Forming Impressions

How do humans process social interactions automatically?

Humans automatically judge and interpret others’ thoughts and behaviours, forming impressions and understanding actions through social interactions.

What did A Class Divided by Mrs. Elliot demonstrate?

Dividing children by eye colour (blue vs. brown) showed how quickly attitudes and behaviours can be influenced by arbitrary group distinctions.

What did Harry Harlow’s monkey experiments show?

Social isolation negatively impacts development; humans (and primates) need social connections for psychological well-being.

What is the difference between situational and dispositional attribution?

• Situational: Behaviour explained by context or external circumstances.

• Dispositional: Behaviour explained by internal traits or personality.

What is the Correspondent Inference Theory?

A framework for analyzing behaviour to infer traits based on three variables:

1. Degree of Choice: Was the behaviour freely chosen?

2. Expectations: Does the behaviour deviate from what is expected?

3. Intended Consequences: What are the intentions behind the behaviour?

What is Kelley’s Covariation Theory?

Behaviour is attributed to disposition or situation using three cues:

1. Consistency: Does the person usually act this way?

2. Distinctiveness: Does the person act differently in other situations?

3. Consensus: Do others behave similarly in the same situation?

What is the Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE)?

The tendency to overestimate dispositional influences and underestimate situational influences when judging others’ behaviour.

What is the Actor-Observer Effect?

People attribute their own actions to situational factors but others’ actions to dispositions.

How does culture influence the FAE?

• Individualist cultures (e.g., Americans) show stronger FAE.

• Collectivist cultures (e.g., Indians, Chinese) emphasize situational factors and relationships → reduced FAE.

What is Self-Serving Bias?

Tendency to attribute successes to internal factors (disposition) and failures to external factors (situations), leading to an inflated self-view (Above Average Effect).

What are heuristics in social perception?

Mental shortcuts that speed up social judgment but may not accurately reflect reality.

Define the Representative Heuristic.

Judging someone based on how well they fit a mental prototype, potentially overlooking actual probabilities.

Define the Availability Heuristic.

Judging likelihood or quality based on how easily examples come to mind; e.g., rating a course lower when asked for 2 improvements vs. higher for 10.

What is the False Consensus Effect?

Belief that others share your opinions or behaviours, often leading to overestimating agreement.

What factors influence attraction?

• Proximity: Physical closeness and functional distance (interaction frequency).

• Familiarity: Mere exposure effect; repeated exposure increases liking.

• Physical Attractiveness: Attractive people are assumed to have positive traits.

• Peer Opinions: How others perceive someone affects their attractiveness.

Give examples of peer opinion influence on attraction.

Aronson & Linder study: Changing feedback from positive to negative or negative to positive affected ratings of attractiveness.

What is an illusory correlation?

Believing two variables are related when there is no evidence.

What is stereotype threat?

Anxiety about confirming a stereotype lowers performance in the stereotyped domain

How is the Implicit Association Test (IAT) used?

Measures implicit biases by recording reaction times in sorting tasks (e.g., racial faces with positive/negative words), revealing subconscious associations.

What is the difference between prejudice and discrimination?

Prejudice: Negative attitude or emotion toward a group.

• Discrimination: Negative behaviour toward a group based on membership.

How does emotional arousal relate to social perception?

Amygdala activity increases when seeing out-group members and decreases for in-group members, influencing bias and response.