Social Perception and Social Cognition

• Social perception – the process through which we try to understand other people and ourselves – People acquire judgments, attitudes, and beliefs

through socialization experiences from their culture/environment

• Social cognition – the process through which we interpret, remember, and then use information about the world and ourselves– Tends to be conservative

Attitude• Attitude –

psychological representation of various features of the social or physical world

• Abstract components of attitude:– The cognitive component – The emotional component– The behavioral component

Values• Values – attitudes that

reflect a principle, standard, or quality considered by the individual as most desirable or appropriate– Terminal values– Instrumental values

• Hold more central position than attitude

Study: Smith & Schwartz, 1997• Independent Variable – individual values

– 1. the extent to which people are independent of or dependent on groups– 2. views on prosperity and profit– 3. views on whether it is appropriate to exploit, fit in, or submit to the outside world

• Dependent Variable – how groups cope with basic societal problems– Type 1. Conservatism vs. Autonomy– Type 2. Hierarchy vs. Egalitarianism– Type 3. Mastery vs. Harmony

• Original aim: to see if individual values are connected to how a group deals with a societal problem, and whether these values are different across cultures

• Results of the study: Groups were split into Western European, Anglo (including US), Eastern European, Islamic, East Asian, Japan, and Latin American– East Asian – high on hierarchy, low on egalitarianism and autonomy– Western European – low on hierarchy, high on egalitarianism and autonomy– Anglo – between East Asian and Western European samples– Japan – high on harmony, high on conservatism

• Implications of study: this study helped the idea that, though individual values vary within a society, they do create cultural differences between regions/nations. An import observation of the study was that order is promoted in large families, verifying that social perception is highly defined by environment.

Western and Non-Western Values

“Outlived” Western Values:• The nature of human beings is selfish• Scarcity is a primary condition of nature• Progress means growth, complexity, competition, and freedom

The Cognitive Balance Theory • Balance - you and a person you like agree on something;

you and a person you dislike disagree on something

Cognitive Dissonance

• Cognitive dissonance – psychological tensions created by a mismatch between:

1. Attitudes and behavior, or

2. Two or more decisions, or

3. Two or more attitudes

• To reduce dissonance: 1. Improve your evaluation

of the chosen alternative (‘Chipotle has the best burritos ever’), or

2. Lower your evaluation of the alternative not chosen (‘Qdoba is for wannabes anyways’), or

3. Just don’t think about it

Psychological Dogmatism

• Dogmatism – tendency to be extremely selective, rigid, and inflexible in opinions and subsequent behavior– this rigid central idea has

absolute authority over the individual and causes intolerance towards others

Social AttributionThe process through which we seek to explain and identify the

causes of the behavior of others as well as our own actions

Attribution as Locus of Control• Internal Locus of

Control - events are influenced by controllable internal factors

• External Locus of Control - events are influenced by uncontrollable external factors

Attribution of Success and Failure

Cross-culturally, the same explanations for success/failure pop up

• Individual ability (‘I have the skillz’/ ‘I does not have the skillz’)

• Effort (‘I studied all night’/ ‘I do not even know what class this is’)

• Task difficulty (‘That test was so easy’/ ’That test blew up my brain’)

Self-Perception• Correlation between

collectivism and individualism and self-esteem/self-like (Chinese vs. Americans)

• Private self – feelings and thoughts about oneself for oneself

• Public self – concept of self in relation to others and for others

Do Social Norms Affect the Way We See Our Own Body?

Duty and Fairness in Individualist and Collectivist Cultures

• Even if you have enough money to support yourself would you want to work?”

Stereotypespermitting similarities between phenomena to eclipse the differences

• Stereotypes – categorical assumptions that all members of a given group have a particular trait

• Strong connection between interpersonal conflict and stereotyping