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Chapter 3
Social Perception: Perceiving and
Understanding Others
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Copyright 2006, Allyn and Bacon
Social Perception
• Nonverbal Communication
• Attribution
• Impression Formation and
Impression Management
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Social Perception
• Social Perception—process
through which people seek to know
and understand others
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Nonverbal Communication
• Nonverbal Communication—communication
between individuals that relies on an
unspoken language of facial expressions, eye
contact, and body language
– Basic channels
• Facial expressions—reveal current moods/feelings
• Eye contact—indicates positive feelings (except staring)
• Body language (gestures, posture, movements)—reveals
emotional states, cultural emblems
• Touching—suggests affection, sexual interest,
dominance, caring, aggression
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Nonverbal Communication
• Recognizing Deception: The Role of
Nonverbal Cues
– Microexpressions—fleeting facial expressions lasting
only a few tenths of a second
– Interchannel discrepancies (nonverbal cues are
inconsistent)
– Eye contact (blink more, unusually low or high eye
contact)
– Exaggerated facial expressions (overly broad smile)
– Linguistic Style—aspects of speech apart from the
meaning of the words employed (pitch of voice)
• Lies are less complex, less related to the self, and more negative.
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Nonverbal Communication
• What are your thoughts?
– Which channels of nonverbal communication are
the most reliable?
• Why?
– What explains why women are generally better
than men are at sending and interpreting
nonverbal cues?
– Why is it difficult to tell if someone is lying?
• Why is it typically harder for women to detect
deception than it is for men?
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Attribution
• Attribution—process through which people
seek to identify the causes of others’
behavior and so gain knowledge of their
stable traits and dispositions
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Attribution
• Theories of Attribution
– Jones and Davis’ (1965) Theory of
Correspondent Inference—describes how people
use others’ behavior as a basis for inferring
their stable dispositions
• What factors are considered important in this process?
– Behavior is freely chosen.
– Behavior yields noncommon effects—effects produced by a
particular cause that could not be produced by any other
apparent cause.
– Behavior is low in social desirability (or unusual).
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Attribution
– Kelley’s (1972) theory of causal attributions
• People attribute the cause of others’ behavior to internal or
external factors.
– Internal—caused by person’s traits (disposition)
– External—caused by situation
• To explain other’s behavior the following are used:
– Consensus—extent others behave in same way toward the
stimulus
– Consistency—extent person always behaves this way toward the
stimulus
– Distinctiveness—extent person responds in the same way toward
different stimuli
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Attribution
– Kelley’s (1972) theory of causal attributions
• People attribute the causes of others’ behavior to internal
factors when:
– Consensus and distinctiveness are low, but consistency is high.
• People attribute the causes of others’ behavior to external
factors when:
– Consensus, consistency, and distinctiveness are all high.
• People attribute the causes of others’ behavior to a
combination of internal and external factors when:
– Consensus is low, but consistency and distinctiveness are high.
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Attribution
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Attribution
• Other dimensions of causal attributions (besides internalexternal) are stable-unstable and controllableuncontrollable, which all influence judgments
concerning personal responsibility.
– When multiple potential causes for behavior are
present, the following may occur:
• Discounting Principle—tendency to attach less
importance to one potential cause of some behavior
when other potential causes are also present
• Augmenting Principle—tendency to attach greater
importance to a potential cause of behavior if the
behavior occurs despite the presence of other,
inhibitory causes
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Attribution
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Attribution
• Some Basic Sources of Error
– Correspondence Bias (Fundamental attribution
error)—tendency to explain others’ actions as
stemming from dispositions even in the presence
of clear situational causes; tendency to
overestimate the impact of dispositional factors
• This error is more common or stronger in individualist
cultures (Western Europe, the United States, and
Canada).
• This error is committed against groups, as well as
individuals.
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Attribution
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Attribution
• Some Basic Sources of Error
– Actor-Observer Effect—tendency to attribute own
behavior mainly to situational causes, but the
behavior of others mainly to internal
(dispositional) causes
– Self-Serving Bias—tendency to attribute positive
outcomes to internal causes, but negative
outcomes to external causes
• Cognitive and motivational factors may explain this bias.
• This bias is stronger in individualist cultures.
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Attribution
• Applications of Attribution Theory
– Attribution and Depression
• Depressed persons often show a self-defeating
pattern of attributions, which is the opposite of the
self-serving bias.
– Attribute negative outcomes to stable, internal causes
– Attribute positive outcomes to temporary, external causes
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Attribution
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Attribution
• Applications of Attribution Theory
– Attribution in Workplaces
• Attributions affect how people perceive sexual
harassment.
– Men are more likely than women are to attribute blame to the
victim.
– Changing men’s attributions regarding sexual harassment may
help to prevent it.
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Attribution
• What are your thoughts?
– What are differences between Jones and Davis’
correspondent inference theory and Kelley’s
causal attribution theory?
– What are reasons why the fundamental attribution
error, the actor-observer effect, and the selfserving bias occur?
– What are explanations for the cultural differences
in the tendency to commit some of the attribution
errors?
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Impression Formation
• Asch’s (1946) Research on Impression Formation
– Impression Formation involves more than combining
individual traits.
• Implicit Personality Theories—beliefs about
what traits or characteristics tend to go together
– These theories are similar to a schema.
– Implicit theories can influence the impressions of
others more than people’s actual traits.
• An example is the implicit personality theory people hold
regarding the relationship between birth order and
personality traits.
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Impression Formation
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Impression Formation
• A Cognitive Perspective
– How do people combine diverse information
about others into a unified impression of them?
• People form impressions by averaging available
information.
– What kind of information do people focus on
when meeting others for the first time?
• People focus first on information about others’ traits,
values, and principles.
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Impression Formation
• Other Aspects of Impression Formation
– First impressions involve two major
components:
• Concrete examples of behaviors consistent with a
given trait (exemplars of the trait)
• Mental summaries abstracted from repeated
observations of others (abstractions)
– Motives influence the kind of impressions
people form of others.
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Impression Management
• Impression Management (Self-Presentation)—
efforts to produce favorable first impressions
on others
– Research indicates that it does have positive effects.
– Tactics of impression management
• Self-enhancement—boost one’s appeal to others
– Boost physical appearance, boast about abilities
• Other-enhancement—induce positive moods in others
– Use flattery, express liking, agree with their views
» If overused, tactics can boomerang (slime effect can occur).
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Impression Management
– The role of high cognitive load
• In most situations, it can interfere with people’s
efforts to give others a favorable impression of them.
– First impressions on the run: Speed dating
• People are given seven minutes to impress potential
dates.
– Research indicates that generally people appear to form
initial judgments about others in about one or two minutes.
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Impression Formation and Management
• What are your thoughts?
– Can first impressions of others be changed?
• What are strategies people can employ to change an
unfavorable first impression that someone formed of them?
– What are the advantages and disadvantages of speed
dating?
• If you were looking for a romantic partner, would you
consider trying it?
– Why or why not?
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