Lecture 2 - Social Cognition and Biases Flashcards

Question

What is consensus?

Answer 1

Do other people react in the same way to the cause/situation? High - strengthens attribution to external cause (e.g. realise not to drink before exam) Low - internal attribution (e.g. may just affect me in an adverse way)

Answer 2

People with depression attribute negative events to internal, global and stable causes (Abramson et al., 1989) E.g. “I failed because I am stupid” = internal attribution Key aspect Psychotherapy – stop explaining events in an overly pessimistic, self-defeating way (Ebeck et al., 1979)

Answer 3

BUT: Covariation really used? Salience of prior info? – maybe focus on information that stands out/obvious Empirical evidence suggests that we are actually quite poor at assessing covariation Covariation = Correlation ≠ Causation! Are we really all information seekers and rational scientists?

Answer 4

Systematic errors indicative of shortcuts, gut feeling, intuition

Answer 5

Use our opinions as representative of others How common is your opinion?

Answer 6

Asked students would you walk around campus to advertise cafeteria and if other people would do it Yes = 62% think others will also say yes No = 67% think others will also say no

Answer 7

Seek out similar others to hang out with which gives us a biased view of the world, salience of own opinion (our opinions stand out), self-esteem maintenance (like to validate our own behaviours) People with extreme views often overestimate others who have similar views e.g. vaccines cause autism (Rabinowitz et al., 2016)

Answer 8

Tendency to attribute behaviour to enduring dispositions rather than situations (even when clear situational causes)

Answer 9

Assigned some to knowledgeable quiz master role and some to contestant Other audience still watching Rated quiz master as more knowledgeable Clear situational cues but people still think behaviour is internal/dispositional

Answer 10

Focus of attention/saliency effect Target most salient -> internal attribution most accessible More likely to forget situational causes -> dispositional shift Also known as correspondence bias (children don’t demonstrate this bias and we don’t find it in the same strength across cultures)

Answer 11

Extension of fundamental attribution error More likely to make situational attributions for our behaviour and dispositional to others Internal for others, external for yourself

Answer 12

A shop assistant it rude to you They are a rude person (internal) You are rude to a shop assistant You are simply stressed (external)

Answer 13

Perceptual focus, informational difference (got more information about ourselves)

Answer 14

Positive behaviour makes dispositional more likely, perspective taking reverses effect (put yourself in their position reduces dispositional attribution and increases understanding of the situation)

Answer 15

Success = internal Failure = external E.g. Kingdon (1976) – self-serving bias in American politicians

Answer 16

Expectations and self-esteem Motivational: maintenance of self-esteem (split into self-enhancing and self-protecting bias) Cognitive: intend/expect to succeed -> attribute internal causes to expected events Operates at a group level too (e.g. football wins/losses)

Answer 17

Avoid effort, resources expenditure Rule of thumb, not complex mental judgement Quick and easy E.g. which are deadlier – sharks or horses? – most people are more scared of sharks but it is horses (shark deaths are more salient)

Answer 18

Judge frequency or probability of events by how easy it is to think of examples (memory accessibility)

Answer 19

Categorise based on similarity between instance and prototypical category members Allocate a set of attributes E.g. may judge new outbreak of a disease compared to covid because its familiar and in that category

Answer 20

Make a judgement based on a starting point (or initial standard) influences subsequent judgements, even if its an arbitrary starting point

Lecture 2 - Social Cognition and Biases Flashcards

(44 cards)