Social Cognition: How We Think about the Social World

Presented by: Diana S. Bagonoc, RN

What is social cognition?

Social Cognition Is the study of how people make sense out of themselves and others. It focuses on how people think about other people and how they think they think about others and themselves. Social cognition looks at the higher mental processes that are engaged while in social situations or in dealing with social information (perception, memory, attention, reasoning, and problem solving).

2 kinds of social cognition

Quick and automatic without thinking, without consciously deliberately one s own thoughts, perceptions, assumptions. Controlled thinking that is effortful and deliberate, pausing to think about self and environment, carefully selecting the right course of action.

Why don t we think sometimes?

Cognitive Miser - we adopt strategies to simplify complex problems. - We look for rapid answers rather than slower, more accurate solutions. We are limited in our capacity to process information so we take shortcuts (heuristics) whenever we can. Conscious thinking requires a lot of effort

Elements of Automatic Thinking: Intention not guided by intention Control not subject to deliberate control Effort no effort required Efficiency highly efficient

People as Everyday Theorists: Automatic Thinking with Schemas

A schema is a well-organized structure of cognitions about some social entity such as a person, group, role, or event (Michener, DeLamater and Myers 2004:107). These schemas help to develop expectations about what to expect from others' behavior.

Types of schemas
Person Schema - cognitive structures that describe personalities of others. It can apply to specific individuals (Barack Obama, my sister) or types of individuals (extrovert, sociopath). Self-Schema - structures that organize our conception of our own qualities and characteristics. Role Schema - indicate which attributes and behaviors are typical of persons occupying a particular role in a group. These can exist for occupational roles (priest, teacher, nurse) or roles in groups (group leader, recorder).

Types of schema
Event Schema (also called "scripts") - are schemas about important, recurring social events (weddings, funerals, graduations, job interviews). Group Schemas (also called stereotypes) - a fixed set of characteristics that are attributed to the members of a particular social group or social category.

The Function of Schemas: Why Do We Have Them?

Schemas help us organize and make sense of the world and to fill in the gaps of our knowledge. Schemas are particularly important when we encounter information that can be interpreted in a number of ways, because they help us reduce ambiguity.

The Function of Schemas: Why Do We Have Them?

Schemas as Memory Guides: we remember some information that was there (particularly information our schemas lead us to pay attention to), and we remember other information that was never there but that we have unknowingly added.

Which Schemas Are Applied? Accessibility and Priming

Accessibility The extent to which schemas and concepts are at the forefront of people s minds and are therefore likely to be used when we are making judgments about the social world.

Priming The process by which recent experiences increase the accessibility of a schema, trait, or concept.

Which Schemas Are Applied? Accessibility

Something can become accessible for three reasons: Some schemas are chronically accessible due to past experience. This means that these schemas are constantly active and ready to use to interpret ambiguous situations. Something can become accessible because it is related to a current goal. Schemas can become temporarily accessible because of our recent experiences

Which Schemas Are Applied? Priming

Priming is a good example of automatic thinking because it occurs quickly, unintentionally, and unconsciously.

Making Our Schemas Come True: The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy The case whereby people (1) Have an expectation about what another person is like, which (2) influences how they act toward that person, which (3) causes that person to behave consistently with people s original expectations, making the expectations come true.

Making Our Schemas Come True: The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Cultural Determinants of Schemas

An important source of our schemas is the culture in which we grow up. In fact, schemas are an important way cultures exert their influence: by instilling mental structures that influence how we understand and interpret the world.

Mental Strategies and Shortcuts

Mental Strategies and Shortcuts

HEURISTIC A rapid form of reasoning; shortcuts that reduce complex problems to simpler judgments.

Mental Strategies and Shortcuts

Availability Heuristic - A mental rule of thumb whereby people base a judgment on the ease with which they can bring something to mind.
The trouble with the availability heuristic is that sometimes what is easiest to remember is not typical of the overall picture, leading to faulty conclusions.

How Easily Does It Come to Mind? The Availability Heuristic

Example: When physicians are diagnosing diseases, it might seem straightforward for them to observe peoples symptoms and figure out what disease, if any, they have. Sometimes, though, symptoms might be a sign of several different disorders. Do doctors use the availability heuristic, whereby they are more likely to consider diagnoses that come to mind easily? Several studies of medical diagnoses suggest that the answer is yes.

How Similar Is A to B? The Representativeness Heuristic

A mental shortcut whereby people classify something according to how similar it is to a typical case. How likely is it that person A is a member of category B? (Person A is meek, quiet, intelligent, introverted - is he a librarian/astronaut?)

 Base Rate Fallacy: A base rate fallacy is committed when a person judges that an outcome will occur without considering prior knowledge of the probability that it will occur. They focus on other information that isn't relevant instead.
Imagine that I show you a bag of 250 M&Ms with equal numbers of 5 different colors. Then, I ask you what the probability is I will pick a green one while my eyes are closed? I also tell you that green M&Ms are my favorite and yesterday I picked out twice as many green M&Ms than red ones. If you ignored the fact that there are 50 of each color, and instead focused on the fact that I picked out twice as many green M&Ms than red yesterday, you have committed a base rate fallacy because what I did yesterday is irrelevant information.

Simulation Heuristic One use of availability is to construct hypothetical scenarios to try to estimate how something will come out - When Dad finds out that I wrecked the car he will .. . Used for prediction and causality, if only conditions, the counterfactual construction.
The counterfactual construction or the mental simulation of how event might have been otherwise. Used to access causality in trying to identify the unique factors that led to a dramatic outcome. Negative outcomes that follow unusual behaviors generate more sympathy - can imagine how it would have been different.

Taking Things at Face Value

Anchoring and Adjustment Heuristic A mental shortcut whereby people use a number or value as a starting point and then adjust insufficiently from this anchor.

Taking Things at Face Value

Anchoring and Adjustment Heuristic Suppose you re a judge sentencing a felon after your friend had his 75th birthday. Without realizing why the number 75 came to your mind, you might think, 75 is too high. Ill sentence this person to 60 years. What if your granddaughter just had her 5th birthday? You might impose a lower sentence.

Cognitive Errors and Biases

Magical Thinking Assumptions that don t hold up to logical scrutiny
Touching objects pass on properties to each other (contamination) Resemblance to something shares basic properties (contamination)

Magical Thinking
Here are some common magical beliefs: Superstition, rabbits feet, the number 13, black cats Most forms of luck, gambling, playing the lottery, slot machine fever The evil eye, hexes, most black magic All these types of thinking assume that some imaginary force runs the universe, and it's often not friendly.

Thought Suppression
The attempt to avoid thinking about something we would prefer to forget.
The irony is that when people are trying hardest not to think about something if tired or preoccupied (under cognitive load), these thoughts are especially likely to spill out unchecked.

Reducing Cognitive Errors

De-biasing
Consider multiple alternative Rely less on memory Use explicit decision rules Use Metacognition is defined as "cognition about cognition", or "knowing about knowing." It can take many forms; it includes knowledge about when and how to use particular strategies for learning or for problem solving.

What Makes Us Human?

Human thought uses and combines symbols Language allows for exploration of linkages of meaning Conscious mind is uniquely human - Complex patterns of thought Only humans engage in counterfactual thinking Human thought creates unique errors and unique capabilities to find the truth