Social perception: attribution processes, impression formation;2

Question 1

What is the Self-Serving Bias?

Answer 1

It’s our tendency toattribute our successes to internal causes (e.g., “I passed because I’m smart”) and our failures to external causes (e.g., “I failed because the exam was unfair”), as a way to protect self-esteem.

Question 2

What did Solomon Asch discover about impression formation?

Answer 2

He found that first impressions are powerful—this is called the primacy effect.
Early information has a stronger impact on our judgmentthan later information.

Question 3

What is the Halo Effect?

Answer 3

It’s acognitive bias where our overall impression of someone (usually positive, like attractiveness) influences how we judge their other traits (e.g., assuming they’re also smart or kind).

Question 4

What is the Difference between Primacy and Recency Effects?

Answer 4

1.Primacy effect:** First information** we get shapes our impression most.

2.Recency effect: Most recent info shapes our view, but only if there’s a long time gap or the first info fades.

Question 5

What is the Confirmation Bias in impression formation?

Answer 5

1.Once we form an impression of someone, we tend to
2.interpret new information= in
1.ways that confirm our initial beliefs and
2.ignore contradictory evidence.