Social Perception:: How We Come To Understand Other People

Chapter 4
Social Perception:
How We Come to
Understand Other People
Slides prepared by JoNell Strough, Ph.D. & Philip Lemaster, M.A.

West Virginia University
Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

Elliot Aronson | Timothy D. Wilson | Robin M. Akert All Rights Reserved.
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Multimedia Directory
Slide 70Cultural Differences in Social Perception Video

Social Perception
Things are seldom as they seem. Skim milk

masquerades as cream.
– W. S. Gilbert

Social Perception
• Why are people the way they are?

• Why do people act the way do?
– Thinking about people and their behavior
helps us to understand and predict our
social world

Social Perception
• The study of how we form impressions

of and make inferences about other
people.

First Impressions
• “Judging a book by its cover”

– Easily observable things we can see and
hear
– Crucial to first impression

What emotion do you think is being displayed on each of these faces? Research by
Becker et al. (2007) suggests that you might have found it easier to detect anger on the
male faces and happiness on the female faces.
Source: Courtesy of D. Vaughn Becker

Nonverbal Behavior
• Nonverbal Communication
– The way in which people communicate,
intentionally or unintentionally, without
words.

These photographs depict facial expressions of the six major emotions. Can you guess
the emotion expressed on each face? Answers (beginning in the upper left): Anger, fear,
disgust, happiness, surprise, and sadness.
Source: (top middle): UrosK/Shutterstock; (top right) PhotosIndia.com RM 18/Alamy;
(bottom left): Guido Alberto Rossi/TIPS Images North America; (bottom middle): Yuri
Arcurs/Shutterstock; (bottom right): Costa Manos/Magnum Photos, Inc.

Nonverbal Behavior
• Nonverbal cues include:

– Facial expressions
– Tone of voice
– Gestures
– Body position/movement
– The use of touch
– Gaze

Mirror Neurons and Nonverbal
Behavior
• Special brain cells
• Activated when we perform an action
and when we see someone else
perform the same action
• Basis of ability to feel empathy.
– Example—when we see someone crying,
mirror neurons fire automatically and
involuntarily, just as if we were crying
ourselves.

Recent research suggests that “contempt” may be a universally recognized expression.
Source: Paul Ekman Group, LLC.

Nonverbal Behavior
• Functions
– Express emotion
• “I’m angry”
– Convey an attitude
• “I like you”
– Communicate your personality
• Extroversion

Nonverbal Behavior
• Can contradict spoken words

– Sarcasm is a classic example
• Think about how you’d say “I’m so happy for
you” sarcastically
• Can substitute for verbal message
– The “ok” sign

Often, people express more than one emotion at the same time. Can you tell which
emotions these people are expressing? (Adapted from Ekman & Friesen, 1975)
Source: Paul Ekman Group, LLC.

Facial Expressions of Emotion
• Are facial expressions of emotion

universal?
• Yes, for the six major emotional
expressions
– Anger, happiness, surprise, fear, disgust,
and sadness

• All humans
– Encode or express these emotions in the
same way
– Decode or interpret with equal accuracy

• Six major emotions are first to occur in

human development
• Other emotions develop later
– Guilt, shame, embarrassment, pride
• Other emotions
– Show less universality across cultures
– Closely tied to social interaction

Decoding Facial Expressions of
Emotion
• Three reasons decoding can be
complicated
1. Affect blends
• One part of the face displays one emotion
and another part, a different emotion
2. People may try to mask emotions
3. Culture

Culture and Nonverbal
Communication
• Display rules
– Dictate what kinds of emotional
expressions people are supposed to show
– Are culture specific

Examples of Display Rule
Differences
• Display of emotion
– Different norms for American men and
women
• Smiling
– Japanese women hide smile behind hands
– Western women allowed/encouraged—to
smile broadly and often

Differences
• Negative facial expressions
– Japanese over up negative expressions
with smiles, laughter
– Display fewer facial expressions than in the
West

Differences
• Gaze
– Americans suspicious when a person
doesn’t “look them in the eye”
• Find talking to someone who is wearing dark
sunglasses disconcerting
• Personal space
– Americans like a bubble of open space, a
few feet in radius
– Other cultures, strangers standing next to
each other, to the point of touching
Culture and Channels of
Nonverbal Communication
• Emblems
– Nonverbal gestures that have well-
understood defintions within a given
culture; they usually have direct verbal
translations, like the “OK” sign.
• Emblems are not universal!

Multichannel Nonverbal
Communication
• Nonverbal information is diffused
across many channels in everyday life
• Can use more than one channel to
decode
• Increases ability to make accurate
judgments

Implicit Personality Theories:
Filling in the Blanks
• To understand other people
– Observe their behavior
– Infer feelings, traits, and motives.
• To make inferences
– Use schemas about which personality traits
go together in one person

Implicit personality theories differ from culture to culture. Westerners assume that there
is an artistic type of person—someone who is creative, intense, temperamental, and
unconventional (for example, the artist Andy Warhol, left). The Chinese have a category
of a shi gú person—someone who is worldly, devoted to his or her family, socially skillful,
and somewhat reserved (right).

• Implicit Personality Theory
– A type of schema people use to group
various kinds of personality traits together;
for example, many people believe that
someone who is kind is generous as well.

• Advantage
– Form impressions quickly
• Disadvantages
– Make incorrect assumptions
– Stereotypical thinking
• Believe that person is like all the other
members of his or her group

Figure 4.2
Implicit Personality Theories: How Our Culture and Language Shape Our
Impressions of Others
People formed an impression of other people that was consistent with the implicit
personality theory contained in their language. For example, when Chinese-English
bilinguals read stories about people in English, they were likely to form impressions
consistent with a Western implicit theory, the artistic personality. When Chinese-English
bilinguals read the same stories in Chinese, they were likely to form impressions
consistent with a Chinese implicit theory, the shi gú personality. (Adapted from Hoffman,
Lau, & Johnson, 1986)

Culture and Implicit
Personality Theories
• Schemas
– Shared by people in a culture
– Passed across generations

• American culture
• Implicit personality theory that “what is
beautiful is good”
– People with physical beauty also have a
host of other positive qualities

• Chinese culture
– Implicit theory of personality of traditional
Chinese values
• Creating and maintaining interpersonal
harmony, inner harmony, and ren qin (focus
on relationships)

• “Artistic personality”
• Western cultures
– Person is creative, intense, and
temperamental, unconventional lifestyle
• Chinese
– Do not have a schema or implicit
personality theory for an “artistic type”

• China has implicit personality theories
that do not exist in Western cultures
– Shi gú person
• Worldly, devoted to his or her family,
socially skillful, and somewhat reserved

Causal Attribution
Answering the “Why” Question

Causal Attribution
Answering the “Why” Question
• Two theories
– Attribution Theory (Fritz Heider)
– Covariation Model (Harold Kelley)

According to Fritz Heider, we tend to see the causes of a person's behavior as internal.
For example, when a person on the street asks for money, we are likely to assume that
he is at fault for being poor— perhaps lazy or drug-addicted. If we knew the person’s
situation— perhaps he has lost his job due to a factory closing or has a spouse whose
medical bills have bankrupted them—we might come up with a different, external
attribution.
Source: AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes

Attribution Theory (Heider)
• Heider
– “Father” of attribution theory
– “Naïve” or “commonsense” psychology
• Viewed people as amateur scientists
– Piece together information to figure out
cause
• Attribution theory
– Addresses how we infer the causes of other
people’s behavior

Nature of the Attribution
Process
• When deciding about causes of
behavior, we can make one of two
attributions
– Internal, dispositional attribution
– External, situational attribution

Internal Attribution
• Infer a person is behaving in a certain

way because of something about the
person (e.g., attitude, character,
personality).

External Attribution
• Infer a person is behaving a certain

way because of something about the
situation.
• Assume most people would respond the
same way in that situation.

Process
• Example—satisfied married couples
– Partner’s positive behaviors
• Internal attributions
– E.g., “She helped me because she’s such a
generous person.”
– Negative behaviors
• External attributions
– E.g., “He said something mean because he’s
so stressed at work this week.”

Process
• Example—spouses in distressed
marriages
– Partners’ positive behaviors
• external causes
– E.g., “She helped me because she wanted to
impress our friends.”

Process
• Example—spouses in distressed
marriages
– Negative behaviors
• internal causes
– E.g., “He said something mean because he’s
a totally self-centered jerk.”

Process
• Tend to make internal attributions for
other people’s behavior
• Why?
– Perceptually, we focus on people
– Overlook the situation (external
explanation)
• Hard to see
• Difficult to describe

The Covariation Model (Kelley)
• A theory that states that to form an

attribution about what caused a
person’s behavior, we systematically
note the pattern between the presence
or absence of possible causal factors
and whether or not the behavior
occurs.

Covariation Model
• Focuses on how behavior “covaries”

– Across time, place, actors, & targets
• Examines how perceiver chooses an
internal or an external attribution

Covariation Model
• We make choices about internal versus

external attributions by using three
pieces of information
– Consensus
– Distinctiveness
– Consistency

Figure 4.3
The Covariation Model
Why did the boss yell at his employee Hannah? To decide whether a behavior was
caused by internal (dispositional) factors or by external (situational) factors, people use
consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency information.

Consensus Information
• The extent to which other people

behave the same way toward the same
stimulus as the actor does.

Distinctiveness Information
• The extent to which one particular actor

behaves in the same way to different
stimuli.

Consistency Information
• The extent to which the behavior

between one actor and one stimulus is
the same across time and
circumstances.

Internal Attribution
• Occurs when
– Consensus = Low
• Behavior is unique to the person
– Distinctiveness = Low
• Person displays same behavior with different
targets & in different situations
– Consistency = High
• The person’s behavior is occurs reliably
across occasions

External Attribution
• Occurs when
– Consensus = High
• Other people behave similarly in the same
situation
– Distinctiveness = High
• The person’s behavior is specific to that
situation or target
– Consistency = High
• The person’s behavior occurs reliably across
occasions

Evaluation of Covariation
Model
• Information about all three dimensions
may not be available
– People still make attributions
• Consistency and distinctiveness used
more than consensus

The Fundamental Attribution
Error
• Tendency to believe that people’s
behavior matches (corresponds to)
their dispositions
– Also referred to as the “correspondence
bias”
• Pervasiveness of this error makes it
“fundamental”

Rosa Parks, sitting at the front of the bus, after the Supreme Court ruled that bus
segregation is illegal.
Source: Bettmann/Bettmann Premium/Corbis

Buses across the United States posted a sign like this one, asking riders to keep one seat
empty to honor Rosa Parks.
Source: Richard Perry/The New York Times/Redux Pictures

Error
• People act like personality
psychologists
– Attribute behavior to internal dispositions
and traits
• Social psychologists
– focus on the impact of social situations on
behavior—not internal factors

Figure 4.4
The Fundamental Attribution Error
Even when people knew that the author’s choice of an essay topic was externally caused
(i.e., in the no-choice condition), they assumed that what he wrote reflected how he
really felt about Castro. That is, they made an internal attribution from his behavior.
(Adapted from Jones & Harris, 1967)

Error
• Why does it occur?
– Tend to focus attention on person, not the
surrounding situation
• The person is “perceptually salient”
– Use the focus of attention as a starting
point
Perceptual Salience
The seeming importance of information that is the
focus of people’s attention.

Figure 4.5
Manipulating Perceptual Salience
This is the seating arrangement for two actors and the six research participants in the
Taylor and Fiske study. Participants rated each actor’s impact on the conversation.
Researchers found that people rated the actor they could see more clearly as having the
larger role in the conversation. (Adapted from Taylor & Fiske, 1975)

Figure 4.6
The Effects of Perceptual Salience
These are the ratings of each actor’s causal role in the conversation. People thought that
the actor they could see better had more impact on the conversation. (Adapted from
Taylor & Fiske, 1975)

The Two-Step Process of
Attributions
1. Make an internal attribution
– Assume that a person’s behavior was due
to something about that person
– Occurs quickly, spontaneously
2. Adjust attribution by considering the
situation
– May fail to make enough adjustment in
second step
– Requires effort, conscious attention

Figure 4.7
The Two-Step Process of Attribution

The Two-Step Process of
Attributions
• Engage in the second step if:
– You consciously slow down, think carefully
before reaching a judgment
– You are motivated to reach an accurate a
judgment
– You are suspicious about the behavior
(e.g., we suspect lying)

Cultural Differences in Social
Perception
• Western Cultures
– Stress individual autonomy
• Person is self-contained, independent
• East Asian cultures
– Emphasize group autonomy
• Sense of self comes from group
belongingness

Perception Video
Click on the screenshot to watch people from collectivistic cultures discuss the
importance of group belongingness.
Back to Directory
Perception
• Analytic thinking style
– Associated with Western cultural values
– Focus on objects or people
• Holistic thinking style
– Associated with Eastern cultural values
– Focus on “whole picture”
• Person or object and relationships between
people

Perception
• Social neuroscience evidence of
analytical & holistic styles
– fMRI
• More effort required to use unfamiliar style
– ERP

Culture and the Fundamental
Attribution Error
• Members of individualistic cultures
– They prefer dispositional attributions
– They think like personality psychologists

Research has shown that when forming attributions, people in collectivistic cultures such
as Japan are more likely to take situational information into account than are people in
individualistic cultures.
Source: Steve Vidler/SuperStock

Culture and the Fundamental
Attribution Error
• Members of collectivistic cultures:
– Prefer situational explanations
– Think like social psychologists
– Greater situational focus is matter of
degree
• Do they make dispositional attributions
• Are they more likely to go on to the “second
step”

Next, these research participants were asked to make an attribution about the behavior
of the fish in the front of the pack. Would they make dispositional or situational
attributions about the fish’s behavior, given the cultural priming they had experienced
earlier?
Source: bigredlynx/Shutterstock

Self-Serving Attributions
• Explanations for one’s successes that

credit internal, dispositional factors and
explanations for one’s failures that
blame external, situational factors.

• Why do we make self-serving

attributions?
1. We want to maintain self-esteem.
2. We want other people to think well of us
and to admire us.
3. We know more about the situational
factors that affect our own behavior than
we do about other people’s.

• Defensive Attributions
– Explanations for behavior that avoid
feelings of vulnerability and mortality.

Defensive Attribution
• Belief in a just world

– The assumption that people get what they
deserve and deserve what they get

Belief in a Just World
• Advantage
– Allows people to deal with feelings of
vulnerability, mortality
• Disadvantage
– Blaming the victim
• Rape victims
• Battered wives

Bias “Blind Spot”
• People realize biases in attribution can

occur
• Believe other people more susceptible
to attributional biases compared to self

Culture and Other Attributional
Biases
• Self-serving bias
– More prevalent in Western, individualistic
cultures than Eastern collectivist cultures
• Belief in a Just World
– More prevalent in cultures with extreme
differences in wealth

Sports winners and losers often make very different, self-serving attributions to explain
the outcome of the competition.
Source: Morgan Lane Photography/Shutterstock

Summary and Review
• Nonverbal Behavior
• Attribution Theory (Heider)
• Covariation Model (Kelley)
• Fundamental Attribution Error
• Self-Serving Attributions
• Defensive Attributions
• Role of Culture in Social Perception


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Chapter 4

Slides prepared by JoNell Strough, Ph.D. & Philip Lemaster, M.A.

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

Things are seldom as they seem. Skim milk

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

• Why are people the way they are?

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

• The study of how we form impressions

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

• “Judging a book by its cover”

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

• Nonverbal cues include:

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

• Can contradict spoken words

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

• Are facial expressions of emotion

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

• Six major emotions are first to occur in

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

• Infer a person is behaving in a certain

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

• Infer a person is behaving a certain

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

• A theory that states that to form an

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

• Focuses on how behavior “covaries”

Social Psychology, Eighth Edition ©2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

• We make choices about internal versus