PERCEIVING PERSONS
Chapter Four
Social Perception


The processes by which people come to understand
one another.
Three sources:
 Persons
 Situations
 Behavior
Do we judge a book by its cover?
Perceiving Persons


Willis & Todorov (2006): Showed pictures of
unfamiliar faces and asked participants to rate
attractiveness, likeability, competence,
trustworthiness, aggression
 1/10 of a second
 1/2 a second
 One second
First impressions influenced by different aspects of
appearance
He Looks Like a Bob is True
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/0
5/070518164713.htm
Perceiving Situations
Scripts:
Preset
notions
about
certain
types of
situations
Perceiving Behavior

Nonverbal behavior
Elfenbein & Ambady (2002)
Behavioral Evidence

How do we know if someone is telling the truth?
 Words,
Face, Body, Voice
Attribution Theory

Personal (Dispositional) Attributions: Attributing
behavior to internal characteristics of an actor, such
as ability, personality, mood or effort.
 Internal

Heider (1958)
locus of control
Situational Attributions: Attributing behavior to
factors external to an actor, such as the task, other
people or luck.
 External
locus of control
Visual Perception

Focus on the actor --- personal attribution
 “He’s

an angry man.”
See actor in broader context --- situational
attribution
 “The
crowd fires him up.”
Kelley’s Covariation Theory

We make attributions using 3 kinds of info:



Consensus: How do other people react to stimulus?
Consistency: How does this person react to the
same stimulus over time?
Distinctiveness: How does this person react to other
stimuli?
Kelley’s Covariation Theory
Let’s try something…






Pick a number from 1-9: _____
Subtract 5: _____
Multiply by 3: _____
Square the number (multiply by the same #): _____
Add the digits until you get only one digit (i.e., 64 =
6+4 = 10 = 1 + 0 = 1): _____
If the number is less than 5, add five, otherwise
subtract 4: _____
Let’s try something…






Multiply by 2: _____
Subtract 6: ______
Map the digit to a letter in the alphabet 1 = A, 2 =
B, 3 = C, etc: _____
Pick a name of a country that begins with that letter
Take the second letter in the country name and think
of a mammal that begins with that letter
Think of the color of that mammal
Attribution Biases
Heuristics = Mental shortcuts
Availability Heuristics
 Which
state has more tornadoes: Nebraska or
Kansas?
Attribution Biases

False consensus effect: we overestimate the extent to
which others share our opinions.

Base-rate fallacy: we’re insensitive to probabilities.

Counterfactual thinking: we think, “what if”?
The Fundamental Attribution Error
When we explain other people’s behavior we tend
to overestimate the role of personal factors, and
overlook the impact of situations.
Fundamental Attribution Error and the
TV Quiz Show
From L. Ross, T.M. Amabile, and J.L. Steinmetz, "Social Roles, Social Control, and Biases in Social
Perception Processes," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35, 485-494. Copyright (c) by the
American Psychological Association. Adapted with permission.
Ross, Amabile &
Steinmetz (1977)
The Fundamental Attribution Error

Why do social perceivers consistently make
assumptions about people and fail to
appreciate the impact of the situation?
 Two-step
Model
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.
Actor-Observer Effect

Our tendency to make
personal attributions for the
behavior of others and
situational attributions for
ourselves.
Belief in a Just World
Impressions

Perceiver characteristics

Priming effects

Target characteristics
 Trait
negativity bias
Implicit Personality Theory

A network of assumptions people make about
the relationships among traits and behaviors.
 Central
traits
 Intelligent, skillful, industrious, warm, determined,
practical, cautious
 Intelligent, skillful, industrious, cold, determined,
practical, cautious
Primacy Effect - Asch (1946)
One group read this
description:
Other group read this
description:


Intelligent
 Industrious
 Impulsive
 Critical
 Stubborn
 Envious
Rated This Person
More Positively
Envious
 Stubborn
 Critical
 Impulsive
 Industrious
 Intelligent
Confirmation Biases

The tendency to seek, interpret, and create
information that verifies existing beliefs.
 Darley

& Gross (1983)
Belief perseverance: the tendency to maintain
beliefs even after they have been discredited.
Confirmation Biases
Darley and Gross, 1983.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
The process by which one’s expectations about a
person eventually lead that person to behave in
ways that confirm those expectation.
Pygmalion in the Classroom
The Processes of Social Perception