Social Perception
Social Perception
• Social Perception
• How we form impressions (of people)
• and make inferences (about people)
• Perception is imperfect
• Need to fill-in-the-blanks
Implicit Personality Theories
• Ways we fill in the missing pieces
• Nonverbal behavior
(Universal recognition of 6 emotional expressions of anger,
happiness, surprise, fear, disgust, sadness)
• Implicit Personality Theories
(Inferring feelings, traits, motives via “schemas” about types
of people, including cultural schemas)
• Halo Effect
(If we consider someone good (or bad), we are likely to
make similar evaluations with other aspects of the person)
• “What is beautiful is good”
(If we consider someone beautiful, we are likely to believe
they have other positive qualities)
Basic desire to avoid
mistakes
Want to control
outcomes in life
GOAL: Seeking accuracy
Accuracy Strategies:
Kelly’s covariation model
Discounting principle
Augmenting principle
Attributional Processes
• Covariation model -
people determine the cause of an actor’s
behavior by assessing
• Consensus - how other people behave toward
same stimulus
• Distinctiveness – how the person responds to other
stimuli
• Consistency – frequency of person-stimulus across
time and situations
Why does Jack want to marry Jill?
Consensus is Low
(Others aren’t
interested in Jill)
Distinctiveness is Low
(Jack will marry
anyone)
Consistency is High
(Jack’s proposed
every day this week)
Internal
Attribution
(Jack is
Desperate)
Consensus is High
(Everyone wants to
marry Jill)
Distinctiveness is High
(Jack wants only Jill)
Consistency is High
(Jack’s proposed
every day this week).
External
Attribution
(Jill is
desirable)
Consensus is Low
(Others aren’t
interested in Jill)
Distinctiveness is High
(Jack wants only Jill)
Consistency is High
(Jack’s proposed
every day this week).
Interaction
Attribution
(Jack and Jill have
that special magic)
Attributional Logic:
• Discounting principle as the number of possible causes for an
event increases, our confidence that any
particular cause is the true one decreases
• Example: If a guy gives a girl flowers, what could
be the cause?
• Augmenting principle if an event occurs despite the presence of
strong opposing forces, we give more
weight to factors that lead towards the
event
• Example: If a guy gives a girl flowers, we are
more likely to think he really likes her if he had to
walk through a rainstorm to get them.
Basic desire to avoid
mistakes
Want to control
outcomes in life
GOAL: Managing self-image
Self-image Strategies:
Self-serving attributions