In Class Exercise






Break into groups of three.
We are going to play a trivia game.
1 person will ask another 5 questions, 1 person will observe
The group will determine which person is the Quizmaster, the
contestant, and the observer by playing rock – paper – scissors.
Quizmaster has 5 minutes to make up difficult but not
impossible questions that they know the answer to (e.g., how
many symphonies did Beethoven write).
The Quizmaster asks the questions to the contestant, the
observer watches.
Social
Perception
Social perception involves two basic tasks:
•The need to uncover the temporary
causes of behavior (e.g., emotion).
• The need to uncover the stable causes
of behavior (e.g., personality).
We rely on several nonverbal channels to gather
this information:
• Facial expressions
• Eye contact
• Body movements
• Postures
Facial Expressions
Facial expressions are one of the first
things we notice about another person
and a rich source of information about
underlying emotion.
Research suggests that there are at least
6 basic facial expressions.
What are these babies experiencing?
Happiness
Sadness
Fear
Anger
Disgust
Surprise
Basic facial displays now show up in some other
interesting ways. Electronic communication is
often augmented with emotion markers:
‘-) Wink
;- ) Incredulity
:-o Surprise
:-, Smirk
:-| Disgust
: - ) Smile
:-X Kiss
: - ( Frown
:*) Clowning around
|- ( Anger or
Sleepy
:-J Tongue in cheek
=8-0 Shock
It is relatively easy to control facial expressions
so we look to other nonverbal cues to provide
additional information:
• Eye contact
• Body movements
• Posture (and gait)
• Touching (and interpersonal distance)
Women are better encoders and decoders
of nonverbal cues. Why?
Form an Impression:






intelligent
industrious
impulsive
critical
stubborn
envious
Form an Impression:






envious
stubborn
critical
impulsive
industrious
intelligent
Attribution: Uncovering the
Stable Causes of Behavior
Often we wish to know more than the temporary causes of
a person’s behavior.
We wish to know if behavior is due to enduring
characteristics of the person that might allow predicting
behavior in the future.
Two prominent theories have been developed to describe
how we engage in this attribution process.
1) The Theory of Correspondent Inferences
(Jones and Davis)
According to this theory, we rely on observable
behaviors to make inferences about the
corresponding underlying traits that produced
them.
e.g.: if someone did a ‘kind’ behavior we may
then label them as a ‘kind’ person.
2) The Covariation Model
(Kelley)
Kelley offers another view of the attribution
process, one that argues that a basic distinction
that we need to make is between internal causes
and external causes.
Example: John smiled at Sarah on Tuesday.
Why did John smile? Is it something about John?
Something about Sarah? Something about
Tuesday?
According to Kelley’s model, we use three types
of information to help us decide whether an
event was caused by internal or external factors:
•Consensus Information – how do others behave toward
the actor
•Distinctiveness Information – how the actor responds
to others
•Consistency Information – how often do we see the
same behaviors from the same actor under the same
circumstances
Patterns of attribution
Jenna got angry with her date, Josh, on Friday.
How accurate is the attribution process? Despite
its basis in the desire to accurately explain,
predict, and control the social world, the
attribution process has some important biases:
•1) The Fundamental Attribution Error
•2) Actor-Observer Bias
•3) Self-Serving Bias
Fundamental Attribution Error
Why does the FAE happen?



People tend to underestimate the effects of the
environment when explaining other’s behaviors.
Tend to focus on the person and not the
environment – perceptual salience
Taylor and Fiske (1975)
Taylor and Fiske
Results of Taylor and Fiske
Rating's of the Actors' Causal Role
25
20
15
Actor A
Actor B
10
5
0
Facing Actor A
Facing Actor A and B
Facing Actor B
Actor-Observer Bias
The actor-observer bias refers to the tendency
to make dispositional attributions for the
behavior of others but situational attributions
for our own behavior.
The Self-Serving Bias
The tendency to take more credit for success than
is warranted and to deny blame for failure more
than is warranted.
This bias is responsible for the positive illusions
that most people have about their abilities and
prospects.
The Self-Serving Bias
One interesting example of the self-serving bias is
the above-average effect.
Research has shown that many people exhibit what has been called the
"above average" effect. This term describes the tendency of most people to claim
that they are above average on most positive traits. For example, most students
believe that they are more intelligent than average and most people think they are
better looking than average. In one sample of 829,000 high school students who
took the SAT, 0% rated themselves as below average in "ability to get along with
others," and 25% rated themselves as among the top 1%.
Research such as this has led psychologists to conclude that when people
rate themselves in terms of socially desirable qualities or performance, they tend
to see themselves as being better than average when they really are not. This
tendency is often referred to as the self-serving bias. How often do you think the
average person makes this kind of mistake when judging or evaluating himself or
herself? Circle the appropriate number:
Almost
Never 1
2
3
4
5
Me
6
7
Average
Person
8
Nearly all
9 the time
Attributions are made very
quickly. We gather
information and form first
impressions very rapidly.
You never get a second
chance to make a first
impression . . .