Social Cognition

How do we make sense of ourselves and others?

Social Cognition

An approach to studying social psychology The study of how people form inferences from social information in the environment •“Priming” is a technique borrowed from cognitive psychology. Priming is the presentation of a stimulus that activates a concept in memory

Powerful, yet invisible…the effects of situational cues

How satisfied are you with your life?

People asked about their life on sunny days reported being more satisfied than those on rainy days!

Effect disappears if the weather is brought to their attention

Powerful, yet invisible…the effects of situational cues (contd.)

Participants were primed with words like Florida, gray, wise, wrinkle, forgetful On their way out, their walking speed was measured… People primed with “elderly” words walked 20% slower than control participants

How do we perceive ourselves? Self-esteem Self-esteem is the affective component of the self, consisting of positive and negative evaluations of the self How do people obtain a sense of self?

How do we perceive ourselves? Self-Evaluation The self must be perceived in relation to the social world Social Comparison Theory (Festinger) Upward and downward social comparisons Basking in Reflected Glory (Tesser)

How do we perceive ourselves? Self-enhancement Largely through deluding themselves! Self enhancement occurs when people use self serving biases to protect their self-esteem Examples: Actor-Observer Bias, Above-Average Effect •Which is healthier – to see yourself accurately or to see yourself through rose-colored glasses?

How do we perceive ourselves? Positive Illusions Holding unrealistically positive views of yourself may be good for your health… Shelley Taylor and colleagues have shown that breast cancer and AIDS victims who hold “positive illusions” have higher survival rates …but not necessarily for your relationships! People with very high self-esteem suffer long term loneliness and are less well-liked by others

Can we control ourselves? Thought Suppression Dan Wegner (1994) examined how well people can control their own thoughts He asked one condition to think about a white bear; others were asked to think about anything they wanted

except

for a white bear…Later, everyone was asked to write down their thoughts and ring a bell when they thought of white bears.

What happened? People who had earlier suppressed thoughts of a white bear thought about them far more – the ‘rebound effect’

Can we control ourselves? Thought Suppression

How do we perceive others? Back to Environmental Cues Our perceptions of other people are also susceptible to influence from bias and from situational cues In a now-classic paradigm, Tory Higgins showed that priming can affect perceptions of others: Participants who first read words like brave rated a risk-taking man (Donald) more positively than those who had read words like reckless.

How do we perceive others? The influence of Stereotypes So our perceptions of others are influenced by salient environmental cues. Some cues are more salient than others: Race, Gender, Age, Class are categories that are often used in perceiving others Stereotypes are beliefs that associate a group of people with certain traits Examples: blonde women are less intelligent, librarians are quiet, the elderly have bad memories, used-car salesmen are not trustworthy

How do we perceive others? The influence of Stereotypes (contd.) How do stereotypes affect how we perceive others?

Outgroup homogeneity Stereotype-consistent interpretations

How do we perceive others? The influence of Stereotypes (contd.) Is stereotyping inevitable?

Devine (1989) showed that stereotypes are activated automatically upon exposure to members of the group Even among people who felt strongly that they were not prejudiced!

How do we perceive others? The influence of Stereotypes (contd.) The most recent research suggests that successful inhibition of stereotypes depends on: the amount of information available cognitive capacity motivation But, remember the effects of trying to suppress your thoughts…