Chapter 3 - Social Beliefs and Judgements
Vocabulary:
System 1 (Automatic processing): A model of thinking that includes intuitive, automatic, and unconscious fast ways of thinking, makes snap judgements and follows heuristics
System 2 (Controlled processing): A model of thinking that is deliberate, controlled, conscious, and a slower way of thinking
Priming: Activating a particular part of the brain as an association in memory
Embodied cognition: The mutual influence of bodily sensations on cognitive preferences and social judgements
Automatic thinking: “Implicit” thinking that is effortless, habitual, done without awareness, and follows the concept of intuition
Controlled thinking: “Explicit” thinking that is deliberate, reflective, and conscious
Schema: A mental concept of template that intuitively guides are perceptions and interpretations
Emotional reactions: Nearly instantaneous, automatic thinking taking shortcuts through the thalamus and amygdala before the cortex, happens with strong reactions and quick feelings
Expertise: Develops with skill learning and knowledge on subjects, can turn controlled thinking into automatic thinking
Snap judgement: An instantaneous decision call, made after brief perception
Blindsight: Part of the visual cortex is non-functional due to surgery or stroke, though can recall implicitly visual information from this field of vision
Overconfidence phenomenon: The tendency to be more confident that correct, to overestimate the accuracy of one’s beliefs, fed by incompetence
Dunning-Kruger effect: The phenomenon of ignoring one’s own incompetence, those who know the least are the most sure that they know the most. Can lead to poor results, as people are more confident in their ability to perform that no practice gets done and there is no improvement in results from the non-present practice
Confirmation bias: A tendency to search for information that confirms one’s own preconceptions, follows system 1 snap judgements to agree with it but sometimes also falls under system 2 as it requires active seeking of information
Heuristics: A thinking strategy that enables quick, efficient judgements
Representativeness heuristic: The tendency to presume, sometimes despite contrary odds, that someone or something belong to a particular group if resembling a typical member of said group
Availability heuristic: A cognitive rule that judges the likelihood of things in terms of their availability in memory. If instances of something come readily to mind, we presume it to be commonplace. Makes us more sensitive to unfairness
Counterfactual thinking: Imagining alternative scenarios and outcomes that might have happened, but didn’t
Illusory correlation: Perception of a relationship where none exists, or perception of a stronger relationship than actually exists
Regression toward the mean: The statistical tendency for extreme scores of extreme behavior to return toward their average
Belief perseverance: Persistence of one’s initial conceptions, such as when the basis for one’s belief is discredited but an explanation for why the belief might be true survives. It is difficult for people to change their opinions when they are cherished. Follows system 2, as the accurate information is actively processed and rejected
Misinformation effect: Incorporating false information into one’s memory of the event after witnessing an event and receiving misleading information about it
Attribution theory: The theory of how people explain others’ behavior, for example by attributing it either to internal dispositions or external situations
Dispositional attribution: Attributing behavior to the person’s disposition and traits
Situational attribution: Attributing behavior to the environment
Misattribution: Mistakenly attributing a behavior to the wrong source
Spontaneous trait inference: An effortless, automatic inference of a trait after exposure to someone’s behavior
Fundamental attribution error: The tendency for observers to underestimate situational influence and overestimate dispositional influences upon other’s behavior, people define behavior of others based on the subject’s personality as opposed to the environment
Self-fulfilling prophecy: A belief that leads to its own fulfillment
Pygmalion Effect: A type of other imposed self fulfilling prophecy, the way one person treats another impact the way that other person will behave in the future. After someone is talked to , they change their behavior because of what they’ve been told
Behavioral confirmation: A type of self-fulfilling prophecy whereby people’s social expectations lead them to behave in ways that cause others to confirm their expectations
Daniel Kahneman: Created the distinction between system 1 and system 2 kinds of thinking
Mere-exposure effect: The more often a piece of information is encountered, the more likely it is to be perceived as good. Falls under system 1 thinking. Politicians love this
Status quo bias: Formed by loss aversion and endowment effect, people will stick with a worse scenario that is already present than switch to something else with possible gain
Loss aversion: Loss looms longer than gain, bad sticks in our minds longer than good
Endowment effect: Perceived value of owned items is greatly higher for the same things than if they weren’t owned
Tunnel vision bias: System 1 will take a couple available data points and ignore ambiguity to jump to conclusions. Can be avoided by asking when the opposite may be true, challenges assumptions
People fall into traps of either only system 1 thinking where they are impulsive and reactionary, or only system 2 thinking where they think intensively but don’t act on anything, making them intellectually paralyzed and overanalytical
Our personal experiences and upbringing (nurture) impact how we perceive the world and noise in specific scenarios
Mood can impact whether people use system 1 or system 2 thinking, People in good moods view the world as friendlier and make easier decisions (system 1) unless they encounter something they know will require intense system 2 thinking. Bad moods can lead to system 1 negative reactions, with negative experiences primed in the brain. Good moods leave to positive behaviors, bad moods lead to negative behaviors.