Social Cognition



How important are first impressions?
Do expectations guide behavior?
Just how well can we expect to know
our partners?
First Impressions


We start judging people even before we
meet them
Preconceptions

Stereotypes




Male/Female
Beautiful/Plain
Young/Old
Urban/Country



Primacy Effect – tendency for the first information we
receive about others to carry special weight in our
impressions of them
Initial judgments influence our interpretations of later
information
“Hanna” experiment (Darley & Gross, 1983)
What about face-to-face
interactions?


Confirmatory Bias – we are more likely to seek new
information about people that confirm what we
already think
Participants were asked to find out in the person they
were paired with were introverted or extraverted
(Snyder, 1981)



Participants asked questions to get the responses they
desired (e.g. What do you dislike about loud parties?)
Participants did this even when offered $25 to be as
accurate as possible
This leads people to feel overconfident in their beliefs about
others
The Power of Perceptions


We often search for the ideal romantic
relationship but ultimately end up with
something less.
How do we stay satisfied?
Positive Illusions


One simply considers his or her partner’s faults as
less significant than others might see them
This carries the risk of disillusionment



But if we acknowledge faults and merely interpret them
benevolently, we may more willing to commit to the
relationship (Murray, Holmes, & Griffin, 1996b)
Idealized images are associated with greater
satisfaction
We may also revise our ideas of the “ideal” partner
Attributions

The explanations we give for why
things do or do not happen



internal vs. external
global vs. specific
stable vs. unstable
State of the
Couple’s
Relationship
Happy
Unhappy
Attributional
Pattern
Partner’s
Behavior
Attributions
Made
Positive
Internal
Stable
Global
Negative
External
Unstable
Specific
Positive
External
Unstable
Specific
Negative
Internal
Stable
Global
Relationship
Enhancing
DistressMaintaining
Actor/Observer Effects


We tend to offer different explanations for
our own behavior than we do for our
partner’s behavior
Fundamental attribution error – people are
aware of the external causes of their own
circumstances but make internal attributions
about others’ behavior
Self-serving biases

People take credit for their successes while
avoiding blame for their failures



People expect others to be self-serving but do not
see themselves as such
People usually think arguments are their
partner’s faults
People who cheat tend to see their own
affairs as less damaging than their partner’s
infidelity
Other Relationship Beliefs



Romanticism – the belief that love should be the
most important basis for choosing a mate
Individuals who score high on romantic beliefs tend
to experience more love, satisfaction, and
commitment in their relationships (Sprecher & Metts,
1999)
Many of the questions seem idealistic – positive
illusions?
Disadvantageous Beliefs






Disagreements are destructive
“Mindreading” is essential
Partners cannot change
Sex should be perfect every time
Men and women are different
Great relationships just happen

(Epstein & Eidelson, 1981)
Expectations

Self-fulfilling prophecies – false predictions that
become true because they lead people to behave in
ways that make the erroneous expectations come
true
Dave forms an
expectancy
about Caroline.
Dave acts.
Caroline interprets
Dave’s behavior.
Dave interprets
Caroline’s
response.
Caroline responds,
usually in reciprocal
fashion.
Snyder et al. (1977), U. of Minnesota study
Curtis & Miller, (1986), Liked and disliked strangers
Impression Management

We try to control the information others
receive about us



Women will eat less on a date with an attractive
man than they would with their girlfriends
Men and women will edit what they say about
themselves to appear compatible with attractive
members of the opposite sex
e.g. There’s Something About Mary
Four strategies of impression
management:
1.
2.
3.
4.
ingratiation – we do favors, pay compliments,
mention areas of agreement
self-promotion – we recount our
accomplishments
intimidation – portraying oneself as ruthless or
dangerous to get others to do our bidding
supplication – presenting oneself as inept or
infirm to avoid obligations
Impression management in close relationships

We tend to go through less trouble to
maintain favorable images for our partners
over time


We know they love us, so there is less motivation
to win their approval
We also just get lazy – it takes work to manage
impressions and we relax among those we know
well
How well can we expect to know our
partners?



Married partners perceive each other more accurately
than dating partners or friends
People who are highly motivated to understand each
other perceive each other more accurately
Extraverted and more sociable partners are easier to
be accurately perceived than introverted partners



People who are intelligent and open-minded are
better judges of others
People may be inaccurate on purpose when faced
with threatening information
People may try to change their partners to fit their
own perceptions