PSY 321
Dr. Sanchez
Perceiving People
1
Person Perception
• The process by which people come to
•
understand one another.
Today, we’ll look at:
– Attributions: How we explain and analyze behavior.
– Observation: The “raw data” of social perception.
– Integration: How we integrate our observations into
coherent impressions of other persons.
– How our impressions can subtly create a distorted
picture of reality.
2
Attribution Theories
• Attribution theories describe the process
by which we make attributions for
people’s behavior.
• Understanding WHY?
3
Understanding WHY
Why did Jack win the prize?
Why did Susie get arrested?
Why was Jason late for his date?
Why did Ross break up with Rachel?
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What functions
do attributions serve?
5
When do we make attributions?
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Classic Views on
Attribution...
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2 Basic Types of Attributions:
Heider (1958)
Internal/Person/Personal/
Dispositional Attributions
e.g., personality, ability, attitude
External/Situational/Stimulus
Attributions
e.g., other people, luck, pressure,
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Understanding WHY
Jack won the prize because he’s smart.
Susie got arrested because she’s aggressive.
Jason was late for his date because he’s not
interested.
Pam broke up with Rachel because she’s a
jerk.
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Understanding WHY
Jack won the prize because the competition was
easy.
Susie got arrested because she was in the wrong
place at the wrong time.
Jason was late for his date because his boss made
him work overtime.
Pam broke up with Rachel because she had to
move to San Francisco.
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Jone’s Correspondence Inference
Theory
• People infer from action whether the
behavior corresponds to personality traits
– Is the behavior chosen?
– Is the behavior unexpected?
– How many possible intended effects of
behaviors?
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Kelley’s Covariation Theory
• Dispositional or situational causes
– Consensus: How are other people reacting to
the same stimulus?
– Consistency: Is the person’s behavior
consistent over time?
– Distinctiveness : Does the person react the
same or differently to different stimuli?
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Kelly’s Covariation Model:
Malik Loves “The Hangover 2”
If consistency is low, we do not make a
stimulus attribution.
Malik sometimes talks about how great the new
movie “ The Hangover” was, but sometimes says he
didn’t like it.
If consistency is high, we look for consensus
and distinctiveness to help us explain the
situation
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Kelly’s Covariation Model
Given high consistency…...
If the behavior is low on both consensus and
distinctiveness, we make an internal
attribution
e.g., If no one else raves about “The
Hangover,” and Malik raves about many other
films, then something about Malik caused the
behavior
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Kelly’s Covariation Model
Given high consistency….
If behavior is high on both consensus and
distinctiveness, we make an stimulus
attribution
e.g., If everyone raves about the movie “The
Hangover,” and Malik rarely raves about other
films, then the movie caused the behavior
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Kelley’s Covariation Theory
(High Consistency Theory)
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Kelly’s Covariation Theory
multiple observational points
process for making external (stimulus),
as well as, internal attributions
(personal)
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Cognitive Heuristics
• Mental shortcuts:
–
–
–
–
Availability heuristic
Base-rate fallacy:
False-consensus effect:
Counterfactual thinking:
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Attribution Biases and Errors
Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE)
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Fundamental Attribution Error
the tendency to overestimate the extent to
which people’s behavior is due to internal
factors, and to underestimate the role of
situational factors
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Fundamental Attribution Error
and the TV Quiz Show
Fundamental Attribution Error:
Jones & Harris (1967)
Ps read an essay written by a fellow student
about Castro
free choice vs. no choice conditions
Ps were asked: What is the writer’s position
on Castro?
RESULTS???????
22
What Does This Speechwriter
Really Believe?
Culture and Attribution
• Language and culture can influence the
way people think about…
• Also influences perception of social events
FAE & Culture:
Miller (1984)
Two groups of various ages:
American participants
Indian participants
Task:
Explain the causes of pos & neg
behaviors you’ve seen in your life
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FAE & Culture:
Miller (1984)
Young children of both cultures:
 no significant attribution differences
As Ps ages increased:
Americans made more internal attributions
Asian Indians made more external
attributions
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Figure 4.7: Fundamental
Attribution Error: A Western
Bias?
From J.G. Miller (1984) "Culture and the Development of Everyday Social Explanation," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 961-978. Copyright (c) 1984 by the
American Psychological Association. Adapted with permission.
27
Attributions Within Cultural Frames:
When you are both American and Asian?
From "Multicultural minds: A dynamic constructivist approach to culture and cognition" by Y.
Hong, M. W. Morris, C. Chiu, and V. Benet-Martinez (2000). From American
Psychologist,55,709-720. Copyright (c) 2000 by the American Psychological Association.
Reprinted with permission.
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Demonstration Time
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Attribution Biases and Errors
Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE)
Actor-Observer Bias
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Actor-Observer Bias
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Let’s imagine this…..
You are behind someone in a car who is driving very
slowly, who looks like s/he’s going to pull over but then
does not. “Dang” you say, “This person can’t drive!
These ‘old people/women/foreigners/southerners should
not be allowed on the road.”
32
Let’s imagine this…..
A few days later, you are driving around a suburb a few
miles away from your normal stomping grounds, looking
for the house of a friend of a friend, who is holding a party. You
can’t read the house numbers because there are lots of bushes in
the way. You drive slowly so you won’t miss the house. You
almost pull over a couple of times, thinking you’ve found the
house. You think “why is that @#?* behind me giving me the
finger?”
Taken together, these scenarios demonstrate the Actor-Observer Effect
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Actor-Observer Effect:
Dear Abby
Dear Abby:
I’m writing you in desperation, hoping you can help me with
a problem I’m having with my mother.
A little over a year ago, I moved in with my boyfriend despite
my mother’s protests. She has never liked “Kevin.” I’ll admit he’s
far from perfect and we’ve had our problems. He’s an alcoholic, has
a bad temper, is mentally abusive, is a compulsive liar and cannot
hold a job. I am in debt over my head because of him but my biggest
problem is that my mother is obsessed with my situation. I
understand her concern, but I can take only so much….
OVER-MOTHERED IN MICHIGAN
(i.e., my biggest problem is my mother)
34
Attribution Biases and Errors
Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE)
Culture
Actor-Observer Bias
Self-Serving Attribution Biases
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Self-Serving Attribution Biases
36
Self-Serving Attribution Bias:
Lau & Russell (1980)
Examined explanations made by
athletes & coaches for why their team
won or lost
victories explained in terms of things
internal to team (e.g., skills)
losses explained in terms of things
external to the team (e.g., weather)
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Self-Serving Bias & Culture
The self-serving bias is pervasive
in the West but much less so in
Eastern cultures
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Where do the Attributional Biases
& Errors come from?
Cognitive Roots
perceptual salience
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Perceptual Salience:
Taylor & Fiske (1975)
 varied the seating arrangement participants who
observed a conversation
 faced actor A, faced actor B, or both
 who played a more dominant role in the
conversation?
 Results:
 Whichever actor the participant faced was the
one the observers judged to be the more
dominant member of the dyad
40
Why Are Personal Attributions
Automatic?
• Heider: People see dispositions in behavior
because of a perceptual bias.
• So people attribute events to factors that
are perceptually conspicuous or salient.
41
Where do the Attribution
Biases & Errors come from?
Cognitive Roots
perceptual salience
cognitive misers –
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Where do the Attribution
Biases & Errors come from?
Cognitive Roots
perceptual salience
cognitive misers – people conserve their
limited cognitive resources
Motivational Roots
self-esteem concerns
coherent understanding of the world
43
Figure 4.6: Two-Step Model of
the Attribution Process
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Observation
The elements of social perception
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How are impressions of others
influenced by superficial aspects
of their appearance?
46
The influence of superficial
features
• First impressions are subtly influenced by
a person’s appearance.
• We prejudge people based on facial
features.
– We read traits from faces.
– We judge “baby-faced” adults differently than
“mature-faced” adults.
47
Effect of Facial Features on Election
Outcomes (Todorov et al., 2005)
• Participants viewed photos of all pairs of
Senate and House of Reps candidates
before 2004 elections – for 1 second!
• Rated the competence of each candidate
• Competence ratings
– predicted winners of 70% of the elections
– correlated with margin of victory
48
Baby-facedness
• Babyfaced people – very large eyes
relative to size of face, small nose, small
chin – elicit positive feelings
• WHY??
49
• Three possible explanations:
– Genetic programming.
– Positive associations of babies.
– Physical appearance actually predicts
behavior.
50
Observation
• Superficial features
– e.g. Babyfacedness
• Nonverbal behaviors
51
Silent Language of
Nonverbal Behavior
• Behavioral cues are used to identify a
person’s inner states, as well as his or her
actions.
• What kinds of nonverbal cues do people
use?
52
Nonverbal Communication
• Nonverbal communication- how people
communicate, intentionally or
unintentionally, without words
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Nonverbal Cues Serve Many
Functions
1.) Expressing emotion
“I’m angry”
- eyes narrow
- eyebrows lower
- stare intently
- mouth set to thin,
straight line
54
Nonverbal Cues Serve Many
Functions
2.) Conveying attitudes
“I like you”
- smiles
- extended eye contact
or “I don’t like you”
- averted eyes
- flat tone of voice
- body turned away
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Nonverbal Cues Serve Many
Functions
3.) Communicating one’s personality traits
“I’m outgoing”
- broad gestures
- changes in inflection when speaking
- energetic tone of voice
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Nonverbal Cues Serve Many
Functions
4.) Facilitating verbal communication
- to convey “I’m finished talking”
- lower voice
- look away as you finish a
sentence
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How Good are People at Identifying
Emotions in the Face?
Insert Figure 4.1: How Good are People at
Identifying Emotions in the Face? about here
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Elfenbein & Ambady (2003)
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Distinguishing Truth from Deception
• Freud: “No mortal can keep a secret…
betrayal oozes out of him at every pore.”
• Channels of communication differ in terms
of ease of control.
– Face is easy to control, while body is harder.
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Distinguishing Truth and
Deception
Why Do We Have
Difficulty Detecting Deception?
• Mismatch between the behavioral cues
that actually signal deception and the
ones used to detect deception.
• Four channels of communication provide
relevant information:
Integration
From Dispositions to Impressions
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Information Integration:
The Arithmetic
• How do we combine personal attributions into a
•
single coherent picture of the person?
– Summation model or averaging model?
Information Integration Theory: Impressions
formed of others are based on:
64
Perceiver Characteristics
• We differ in the kinds of impressions we form of
others.
• Our current, temporary mood can influence the
impressions we form of others.
• Embodiment studies
• To some extent, impression formation is in the
eye of the beholder.
65
Priming Effects
• The tendency for recently used words to come
to mind easily and influence the interpretation of
new information.
• Motivations, as well as social behaviors, can be
influenced by priming.
66
Priming Effects
Bargh & Chartrand (1999)
• Participants completed word find puzzles
• IV: Primed with achievement-related
words, or not primed
• DV: How long they worked on the puzzles
when the experimenter told them to stop
67
Bargh & Chartrand (1999)
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Bargh, Chen, & Burrows (1996)
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Trait Characteristics: Universal Dimensions
of Social Cognition
Target Characteristics
• All traits are not created equal.
• Whether a trait is considered good or bad
affects its impact on our impressions.
– Trait Negativity Bias
Implicit Personality Theories
• Implicit Personality Theory: A network of
assumptions that we make about the
relationships among traits and behaviors.
• Central Traits: Traits that exert a powerful
influence on overall impressions.
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Asch (1946)
Is this person generous?

Warm Condition
Intelligent
Skillful
Industrious

Warm






Determined
Practical
Cautious
Generous? 91%

Cold Condition
Intelligent
Skillful
Industrious

Cold






Determined
Practical
Cautious
Generous? 9%
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The Primacy Effect
• The tendency for information presented
early in a sequence to have more impact
on impressions than information presented
later.
74
Asch (1946)
One group read this description:
• Intelligent
• Industrious
• Impulsive
• Critical
• Stubborn
• Envious
Other group read this description:
• Envious
• Stubborn
• Critical
• Impulsive
• Industrious
• Intelligent
4-75
Primacy Effect: Explanation #1
• Once we think we have formed an
accurate impression of someone, we pay
less attention to subsequent information.
• People differ in their need for closure.
76
Primacy Effect: Explanation #2
• Change of Meaning Hypothesis
– Once we have formed an impression, we start
to interpret inconsistent information in light of
that impression.
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Confirmation Biases
From Impressions to Reality
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Confirmation Bias
• Once we make up our mind about
something, how likely are we to change it,
even when confronted with new evidence?
• Confirmation Bias: Our tendency to seek,
interpret, and create information that
verifies existing beliefs.
The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy as a
Three-Step Process
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy:
Rosenthal & Jacobson (1968)
• Teachers were told that, on the basis of an IQ
test, a certain group of students was on the
verge of an intellectual spurt
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Self-Fulfilling Prophecy:
Rosenthal & Jacobson (1968)
• Teachers were told that, on the basis of an IQ test,
a certain group of students was on the verge of an
intellectual spurt
• This group of students was randomly chosen
Test was bogus
82
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy:
Rosenthal & Jacobson (1968)
• 8 months later, this group of students
actually outperformed others on an IQ test
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Self-Fulfilling Prophecy:
Rosenthal & Jacobson (1968)
• Teacher forms initial impression – based
on reputation, appearance, initial
performance, etc.
• Teacher adjusts behavior in ways that
encourage this behavior
– more praise, attention, challenges for “good”
students;
– less for “bad” students
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