What is this chapter about?

This chapter is about social cognition and social thinking, including the processes involved, the factors that influence them, and their consequences for social behaviour. The chapter begins with an overview of the concept of social cognition and its relevance to social psychology. It explains that social cognition refers to the mental processes that people use to make sense of social situations and other people's behaviour.

Then the chapter goes on to discuss how people make judgments and form impressions of others based on the information available to them. This is called social perception.  The various factors that influence social perception, including physical appearance, nonverbal behaviour, and stereotypes, are described. The chapter covers attribution theory, which is the study of how people explain the causes of behaviour. It discusses the two types of attributions: dispositional (attributing behaviour to a person's personality or character) and situational (attributing behaviour to external factors). Social schemas are explained as mental frameworks that people use to organize and interpret information about social situations and other people. It is also explained how schemas can influence social cognition, perception, and memory. The chapter also explains heuristics, which are mental shortcuts that people use to simplify social information processing. It describes several common heuristics, including the availability heuristic, the representativeness heuristic, and the anchoring and adjustment heuristic. It is discussed how much of social cognition occurs automatically and finally, it is discussed how people’s motivations and goals can influence their social cognition and perception.

What is social cognition?

Social cognition refers to the study of how individuals process, retain, and utilize information related to social situations and other individuals. This field of study involves research to cognitive processes such as attention, perception, memory, and judgment. Early social psychological research focused primarily on behaviour and attitudes, with relatively little attention paid to cognitive processes. However, in the 1960s and 1970s, a new wave of research emerged that focused on cognitive processes and how they shape social behaviour.

This new approach was influenced by developments in cognitive psychology, which emphasized the importance of mental processes such as perception, attention, memory, and decision-making. Social psychologists began to explore how these cognitive processes were involved in social perception, social judgment, and social interaction. They found that social cognition can be influenced by factors such as motivation, emotion, and social context.

One key area of research that emerged was the study of social schemas, which are mental frameworks that people use to organize and interpret social information. Researchers also began to explore how people use heuristics, or mental shortcuts, to make quick judgments about other people and social situations.

Another important development for social psychology was that of attribution theory. Attribution theory is a fundamental concept in social psychology that refers to how people explain the causes of others' behaviour or events. According to attribution theory, people make judgments about whether behaviour is caused by dispositional factors or situational factors. Dispositional factors are in a person’s personality or their traits. Situational factors are in a person’s environment or circumstances. Errors or biases can contribute to misunderstandings and conflict. The most important errors and biases in attribution are the following:

• The fundamental attribution error refers to the tendency for people to overestimate dispositional factors and underestimate situational factors when explaining the behaviour of others. For example, if someone sees a person yelling at a waiter in a restaurant, they may assume that the person is generally angry and rude, without considering that there may be situational factors, such as that the waiter made a mistake with the order, that are contributing to the behaviour.
• The actor-observer bias refers to the tendency for people to attribute their own behaviour to situational factors, while attributing the behaviour of others to dispositional factors. For example, if I’m late, I may attribute it to traffic or other external factors, but if someone else is late, I may assume that it's because the person is disorganized or irresponsible.
• The self-serving bias refers to the tendency for people to attribute their successes to dispositional factors and their failures to situational factors. If I do well on a test, I may think it is because of my intelligence, but if I do poorly, I may blame it on distractions during the test or the questions of the test.

Over time, research on social cognition has continued to evolve and expand. Today, the study of social cognition remains an important area of research within social psychology, with implications for understanding a wide range of social phenomena, from prejudice and discrimination to interpersonal relationships and group dynamics.

What is social about social cognition?

The 'social' in social cognition refers to the study of cognitive processes that are involved in social interactions and relationships. It is concerned with how people process, store, and use information about other people and social situations. Social cognition is important because it can influence social behaviour and relationships. The study of social cognition can be influenced by various factors such as social context, cultural norms, and group membership. Understanding social cognition can also provide insights into how people form attitudes, stereotypes, and prejudices, and how they make judgments and decisions in social situations. Social cognition research can also help inform interventions aimed at improving social interactions and relationships.

How do we form impressions of other people?

When people form impressions of others, they use a variety of cues to make judgments about them. These cues can include physical appearance (such as age, gender, and attractiveness), verbal and nonverbal behaviour (such as tone of voice and body language), and situational factors (such as the context in which the interaction takes place). In addition to these cues, people also use social categorization, which involves classifying people into groups based on shared characteristics. This can include categorizing people based on their race, gender, age, occupation, and many other factors.

Social categorization can influence impression formation in a number of ways. For example, people may make assumptions about someone's personality or behaviour based on their group membership. This can lead to stereotypes and prejudice, as people may assume that all members of a particular group share the same characteristics. Additionally, social categorization can affect how people perceive themselves and their own group membership. People may identify strongly with certain groups and use this as a basis for forming their own self-concept and social identity.

While first impressions can be powerful and enduring for how we see a person, they are not always accurate or complete. Subsequent information can modify these impressions and provide a more nuanced understanding of the person. Cognitive biases and uncertainties can also significantly influence how people form impressions of others and remember social information. Understanding these biases and uncertainties is important for understanding how people perceive and interact with others in social situations.

What are primacy and recency effects?

Primacy and recency effects are cognitive biases that can influence memory for social information and impression formation. The primacy effect refers to the tendency for people to remember information that they encountered first, while the recency effect refers to the tendency for people to remember information that they encountered most recently. These effects can be particularly powerful when people are asked to recall information immediately after it is presented.

In the context of impression formation, the primacy effect suggests that first impressions can have a lasting impact on how people perceive others. For example, if someone initially presents themselves as warm and friendly, this initial impression may be particularly influential in shaping subsequent impressions, even if they later exhibit behaviour that contradicts this impression.

The recency effect, on the other hand, suggests that recent information can also be particularly influential in shaping impressions. For example, if someone initially presents themselves in a negative way, but then later exhibits positive behaviour, this more recent positive information may be particularly salient in shaping impressions. Saliency refers to the degree to which something stands out and draws attention in a given context. It is a measure of how noticeable or prominent something is relative to other things in that context. Thus, recent information stands out more than older information and has a bigger influence in shaping an impression.

What is attributional ambiguity?

Attributional ambiquity refers to uncertainty about the cause of another person's behaviour. When people are uncertain about the cause of someone's behaviour, they may be more likely to rely on stereotypes or prior beliefs to make judgments about the person. For example, if someone behaves in a way that is ambiguous or unclear, others may rely on stereotypes or prior beliefs about the person's group membership to make judgments about their behaviour.

What are social schemas?

Social schemas are mental frameworks that people use to organize and interpret information about social situations and other people. These schemas help people to process complex social information and make sense of their social environments. Social schemas can include beliefs about groups of people, common social roles, and social norms.

Stereotypes are beliefs about the characteristics of members of a group. Stereotypes can be based on a variety of factors such as race, gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and age. Stereotypes can be both positive and negative and are often based on limited information or inaccurate assumptions. Stereotypes can be activated automatically and can influence social perception and behaviour. This means that people may not be consciously aware of the stereotypes they hold, but these beliefs can still shape their perceptions of others and influence their behaviour. For example, a person may unconsciously assume that a person from a certain ethnic group is not as intelligent as others and may act accordingly.

Prejudice is an attitude toward a group or individual based on their membership in a particular group. Prejudice can be based on stereotypes or other factors and can involve negative feelings or beliefs about a group. Prejudice can be explicit or implicit, and people may not be aware of their own prejudices.

Discrimination involves negative behaviour toward a group or individual based on their membership in a particular group. Discrimination can take many forms, including exclusion, aggression, and unequal treatment. Discrimination can be based on prejudice or other factors, and it can have serious negative consequences for individuals and groups.

Overall, social schemas, stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination are all important concepts in social psychology that can influence how people perceive and interact with others. Understanding these concepts is important for promoting more positive social interactions and reducing negative attitudes and behaviours toward groups of people.

How do we use, acquire and change schemas?

Social schemas can be acquired through personal experiences, media, and cultural influences. For example, a person who grows up in a culture that values individualism may have different schemas about social roles and behaviour compared to a person from a collectivist culture.

Schemas can be resistant to change, but new information or experiences can modify or replace schemas. People may be more likely to hold onto their existing schemas, even if new information contradicts those schemas. However, if new information is consistent and repeated over time, it can lead to schema modification or replacement. Social influence, such as conformity and persuasion, can also influence schema acquisition and change. For example, a person may adopt a schema or belief because it is socially accepted or because they are convinced by someone else's argument. Similarly, a person's existing schema may be challenged or changed by social influence.

Cognitive dissonance is the discomfort or tension that arises from holding conflicting beliefs or attitudes and can motivate schema change. If a person's behaviour or experiences conflict with their existing schema or belief, they may experience cognitive dissonance. This discomfort can motivate the person to change their schema or belief to reduce the tension.

What is social encoding?

Social encoding is the process of paying attention to and perceiving social stimuli, such as other people's behaviour, facial expressions, or speech. This process involves selectively attending to certain aspects of the social situation or person, depending on an individual's goals or expectations. For example, if someone is expecting to have a friendly conversation with a colleague, they may pay more attention to positive nonverbal cues, such as a smile or relaxed posture, and may be less likely to notice negative cues, such as crossed arms or a frown.

The social context can also influence social encoding. People may pay more attention to social information in a social context than in a nonsocial context. For example, if someone is at a party, they may be more likely to pay attention to the behaviour of others and their social interactions than if they were in a quiet library.

What is priming?

Priming refers to the activation of mental representations or associations by exposure to a particular stimulus or context. For example, if someone is primed with words related to aggression, they may be more likely to respond aggressively in a subsequent task. The priming effect occurs because the exposure to the stimuli has activated the mental representation of aggression, making it more accessible and therefore more likely to influence behaviour.

How does memory for people work?

Memory for people involves the process of encoding, storing, and retrieving social information about other people. Encoding refers to the initial perception and attention paid to social stimuli. Storage involves the retention of social information in memory over time. Retrieval refers to the process of accessing stored social information when needed. Memory for social information can be influenced by several factors. For instance, people tend to remember social information that is consistent with their existing schemas or beliefs. Additionally, emotion, motivation, and the social context can all influence memory for social information. People may also use memory heuristics, or mental shortcuts, to simplify social memory processes. One example of a memory heuristic is the familiarity heuristic, in which people are more likely to remember information that is familiar to them. However, memory heuristics can also lead to errors or biases in social memory.

What is social inference?

Social inference refers to the process of making judgments about the causes of social behaviour. People may use heuristics or mental shortcuts to make quick judgments about others' behaviour. One such heuristic is the correspondence bias or fundamental attribution error, which refers to the tendency to attribute others' behaviour to internal or dispositional factors rather than situational factors.

However, the covariation model suggests that people can make more systematic inferences about the causes of behaviour by considering three types of information: consensus (how do others behave in similar situations), distinctiveness (how does the behaviour vary across different situations), and consistency (how often does the behaviour occur in a particular situation).

Social inference can be influenced by factors such as motivation, emotion, and situational context. For example, people may be more likely to make dispositional attributions when they are motivated to feel good about themselves or when they are in a positive mood. On the other hand, people may be more likely to make situational attributions when they are in a negative mood or when the behaviour is unexpected or unusual.

What is the role of affect and emotion on social cognition?

Affect and emotion play an important role in social cognition and behaviour. Affect refers to the feelings and emotions that people experience in response to social situations. Emotions can be positive, negative, or neutral and can vary in intensity and duration. Emotions can influence social perception, judgment, and decision-making. For example, people may make different judgments about a situation or person depending on whether they are experiencing a positive or negative emotion.

Emotion regulation strategies can be used to manage affective responses to social situations. These strategies can be cognitive or behavioural and involve efforts to change the intensity, duration, or type of emotion experienced. Examples of emotion regulation strategies include reappraisal, distraction, and suppression.

Research has also shown that emotions can be contagious, meaning that people can "catch" the emotions of others. This can lead to emotional convergence or divergence in social groups. Emotions can also influence social behaviour, such as helping, aggression, and cooperation.