students and measures of racism – consistent with Canadian Context (East Asian (least bias), Black, South Asian (most bias)). Measured EEG while subjects performed or watched someone perform action

Mu suppression (mirroring)

• Less for outgroup than ingroup models

• Predicted by amount of bias (group and individual)

How we View Out-Group Members - Stereotype Content Model

Perceived Competence and Warmth of groups dictates how we view them

Affects different types of social processing

• Less for humanization for _____ Competence / ____ Warmth groups

• Less activity in ____________ Areas (attribution of mental states)

Affects different types of social processing

• Less for humanization for Low Competence / Low Warmth groups

• Less activity in Social Cognition Areas (attribution of mental states)

People sometimes experience reward or pleasure with out-group members failure or suffering called __________

People sometimes experience reward or pleasure with out-group members failure or suffering called schadenfreude

Cikara & Fiske (2012)

 Found that people show schadenfreude—pleasure at others' misfortunes—specifically toward high-competence, low-warmth out-group members, such as those we envy. Participants smiled (measured via zygomatic muscle activation) more when these individuals experienced negative events than positive ones. Is tied to envy toward high-status, cold individuals.

Other Race Effect (ORE)

The tendency to recognize faces of one's own race more accurately than those of other races. It’s found across different racial groups and is bidirectional

• EX: both East Asians and Northern Europeans show it toward each other. 

What might cause Other Race Effect (ORE)?

Perceptual expertise (more experience with own-race faces) or motivational-attentional factors (we pay more attention to in-group members), suggesting exposure and motivation can reduce the effect.

What is the role of perceptual expertise in the Other Race Effect (ORE)?

Perceptual expertise suggests that we recognize own-race faces better because we have more experience with them, leading to stronger activation in the Fusiform Face Area (FFA), a brain region specialized for face recognition.

What did Golby et al. (2001) find about brain activity and race in face recognition?

Found that both African American and European American participants showed better memory for own-race faces (ORE) and stronger FFA activation when viewing faces of their own race. This effect was bidirectional.

What critical period did McKone (2019) identify for reducing the Other Race Effect (ORE)?

Found that exposure to other-race faces between ages 5–12 can reduce the Other Race Effect, but after this period, exposure has little impact.

How do attention and motivation affect the Other Race Effect (ORE)?

ORE may also stem from motivational and attentional factors—people tend to pay more attention to faces of in-group members, leading to better recognition.

What did Van Bavel et al. (2011) find about group membership and face recognition?

Showed that assigning people to arbitrary groups (like “Tigers” and “Leopards”) led to better memory for in-group faces, regardless of race—demonstrating that group membership can override racial cues in recognition.

How did Van Bavel et al. (2011) test the effect of group membership on face recognition?

Van Bavel et al. (2011) tested participants using both familiar and new faces, and had them categorize each as either a member of their own team or the other team.

What did Van Bavel et al. (2011) find about FFA activation and group membership?

FFA activity was greater for faces from the participant’s own team, regardless of the task (own-team or other-team categorization), showing that in-group status increased neural processing.

Did race affect face processing in Van Bavel et al. (2011)?

No, race had no effect on FFA activity—only team membership influenced brain responses to faces.

Why can’t the Van Bavel et al. (2011) findings be explained by perceptual expertise?

Because all participants had equal exposure to in-group and out-group faces, the results can't be due to perceptual experience—suggesting motivational factors drive the in-group bias in FFA.

What is the Bias Blind Spot according to Pronin et al. (2002)?

Pronin et al. (2002) found that people recognize biases in others (e.g., self-serving bias, halo effect) but fail to see those same biases in themselves—a phenomenon called the bias blind spot.

How did Pronin et al. (2002) show that the bias blind spot isn’t just image management?

Participants admitted to other negative traits, yet still denied being biased, showing the bias blind spot isn’t just about looking good or social desirability.

Why do people believe their judgments are unbiased? (Pronin et al., 2002)

People think their views result from careful introspection and analysis, which leads them to believe they are objective and rational.

Why do people use stereotypes in social situations?

People prefer fast and frugal processing and use stereotypes as shortcuts in social situations to simplify decision-making.

What is stereotyping, and why can it be problematic?

Stereotyping is assuming things about others based on their group membership. While categorization is useful, it can lead to unfair treatment in social contexts.

What is the Dual-Process Theory of Stereotyping (Devine, 1989)?

Devine (1989) proposed that stereotyping occurs in two stages: automatic stereotype activation, followed by controlled stereotype application.

What happens in the stereotype activation stage of the Dual-Process Theory?

In the first stage, traits linked to a social group (e.g., "elderly = slow") are automatically triggered by exposure to that group.

What happens in the stereotype application stage of the Dual-Process Theory?

In the second stage, people may apply those stereotypes in judgment or behavior—but this can be overridden with effort and awareness.

What did Devine (1989) find about low-prejudice individuals?

Devine found that even low-prejudice people have automatic stereotype activation but are motivated to suppress or replace them to align with their values.

What did Gilbert & Hixon (1991) test in relation to the Dual-Process Theory?

They tested how cognitive load affects stereotype activation and application using Asian-American stereotypes and a two-part experiment.

What did Gilbert & Hixon (1991) find about stereotype activation under cognitive load?

Subjects who were mentally busy (rehearsing numbers) showed less stereotype activation in a word completion task—suggesting activation is not fully automatic.

What did Gilbert & Hixon (1991) find about stereotype application under cognitive load?

When subjects were busy after stereotype activation, they showed more biased ratings—suggesting they couldn't override the stereotypes.

What were the key cognitive conditions in Gilbert & Hixon’s study, and what did each show?

The study showed that controlling stereotype use depends on cognitive resources: if you're busy during activation, stereotypes may be activated; if you're busy later, you can't stop or control the activation.

What are implicit attitudes? How do they differ from explicit attitudes?

Implicit attitudes are automatic, unconscious evaluations that influence our behavior without our awareness. In contrast, explicit attitudes are conscious and verbalizable.

How are implicit attitudes typically measured?

They are often measured using the Implicit Association Test (IAT), which assesses how quickly people associate concepts (e.g., “old” with “bad” vs. “young” with “good”).

What does faster response time in the IAT suggest?

Faster responses when negative concepts are paired with a group (e.g., old + negative) suggest an implicit bias against that group.

What did Green et al. (2008) find about implicit bias and ER doctors?

Doctors with stronger implicit biases (via IAT) were more likely to rate Black patients as uncooperative and less likely to prescribe them needed heart medication.

What do meta-analyses (e.g., Oswald et al., 2013) say about IAT’s predictive power?

Meta-analyses suggest that the IAT is a weak predictor of actual discrimination-related behavior, calling for more research.

What did Amodio et al. (2004) find in their gun/tool study?

Participants were faster to categorize an object as a “gun” when it was preceded by a Black face, suggesting implicit associations between Black individuals and violence.

How did Amodio & Swencionis (2018) show implicit bias can be overridden?

When participants were incentivized to perform accurately in a modified task where Black faces predicted tools, they were able to suppress their initial biases.

Why do we engage in emotion regulation, and what can make it difficult?

We regulate emotions to function in social situations (e.g., suppressing anger or sadness), but doing so can be cognitively taxing, relying on executive functions.

What did Inzlicht & Gutsell (2007) find about emotion suppression and cognitive control?

Participants who suppressed emotions while watching a sad video performed worse on a Stroop task and showed weaker brain signals related to error detection (ERN).

What is expressive suppression and what are its effects?

Expressive suppression is the effort to hide or control emotional reactions, but it can deplete cognitive resources and worsen task performance.

What is cognitive reappraisal, and how does it differ from suppression?

Cognitive reappraisal involves changing how you interpret a situation to feel less negative, and it's less mentally draining than suppression.

What is confirmation bias, and how does it affect political attitudes?

Confirmation bias is the tendency to seek out and remember information that supports your existing beliefs, contributing to polarization and selective media consumption.

What is group polarization, and how does it happen?

Group polarization is the tendency for people’s attitudes to become more extreme when they only interact with like-minded others or consume biased information.

What is motivated reasoning?

Motivated reasoning is the tendency to interpret new information in a way that fits your existing beliefs, especially on emotionally charged issues.

What did Westen et al. (2006) study about motivated reasoning in politics?

They studied Democrats and Republicans during the 2004 election and found both groups rated their candidate’s contradictions as less severe than the opponent’s.

What did fMRI results from Westen et al. (2006) show about how we process counter-attitudinal info?

When participants saw information that contradicted their beliefs, emotion- and pain-related brain areas lit up, not reasoning areas.

Which person is most likely to dehumanize another person that is outside their social circle?

Someone with a tight social circle

Which of the following best supports the idea that thinking about social categories is processed in different brain regions than thinking about nonsocial categories?

In neuroimaging studies, different brain regions are activated when making judgements about social versus nonsocial categories.

According to Cosmides and Tooby, what makes the Wason selection task easier if a question were framed in social terms instead of using vowels and numbers?

The social context activates reasoning mechanisms to detect cheaters

Waytz and Epley (2012) tested subjects on their level of humanization.  They concluded that humanization was effortful, and that subjects needed to be motivated to do so.  What led to this conclusion?

People who were with a friend (and presumably had their social needs met) exhibited lower levels of humanization.

Which of the following people would be more likely to win an election for political office based on a first impression?

Someone who looks competent

How is empathy affected according to the perception-action-coupling model, when will the mirror neuron system be more activated?

Viewing an in group member perform an action

When are people more likely to experience schadenfreude?

high competence, low warmth outgroup

A woman identifies with different groups depending on her situation. For example, she considers herself Asian when she is with family, but she considers herself a business executive when she is at work. Her perceptions best support

self-categorization theory

According to the dual-process theory of stereotyping, people first engage in _______ and then in _______.

stereotype activation; stereotype application

Implicit association tasks examine attitudes that people might hold regarding stigmatized groups.  These tasks measure these implicit attitudes by

measuring how easy it is for subjects to map different concepts (e.g., old / bad) onto the same response