PSYC 260 Lecture 4: Social Perception
29 Sep 2017
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More info on the midterm exam will be given in two weeks. Social perception: how we form impressions and make inferences about other people. Non-verbal communication: how people communicate without words. Ex: facial expressions, gestures, eye gaze, body position, etc. Darwin said that as a species, we would be able to recognize and show the basic expressions in the appropriate circumstances. These are shared for us as a species, rather than from culture to culture. He believes these expressions used to occur as a useful body reaction; for example, disgust has people shy away, narrow their eyes, etc. , which helps us stay away from the disgusting thing. A study was done using participants from different cultures around the world and had them match expressions with short stories; this study was done to prove the theory that there are 6 universal facial expressions. The debate about universal expressions is ongoing. Some non-verbal communication skills are culture specific, such as display rules.
