Social Cognition: Key Concepts and Contextual Effects

Social Cognition

Social cognition examines how people think about the world and why everyday thinking is frequently irrational.
Errors in thinking often reflect systematic biases, similar to bugs in a computer program.
How we make sense of the social world influences our decisions.

People hold beliefs that are not necessarily true.
Rationality:
- People try to be rational, holding correct opinions and beliefs.
- Jeremy Bentham proposed a felicific calculus, weighing pleasures against pain to determine goodness.
- Harold Kelley suggested people act like naive scientists, seeking relationships to explain events.
  - People look for consistency, consensus, and distinctiveness in behavior to make attributions.
Rational thought requires access to accurate information and mental resources, which are often lacking in everyday life.
People use shortcuts to conserve cognitive energy, becoming cognitive misers.
- Strategies include ignoring information, overusing information, or accepting less-than-perfect alternatives.
- Shortcuts can lead to errors and biases.
People tend to think they are less biased than others (bias blindspot).
- Failure to recognize cognitive limitations can lead to misinterpretations and misunderstanding.

Social context influences judgments.
All judgment is relative and dependent on its surrounding context.
Contrast Effects:
- Objects appear better or worse depending on the comparison.
- Decoys can influence decisions by affecting how alternatives look.
- Contrast effects can strategically make objects look better or worse.
- Selection of comparisons matters; context influences perceptions and judgments.
Priming and Construct Accessibility:
- Interpretation of social events depends on current thoughts and beliefs.
- Categories used to interpret the world vary among individuals.
- Priming involves recent or frequent ideas influencing the interpretation of social events.