Social Psychology

UNIT 3- Social Perception

Social Perception- The process through which we seek to know other people.

Social actions are affected by temporary factors like changing moods, shifting
emotions, fatigue, illness, drugs, or biological processes like menstruation.

Nonverbal communication

Communication between individuals that does not involve the content of spoken
language. It relies instead on an unspoken language of facial expressions, eye
contact, and body language.
Negotiators often hide their reactions from their opponents and salespersons show
more friendliness towards potential customers.
In situations where it is inappropriate to ask others how they feel, attention is paid to
nonverbal cues like changes in facial expressions, eye contact, body movement, etc.
Such behaviour is difficult to control and emotions leak out through them.
Information provided by these cues is called non-verbal communication.

Basic channels of Nonverbal communication

- Facial expressions as clues to others’ emotions

We learn about other’s current moods and feelings from them.

From early-stage, 5 basic emotions are represented on the human face: anger, fear,
happiness, sadness, disgust.
This doesn’t imply that humans can display limited emotions through facial
expressions. Emotions occur in many combinations like joy with sorrow, fear
combined with anger, and the number of variations on these themes are immense.
Early research seemed to suggest that facial expressions are universal both in use
and recognition. Subsequent research has confirmed happiness as accurately
recognized across cultures, sadness, and disgust considerably less recognized and
fear least likely recognized.
Studies suggest that people recognize the facial expressions of members of their
own national group better than other groups.
(They are not always a good indicator of underlying emotions. Salespersons typically
smile regardless of what they actually feel inside, in order to gain the benefit ( more
sales) of making others like them.)

-FACS

- Paul Ekman, one goal –“improving emotional life”– when his mother committed
suicide when he was 14. Wishing he could have seen the warning signs of bipolar
disorder on her face before it was too late, he became driven by a determination to
“help mental patients” and “save lives.” In the process, he’s built a new science -
Facial Action Coding System.
- Using FACS and viewing video-recorded facial behaviour at the frame rate and
slow motion, coders can manually code nearly all possible facial expressions, which
are decomposed into action units (AUs).

-Can we accurately recognize others’ facial expressions?

We can recognize others’ emotions from facial expressions well but large individual
differences exist. Some people are better at recognizing than others.
Research findings suggest that reading and expressing emotions are related but only
when individuals are trying to communicate their feelings to others.
People who express their emotions openly are not necessarily accurate at
recognizing facial expressions.
Accuracy is related to people’s intentional focus on showing their own emotions
through their face. They gain greater insight into the nature of others’ expressions by
doing so and it helps them to recognize other’s underlying emotions easily.

Eye Contact as Non Verbal Cue

A high level of eye contact with others is usually interpreted as a sign of liking or
positive feelings with an exception of staring. It refers to gazing continuously and
maintaining eye contact regardless.
A stare is interpreted as a sign of anger and it is found disturbing by most people.
This is why it is recommended that drivers avoid eye contact with people who are
disobeying traffic laws and rules of the road. Apparently, such people, who are
already in a highly excitable state, interpret anything approaching a stare from
another driver as
Aggression and react according to it.

Body Language: Gestures, Postures, movements

The movements and postures and positions of the body by which attitudes and
feelings are communicated is called body language.
It reveals others’ emotional states. Large numbers of movements—especially ones
in which
one part of the body does something to another part (touching, rubbing,
scratching)—suggest emotional arousal.
The greater the frequency of such behaviour, the higher the level of arousal or
nervousness.

Large movements
Larger patterns of movements, involving the whole body, can also be informative.
Such phrases as “she adopted a threatening posture,” and “he greeted her with open
Arms” suggest that different body orientations or postures indicate contrasting
emotional states.

Postures
- Aronoff, Woike, and Hyman These researchers first identified two groups of
characters in classical ballet: ones who played a dangerous or threatening role and
ones who played warm, sympathetic roles.
- Then they examined examples of dancing by these characters in actual ballets to
see if they
adopted different kinds of postures.
- Aronoff and his colleagues predicted that the dangerous, threatening characters
would show
more diagonal or angular postures, whereas the warm, sympathetic character would
show more
rounded postures, and results strongly confirmed this hypothesis.
These and related findings indicate that large-scale body movements or postures
can sometimes provide important information about others’ emotions, and even
about their apparent traits.

Gestures

More specific information is provided by gestures. The most important of all

categories are body movements which carry specific meanings in a given culture and
a different meaning in other cultures known as emblems. Eg: The OK sign means
money in Japan, zero in France.

Touching

Haptics is the science and technology of transmitting and understanding information

through touch.
The meaning of a rouch depends on various factors: who does the touching, the
nature of the physical contact, pressure, how long, the context in which the touch
took place. Depending on these factors, it can suggest friendliness, affection, sexual
interest, dominance, care or aggression. When touching is appropriate, it elicits
positive reactions in the person being touched.
Handshake is an acceptable way to touch strangers. Firm, long and vigorous
handshakes suggest extraversion and openness to experience and create
favourable first impressions.

NON VERBAL CUES IN SOCIAL LIFE

Paralanguage
- It is a type of nonverbal communication involving vocal effects other than speech,
such as tone and pitch. While talking, we express emotions through the quality of our
voice which is independent of the words we use.
- To investigate if paralanguage is more accurate than the spoken word, Hawk, van
Kleef, Fischer, and van der Schalk exposed research participants to recordings of
another person expressing various emotions.
- Some participants received the spoken words themselves about emotions, while
others were exposed to nonlinguistic cues that occurred as they spoke
(e.g.screaming to show fear). Other participants were exposed to various facial
expressions reflecting the emotions, for instance, "clenched teeth".
- Participants then used these cues to try to recognize the emotions represented. As
predicted, the sounds that occurred during speech and the facial expressions were
more accurate guides to the emotions underlying people's statements than the
spoken words themselves.

The look of love

People in love tend to look and touch each other differently.
- To prove this, researchers recruited couples in romantic relationships to participate
in a study of interactions between partners. Two weeks before the study began,
participants were asked to fill out questionnaires that measured the degree to which
they were in love.
- During the study, the couples discussed several questions relating to their
relationship, positive and negative. During these conversations, their behavior was
videotaped.
- Afterward, several judges rated the extent to which the couples demonstrated
nonverbal cues viewed as reflecting love smiles, head nods, and positive gestures.
The frequency of these nonverbal cues was then related to their reports of the
degree to which they were in love.
As expected, the stronger their reported love, the more frequently they showed these
nonverbal cues. In short, inner feelings of love were reflected in their overt
non-verbal actions under both positive and negative conditions.

Scent

Recent research indicates that cues relating to others’ body chemistry can be
revealing.
For instance, research by Miller and Mane indicates that changes in women’s
internal chemistry occurring during the menstrual cycle can be transmitted to others
through subtle olfactory cues—changes in the aromas emitted by their bodies. Men’s
own testosterone was higher when they sniffed T-shirts worn by ovulating women
than when they sniffed T-shirts worn by women who were no longer ovulating, or
clean T-shirts not worn by anyone. These findings indicate that changes in body
chemistry can serve as an informational nonverbal cue.
Are Facial Expressions an Especially Important Source of Information About
Others?

Several different research findings combine to suggest that facial expressions are
indeed a uniquely crucial source of information about others.
1. It is almost impossible to ignore such information. Even after viewing them once,
they still grip our attention the next time they are presented. For instance, many
studies indicate that having an opportunity to view visual stimuli on one occasion
often reduces attention to these stimuli on subsequent occasions. Even after viewing
them once, they still grip our attention the next time they are presented. Moreover,
this is especially true for negative facial expressions. Even if such expressions are
seen on one occasion, they are still easier to notice than other stimuli on later
occasions. Eg: Individuals can spot an angry face in an array of faces more quickly
than neutral or smiling faces.
2. To the extent a person’s neutral facial expression resembles a particular emotional
expression, they are seen as showing this emotion, even when in fact they are not
experiencing any strong emotion.
3. Finally and perhaps most interesting, facial expressions not only serve as a
source of
information for observers, who use them to understand what the people showing
such
expressions are feeling, but also play a role in generating such emotions or feelings.

The Facial Feedback Hypothesis

The facial feedback hypothesis suggests that there is a close link between the facial
expressions we show and our internal feelings, the expressions we show to reflect
our internal feelings or emotions, and these expressions also feedback into our
brains and influence our subjective experiences of emotion.
McCanne and Anderson asked female participants to imagine positive and negative
events.
Participants reported less enjoyment of the positive events when they suppressed
activity in the appropriate muscle and a slight tendency to report less distress to the
negative events when they suppressed the muscle involved in frowning. In
addition—and of special interest—participants also reported less ability to imagine
and experience scenes of both types when suppressing activity in their facial
muscles.

In recent research, they compared the emotional reactions to positive and negative
video clips of two groups of people who received injections of anti-wrinkle drugs.
One group received injections of Botox, a drug that paralyzes muscles involved in
facial expressions, while another received Restylane, a drug that simply fills in
wrinkles without paralyzing facial muscles. People receiving Botox reported weaker
emotional reactions to the video clips in comparison to the other group. These
findings suggest that feedback from our facial muscles does indeed play a role in
shaping our emotional experiences.

Attribution
Attribution refers to our efforts to understand the causes behind others’ behaviour
and, on some occasions, the causes behind our behaviour, too.

Theory of Correspondent Inference

Jones and Davis’s (1965) theory of correspondent inference—asks how we use
information about others’ behavior as a basis for inferring their traits.
Others’ behavior provides us with a rich source on which to draw, so if we observe it
carefully, we should be able to learn a lot about them. Up to a point, this is true. The
task is complicated, however, by the following fact: Often, individuals act in certain
ways not because doing so reflects their own preferences or traits, but rather
because external factors leave them little choice.
1. we consider only behavior that seems to have been freely chosen, while largely
ignoring ones that were somehow forced on the person in question.
2. we pay careful attention to actions that show what Jones and Davis term
noncommon effects—effects that can be caused by one specific factor but not by
others.
3. Jones and Davis suggest that we also pay greater attention to actions by others
that are low in social desirability than to actions that are high on this dimension. In
other words, we learn more about others’ traits from actions they perform that are
somehow out of the ordinary than from actions that are very much like those of most
other people.

In sum, according to the theory proposed by Jones and Davis, we are most likely to
conclude that others’ behavior reflects their stable traits when that behavior (1) is
freely chosen; (2) yields distinctive, noncommon effects; and (3) is low in social
desirability.

Kelly’s Covariation Model

Kelley’s (1967) covariation model is the best-known attribution theory.
He argues that in trying to discover the causes of behavior people act like scientists.
More specifically they take into account three kinds of evidence. According to Kelley,
in our attempts to answer the why question about others’ behavior, we focus on three
major types of information.
1. Consensus: the extent to which other people behave in the same way in a similar
situation.E.g., Alis smokes a cigarette when she goes out for a meal with her friend.
If her friend smokes, her behavior is high in consensus. If only Alis smokes, it is low.
2. Distinctiveness: the extent to which the person behaves in the same way in similar
situations. If Alis only smokes when she is out with friends, her behavior is high in
distinctiveness. If she smokes at any time or place, distinctiveness is low.
3. Consistency: the extent to which the person behaves like this every time the
situation occurs. If Alis only smokes when she is out with friends, consistency is high.
If she only smokes on one special occasion, consistency is low.
According to Kelley’s theory, we are most likely to attribute another’s behavior to
internal causes under conditions in which consensus and distinctiveness are low but
consistency is high. In contrast, we are most likely to attribute another’s behavior to
external causes when consensus, consistency, and distinctiveness are all high.
Finally, we usually attribute another’s behavior to a combination of internal and
external factors when consensus is low but consistency and distinctiveness are high.

Other Dimensions of Causal Attribution

Are the causal factors that influenced their behavior likely to be stable over time or
likely to change?
Some internal causes of behavior tend to be quite stable over time, such as
personality traits or temperament. In contrast, other internal causes can, and often
do, change for instance, motives, health, and fatigue.
The same is true for external causes of behavior: some are stable over time (e.g.,
laws or social norms) whereas others are not (e.g., bad luck).

Are these factors controllable—can the individual change or influence them if he or

she
wishes to do so?
Some internal causes are controllable—individuals can, if they wish, learn to hold
their tempers in check; other internal causes, such as chronic illnesses or disabilities,
are not.
A large body of evidence indicates that in trying to understand the causes behind
others’ behavior, we do take note of all three of these dimensions—internal–external,
stable–unstable, controllable–uncontrollable.

Fate Attribution vs Personal Choice

Research findings indicate that improbable but important events are often attributed
to fate rather than to personal actions. Recently, it has been found that religious
persons who have strong beliefs in God and persons from cultures with strong
beliefs in causal complexity (i.e., many factors combine to produce unlikely events)
are more likely to make such attributions than other persons.
Belief in fate is related to two more basic beliefs: religious convictions concerning the
existence of God, and a belief in complex causality—the idea that many causes
influence such events, and that no one cause is essential. This leads to the
conclusion that unlikely events that occur are meant to be, since so many factors
combine to lead to their occurrence that the presence or absence of one makes little
difference.

Action Identification and the Attribution Process

When we see other people perform some action, and try to understand it, we have a
wide range of interpretations open to us.
The first is a lowlevel interpretation that focuses on the action itself and involves little
in the way of planning or long-range goals to the person involved; the second, in
contrast, attributes such plans, intentions, and goals to this person. The action is the
same but our interpretation of it and of why it occurs is very different. The level of
interpretation we use is known as action identification.

Errors in Attribution

Correspondence Bias
- the tendency to explain others’ actions as stemming from (corresponding to)
dispositions even in the presence of clear situational causes.
- This bias seems to be so general in scope that many social psychologists call it
fundamental attribution error.
- we tend to perceive others as acting as they do because they are that kind of
person, rather than because of the many external factors that may influence their
behaviour.
- This tendency occurs in a wide range of contexts but appears to be
strongest in situations where both consensus and distinctiveness are low, as
predicted by Kelley’s theory, and when we are trying to predict others’ behavior in the
far-off future
rather than the immediate future.
- When we think of the far-off future we tend to do so in abstract terms this leads us
to think about others in terms of global traits; as a result, we tend to overlook
potential external causes of their behavior,
It was first reported by Jones and Harris.
Gender
when both a man and a woman demonstrate equal levels of emotionality, we
attribute the woman’s reactions to her personality but the man’s reactions to external
factors in the situation. In short, the correspondence bias operates more strongly
with respect to
attributions about women than men.
Action Observer effect
The tendency to attribute our own behaviour to situational causes but the behaviour
of others to dispositional causes. It occurs because we are quite aware of external
causes for our actions as compared to other people’s actions.

Why does corresponding bias occur?

One possibility is that when we observe another person’s behavior, we tend to focus
on his or her actions and the context; hence potential situational causes of his/her
behavior often fade into the background. As a result, dispositional causes are easier
to notice than situational ones.
Another explanation is that we notice such situational causes but give them
insufficient weight in our attributions.
Another explanation is when we focus on others’ behavior, we tend to begin by
assuming that their actions reflect their underlying characteristics. Then, we attempt
to
correct for any possible effects of the external world—the current situation—by
taking these into account. This involves the mental shortcut known as anchoring and
adjustment,
It is often insufficient—we don’t make enough allowance for the impact of external
factors.

we perceive that we are less likely to fall victim to the correspondence bias than
others.

Self Serving Bias

The tendency to attribute positive outcomes to internal causes but negative ones to
external causes.It is especially strong for negative events.
It occurs because we expect to succeed and have a tendency to attribute expected
outcomes to internal causes more than to external causes.
In contrast, the motivational explanation suggests that the self-serving bias stems
from our need to protect and enhance our self-esteem or the related desire to look
good to others.

How we explain unexpected events?

When individuals were offered a very unfavourable division in an ultimatum game,

they
tended to attribute this outcome to a human agent.
When they were offered a very favorable outcome, though, they tended to attribute it
to a
computer. These findings suggest that we tend to attribute negative outcomes or
events
to external agents who cause them to happen.

Impression Formation
- how we develop our views of others
Most people are concerned with making good first impressions on others because
they believe that these impressions will exert lasting, positive effects. Asch's classic
research on impression formation indicates that impressions of others involves more
than simple summaries of their traits. Some traits (central traits such as warm and
cold) can influence the interpretation of other traits.

How quickly is impression formed and its accuracy

Many studies have reported that even working with what are known as thin slices of
information about others—for instance, photos or short videos of them—perceivers’
first impressions are reasonably accurate.

correlations between the two sets of ratings ranged from about .60 to about .75,
indicating that we do indeed form impressions of others very quickly.

So, first impressions can be formed very quickly and are at least slightly better than
chance in terms of accuracy.

Factors determining accuracy

The relationship between rated confidence and actual accuracy appears to be

curvilinear in nature. At very low levels of confidence, accuracy is also low.

as confidence rises, so, too, does accuracy— but only up to a point, beyond which
even if confidence continues to increase, accuracy declines.

gut-level “intuitive” approach to forming first impressions did better than ones who
used a more analytical approach.

people are reasonably good at recognizing when their impressions of others are,
and when they are not, valid.

Implicit Personality Theories

beliefs about what traits or characteristics tend to go together. These theories,viewed
as a specific kind of schema, suggest that when individuals possess some traits,
they are likely to possess others, too. Such expectations are strongly shaped by the
cultures in which we live.
Eg- “what is beautiful is good”—that people who are attractive also possess other
positive traits, such as good social skills and an interest in enjoying thegood things in
life.
A large body of research findings indicates that we expect first-borns to be high
achievers while we expect middle-borns to be friendly and outgoing. Only children, in
contrast, are expected to be independent, and selfcentred.
researchers asked participants to rate firstborns, only children, middle-borns, on
various trait dimensions: creative–uncreative, emotional–unemotional,
extraverted–introverted, responsible–irresponsible, and several others.
Results indicated clear differences in expectations about the traits supposedly shown
by each group. Firstborns were seen as being more responsible,stable, and
unemotional; only children were seen as being the most disagreeable; middle-borns
were expected to be envious and the least bold.
So clearly, implicit beliefs about links between birth order and important traits exist.
Our impressions of others are often strongly shaped by our beliefs about what traits
or characteristics go together. Indeed, these beliefs are often so strong that we will
sometimes bend our perceptions of other people to be consistent with them. We can
form impressions of others that reflect our implicit beliefs more than their actual
traits.

Impression Management
This term is used to describe these efforts to make a good impression on others, and
the results of their research on this process suggest that it is well worth the effort.
two major categories:
self-enhancement—efforts to increase their appeal to others
- specific strategies include efforts to boost one’s appearance either physical or
professional. Physical appearance relates to the attractiveness and physical appeal
of the individual, while professional appearance relates to personal grooming,
appropriate dress, and personal hygiene.
- Additional tactics t involve efforts to appear competent and accomplished through
such steps as describing past achievements, describing positive qualities one
possessesor explaining how they overcame daunting obstacles.

other-enhancement—efforts to make the target person feel good in various ways.

- In these strategies, individuals basically seek to induce positive moods and
reactions in others through the use of a variety of tactics. Perhaps the most
commonly used tactic of this type is ingratiation—flattering others in various ways.
- Additional tactics of other-enhancement involve expressing agreement with the
target person’s views, showing a high degree of interest in this person, doing small
favors for them, asking for their advice and feedback in some manner, or expressing
liking for them nonverbally through high levels of eye contact, nodding in agreement,
and smiling.

Does this really work?

Yes, if used with skill and care.
studies were conducted to observe use of impression management tactics in job
interviews, and results indicated that is often very successful. The greater the extent
to which job applicants used various tactics of impression management, the higher
the ratings they received from interviewers. This was especially true when interviews
were open-ended rather than carefully structured Overall, there was clear evidence
that using both tactics was beneficial to job applicants.
It involves pitfalls: If overused, they can backfire and produce negative reaction
slime effect—a tendency to form very negative impressions of others who play up to
their superiors, but treat subordinates with disdain and contempt.
It has been reported that the use of too many different tactics can lead to suspicion
and mistrust.
People engage in impression management to to enhance others’ reactions to them.