SOCIAL BELIEFS

AND JUDGMENTS
CHAPTER 3
SOCIAL PERCEPTIONS
AND BELIEFS
 We judge events; we perceive and
recall events; we explain events;
and we expect certain events.
 This chapter explains how we do

this.
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
This chapter will answer the following
questions:
 How do we judge our social worlds?
 How do we perceive our social worlds?
 How do we explain our social worlds?
 How do our social beliefs matter?
 What can we conclude about social beliefs and

judgments?
 WE JUDGE WITH TWO
BRAIN SYSTEMS
SYSTEM 1: SYSTEM 2:
The intuitive, The deliberate,
automatic, controlled,
unconscious, and conscious, and
fast way of slower way of
thinking. thinking.
PRIMING
Is activating particular associations in
memory.

 Priming one thought, even without

awareness, can influence another thought,
or even an action.
 Unnoticed events can also prime our

thinking and behavior.

EXAMPLE OF PRIMING:
UNNOTICED EVENTS
CAN PRIME
 PRIMING AND
EVERYDAY LIFE
Watching a scary
movie alone at
home can activate
emotions,
unconsciously, that
cause us to
interpret noises as
a possible intruder
EMBODIED COGNITION
This is the mutual influence of body
sensations on cognitive preferences
and social judgments.
Even physical sensations prime our social
judgments:
 Cold shoulder – room feels cold
 Pushing a cart – buy unhealthy items
 Wobbly chair – more unstable relationships
INTUITION
Immediately knowing something
without reasoning or analysis.
This is System 1 or Automatic
Processing: “implicit” thinking that is
effortless, habitual, and without
awareness.
Intuition is very powerful.
 EXAMPLES OF
AUTOMATIC THINKING
Schemas – mental concepts that guide our
perceptions and interpretations
Emotional reactions – happen instantly before
we have time to think
Expertise: many skills become automatic
We remember implicitly and unconsciously
skills and conditioned dispositions.
Example - doctor’s patient; blindsight
OVERCONFIDENCE
The tendency to be more confident than
correct – to overestimate the accuracy
of one’s beliefs.
 Sometimes our intuition is wrong, such as in
overconfidence.
 Incompetence feeds overconfidence
 Stockbroker, political, and student
overconfidence.
 Students who score lowest in tests are the
most prone in overestimating their abilities
CONFIRMATION BIAS
The tendency to search for information
that confirms one’s beliefs.

 This helps explain why our self-images are so

remarkably stable.
 People seek relationships that confirm beliefs

about themselves, even if those beliefs are

negative.
 REDUCING
OVERCONFIDENCE
 Give prompt feedback
 Be wary of other people’s dogmatic

statements
 Consider disconfirming information – think

of a good reason why their judgment might

be wrong
 Do not undermine reasonable self-

confidence, realistic self-confidence is

adaptive.
HEURISTICS – MENTAL
SHORTCUTS
A thinking strategy that enables
quick efficient judgments;
routine decisions with minimal
effort
 REPRESENTATIVENESS
HEURISTIC
Tendency to believe.
Despite contrary
odds, that someone
or something
belongs to a
particular group if
resembling a typical
member.
 AVAILABILITY
HEURISTIC
The more easily we recall something,
the more likely it seems.
 More afraid of flying than driving.
 2011 Gallup poll estimated that 25% of

Americans are gay or lesbian, the real number is

2 to 3%.
 COUNTERFACTUAL
THINKING
Imagining alternative scenarios that might
have happened, but didn’t.
 This underlies our feelings of luck: if we

barely escape a bad event we feel “good

luck”; “Bad luck” refers to bad events that did
happen but easily might not have happened.
 People live with more regret about things

they did not do than what they did.

ILLUSORY CORRELATION
Perceiving a relationship that does not
exist, or a stronger than an actual one.
We search for order in random events.
We tend to remember events more than non-
events.
The gambling industry thrives on gamblers’
illusions.
Regression toward the average – statistical
tendency for extreme scores or extreme
behavior to return toward one’s average.
MOODS & JUDGMENT
 Our moods color how we judge our
worlds, partly because they bring to
mind past experiences associated with
the mood.
 Negative mood improves attention

and memory because it motivates

intense thinking.
 PERCEIVING OUR
SOCIAL WORLD
 We respond not to reality as it is, but to
reality as we construe (interpret) it.
 Our beliefs are important because they

shape our interpretation of everything else.

 We view our social world through our

beliefs, attitudes, and values.

BELIEF PERSEVERENCE
Persistence of one’s initial conception
even if the contrary is demonstrated,
explanation of why belief might be
true survives.
 People cling to their initial beliefs, even when
the basis for their belief is discredited.
 MISINFORMATION
EFFECT
Incorporating “misinformation” into
one’s memory of the event, after
witnessing an event and receiving
misleading information about it.
 This process affects our recall of social as
well as physical events.
 Example of students talking with someone 15

minutes, then recalling the event.

RECONSTRUCTING PAST
ATTITUDES
 People whose attitudes have changed often
insist they have always felt this way.
 The constructions of positive memories

brightens our recollections.

 When memories are hazy, current feelings

guide our recall.

 Our memories are actually formed when we

retrieve them.
RECONSTRUCTING PAST
BEHAVIOR
 It is necessary to remember that events
happened in the desired manner, so we
underreport bad behavior and we overreport
good behavior.
 When we perceive we have improved, we may

misrecall our past as more unlike the present

than it actually is.
 Psychotherapy and self-improvement programs.
ATTRIBUTION THEORY
How we explain others’ behaviors:
either by attributing them to their
internal disposition or to the external
situation.
 Dispositional Attribution: attributing behavior
to the person’s disposition and traits.
 Situational attribution: attributing behavior to

the environment.
 MISATTRIBUTION
Is mistakenly attributing a behavior to
the wrong source. This can contribute
to sexual harassment or rape.
 Unhappy couples usually offer internal
explanations for negative behaviors. Happy
couples blame the situation.
SPONTANEOUS TRAIT
INFERENCE
The ease with which we infer traits.
An effortless, automatic inference of a
trait after exposure to someone’s
behavior
 FUNDAMENTAL
ATTRIBUTION ERROR
The tendency for observers to
underestimate situational influences
and overestimate dispositional
influences upon others’ behavior.
 When we act, we focus on the environment;
when we watch someone else act, the person
occupies our attention.
PERSONAL DISPOSITION

COLD AND ALOOF WARM AND FRIENDLY

REASONS FOR THE ERROR
 Perspective and Situational Awareness
◦ When we act, the environment commands
awareness, when we watch another person
act, the person occupies the center of our
attention.
◦ Example – camera perspective bias
 Cultural Differences

◦ Western worldview predisposes us to

assume that people, not situations, cause
events.
SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY
A belief that leads to its own fulfillment

 Our social beliefs and judgments

influence how we feel and act, and
thus may help generate their own
reality.
 Teacher’s expectations influence

student performance
TEACHER EXPECTATIONS
Teachers have higher expectations
for some students than for others.

About 75% of the correlation

between teacher expectations and
students’ future achievement
reflects accuracy.
STUDENT PERFORMANCE
 Those who expected to be taught
by an excellent teacher, perceived
the teacher as more competent
and interesting, than those with
low expectations, and they
actually learned more (paid more
attention).
 BEHAVIORAL
CONFIRMATION
 A type of self-fulfilling prophecy whereby
peoples’ social expectations lead them to
behave in ways that cause others to
confirm their expectations.
◦ Men whom others believe are sexist behave less
favorably toward women.
◦ Job interviewers who are believed to be warm,
behave more warmly.