Chapter 6

6.1

Social Cognition- Involves how we perceive, think about and use information to understand and make judgement about ourselves and others in different social situations.

eg: assuming that drug addicts deserve to homeless or assuming someone in a party is boring

Key word: Social

6.2 Person Perception

Person Perception - The mental process we use to think about and evaluate other people.

• Evaluating or making judgement about others whether they are friends is a common part of our life as social beings

• These judgement guide the various types of relationships we develop each other (e.g: you might ask someone who you think is helpful will encourage you to ask for directions)

• Sometimes there is little to no information or we have personal biases. This can influence the accuracy of the understanding we achieve

• Can be formed in person; or througho nline

6.2.1 Physical Cues

• First impressions are based on physical cues.

• First impressions can override what we are told about people ; difficult to change

Physical Appearance (not alwys reliable)

• People who ae judged as physically attractive are perceivd as more interesting and healthy

• Good looking peole are perceived to be less lonely and more popular

The Halo Effect - Tendancy to allow our positive impression of a person to influence our beliefs and expectations about the person in other qualitites.

When we really like a person, This effect allows us to explain away any behaviour that might be considered negative

Reserve Halo Effect- An incorrect assumtpion that a positive characterstic indicites the presence of one or more negative characteristics (good looking guy is manipulative)

Horn effect- Involves an inccorect assumption tha

Body Language (not always reliable)

• Our impressions of people is also influenced by non verbal communication (Body Language)

• It enables us to make quick judgments about them. (e.g: positive impression of someone who listens and nods when you speak - they are percieved to be likeable)

• People are better at reading body language and there are cultural differences (holding up a raised thumb can be a greeting in one culture and insult in other)

• Eye contact is the most infuental forms of non verbal communication

. Eye contact = a sign of interest and attention ; too long eye contact = uncomfortable

Behaviour (reliable)

-We form impressions of people based on their behaviour

• An accurate impressions is formed whhen we consider what people do. (e.g: someone who spends their time in chairty will help conclude that a person is helpful_

6.2.2 Salience

Salience- Personal characteristics that "stand out"

• This may be an individuals gender or race or appearance in general.

• A chatracterstic that is salient may lead to assuptions that become part of our first impression of a person

Salience -> Characteristics that stand out in a specific situation.

(e.g : a person making loud comments to the girl at the counter taking orders)

Might be a individual's gender, race, appearance or weird clothing

Produced by uniqueness or unexpectedness

HOWEVER

What is unusual in one context may be quite normal in another.

(e.g: Crying is weird in school, however normal at a funeral)

People adjust their appearance or behaviour which suits the context.

(e.g: person who smiles in a job interview, might not be a happy perso.)

6.2.3 Social Categorisation

Social categorisation- Classifying each other into different groups on the basis of common characteristics.

(e.g: Gender- Female/Male Race- Asian, white)

Gender, age and race are the most common social categories.

Allows us to form impressions quickly and use past experience to guide new interactions.

can focus on characteristics with which we are familiar, quickly establish expectations about how they may behave, and ignore information that is irrelevant to the interaction.

Using people’s group memberships to make assumptions about them.

This can lead to errors (leading us to exaggerate differences between groups, and to underestimate the difference within groups)

6.3 Attributions

We look for explanations to help our understanding

Attribution- Process which we explain the cause of our own or another person’s behaviour.

Also used to refer to the explanation we come up with

Attribution theory: Whenever we observe someone’s behaviour, the explanation on why it occurs should refer to internal or external factors associated with the individual.

6.3.1 Internal Attributions

Internal Attributions- An explanation due to the characteristics of the person involved. (personality, ability, attitude, motivation)

Eg: Mario lost his job because he didnt let his team leader know that he was going to work for a week. Assuming that he is always unreliable and irresponsible. We are deciding that the cause of Mario’s behaviour has something to do with him (personal, internal or dispositional attribution)

6.3.2 External Attributions (Situational or environmental attribution)

External Attribution- An explanation of behaviour due to factors associated with the situation that the person is in.

This includes the actions of another person, task, luck or fate.

Steps involved:

Automatically make an internal attribution

Adjust it to take account to external attribution

Eg: Your classmate failed an exam. An external assumption made is that he was spending most of his exam times caring for his sick sister.

Biases

Actor-observer bias- Refers to our tendency to attribute our own behaviour to external or situational factors, yet attribute others’ behaviour to internal factors

Example: Jake and Trinh work as casual waiters. Jake thinks Trinh is clumsy when Trinh accidently drops a glass (external factor). When Jake does the same later on he blames it on the slippery glass. (internal factor)

Fundamental Attribution error- tendency to overestimate the influence of personal factors and underestimate the impact of situational factors on other people’s behaviour.

Mahaja is angry with Lorenzo who he believes is being rude because he has ‘not bothered’ to reply to an important text message sent over a day ago. Mahaja thinks about ending the friendship with a follow-up message without realising Lorenzo is preoccupied looking after his sick parents. (external factor)

self-serving bias- ihe tendency people have to seek out information and use it in ways that advance their self-interest.

eg: A student gets a good grade on a test and tells herself that she studied hard or is good at the material. She gets a bad grade on another test and says the teacher doesn't like her or the test was unfair

Mahaja is angry with Lorenzo who he believes is being rude because he has ‘not bothered’ to reply to an important text message sent over a day ago. Mahaja thinks about ending the friendship with a follow-up message without realising Lorenzo is preoccupied looking after his sick parents. (external factor)

6.4 Attitudes

Attitude- an evaluation a person makes about an object, person, group, event or issue

Evaluation- refers to a judgment being made, either positive, negative or neutral, about some specific aspect of our lives and the world in which we live.

6.4.1 Tri Component model

Tri Componenet model- Proposes that any attitude has three related components, affective, behavioural and cognitive components (ABC)

A- Affective component ( The emotional reactions or feelings an individual has towards an object, person, group or issue. It can involve a positive response, negative response or neutral response.

B- Behavioural component - The way in which an attitude is expressed through our actions.

Eg: running to keep fit -> reflect the component of your attitude towards fitness.

C- Cognitive component- The beliefs we have about an object, person or issue. (from life experiences)

6.4.2 Consistency between the components

The tri-component proposes that all three components must be present before it can be said that an attitude exists

Sometimes, this is consistent

Eg: You must avoid a spider ( behavioural component) because you’re scared of them (affective component) and believe spiders can harm you (cognitive component)

6.4.3 Inconsistency between the components

The behavioural component is often inconsistent.

Eg: A person may dislike watching soccer (affective component) because they feel like it is too boring (cognitive component) but they may choose to attend a match because their friends are going. (behavioural component)

Eg: A guy hates going to maths class (affective component) as he feels like it is too hard (cognitive component) but still goes anyways because he doesn’t want to get in trouble (behavioural component)

However, the behavioural component may be consistent but other components aren’t.

eg:a person may be in love with their partner (affective component), have doubts about the future of the relationship (cognitive component), but continue in the relationship (behavioural component

6.4.4 Attitude and Behaviour

Many believe attitudes and behaviour are linked. (Attitudes play a role in influencing behaviour)

HOWEVER,

This assumption is often challenged,

Sometimes a person’s attitude and observable behaviour will be unrelated.

There are many factors that influence whether attitudes and behaviour will be consistent.

Some of the more important conditions involve how strongly we hold the attitude and how easily the attitude comes to mind.( The situation we are in, and our personal belief that we can actually perform the behaviour)

6.5 Stereotypes

Stereotype- Generalisation about a personal characteristic of the members of a social group

Eg: Women wear too much makeup, asians are smart

• characteristic c is attributed to people on the basis of their group membership (product of social categorisation)

There are stereotypes for all kind of social groups - both positive and negative

Positive -> Asians are smart Negative -> Asians have small eyes.

Stereotypes also influence our expectation of “what someone is like”

Problems

However, stereotypes can be inaccurate (based on incorrect or inadequate information)

It overlooks our uniqueness

Fixed and resistant to change.

Eg: meeting a guy who likes ballet instead of soccer won’t change our stereotypes

Humans pay more attention to information that is consistent with a stereotype.

Social Stigma- negative labels and attitudes associated with disapproval or rejection by others who are not labelled in that way.

Social stigma leads to social groups feeling discriminated and devalued

Prejudice

“Us and them” - Categorising ourselves and others into ingroup and outgroups

More likely to be prejudiced towards members of outgroups and give preferential treatment to ingroups

Reminder:

Ingroups -> refers to the group you belong to and identify with

Outgroup -> people who do not belong to one's own social group.

6.6 Cognitive dissonance Cognitive dissonance- unpleasant psychological state that occurs when people become aware that there is inconsistency among their various beliefs (ABC) or, that their behaviour conflicts with their cognitions. Eg: A student believes cheating is wrong but still cheats anyways

• Observation: behaviour is different from the way they believe they should behave

How to change it

• Scenario: If you love your gf and they leave you, a dissonance may occur.

1. To avoid discomfort, you reduce the importance of what happened (they were ugly anyways)

2. Sometimes we convince ourselves that our thinking is faulty Eg: Sport is necessary for good health but I don’t play sport because I do enough exercise.

3. We could also change by changing behaviour to suit dissonant cognition Eg: If you are experiencing dissonance involving sports, you start to play soccer.

4. Adding new cognitions or supportive elements to outweig dissonant cognition (justify behaviour) Eg: I don’t play sports because I have a bad knee

6.7 Cognitive Bias Cognitive Bias- A systematic error of judgement and faulty-decision making

It is considered to be a systematic error because

• It is flawed thinking to a person who thinks in a biased way

• It tends to occur naturally, without any conscious awareness

• It is predictable under certain circumstances Factors that contribute to this:

• These include limitations in the cognitive abilities of the individual involved,

• underlying motivational factors,

• Overconfidence,

• social influence,

• information has been interpreted according to the individual’s personal likes, dislikes and experiences.

However, cognitive bias can adapt and enhance survival. Eg: favouring healthy food or reach decision quickly. Biases Anchoring Bias Anchoring Bias - > To rely heavily on the very first piece of information received when making a decision Eg: You are shopping online for a hoodie and first see one you really like that is priced at $450 and way above your budget. You will be prone to thinking that any amount below that is good value, even if it isn’t, and therefore possibly not searching for a better deal.

Attentional Bias Attentional Bias -> To prioritise attention to certain information above other information Eg: , when buying a hoodie within your budget you may focus on its colour, size and overall look and feel, disregarding how warm or weather-proof it may be

Confirmation Bias Confirmation bias -> The tendency to seek, recall, or reinterpret information that confirms existing beliefs. Eg: someone who has a strong pre-existing belief that climate change is a myth rather than a fact will seek and favour information that supports their belief and ignore opposing information.

False Consensus Bias False consensus bias -> The tendency to overestimate the extent to which other people are like them in terms of sharing beliefs or behaviours. Eg: someone may assume that all their friends agree with the racist and sexist comments they make despite the fact that they actually find them offensive but haven’t spoken up.

Hindsight Bias Hindsight bias -> Tendency to overestimate the extent to which the outcome could have been foreseen. Eg: overthinkers; people who think they should have anticipated certain outcomes.

Problem: lead people to take unjustifiable risks when making judgments or decisions.

Misinformation effect Misinformation effect ->The tendency to relay Information acquired after the event to influence the accuracy of the memory of the original event:

Eg: If someone gives their version of a car accident you saw, this new information may interfere with the accuracy of your eyewitness memory.

• Stems from the reliability of eyewitness memory

• Reading or watching a report of an event may change your outlook

Optimism bias Optimism bias- Overestimating the likelihood of experiencing positive events and underestimating the likelihood of experiencing negative events eg:optimism bias can lead someone to assume that they will be unaffected by negative life events such as a poor ATAR score, job loss,

Dunning-Kruger effect Dunning- Kurger effect- people overestimate their knowledge or ability, particularly in areas with which they have little to no knowledge or experience.

Leads to incorrect conclusions

6.8 Heuristic

Heuristic → A strategy for solving a problem or making a decision that is based on experience with similar types of problem

• it does not have a guarantee of “right outcome ”

eg: it won’t work again if it has worked in the past

• it can make it difficult to come up with new ideas

• shorten problem solving and decision making

-

eg: if a student needed to decide what subject she will study at university, her intuition will likely be drawn toward the path that she envisions most satisfying, practical and interesting. (her likes)

Availability heuristic → Making a judgement based on how easy or difficult it is to bring specific examples to mind.

• The more available information is from long-term memory, the more likely it is that we will base our judgment on that information.

• However, it leads to errors of judgment

• When certain events are more avaliable in your memory, you would think that these events would be common in the future and vice versa

eg: shark attacks are common but they actually aren’t

eg: if you want to decide whether you want to drive or fly to NSW, a recent media report would show that there was a car crash, so u choose to fly instead

Representativeness heuristic

• Categorising a person, object or event by judging how closely it matches our idea of a typical member of a category

eg: Categorising a scientist and outlaw bikie. You’re more likely to assign a male with white hair in his mid 40s to the scientist category

eg: high quality products = expensive

Affect Heuristic → Making a judgment based on your emotions being experienced

• used to judge the risks and benefit of something

eg: when you’re happy, you are judging the risk as low and benefits as high

• think of advertisements in maccas where the kids are happy

• this leads to consumers associating happiness to maccas

6.9 Prejudice Prejudice - a negative attitude towards another person or social group, formed in advance of any experience with that person or group

Any group (or person) can be the focus of prejudice

A person who is prejudiced against some group tends to evaluate its members negatively, merely because they belong to that group.

Prejudice often involves members of a majority group (ingroup) holding negative attitudes towards the members of a minority group (outgroup)

Characteristics of prejudice Blumer 1961

1. they tend to believe that they are superior to the minority group to whom the prejudice is directed

2. the majority group tend to believe the minority group is different from them and that they ‘do not belong’

3. the majority group tend to believe that they are more powerful and important than the minority group

4. a majority group that displays prejudiced attitudes is insecure, fearing the minority group may become more powerful and important than itself.

Old Fashioned and modern prejudice

Pederson and Walker (1997) Old-fashioned prejudice -> Members of the majority group reject minority group members and their (majority) views against the minority are obvious

Eg: White Americans are more superior than African Americans; where whites approve of segregration

Pederson and Walker (1997)

Modern prejudice -> Prejudice that is more subtle , hidden and expressed in ways morel likely to be accepted within the majority group

Eg: Aboriginals have rights than anyone else, but they tend to want more.

Modern prejudice is more common in Australian society (name calling, abusing is not tolerated)

Explicit prejudice -> Prejudice that is consciously held and usually deliberately thought about (openly expressed)

Implicit prejudice -> Unconsciously held; a person with prejudice is not usually aware they have that though

6.9.2 Discrimination

Discrimination - When a person or a social group is treated differently than others

positive or reverse discrimination - the favourable treatment of a person or social group who is a victim of prejudice

Forms of discrimination

Ignoring people

Excluding people from places or positions

Putting people down

Direct and indirect discrimination

Direct discrimination -> When someone is treated unfavourably because of a personal characteristic protected by the law

Eg: If someone was overlooked for a job because of their age and sex

Happens because people make unfair assumption based about what people with personal characteristics can or cannot do

Eg: an employer doesn’t let a teenager apply for work cause teenagers are unreliable

Indirect discrimination -> When there is an unreasonable requirement that disadvantages a person or social group because of a personal characteristic

Eg: employer refuses to allow them to wear a head covering in workplace (discrimination towards muslims)

Distinguishing between prejudice and discrimination

The difference between these is that prejudice is an attitude and discrimination is behaviour arising from prejudice.

Prejudice and discrimination towards a racial group -> Racism

Prejudice and discrimination towards a gender -> Sexism

Prejudice and discrimination towards age -> Ageism