Social Cognition
Owens, Bower, & Black (1979) "Soap Opera Effect"
Recall Task
| Recall Measure | Neutral Condition | Character Condition |
| Number of Scripts | 2.5 | 3.7 |
| Text Propositions | 20.2 | 29.2 |
| New Inferred Propositions | 3.7 | 15.2 |
Owens, Bower, & Black (1979), cont.
Recognition Task
| Inferential Test Items |
Neutral Condition * |
Character * Condition |
| Character-Appropriate | .04 | .76 |
| Neutral (script fillers) | .78 | .80 |
| Character-Inappropriate | .43 | .19 |
* "Positive Old" - 1.0; "Positive New" - 0
Abramson, Seligman, & Teasdale's (1978) Reconceptualization
Internal-External
Stability-Instability
Global-Specific
Self-Serving Bias
- Married couples did more than their
partners gave them credit for
(Ross & Sicoly, 1979)
- Wives did more housework than their husbands credited them with
(Bird, 1999)
- Divorced people blamed the other for the marital discord (Gray
& Silver, 1990)
- Businesspeople rate themselves as more ethical than the average
businessperson (Baumhart, 1968; Brenner & Molander,
1977; Lovett, 1997)
- Drivers rate themselves to be safer than the average driver
(Guerin, 1994;
McKenna & Myers, 1997)
- More intelligent (Public Opinion, 1984)
Unrealistic Optimism
- More likely to get a good job (Weinstein,
1980, 1982)
- Less likely to contract HIV (Abrams, 1991; Pryor & Reeder,
1993)
- Perloff (1987)--Illusory optimism increases our vulnerability
False Consensus Effect
. . . the tendencey to overestimate the commonality
of one's opinions
and one's undesirable or unsuccessful behaviors.
False Uniqueness Effect
. . . the tendency to underestimate the commonality
of one's abilities and
one's desirable or successful behaviors.
Positives and Negatives of the Self-Serving Bias
- Self-Serving Bias as Adaptive--protection
from depression (Snyder &
Higgins, 1988). It also buffers anxiety (Pyszcynski,
1997).
- Self-Serving Bias as Maladaptive--can make people unhappier
with their
lives (Anderson et al., 1983). Egotistical, condescending,
and deceitful
(Colvin et al., 1995). Never learn from mistakes.
Attribution Theory
- Brandi is an aggressive person.
- Brandi was in a bad mood.
- Reino is a 98-lb weakling and everyone picks on him.
- Reino insulted Brandi.
Kelly's Attribution Theory
| Stable | Unstable | |
| Person (Internal) |
||
| Situation (External) |
Reasons for the Actor-Observer Differences in Attribution
(1) You could be commiting the fundamental
attribution error.
(2) There is a deviation from a regularity.
(3) I could be trying to protect my self-esteem by attributing
my failure to
an external factor; you are not so motivated
to protect my self-esteem.
Heuristics
. . . a short-cut in making decisions, judgments,
assessments, forming
impressions, or giving explanations.
Representativeness Heuristic
. . . the strategy of judging the likelihood
of things by how well they represent, or
match, particular prototypes; may lead one to ignore other relevant
information.
Availability Heuristic
. . . an efficient but fallible rule-of-thumb
that judges the likelihood of things in
terms of their availability in memory. If instances of something
come readily
to mind, we presume it to be commonplace.
Hindsight Bias (Knew-it-All-Along Phenomenon)
Text of British-Gurka War (e.g., British had
more modern weaponry and
Gurkas had many more soldiers).
a. British won war.
b. Gurkas won war.
c. Military stalemate.
d. Negotiated settlement.
Fischoff's (1977) Study
Absinthe is a:
a. precious stone.
b. liqueur.
Aladdin's nationality was:
a. Persian.
b. Chinese.