Social Cognition

Social Cognition

Upcoming • Midterm October 9 • Discuss proposal ideas in class on October 23

What is social cognition? How is it different from social psych and cognitive psych? • Effortful, then automatic, then motivated tactician • Then applied to different areas like relationships • Then social cog neuroscience • Controversies

Attribution theory • Jones and Davis (1965) correspondent inference theory • Kelley (1967) covariation theory

Schemas • When do people use schemas? • What do we have them on? • How do they differ from stereotypes?

Impression formation • Warm vs. cold, intellective (compare to Fiske stereotype model) • Anderson (1968) information integration model • Kenny (1987) SOREMO • Thin slices • Spontaneous trait inferences • Why does negative info have more weight?

Judgment • Tversky & Kahneman (1973) • Representativeness • Availability • Counterfactuals • Anchoring and adjustment • What are some reasons we make these mistakes? • Wegner thought suppression

Other areas covered elsewhere • Self • Attitudes • Prejudice • Emotion

Automaticity • What are automatic processes? • How do they differ from controlled? • How is it measured? • https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/ • What are problems with these measures? • What effects do subliminals have?

Does free will exist? • Bargh—it’s all automatic • Wegner—we experience “will” because we have intention, feedback loop, and retrospectivity • Doesn’t deal with whether it exists, just why we think it does • Baumeister—we do have some controlled processes—and maybe even free will!

Do conscious thoughts cause behavior? • Baumeister, Masicampo, & Vohs, 2011 • Evidence against causation? • How can a scientist tell if conscious thought is involved? • Evidence for causation? • What do you think?

Evidence provided • Imagining doing something makes it more likely you’ll do it • Specific intentions make it more likely you’ll do something • Anticipated emotions affect behavior • Reflecting on past events affects behavior • Logical reasoning requires conscious thought • Conscious thought may be especially important for novices

Conscious thought may help us understand what other people are thinking, etc. (do we need that?) • Taking another person’s perspective affects our performance • Thinking you’re good or bad affects behavior • Framing a goal can affect behavior • Good social interaction requires conscious thought • Automatic behavior can be overridden by thought

Overview • What does conscious thought do for us? • Their four conclusions: • Lets us learn from the past • Lets us take into account what is culturally appropriate • Helps when we have several alternatives • Works with unconscious processes to determine human behavior

Jost, Banaji, & Nosek, 2004 • Jost et al. conservatism article that started it all • What is motivated social cognition? • What is system justification theory? vs. Social identity theory? vs. social dominance theory? • Why do people vote and act against their own interests? • When can you get social change, according to SJ? • When and why are implicit and explicit favoritism different? • In what other ways do low status groups show outgroup favoritism?

Would system justification occur outside the US? Would it differ by culture? • What is the IAT really measuring? Does it matter? • Why do we have these tendencies for SJ? What motives do they serve? • What about when people don’t see the system as legit? • What individual level variables relate to more SJ?

People rationalize status quo by thinking likely events are more desirable. • We use stereotypes to rationalize group differences, especially when under threat. • Explaining status differences will increase these effects, even post hoc.

Low status groups will show outgroup favoritism, especially on implicit, and vice versa for high status. • Especially when system seen as more legit, SJ tendencies increase, or conservatism increases • Why? • Especially when system seen as more legit • Especially as conservatism increases • Low status feel less entitlement • Low status more ambivalence toward own group • Affects self-esteem, depression, neuroticism • Implications/examples of this?

Low status groups show more SJ when low individual/group needs • SJ higher in societies with more inequality • SJ higher when complementary stereotypes (poor but happy, caring women) • Sometimes higher for low status group • Why?

System justification and motivated avoidance of info • Shepherd & Kay, 2012 • Compensatory control theory (Kay et al., 2008)—we want to feel that things aren’t just random. So we can look for personal control, or substitute control from external sources like the government or religion • So how does this relate to their hypotheses? • Feeling stupid dependence trust avoiding info

Are there other explanations for their effects? • Do their predictions go beyond what cognitive dissonance theory would predict? • What if people don’t trust the government? • Study 1: Canadian students read about energy—in complex condition self-reported more trust in govt to manage that area • Study 2: Canadian students read about energy, rated pictures with dependency themes, rated trust in govt officials. Complex led to dependence led to trust

Study 3: Americans (through mTurk?) rate how complex energy is, read about running out sooner or later. Said they wanted to avoid it more if urgent and complex • Study 4: More American mTurkers? Read simple or complex description of economy, rated how much the recession was affecting them, and rating their interest in articles about the economy and self-report. When complex, avoided negative articles more if more affected (otherwise more affected related to less avoidance)

Study 5: Online Canadians read complex or simple description of economdy and rated things they could do to get through recession (perceived helplessness), rated dependence on govt., trust in govt., and avoidance. All higher if complex and got mediation. • Implications for getting people to take action on social issues? • Would you expect similar effects for other issues?

Social Cognition