MISS PROF ONLY

Defensive Attributions  unrealistic optimism  The bias that good things are more likely to happen to you and bad things are more likely to happen to others  belief in a just world  The assumption that bad things happen to bad people and good things happen to good people. Social Cognition How We Think about the Social World  Adventurous  Self-confident  Independent  Persistent  Reckless  Conceited  Aloof  Stubborn Donald spent a great deal of time in search of what he liked to call excitement. He had already climbed Mt.

McKinley, shot the Colorado rapids in a kayak, driven in a demolition derby, and piloted a jet-powered boat -- without knowing very much about boats. He had risked injury, and even death, a number of times…. By the way he acted one could readily guess that Donald was well aware of his ability to do many things well. Other than business engagements, Donald’s contacts with people were rather limited. He felt he didn’t really need to rely on anyone. Once Donald made up his mind to do something it was as good as done no matter how long it might take or how difficult the going might be. Only rarely did he change his mind even when it might have been better if he had. Higgins, Rholes, and Jones (1977)  What do you think of Donald? Impressions depended on the preceding list of words 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 % Forming Positive Impression Positive Negative Wo rd s Thought or Cognition  Automatic: thinking that is non- conscious, unintentional, involuntary, and effortless  Count from 1- 10  Controlled: thinking that is conscious, intentional, voluntary, and effortful  Count from 1-10 in alphabetical order...starting with eight. Automatic Believing: Controlled Unbelieving  Gilbert’s (1991) theory of automatic believing. Initial acceptance of information Assess truthfulness of accepted beliefs Unaccept if necessary Automatic Controlled Automatic Thinking with Schemas  Schemas are mental structures people use to organize their knowledge about the social world around themes or subjects.  Why do we have schemas?

 To make sense of the world Interpreting Ambiguous Information warm industrious critical practical determined Harold Kelley’s Warm/Cold Study Interpreting Ambiguous Information cold industrious critical practical determined Harold Kelley’s Warm/Cold Study Interpreting Ambiguous Information “Warm” people were rated as more:

-humorous -sociable -considerate -students asked more questions compared with “cold” people. Both “warm” and “cold” people were rated as more immodest. “Warm” people were rated as more humorous. Ambiguous Non-ambiguous Schemas Guide Attention and Memory  Information that is consistent with our schemas is easier to recall than information that is inconsistent with our schemas.  Magic! Confirmation bias  When observing a situation…  We search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms our beliefs…  …while paying less attention to information that contradicts them Schemas  Memory is reconstructive .

 We remember some information and what we do not catch or what we forget, our schemas "fill in" for us.

 Loftus & Palmer (1973) All participants were shown a video of a car crash “Smashed” group twice as likely to “remember” broken glass, although there was none. Smashed 40.8 mph Collided 39.3 Bumped 38.1 Hit 34.0 Contacted 30.8 Which Schemas are Applied?  Accessibility the extent to which schemas and concepts are at the forefront of people’s minds  Priming is the process by which recent experiences increase the accessibility of a schema Making our Schemas come true: The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy People have an expectation about what another person is like Influence how they act toward that person Causes that person to behave consistently with people’s original expectations Making our Schemas come true: The Self -Fulfilling Prophecy (Rosenthal and Jacobson, 1968) The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy 0 20 40 60 80 100 % of children ga ining a t least 10 IQ points "Bloomers" Other students Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) Reliance on Schemas  Often helpful  necessary for navigating complex social environment  Can be problematic when inaccurate  Can lead to stereotypes and possible prejudice/discrimination Heuristics: Mental Shortcuts  Judgmental heuristics are mental shortcuts people use to make judgments quickly and efficiently  Tversky and Kahneman (1973)  the Availability Heuristic  the Representativeness Heuristic  Framing Effect  Anchoring & Adjustment Schema vs. Heuristic  Schema  organized set of knowledge  pertains to knowledge structure  Heuristic  mental shortcut  specific processing rule How easily does it come to mind?  The Availability Heuristic is the strategy of basing a judgment on the ease with which you can bring something to mind. Combs & Slovic 1979; Kristiansen 1983 How Similar is A to B?  Representativeness Heuristic a mental shortcut whereby people classify something according to how similar it is to a typical case  The base- rate fallacy is the tendency to ignore base- rate information. Frank is a 39- year old man. Twice divorced, Frank spends most of his free time hanging around the country club. His clubhouse bar conversations often center around his regrets at having tried to follow his esteemed father's footsteps. The long hours he had spent at academic drudgery would have been better invested in learning how to be less quarrelsome in his relations with other people. (Fischhoff & Bar -Hillel, 1984) Base-rate Fallacy  Description drawn from 100 clinical interviews.

 Half Ps told 30 are engineers and 70 are lawyers  Half Ps told 70 are engineers and 30 are lawyers  What is Frank’s occupation?

 30 engineers/70 lawyers: 80% said Frank is a lawyer.  70 engineers/30 lawyers: 80% said Frank is a lawyer. Base-rate Fallacy Framing effect  We react to a particular choice in different ways depending on how it is presented  We are risk-averse with gains: We value a certain gain more than a probable gain.  We are risk-taking with losses: We prefer to take the chance rather than suffer a certain loss. Framing effect  Which would you choose? A. Sure gain of $10,000 B. 50% chance of getting $20,000  Which would you choose? A. Sure loss of $10,000 B. 50% chance of losing $20,000 Framing effect  Which would you choose? A. Sure gain of $10,000 B. 50% chance of getting $20,000  Which would you choose? A. Sure loss of $10,000 B. 50% chance of losing $20,000 Risk-averse when framed as gains: we want the sure bet!

Risk-taking when framed as losses: we want the chance of losing nothing! Taking things at Face Value  Anchoring and Adjustment Heuristic a mental shortcut whereby people use a number or a value as a starting point and then adjust insufficiently from this anchor Anchoring The Mississippi River How long is it? Anchoring Mount Everest How tall is it? Anchoring on the Self Problems with Anchoring on the Self  False Consensus : The tendency to overestimate the commonality of one’s opinions and one’s undesirable or unsuccessful behaviors.  False Uniqueness: The tendency to underestimate the commonality of one’s abilities and one’s desirable or successful behaviors. Improving Human Thinking Overconfidence Barrier  the finding that people usually have too much confidence in the accuracy of their judgments  people’s judgments are usually not as correct as they think Solutions?  Ask people to play devil’s advocate  Ask them to make a different interpretation  Teach them about probability/stats  Engage them in controlled processing