SP I
Perceiving Individuals
Social psychology: The scientific study of the
effects of social and cognitive processes on the
way individuals perceive, influence, and relate to
each other
Three motivational principles:
1. People strive for mastery
a. People strive to understand the world
correctly because it helps them
achieve valued outcomes
2. People seek connections
a. People seek support, liking and
acceptance from the people and
groups they care about and value
3. People value “me and mine”
a. Desire to see themselves, and other people and groups
connected to themselves, in a positive light
Three processing principles:
1. Conservatism
b. Established views are slow to change
c. E.g., Zwarte piet
2. Accessibility
a. Accessible information has the most impact
3. Superficiality vs Depth
a. People put little effort into dealing with information, but at
times are motivated to consider information in more depth
(depended on motivation)
Two fundamental axioms of social psychology:
1. Construction of reality
a. A construction of reality, shaped in part by cognitive
processes (the way our minds work) and in part by social
processes (input from others who are present or whose
presence we imagine)
2. Pervasiveness of social influence
a. Other people influence virtually all out thought, feelings and
behavior, whether those others are physically present or not
First impressions:
- Associations guide further interpretation
- First impressions are informative
1. We quickly form first impression based on someone’s physical
appearance, behavior and (virtual) environment
a. Physical appearance
, i. More masculine faces = dominance
ii. Baby faced men are naïve, honest etc.
iii. Taller men have higher starting salary
iv. Atypical faces are rated as less reliable
b. Behavior
i. Nonverbal communication
1. A person’s body language can have an influence
on the first impression of that person
ii. Their actions and deeds
c. Salience
i. We attribute characteristics to a person (first impression)
based on the situation and not the person
1. Context matters
ii. Which characteristics we use depends on how salient a
stimulus is:
1. Figure-ground contrast
a. The cue that attracts most attention can
influence the characteristic we attire to a
person
2. (Random) Variation in context and appearance
thus influences first impressions
a. The cue can draw more attention in one
context but less in another
2. We form impressions both in a quick and automatic way
(associations)
a. Thinking a little more thoroughly about them = Considered
attributions
b. Estimating personal characteristics on the basis of physical
appearance is fast and effortless
c. Concepts that are often activated simultaneously become
associated with each other (e.g., Priming)
1. Limited factors of negative priming: ambiguity,
relevance
ii. The activation (priming) of mental representations can
influence our interpretation
1. E.g., If someone wears a red dress and because of
something that happened you dislike red dresses,
you associate that bad feeling with the person
wearing it
iii. Concepts are more accessible if they have been
recently and/or frequently been activated
1. Accessibility has an influence on how we
interpret and perceive someone’s behavior, cues,
actions etc.
2. Frequent exposure to a person can increase the
liking of that person
iv. Frequent activation of a mental representation, can
influence how we interpret other’s behavior
, 1. E.g., If we had a lot of friends who had anger
issues we are sooner to assume someone has
anger issues
3. The forming of first impressions and the correction thereof is
influenced by different biases:
a. “What is beautiful is good” heuristic
i. We attribute more positive qualities to attractive people
1. But not always to attractive women; they are
probably hired because they are attractive not
because they are smart
ii. This mainly influences general evaluations and
judgements on social and intellectual competence
b. Correspondence bias
i. The tendency to draw inferences (assumptions) about a
person based on their behavior (not taking the
environment into account)
ii. When is this correspondent inference justified:
1. The individual freely chooses to perform the
behavior
2. The behavior has unique effects that other
behaviors have not
3. The behavior is unexpected rather than expected
iii. Salient context
1. The context influences how quick we are to
attribute wrongly (angle/perspective)
iv. Motivation and capacity
v. Cultural differences
c. Primacy effect
i. First impressions guide the interpretation of new stimuli
d. Confirmation bias
i. People usually actively and selectively look for
information to confirm their previous impression
e. Perseverance bias
i. Information influences our estimates (it has a persistent
effect on our judgments), even after it has been
invalidated
f. Correction of bias:
i. Only with enough motivation & capacity is this possible
ii. Motivation to form accurate impression
1. Liability (e.g., if you must justify your conclusions)
2. Cooperation (e.g., if you must cooperate with
someone
3. Distrust (e.g., if we think information about a
person comes from unreliable source)
iii. Motivation for connection and self-protection
1. Threat to important relationship
2. Dependence (e.g., teachers or boss)
Perceiving Individuals
Social psychology: The scientific study of the
effects of social and cognitive processes on the
way individuals perceive, influence, and relate to
each other
Three motivational principles:
1. People strive for mastery
a. People strive to understand the world
correctly because it helps them
achieve valued outcomes
2. People seek connections
a. People seek support, liking and
acceptance from the people and
groups they care about and value
3. People value “me and mine”
a. Desire to see themselves, and other people and groups
connected to themselves, in a positive light
Three processing principles:
1. Conservatism
b. Established views are slow to change
c. E.g., Zwarte piet
2. Accessibility
a. Accessible information has the most impact
3. Superficiality vs Depth
a. People put little effort into dealing with information, but at
times are motivated to consider information in more depth
(depended on motivation)
Two fundamental axioms of social psychology:
1. Construction of reality
a. A construction of reality, shaped in part by cognitive
processes (the way our minds work) and in part by social
processes (input from others who are present or whose
presence we imagine)
2. Pervasiveness of social influence
a. Other people influence virtually all out thought, feelings and
behavior, whether those others are physically present or not
First impressions:
- Associations guide further interpretation
- First impressions are informative
1. We quickly form first impression based on someone’s physical
appearance, behavior and (virtual) environment
a. Physical appearance
, i. More masculine faces = dominance
ii. Baby faced men are naïve, honest etc.
iii. Taller men have higher starting salary
iv. Atypical faces are rated as less reliable
b. Behavior
i. Nonverbal communication
1. A person’s body language can have an influence
on the first impression of that person
ii. Their actions and deeds
c. Salience
i. We attribute characteristics to a person (first impression)
based on the situation and not the person
1. Context matters
ii. Which characteristics we use depends on how salient a
stimulus is:
1. Figure-ground contrast
a. The cue that attracts most attention can
influence the characteristic we attire to a
person
2. (Random) Variation in context and appearance
thus influences first impressions
a. The cue can draw more attention in one
context but less in another
2. We form impressions both in a quick and automatic way
(associations)
a. Thinking a little more thoroughly about them = Considered
attributions
b. Estimating personal characteristics on the basis of physical
appearance is fast and effortless
c. Concepts that are often activated simultaneously become
associated with each other (e.g., Priming)
1. Limited factors of negative priming: ambiguity,
relevance
ii. The activation (priming) of mental representations can
influence our interpretation
1. E.g., If someone wears a red dress and because of
something that happened you dislike red dresses,
you associate that bad feeling with the person
wearing it
iii. Concepts are more accessible if they have been
recently and/or frequently been activated
1. Accessibility has an influence on how we
interpret and perceive someone’s behavior, cues,
actions etc.
2. Frequent exposure to a person can increase the
liking of that person
iv. Frequent activation of a mental representation, can
influence how we interpret other’s behavior
, 1. E.g., If we had a lot of friends who had anger
issues we are sooner to assume someone has
anger issues
3. The forming of first impressions and the correction thereof is
influenced by different biases:
a. “What is beautiful is good” heuristic
i. We attribute more positive qualities to attractive people
1. But not always to attractive women; they are
probably hired because they are attractive not
because they are smart
ii. This mainly influences general evaluations and
judgements on social and intellectual competence
b. Correspondence bias
i. The tendency to draw inferences (assumptions) about a
person based on their behavior (not taking the
environment into account)
ii. When is this correspondent inference justified:
1. The individual freely chooses to perform the
behavior
2. The behavior has unique effects that other
behaviors have not
3. The behavior is unexpected rather than expected
iii. Salient context
1. The context influences how quick we are to
attribute wrongly (angle/perspective)
iv. Motivation and capacity
v. Cultural differences
c. Primacy effect
i. First impressions guide the interpretation of new stimuli
d. Confirmation bias
i. People usually actively and selectively look for
information to confirm their previous impression
e. Perseverance bias
i. Information influences our estimates (it has a persistent
effect on our judgments), even after it has been
invalidated
f. Correction of bias:
i. Only with enough motivation & capacity is this possible
ii. Motivation to form accurate impression
1. Liability (e.g., if you must justify your conclusions)
2. Cooperation (e.g., if you must cooperate with
someone
3. Distrust (e.g., if we think information about a
person comes from unreliable source)
iii. Motivation for connection and self-protection
1. Threat to important relationship
2. Dependence (e.g., teachers or boss)
