Socialpsychology Week1recap
Socialpsychology Week1recap
Socialpsychology Week1recap
RECAP BY ASHLEIGH HOLBROOKS FOR COURSERA'S SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY COURSE TAUGHT BY SCOTT PLOUS (AUGUST – SEPTEMBER 2013)
Social Psychology – Week 1 - Recap
Lecture 1.5: Confirmation Bias
Confirmation bias is a preference for information that's People tend to focus on confirming evidence and
consistent with a preconception, rather than information end up perpetuating the stereotypes or the
that challenges it. Confirmation biases can serve to preconceptions or social expectations that they
preserve and strengthen social expectations and have. Especially when people aren't highly
stereotypes. motivated to question their beliefs.
When individuals interact with each other, they usually Rather than only leading us to seek out confirming
have expectations, and research suggests that those evidence, social expectations can also have an
expectations do not always receive a fair test. effect on the person about whom we hold the
expectations about.
Social expectations not only effect the person who hold them, but the other side as well.
RECAP BY ASHLEIGH HOLBROOKS FOR COURSERA'S SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY COURSE TAUGHT BY SCOTT PLOUS (AUGUST – SEPTEMBER 2013)
Social Psychology – Week 1 - Recap
Lecture 1.6: Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
RECAP BY ASHLEIGH HOLBROOKS FOR COURSERA'S SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY COURSE TAUGHT BY SCOTT PLOUS (AUGUST – SEPTEMBER 2013)
Social Psychology – Week 1 - Recap
Lecture 1.7: Thin Slices: Social Judgments in the Blink of and Eye
A balanced view of social perception is that it can be Ambady and Rosenthal conducted what's known as a
distorted by all sorts of factors just as any other perception meta-analysis – a statistical techinique that combines and
can be. However, it can also operate with surprising analyzes the results from different studies (literally, an
efficiency. Social perception is often influenced by context analysis of analyses).
effects, change blindness, confirmation bias, and other
psychological factors. Ambady and Rosenthal found that judgments about
people's personality, veracity, and level of depression
A good example of this is the study conducted by were just as accurate if not more so when the judgments
relationship researcher John Gottman, who invited 124 were based on thin slices of behavior less than 5 minutes
newlywed couples to visit laboratory and be videotaped in length.
while they discussed an ongoing disagreement in their
marriage. These videos were then rated by independent Social judgments made during the first minute of
observers as to how much positive or negative emotion had meeting a stranger are usually reliable and accurate!
been displayed in the first three minutes of the couple's Thin slice judgments are accurate because they may have
discussion. Socials judgments of this brief marital evolutionary values such as rapidly identifying potential
interaction predicted which couples were divorced six years threats, possible partners, and competent leaders. Our
later. Another good example is A Study of Yearbook brains may processe emotions before cognitions. Thun
Photographs by Nick Rule and Nalini Ambady. slices may avoid distractions that lower accuracy.
Other thin slice examples to remember are: Psychologist Alex Todorov's 2005 study on thin slices predicting elections (PDF) the
2008 study by Ambady and Rosenthal on people accurately judging male sexual orientation (PDF).
RECAP BY ASHLEIGH HOLBROOKS FOR COURSERA'S SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY COURSE TAUGHT BY SCOTT PLOUS (AUGUST – SEPTEMBER 2013)
Social Psychology – Week 1 - Recap
Lecture 1.8: What Other People Think of You
RECAP BY ASHLEIGH HOLBROOKS FOR COURSERA'S SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY COURSE TAUGHT BY SCOTT PLOUS (AUGUST – SEPTEMBER 2013)