Social Perception

Social Perception

• Social Perception• How we form impressions (of people)• and make inferences (about people)

• Perception is imperfect• Need to fill-in-the-blanks

Implicit Personality Theories

• Ways we fill in the missing pieces• Nonverbal behavior

(Universal recognition of 6 emotional expressions of anger, happiness, surprise, fear, disgust, sadness)

• Implicit Personality Theories(Inferring feelings, traits, motives via “schemas” about types of people, including cultural schemas)

• Halo Effect (If we consider someone good (or bad), we are likely to make similar evaluations with other aspects of the person)

• “What is beautiful is good”(If we consider someone beautiful, we are likely to believe they have other positive qualities)

GOAL: Seeking accuracyGOAL: Seeking accuracy

Accuracy Strategies:Accuracy Strategies:Kelly’s covariation modelKelly’s covariation modelDiscounting principleDiscounting principleAugmenting principleAugmenting principle

Basic desire to avoid mistakes

Want to control outcomes in life

Attributional Processes

• Covariation model -people determine the cause of an actor’s behavior by assessing

• Consensus - how other people behave toward same stimulus

• Distinctiveness – how the person responds to other stimuli

• Consistency – frequency of person-stimulus across time and situations

Why does Jack want to marry Why does Jack want to marry Jill?Jill?

Internal Internal AttributionAttribution(Jack is (Jack is Desperate)Desperate)

Distinctiveness Distinctiveness is is LowLow(Jack will marry (Jack will marry anyone)anyone)

Consensus is Consensus is LowLow(Others aren’t (Others aren’t interested in interested in Jill)Jill)

Consistency is Consistency is HighHigh(Jack’s proposed (Jack’s proposed every day this every day this week)week)

External External AttributionAttribution(Jill is (Jill is desirable)desirable)

Distinctiveness Distinctiveness is is HighHigh(Jack wants only (Jack wants only Jill)Jill)

Consensus is Consensus is HighHigh(Everyone wants (Everyone wants to marry Jill)to marry Jill)

Consistency is Consistency is HighHigh(Jack’s proposed (Jack’s proposed every day this every day this week).week).

Interaction Interaction AttributionAttribution(Jack and Jill (Jack and Jill have that have that special magic)special magic)

Distinctiveness Distinctiveness is is HighHigh(Jack wants only (Jack wants only Jill)Jill)

Consensus is Consensus is LowLow(Others aren’t (Others aren’t interested in interested in Jill)Jill)

Consistency is Consistency is HighHigh(Jack’s proposed (Jack’s proposed every day this every day this week).week).

Attributional Logic:

• Discounting principleDiscounting principle - -as the number of possible causes for an as the number of possible causes for an event increases, our confidence that any event increases, our confidence that any particular cause is the true one decreasesparticular cause is the true one decreases• Example: If a guy gives a girl flowers, what Example: If a guy gives a girl flowers, what

could be the cause?could be the cause?

• Augmenting principleAugmenting principle - -if an event occurs despite the presence of if an event occurs despite the presence of strong opposing forces, we give more strong opposing forces, we give more weight to factors that lead towards the weight to factors that lead towards the eventevent• Example: If a guy gives a girl flowers, we are Example: If a guy gives a girl flowers, we are

more likely to think he really likes her if he had more likely to think he really likes her if he had to walk through a rainstorm to get them.to walk through a rainstorm to get them.

GOAL: Managing self-imageGOAL: Managing self-image

Self-image Strategies:Self-image Strategies:Self-serving Self-serving attributionsattributions

Basic desire to avoid mistakes

Want to control outcomes in life