Perception, Prejudice, & Bias

Perception, Prejudice, & Bias - - - Attribution Theory - Basic Covariation: Attribution Theory is how we find explanations for the behaviors of others Internal (Dispositional) factors have to do with factors that are intrinsically there (i.e. flakiness) External (Situational) factors have to do with factors out of the person’s control It’s really more of a spectrum because there are likely a combination of external and internal factors that are in play Covariation model is an attribution theory in which a person tries to explain others' or her certain behavior through multiple observations For example, when consistency is high we are more likely to attribute behavior to internal factors (i.e. flakiness) as opposed to it happening once (distinctiveness) we’ll attribute the behavior to external factors (i.e. a nice gentle person popping off on a waitress due to the long ass wait) Another example is consensus such as when a whole bunch of people exhibit the behavior, such as being late to a meeting with a shit ton of people will likely be attributed to external factors Attribution Theory - Attribution Error & Culture: Typically when we judge the behavior of other, we typically attribute them more to internal factors as opposed to external factors (we are biased) and this is known as Fundamental Attribution Error This can come into play as a physician (i.e. such as seeing an obese patient) However, when we view our own behavior we view it as a circumstance of external factors and is known as the Actor-Observer Bias There is, however, a cultural component where individualistic societies (North America & Europe) fall under the fundamental attribution error more than collective societies (Africa & Asia) which view the behavior of others through the actor-observer approach Therefore, different cultures can attribute different things to success and failure The self-serving bias is a method that individuals use in order to protect and enhance our self esteem (typically found more in individualistic societies) and leads to a common habit of a person taking credit for positive events or outcomes, but blaming outside factors for negative events Stereotypes, Stereotype Threat, & Self Fulfilling Prophecies: Stereotyping occurs when one attributes a certain sort of properties to a large group of individuals and leads to overgeneralizing (i.e. race, culture, religion, shoe size, etc.) → has major disadvantages (majorly inaccurate) and has some advantages with regards to assessing large amount of social information Stereotype Threat is when the exposure to a negative stereotype surrounding a task can actually cause a decrease in the performance of an individual when performing that task (threatens overall performance) Cognition refers to our thoughts about and interpretations of ourselves and other people → stereotyping Affect is an emotion that can be negative or positive which moves stereotyping → prejudice Once prejudice is established and you begin avoiding a certain type of people, this becomes discrimination which is a behavioral component Self fulfilling prophecy is an individual's expectations about another person or entity that eventually results in the other person or entity acting in ways that confirm the expectations of the other person Emotion & Cognition in Prejudice: Stereotypes are typically associated with cognition Prejudice is typically associated with affection Discrimination is typically associaited with behavior (actions on the prejudice) - - - - Authoritarian personality (those obedient to superior and don’t have much sympathy or care for those deemed inferior and are pretty rigid thinkers) is most susceptible to prejudice People with this personality type typically had harsh, disciplinary upbringings and use prejudice in order to protect their ego (avoid need to confront aspects of themselves) Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis states that sometimes emotion can often lead to prejudice as well (such as frustration which leads to aggressive impulses towards those you are frustrated with) If the aggression cannot be expressed to who they want, they build up this aggression and end up taking it out on people such as minorities (maybe Hitler when he was mad at the Jews???) which is known as scapegoating (taking it out on someone/something else) Hypothesis of Relative Deprivation states that people become very frustrated and you get an upsurge in prejudice or discrimintation when people feel deprived of something they feel entitled to Has to do with relative deprivation which is the difference in expectation from reality (depending on how fast this occurs, collective unrest and upsurge in prejudice/discrimination can occur) Prejudice & Discrimination based on Race, Ethnicity, Power, Social Class, & Prestige: Typically, prejudice and discrimination occurs against different racial and ehtnic groups Ethnic groups are groups that are distinguished from one another due to national origin or distinctive cultural patterns Prejudice/discrimination can also occur with regards to power (political power/power to control their own life), social class (remember, status is relative and needs an established “high class” in order to have a “lower class”), and prestige (often based on occupation such as being a doctor/lawyer or a janitor) Just World Hypothesis describes the idea that people assume the world is just and that people often get what they deserve (good things for good people and bad things for bad people) For example, rich people may say poor people are poor because they are lazy and could simply just work harder (they deserve it) Stigma - Social & Self: Social stigma is the really extreme disapproval and discrediting of an individual by society (can be associated partially with stereotypes, prejudices, and discrimination) Self Stigma is the internalization of all the negative stereotypes, prejudices, and discriminations being thrown at them (leads to them feeling rejected by society, need to avoid society, and struggle with coming to terms with their conditions through denial) → basically leads to isolation from society Social Perception - Primacy Recency: First impressions are often pretty important because they are long lasting (positive or negative), strong (hard to overcome that), and easily built upon (really put emphasis on qualities/behaviors that fulfill the first impression) Primacy bias is a type of cognitive bias that refers to an individual's tendency to better remember the first piece of information they encounter than the information they receive later on Recency bias states that the most recent performance has an extra bit of weight (such as sucking at a trumpet solo once when the previous ones were great) First and last chunks of information are retained in the memory with a variable period in the middle that seems to be not as important (neither primacy or recency seems to win out, they’re both important in situations, sometimes more and sometimes less depending on the situation) and can be thought of as serial position effect Social Perception - The Halo Effect: If your impression of someone is amazing, then this will make it seem as though his skills are better than they actually are The Halo effect refers to the tendency for an impression created in one area to positively influence opinion in another area (can be attractiveness, celebrities, etc.) The Devil Effect refers to the tendency for an impression created in one area to negatively influence opinion in another area (i.e. Grey thinking Penny is bad at surgery since she was there when Derek died) - - Social Perception - The Just World Hypothesis: Just World Hypothesis describes the idea that people assume the world is just and that people often get what they deserve (good things for good people and bad things for bad people) Noble acts onto the world lead to rewards and evil acts leads to punishments and leads to the ide of a “cosmic justice” (helps people rationalize and explain the good and bad fortune of people) However, this doesn’t always hold through because people aren’t always rewards/punished for noble acts/evil acts, meaning the world simply isn’t fair Ethnocentrism & Cultural Relativism In Group & Out Group: Ethnocentrism occurs when you judge cultures through your own cultural perspective (i.e. disgusting dish) and Cultural relativism occurs when you judge others from their cultural perspective (i.e. I can see why they like this dish) Ethnocentrism often times comes with the belief that your own culture is superior to the other culture in question Cultural relativism often times occurs with the belief that no one culture is superior, but instead are different, valued, and equal to one another In-group is the group that we are in and the out-group is the group that we are not a part of (interaction within the in group are stronger than the interactions between groups) In-group favoritism means we tend to favor individuals within our own group (liking other democrats more than republicans) and are neutral towards those in the out-group Out-group derogation occurs when we tend to favor individuals within our own group and are negative towards those in the outgroup (can be mean) and can often happen if we feel the out group is in some way threatening/undermining our in-group from achieving success Group polarization occurs when the group makes decision that are more extreme than that of the individuals within the group Extra Notes: Symbolic interactionism occurs when labels create selective perception, they can leads us to see certain things while they blind us to others Locus of Control, Learned Helplessness, & Tyranny of Choice: Personal control is whether we feel that we control or are being controlled by the environment around us (Internal vs. External LoC) Individuals with an internal locus of control tend to achieve more, act more independently, and in turn are overall happier (better at coping with things) Individuals with external locus of control tend individuals to have higher rates of depression Learned helplessness is a condition in which a person suffers from a sense of powerlessness, arising from a traumatic event or persistent failure to succeed (is thought to be an underlying cause of depression) → think of the dog experiment with the - - shocks and the button Research shows that given people choices makes them overall more happy (sees it as a sense of control over their environment) Tyranny of Choice comes from having to many choices or a “choice overload” and leads to a cognitive impairment in which people have a difficult time making a decision when faced with many options When people chose chocolate from 6 brands individuals were more happy with their choice then when faced with 30 brands (more choices leads to information overload, decision paralysis, and increased regret)