Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education. All rights reserved. Chapter 3 Social Cognition: How We Think about the Social World

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

Chapter 3

Social Cognition: How We Think about the Social World


Social Cognition

Social Cognition


Two Kinds of Social Cognition

1. Quick and automatic

2. Controlled thinking


On Automatic Pilot: Low-Effort Thinking


Automatic ThinkingThinking that is nonconscious,

unintentional, involuntary, and effortless.


People as Everyday Theorists:Automatic Thinking with Schemas

Schemas


People as Everyday Theorists:Automatic Thinking with Schemas

The term schema encompasses our knowledge about many things:


Stereotypes about Race and Weapons

• When applied to members of a social group such as a fraternity or gender or race, schemas are commonly referred to as stereotypes.

• Stereotypes can be applied rapidly and automatically when we encounter other people.


The Function of Schemas:Why Do We Have Them?

Schemas are typically very useful

Schemas are particularly important when we


Schemas as Memory Guides

• Schemas also help people fill in the blanks when they are trying to remember things.

• We don’t remember exactly as if our minds were cameras.

• Instead, we remember some information that was there (particularly information our schemas lead us to pay attention to), and we remember other information that was never there but that we have unknowingly added.


Schemas as Memory Guides

Memory reconstructions tend to be consistent with one’s schemas.


Which Schemas Are Applied? Accessibility and Priming

Accessibility

Priming


Making Our Schemas Come True:The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Self-Fulfilling ProphecyThe case whereby people


Mental Strategies and Shortcuts

What shortcuts do people use? • One way is to use schemas to understand

new situations. • When making specific kinds of judgments

and decisions, however, we do not always have a ready-made schema to apply.

• At other times, there are too many schemas that could apply, and it is not clear which one to use. What do we do?


Mental Strategies and Shortcuts

Judgmental HeuristicsMental shortcuts people use to make

judgments quickly and efficiently.


How Easily Does It Come to Mind?The Availability Heuristic

Availability Heuristic


How Similar Is A to B?

The Representativeness Heuristic

Representativeness Heuristic

Base Rate Information


The Power of Unconscious Thinking

• Part of the definition of automatic thinking is that it occurs unconsciously.

• Although unconscious processes can sometimes lead to tragic errors, unconscious thinking is frequently critical to navigating our way through the world.


Cultural Determinants of

Schemas

An important source of our schemas is the culture in which we grow up.

In fact, schemas are an important way cultures exert their influence: by instilling mental structures that influence how we understand and interpret the world.


Controlled Social Cognition: High-Effort Thinking

Racial profiling has received much attention since the events of September 11, 2001. Because the terrorists who flew the planes into the World Trade Center were of Middle Eastern descent, some people feel anyone a similar background should receive special scrutiny when flying on commercial airlines.


Controlled Social Cognition: High-Effort Thinking

Racial prejudice can result from either automatic thinking or conscious, deliberative thinking.

Controlled ThinkingThinking that is

conscious, intentional, voluntary, and effortful.


Mentally Undoing the Past

Counterfactual ReasoningMentally changing some aspect of the past

in imagining what might have been.


Counterfactual Reasoning• Counterfactual thinking can be useful,

however, if it focuses people’s attention on ways that they can cope better in the future.

• It is not so good if counterfactual thinking results in rumination, whereby people repetitively focus on negative things in their lives.

Mentally Undoing the Past


Thought Suppression and Ironic Processing

Thought SuppressionThe attempt to avoid thinking

about something we would prefer to forget.


Improving Human Thinking

Overconfidence BarrierThe fact that people usually have too much

confidence in the accuracy of their judgments.

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Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education. All rights reserved. Chapter 3 Social Cognition: How We Think about the Social World