Social CognitionChapter 3

Social Cognition

The ways we think about ourselves and the social world.

Social Thinking is Brilliant and Sophisticated, but flawed.

We have blind spots.

Related terms: social intelligence, emotional intelligence, interpersonal intelligence

Nuances of behavior

Computers may excel at Jeopardy and Chess, but not poker.

They have no referent for intentions, wishes and desires.

In short, the social information we deal with is imprecise and variable.

Automatic social thinking

Low-effort, effortlessNon-conscious-involuntaryUnintentional

(Remember the job interview on the Zimbardo video.)

schemas

Schemas are mental structures that organize our knowledge about the social world (events, roles, etc.)

Why do we have them?

They help us organize.They fill in knowledge gaps.

Which schema will you use?

The one that is most accessible.

The one that has been primed.

You can be set up.

Self-fulfilling prophecy

Making our schemas come true by the way that we treat people.

Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968)

Real gains in IQ scores

How did the teachers do this?

More personal attention and warmer emotional climate

Encouragement and support

Challenge – bloomers got more difficult material

More opportunity to respond in class

Did the teachers do this on purpose? No.

Why do we take shortcuts?

To deal with massive amounts of information

Because it often leads to good decisions

What if you don’t have a schema

Use judgmental heuristics (rules of thumb)

Useful, but can be inadequate or misapplied

Availability heuristic

Representativeness heuristic

Controlled thinking

Conscious, voluntary, effortful, intentional

Do we have free will?

Counterfactual reasoning

Overconfidence barrier