In forming impressions of people we use information about personality traits as they are revealed in specific situations. The evidence indicates that we follow a weighted averaging model in combining such information to form an impression of the person. In this process we are influenced by a number of biases such as the tendencies to be influenced more by certain salient characteristics (central traits) than by others, to rate people positively, and to be influenced more by negative rather than positive information. In addition, we have our own assumptions about personality (implicit personality theory) which influence what we notice about people and how we interpret that information. In trying to understand why people behave the way they do we make attributions of causality. When we make attributions, we tend to discount alternative possible explanations, and we tend to see cause and effect in events which occur together in time. Social psychologists have developed several theories about how we make attributions: the correspondent inferences model, in which logical inferences regarding whether the act was freely chosen and noncommon are combined with the relatively greater impact of acts which affect us and which we believe the actor intended to help or harm us; the covariation model, in which we use consensus, consistency and distinctiveness information to make interpersonal attributions; and the achievement attributions model, which explains how we attribute success of failure to internal or external, controllable or uncontrollable, and stable or unstable causes. Several attributional biases have been identified: the fundamental attribution error, the actor/observer bias, the self-serving bias, and the illusion of control. Finally defensive attributions and the role of culture and attributional bias are discussed.

The chapter then turns to subtle processes of social cognition, the construction of our own view of reality and the many shortcuts we take to get there. We form impressions of others and make social judgements quite rapidly. Without being consciously aware of it, we are frequently selective in the information we choose to process. We use categorical thinking and heuristics in processing. We may use prototypes and stereotypes, and social schemata for persons and events (scripts). We reduce information processing demands by using heuristics: the representativeness heuristic, in which an object is seen as typical of its category; the availability heuristic, in which we use whatever first comes to mind; the simulation heuristic, in which something becomes more likely if it can be imagined; illusory correlations, in which events seem to be causally related if they occur together, and the false consensus bias, in which people overestimate the extent to which others agree with them. Finally, social cognition is influenced by individual differences in integrative complexity.

KEYWORDS: attribution biases, attribution theory, cognitive heuristics, construal level, counterfactual thinking, dual-process models of cognition, impression formation, schema

1. Our memory of past events is often influenced by schemas of what should have happened.

2. A social representation of a political philosophy or program may develop in part through objectification such as by personification in which the philosophy is linked to the leader.

3. The belief in a just world is based on the illusion of control.

4. Regardless of what happens, we are predisposed to hold people responsible for their own actions and consequences.

5. We tend to look for attributions when something that is unexpected happens.

6. Because of schemas we may see the past through rose-coloured glasses.

7. Studies show that when we evaluate a group, we are strongly influenced by information about how typical a given example is of that group.

8. In forming impressions of people we tend to accentuate the positive and ignore negative information.

9. The study in which participants were asked to guess the occupation of Steve, whose name was selected from a group of 100, demonstrates that we often ignore base rate information and instead rely on the representativeness heuristic.

10. We tend to believe that we can control our environment and that people get what they deserve in life.

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4. F

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6. T

7. F

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9. T

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MCQ's for Chapter 2

1. What is the dual-process model about? What is meant by fast thinking and slow thinking?

2. What are the five cues which influence us to make a correspondent inference?

3. Outline Kelley’s covariation model.

4. Outline the biases in attributions.

5. Describe and give an example of a prototype and a stereotype.

6. Identify and give examples of three types of social schemata.

7. Identify two processes by which social schemata emerge and develop.

8. Describe the heuristic biases which influence our social thinking.

9. How is our thinking influenced by priming and availability?

10. What has integrative complexity to do with individual differences in social cognition? 

1. Given what we know about schematic processing and the use of heuristics, discuss whether the statement at the beginning of the chapter in the textbook, ‘Reality is something the human race doesn’t handle very well,’ is justified.

2. Referring to the use of specific mental representations and strategies, discuss whether people are efficient processors of social information. Does our effort to be efficient have a price? If so, what is this price and is it too high?