Social Beliefs and Judgments

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Social Beliefs and Judgments

• Why it is okay that we make a lot of mistakes!

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Attribution Theory

• First proposed by Fritz Heider (1958).
• The question is, How do we explain others
  behavior?
• Internal vs. external
• Situational vs. dispositional
• Rational explanation Harold Kelley
• Use information on consistency, distinctiveness,
  and consensus to make attributions.

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Correspondent Inference Theory

• Jones and Davis (1965) looked at attributions
  from a less rational basis.
• Stated that we infer that behaviors correspond
  with peoples intentions and dispositions.
• Thus, a person who says something sarcastic is a
  sarcastic person.
• This type of attribution is more likely to occur
  after unexpected or unusual behavior.

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Fundamental Attribution Error

• Tendency to underestimate the power of the
  situation on human behavior.
• Most of us would assume that Alex Trebek is
  smarter than average.

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Why?

• What causes the FAE?
• Perspective, also known as actor-observer
  differences. When we watch others, they, not the
  situation are the focus of our attention.
• Storms (1973) demonstrated that people who watch
  videos of themselves make more internal
  attributions.
• Also, viewing self makes us self-conscious (e.g.,
  mirrors in stores reduce theft).
• Efficiency. Simplification of complex
  information.

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Why study this stuff?

• The key is development of critical thinking.
• Research shows that psychology students explain
  behavior less simplistically than similarly
  intelligent natural science students.

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Perception is Reality

• We do not perceive a veridical representation of
  reality.
• Perceptions are tinged by what we already know,
  what we expect to see, and what we want to see.
• Although psychologists have documented countless
  ways that we are wrong, Susan Fiske rightly
  emphasizes that our perceptions are accurate
  enough.

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Social Perception

• Our values and attitudes cloud perception.
• Great example is that fans of both teams tend to
  think that officiating is poor.
• Ambiguous information tends to polarize opinion
  even further.
• Seems that the act of supporting ones position
  and refuting another strengthens the original
  opinion.
• Attitudes follow behavior?

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Belief Perseverance

• Tendency to hold on to ones initial beliefs,
  even after they have been refuted.
• Tendency is strengthened if an explanation for
  our belief has been created.
• One way to reduce this is to get a person to
  argue the opposite position.

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Construction of Memory

• Picture your most recent birthday party.
• Memory is not an exact replica of original
  perception!
• Leveling and sharpening of memories.
• When memories are hazy, current feelings guide
  memory.

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Autobiographical Memory

• Hazel Markus argued that we organize our personal
  history in terms of self-schemas
• Coherent set of expectations and beliefs about
  self.
• We filter memories through this schema
• Over time our memories become increasingly
  coherent (shift stuff that doesnt fit schema)
  and thus, less accurate.

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Automatic Processing

• Stunning amount of processing is done below the
  radar.
• Processing of information through schemas
• Pattern recognition of experts
• Athletic, artistic, musical skills

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Overconfidence Phenomenon

• Tendency to overestimate the accuracy of our
  beliefs.
• How often do we say I might be wrong.
• Source of this tendency is the confirmation bias.
  We dont search for information that refutes our
  beliefs. We search, and usually find,
  information that confirms our beliefs!
• Pervades friendship patterns. We seek those who
  support our self-view.

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Heuristics

• Rules of thumb used to simplify decision making
  processes.
• Tied into the idea that we are cognitive misers
  who conserve mental energy by making best
  guesses.
• Although mistakes based upon heuristic decision
  making tend to be glaring, heuristics are
  generally useful and adaptive.

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Heuristics

• Representativeness
• Assuming that something belongs to a group if it
  resembles a typical member.
• This is the root of stereotyping.
• Availability
• Deduce general truths from vivid instances.
• Counterfactual thinking
• Imagining alternative scenarios and outcomes.
• Bronze medal winners generally happier than
  silver medal winners.

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Illusory Correlation

• Humans benefit from discovering patterns because
  they help us to predict the future more
  accurately.
• Thus, we are designed to find patterns.
• However, we frequently find patterns where they
  dont exist!

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Illusion of Control

• Tendency to ignore phenomena like regression to
  the mean and to assume that we have a greater
  impact on outcomes than we do.
• Tutors frequently believe they improve
  performance when actually there was no where to
  go but up!
• Gamblers Fallacy

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Self-fulfilling Prophecy

• Our judgments frequently influence the behavior
  of others.
• Teacher expectations have a small but measurable
  effect on student performance.
• Behavioral confirmation social expectations lead
  people to act in ways that cause others to
  confirm these expectations.