0 What is social cognition? How is it different from
social psych and cognitive psych?
0 Effortful, then automatic, then motivated tactician
0 Then applied to different areas like relationships
0 Then social cog neuroscience
0 Priming and automaticity
0 Motivated social cognition
0 Controversies
Attribution theory
0 Jones and Davis (1965) correspondent inference
theory
0 Kelley (1967) covariation theory
Schemas
0 When do people use schemas?
0 What do we have them on?
0 How do they differ from stereotypes?
Impression formation
0 Warm vs. cold, intellective (compare to Fiske
stereotype model)
0 Anderson (1968) information integration model
0 Kenny (1987) SOREMO
0 Thin slices
0 Spontaneous trait inferences
0 Why does negative info have more weight?
Judgment
0 Tversky & Kahneman (1973)
0 Representativeness
0 Availability
0 Counterfactuals
0 Anchoring and adjustment
0 What are some reasons we make these mistakes?
0 Wegner thought suppression
Other areas covered elsewhere
0 Self
0 Attitudes
0 Prejudice
0 Emotion
Automaticity
0 What are automatic processes?
0 How do they differ from controlled?
0 How is it measured?
0 https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/
0 What are problems with these measures?
0 What effects do subliminals have?
Conscious thought
0 What does conscious thought do for us?
0 Baumeister four conclusions:
0 Lets us learn from the past
0 Lets us take into account what is culturally appropriate
0 Helps when we have several alternatives
0 Works with unconscious processes to determine human
behavior
System Justification Theory
0 What is some of the background behind this theory?
0 Small group discussion
0 Six types of false consciousness beliefs—how do
people show these?
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Denial of injustice
Thinking there is no chance for change
Rationalizing social roles
Incorrect attributions of blame
Identification with high status
Resistance to social change.
0 How does SJT differ from:
0 Social identity theory
0 Social dominance theory
0 Belief in a just world
0 Cognitive dissonance
0 Would system justification occur outside the US?
Would it differ by culture?
0 Why do we have these tendencies for SJ? What
motives do they serve?
0 What individual level variables relate to more SJ?
0 Why do people justify instead of revolt?
0 When can you get social change, according to SJ?
0 Does that fit with examples of social change we can
think of?
Postulates
0 Motivated to defend status quo
0 Motivation varies by situation and disposition
0 More when status quo is 1) inevitable, 2) threatened, and
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3) when individual is dependent
Satisfies 3 types of needs, so varies based on strength of
those needs
Can take many forms (examples)
Good for advantaged groups (self-esteem, etc.)
Bad for disadvantaged groups
Can be good in the short term for people
Embrace change when 1) inevitable, and 2) keep some of
the old
0 People rationalize status quo by thinking likely events
are more desirable.
0 We use stereotypes to rationalize group differences,
especially when under threat.
0 Explaining status differences will increase these
effects, even post hoc.
0 Low status groups will show outgroup favoritism,
especially on implicit, and vice versa for high status.
0 Especially when system seen as more legit, SJ
tendencies increase, or conservatism increases
0 Why?
0 Low status feel less entitlement
0 Low status more ambivalence toward own group
0 Affects self-esteem, depression, neuroticism
0 Implications/examples of this?
0 Low status groups show more SJ when low
individual/group needs
0 SJ higher in societies with more inequality
0 SJ higher when complementary stereotypes (poor but
happy, caring women)
0 Sometimes higher for low status group
0 Why?
System justification and
motivated avoidance of info
0 Shepherd & Kay, 2012
0 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
0 So how does this relate to their hypotheses?
0 Feeling stupid
dependence
trust
avoiding info
Overview of studies
0 Study 1: Canadian students read about energy—in
complex condition self-reported more trust in govt to
manage that area
0 Study 2: Canadian students read about energy, rated
pictures with dependency themes, rated trust in govt
officials. Complex led to dependence led to trust
0 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
0 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)
0 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.
0 Are there other explanations for their effects or issues with
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the studies?
Do their predictions go beyond what cognitive dissonance
theory would predict?
What if people don’t trust the government?
Implications for getting people to take action on social
issues? Would you expect similar effects for other issues?
Why are there so many issues in which people seem to not
trust the government?
What individual differences might relate to this tendency?
Does free will exist?
0 Bargh—it’s all automatic
0 Wegner—we experience “will” because we have
intention, feedback loop, and retrospectivity
0 Doesn’t deal with whether it exists, just why we think it
does (but later said we overestimate)
0 Baumeister—we do have some controlled
processes—and maybe even free will!
Free will
0 What is free will?
0 What is its purpose?
0 If a thought or behavior is automatic, can it be freely
willed?
0 Is free will a yes/no, or a continuum?
0 Do animals have free will?
What does free will do for us?
0 How to measure free will
0 Free Will and Determinism Plus Scale
0 Free Will and Determinism Scale
0 What effects do beliefs in free will seem to have?
0 Why does decreasing FW seem to have stronger
effects than increasing it?
0 Why would FW not affect moral judgments?
0 What are correlates of FW?
Self-regulation
0 What is self-regulation?
0 How does it relate to glucose?
0 Is self-regulation a skill?
0 What does ego depletion lead to?
0 Does it relate to alcohol use? PMS?
0 What are elements of FW according to B&M?
0 How do these elements relate to your example of
FW??
Evidence provided
0 Imagining doing something makes it more likely you’ll
do it
0 Specific intentions make it more likely you’ll do
something
0 Anticipated emotions affect behavior
0 Reflecting on past events affects behavior
0 Logical reasoning requires conscious thought
0 Conscious thought may be especially important for
novices