Social Perception

1. Social Perception

2. Three Minute Review THEORY OF MIND • Why is the human brain so big (relative to body size)? • social group size • bigger groups require bigger brains to keep track of relationships • optimal group size for humans: 150 • social (Machiavellian) intelligence • example: reciprocal altruism • Testing theory of mind • Heider’s moving shapes • people can’t help but attribute “minds” to animate objects • False belief tests: Sally-Ann test, Smarties test • does somebody else know the same things you know • False picture tests • camera instead of Sally • lying • can you mislead what somebody else knows to your advantage

3. THEORY OF MIND • normal children • develop theory of mind around age 4 • do better with false belief than false picture test • autistic children • absent/impaired theory of mind • do okay with false picture than false belief • not due solely to intellectual impairments • Down’s syndrome children pass theory of mind tests • Asperger’s syndrome: high-functioning autism • extreme male brain theory • things (systemizing) vs. people (empathizing) • men vs. women • autistics vs. ??? (Williams syndrome perhaps?) • correlated with length of ring finger vs. index finger? • is there a “geek syndrome”?

4. Test Yourself In the container test, children are shown a familiar kind of container such as an M&M bag and asked what the bag contains. Most 3- and 4-year-old children respond appropriately and are then asked to open the bag. Once opened, the bag is found to contain an unpredicted item, such as a pencil. The bag is then closed, and the children are asked to guess what another person who has not looked inside will think is in it. What typically happens? • Most 3- and 4-year-olds will answer “M&Ms.” • Most 3- and 4-year-olds will answer “pencil.” • Most 3-year-olds will answer with “pencil,” but most 4-year-olds will answer “M&Ms.” • Most 3-year-olds will answer with “M&Ms,” but most 4-year-olds will answer “pencil.” • Most 3-year-olds will give a specific prediction, but most 4-year-olds will refuse to answer.

5. Recommended Homework • Prior to Tuesday’s class, I would like you try at least one experiment from the web site below. You can pick between experiments on your perception of age, race, gender, and American presidential candidates. https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/measureyourattitudes.html • On Tuesday, we will discuss the rationale behind these experiments and it will be easier for you to understand if you’ve tried it yourself.

6. Social Perception • How do we perceive ourselves? • How do we perceive others?

7. Self Awareness: The Mirror Test • Who passes the test? • human children > 15 mos. • chimps > 6-8 years old • dolphins • one gorilla (Koko) • some monkeys? • while individual is asleep or anesthetized, put a red spot on their face/body • see how they behave when they see themselves in the mirror • do they realize it’s them?

8. Mirror Selves • others prefer the real photograph • you yourself prefer the mirror image

9. Is there one “self”?: Roles

10. Self Complexity

11. Reference Groups • We see ourselves in contrast to those around us • bronze medalists are typically happier than silver medalists • how good are we at judging the reference group?

12. Better-than-average Effect • 90% of adults consider themselves “above average” drivers • 94% of college professors rated themselves better than average • in one study, no college-bound seniors rated themselves below average and 25% rated themselves in the top 1%

13. Incompetence • Many people are incompetent at judging their own incompetence across many domains (humor, grammar, logic) Sense of Humor

14. Self Appraisal • most people see themselves in a move positive light than others see them • most people see their current selves as more positive than they see their past selves • people with high self-esteem make downward comparisons; people with high self-esteem make upward comparisons

15. Self-fulfilling prophecy The Pygmalion effect • In the myth, Pygmalion created a statue that he treated with such affection, it came to life • 1968 experiment in a lower class San Francisco elementary school • gave students an IQ test • told teachers that the test had identified students who were “late bloomers” and would show a spurt in IQ growth • the experimenters randomly selected 20% of the pupils who were identified to the teachers as late bloomers (in reality, these students were no different in their IQs than the remaining 80%) • after one year those students showed significantly higher IQ scores (an increase of 12 points compared to 4 points in the other students) • works on rats too! Robert Rosenthal

16. Why do self-fulfilling prophecies work? • see video

17. Attribution Attribution • the process by which people infer the causes of other people’s behavior • Example: Why did your boss yell at your co-worker? • co-worker was slacking off and deserved it? • boss is always a hothead? • boss is usually easygoing but is undergoing a divorce that has her stressed out? • boss really needed this particular job to be done right because her job is on the line External factors • people, events, situation, environment Internal Factors • traits, needs, intentions

18. Consider an Example • Kelley’s 3 questions in making an attribution • does this person regularly behave this way in this situation? • do others regularly behave this way in this situation? • does this person behave this way in many other situations?

19. Person Bias fundamental attribution error • most common error • people give too much weight to personality and too little weight to the situation • more common in Westernized societies

20. Actor-Observer Discrepancy • I did it because of the situation; You did it because of your personality • e.g., “I did poorly on the exam because I had a heavy exam schedule and I’d been sick and I was really stressed out and my goldfish died that morning and…. He did poorly on the exam because he’s stupid and lazy.” • can be influenced by point of view • see self on videotape   personality attribution • see videotape from other’s POV   situation attribution

21. Prior Information Effects • Mental representations of people (schemas) can effect our interpretation of them • Kelley’s study • students had a guest speaker • before the speaker came, half got a written bio saying speaker was “very warm”, half got bio saying speaker was “rather cold” • “very warm” group rated guest more positively than “rather cold” group

22. Attractiveness Bias

23. Attitudes • “beliefs tinged with emotion” • e.g., good vs. bad, moral vs. immoral

24. Cognitive Dissonance • attitudes must be consistent with behavior • if they are not, people experience discomfort • must either change behavior or change attitude • usually it’s easier to change the attitude • Example • Stephan is a neurologist and knows that smoking is a serious health risk • Stephan smokes • Stephan must either: • stop smoking • change his attitudes • “The risks are exaggerated.” • “I’m going to die from something anyway.” • “Smoking reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.”

25. Hypocrisy and AIDS prevention Experiment (Aronson et al., 1991, 1994) • hypocrisy condition: students made video tapes to promote condom usage among high school students while being made aware of their own failure to use condoms • hypocrisy groups later purchased and used condoms more frequently than control groups

26. Insufficient Justification Effect • If people cannot justify their behavior, they’re likely to change their beliefs about it • Experiment (Festinger & Carlsmith, 1959) • gave subjects a boring task • asked subjects to lie to the next subject and say the experiment was exciting • paid ½ the subjects $1, other ½ $20 • then asked subjects to rate boringness of task • $1 group rated the task as far more fun than the $20 group • each group needed a justification for lying • $20 group had an external justification of money • since $1 isn’t very much money, $1 group said task was fun

27. Initiation Rites

28. Belief in a Just World • belief that people get what they deserve • blaming the victim • “gays deserve AIDS” • the rape victim was “asking for it”