Introduction / Automaticity
After this lecture you can (name and) explain
- The main characteristics of social cognition
- The basic models of social cognition
- The defining aspects of automaticity
- The different forms of automaticity
Social cognition
Study of how people make sense of themselves and others.
- Social perception
- Attribution, ascribing causes to social behaviors
- Decisions, when do you use intuition, and when do you use systematic
processing.
- Attitudes, how are they created and how can they be changed
Example of social cognitive research
Ron Dotsch and Daniel Wigboldus
- Virtual environment with a bus shelter
- Participant’s task is to walk up to a person and remember word and number
- Avatars with Dutch and Moroccan facial features + typical nametags
- What was measured was the distance from the person and skin conductance
(sweaty palms)
Participants kept more distance and showed higher skin conductance when approaching a
Moroccan. The stronger implicit associations, the stronger the effect.
- Experimental lab research on social behavior
- Cognitive and physiological measurements
- Individual, unconscious, schema-driven behavior.
Behaviourism vs. Social Cognition
- Classic (behaviourist) perspective
- Stimulus ---> Response, the black box remains a black box, je
weet niet wat er tussentijds gebeurt.
- Socio-cognitive perspective
- Stimulus ---> Informaion processing, mental representations
(cognitions) ---> Response
Characteristics that make social cognition special
- Mentalism (cognitive representations)
- Information processing process
- Cross-fertilization (cognitive psychology, neuroscience)
- Relevant ‘real world’ phenomena
People are not things (p. 19), book is more extensive about this!!
1. People intentionally influence their environment
, 2. People look back.
3. Often imply ‘the self’
4. Change, are complex
5. Have crucial unobservable traits
6. Accuracy of perception is often hard to determine
7. Seek explanation/trigger a ‘search for meaning’
Models of the social thinker
1. Consistency seeker
a. Consisteny in behaviour, attitudes, self-image.
b. This provides meaning, certainty
c. We don’t like inconsistencies, when they occur we try to
change them
d. Cognitive Dissonance theory, change behaviour, attitudes, or
cognitions
e. $1 vs $20 Experiment, most positive attitude in $1 condition. In
$20 condition, the task is boring, I lied the task is nice and you got a
reasonable compensation. $1 condition, task is boring, I lied and got a low
compensation, so Cognitive Dissonance >> Change attitude towards
experiment.
2. Cognitive miser
a. Avoids cognitive effort
b. Uses heuristics
c. Relies on schematic information processing
d. It’s not just lazy, but it makes sense to save your energy and
use it only when you need it.
3. Naive scientist
a. Wants to figure out causes
b. Systematic information processing
c. Aimed at informed, accurate judgements
d. Attribution: Jones and Davis: Why does someone act like that.
Because of character or situational pressure. Out-of-role behaviour.
4. Motivated tactician
a. Combination of miser and scientist
b. When do we use schematic/heuristic processing?
c. Accurate picture/informed decision?
d. For example, new smartphone. Sifting through all tests >
Systematic processing. When do you just use intuition or heuristics (my friend
also has this one).
e. Two factors influence switch
f. Motivation (do you WANT to create an accurate picture?) and
Cognitive capacity (CAN you create an accurate picture?).
g. No motivation/capacity > Cognitive miser, buy same phone as
friend
h. Motivated/capable > Naive scientist, read reviews
5. Activated actor >> See further
Two models of information processing
1. Fast, but somewhat less accurate, system 1
2. Slow, but more accurate, system 2
After this lecture you can (name and) explain
- The main characteristics of social cognition
- The basic models of social cognition
- The defining aspects of automaticity
- The different forms of automaticity
Social cognition
Study of how people make sense of themselves and others.
- Social perception
- Attribution, ascribing causes to social behaviors
- Decisions, when do you use intuition, and when do you use systematic
processing.
- Attitudes, how are they created and how can they be changed
Example of social cognitive research
Ron Dotsch and Daniel Wigboldus
- Virtual environment with a bus shelter
- Participant’s task is to walk up to a person and remember word and number
- Avatars with Dutch and Moroccan facial features + typical nametags
- What was measured was the distance from the person and skin conductance
(sweaty palms)
Participants kept more distance and showed higher skin conductance when approaching a
Moroccan. The stronger implicit associations, the stronger the effect.
- Experimental lab research on social behavior
- Cognitive and physiological measurements
- Individual, unconscious, schema-driven behavior.
Behaviourism vs. Social Cognition
- Classic (behaviourist) perspective
- Stimulus ---> Response, the black box remains a black box, je
weet niet wat er tussentijds gebeurt.
- Socio-cognitive perspective
- Stimulus ---> Informaion processing, mental representations
(cognitions) ---> Response
Characteristics that make social cognition special
- Mentalism (cognitive representations)
- Information processing process
- Cross-fertilization (cognitive psychology, neuroscience)
- Relevant ‘real world’ phenomena
People are not things (p. 19), book is more extensive about this!!
1. People intentionally influence their environment
, 2. People look back.
3. Often imply ‘the self’
4. Change, are complex
5. Have crucial unobservable traits
6. Accuracy of perception is often hard to determine
7. Seek explanation/trigger a ‘search for meaning’
Models of the social thinker
1. Consistency seeker
a. Consisteny in behaviour, attitudes, self-image.
b. This provides meaning, certainty
c. We don’t like inconsistencies, when they occur we try to
change them
d. Cognitive Dissonance theory, change behaviour, attitudes, or
cognitions
e. $1 vs $20 Experiment, most positive attitude in $1 condition. In
$20 condition, the task is boring, I lied the task is nice and you got a
reasonable compensation. $1 condition, task is boring, I lied and got a low
compensation, so Cognitive Dissonance >> Change attitude towards
experiment.
2. Cognitive miser
a. Avoids cognitive effort
b. Uses heuristics
c. Relies on schematic information processing
d. It’s not just lazy, but it makes sense to save your energy and
use it only when you need it.
3. Naive scientist
a. Wants to figure out causes
b. Systematic information processing
c. Aimed at informed, accurate judgements
d. Attribution: Jones and Davis: Why does someone act like that.
Because of character or situational pressure. Out-of-role behaviour.
4. Motivated tactician
a. Combination of miser and scientist
b. When do we use schematic/heuristic processing?
c. Accurate picture/informed decision?
d. For example, new smartphone. Sifting through all tests >
Systematic processing. When do you just use intuition or heuristics (my friend
also has this one).
e. Two factors influence switch
f. Motivation (do you WANT to create an accurate picture?) and
Cognitive capacity (CAN you create an accurate picture?).
g. No motivation/capacity > Cognitive miser, buy same phone as
friend
h. Motivated/capable > Naive scientist, read reviews
5. Activated actor >> See further
Two models of information processing
1. Fast, but somewhat less accurate, system 1
2. Slow, but more accurate, system 2
