PSYC12H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Illusory Correlation, Human Brain, Prospect Theory
Document Summary
The formation of stereotypes: illusory correlations: humans try to make sense of the world by looking for - and noticing patterns, human brain is a prediction machine. Likely, it is the case that individual"s perceptions are based on selective attention to a relatively small number of cases, which leads to an illusory correlation. Because both events are rare, the stereotype (illusory correlation) would be maintained. Illusory correlations lead to the formation and maintenance of stereotypes: this suggests that prejudices and stereotypes are not special they are part of general cognitive processes. The formation of stereotypes: categorization: social categorization is a cognitive process by which we place individuals into social groups. In this context, stereotypes are no longer regarded as a product of lazy thinking or among those with moral deficiencies (allport, 1954). Instead, most now regards stereotypes as a natural consequence of cognition (fiske,