Social Perception

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Social perception is a
process through which
people seek to know and
understand others.

Central Aspects of Social

Perception
1. Nonverbal
Communication
2. Attribution
3. Impression Formation
4. Impression Management
(Self-Presentation)
Nonverbal Communication: The Unspoken
Language of Expressions, Gazes and Gestures
• Nonverbal communication: It
occurs between individuals
using an unspoken language of
facial expressions, eye contact,
and body language
• Basic channels:
• Facial expressions
• Eye contact
• Body Language
• Touching
 Unmasking the Face: Facial Expressions as
Clues to Others’ Emotions
“The face is the image of soul”
By Roman orator
Six different basic emotions
are presented on the human
face, even from an early
age.
Anger
Fear
Happiness
Sadness
Disgust
Surprise
 Gazes and Stares: Eye Contact as a Nonverbal Cue

• Eyes are the “windows to the soul”

• We learn much about another
person’s feelings from their eyes
– For example: high level of gazing is
interpreted as liking or friendliness

• Staring is a form of eye contact in

which one person continues to
gaze steadily at another regardless
of what the recipient does
 Body Language: Gestures, Posture, and
Movements
• Demonstration: Angrier and
sadder.
• Cues provided by the position,
posture, and movement of
others’ bodies or body parts is
called body language
Reveals Emotional States
“she adopted a threatening posture”
“he greeted us with open arms”
Touching: Is a Firm Handshake Really a “Plus”?
• Touch can suggest
affection, dominance,
caring or even
aggression
• Is there any research to
support the claim that
handshakes are a
revealing form of
nonverbal
communication?
• Touching parents feet.
Deception
• Deception: Recognizing It
through Nonverbal Cues,
and Its Effects on Social
Relations
• Everyone engages in
deception at least
occasionally
• Why do people lie?
Cues to help identify lies are both verbal and
nonverbal
• Micro-expressions: are
fleeting facial expressions
lasting only a few tenths of
a second
• Inter-channel discrepancies
• Eye contact
• Exaggerated facial expressions
• Linguistic style
 Consider the following events
• You arrange to meet someone at a restaurant,
but she doesn’t show up, so after waiting 20
minutes, you leave.
• You leave several text messages for a friend,
but he doesn’t return them.
• You expect a promotion in your job, but don’t
receive it.
 Attribution: Understanding the Causes of
Others’ Behavior
• We don’t simply want to know
how others have acted, we want
to understand why they have
done so, too, because we realize
that this knowledge can help us
to predict how they will act in
the future.
• Attribution refers to our efforts
to understand the causes behind
others behavior and the causes
behind our behavior, too.
 Kelley’s Theory of Causal Attributions:
How We Answer the Question “Why”

• Kelley (1972)
• People attribute the cause of
others’ behavior to internal or
external factors.
• Internal—caused by
person’s traits
• External—caused by
the situation
 Three major Types of Information Used to
Answer “Why”
• Consensus is the extent to
which others behave in
same way toward the
stimulus
• Consistency is the extent to
which a person always
behaves this way toward the
stimulus
• Distinctiveness is the extent
to which a person responds
in the same way toward
different stimuli
Low Consensus, Low Distinctiveness, High Consistency = Internal

High Consensus, High Distinctiveness, High Consistency = External

Low Consensus, High Distinctiveness, High Consistency = Combination of I/E

Figure 3.7
 Other Dimensions of Causal Attribution

• Internal-External
• Stable-Unstable
(Personality Traits, health,
fatigue)
• Controllable-
Uncontrollable ( tempers,
chronic illness, laws social
norms)
 Fate versus Personal Actions
• Do we perceive the events in our own lives as stemming
primarily from fate or from our own actions?
• Burrus & Roese 2006
– thinking in abstract terms leads us to emphasize the
importance of fate
– thinking in more concrete terms leads us to downplay
the influence of fate
Figure 3.8
 Attribution: Some Basic Sources of Error
• Correspondence bias or
fundamental attribution
error: Tendency to explain
others’ actions as
stemming from
dispositions even in the
presence of clear
situational causes, i.e.
student late in class.
• The tendency to
overestimate the impact of
dispositional cues on
others behavior.
 Cultural Factors in the Fundamental Attribution
Error
• This error is more
common or stronger in
individualist cultures such
as Western Europe, the
United States, and Canada
• i.e. Case of two murderers
in English and Chinese.
 The Correspondence Bias in
Attribution about Groups
Figure 3.10
• This error is
committed
against groups,
as well as
individuals
 Actor-Observer Effect: “You Fell; I Was Pushed”

Tendency to attribute:
• own behavior mainly
to situational causes
• behavior of others
mainly to dispositional
causes
 Self-Serving Bias: “I’m Good; You are
Lucky”
• Tendency to attribute positive
outcomes to internal causes,
but negative outcomes to
external causes
• Cognitive and motivational
factors may explain this bias
• This bias is stronger in
individualist cultures
 Attribution and Depression
• Self-defeating pattern of
attributions
– Most people attribute positive
events to internal causes
(lasting) and negative events
to external (temporary) causes
– Depressed people do the
opposite– attributing positive
events to external causes and
negative events to internal
causes
Figure 3.13
Impression Formation and Impression Management:
Combining Information about Others
 The Beginning of Research on First Impressions:
Asch’s Research on Central and Peripheral Traits

• Solomon Asch (1946)

• One of the founders of
experimental social psychology
• Studied “How we form unified
impressions of others in a quick
and seemingly effortless way?”
• Intelligent • Intelligent
• Skillful • Skillful
• Industrious • Industrious
• Warm • Cold
• Determined • Determined
• Practical • Practical
• Cautious • Cautious
 How Quickly Are First Impressions Formed?

Figure 3.14

Very
Quickly!
 Impression Formation: A Cognitive
Perspective

What kind of information

do people focus on when
meeting others for the
first time?

People focus first on

information about others’
traits, values, and
principles
Impression management: The Fine Art of
Looking Good
• Tactics of impression
management
• Self-enhancement—boost one’s
appeal to others
• Boost physical appearance, boast
about abilities

• Other-enhancement—induce
positive moods in others
– Use flattery, express liking, agree
with their views