PSYC 215 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Pluralistic Ignorance, Enhanced Interrogation Techniques, Confirmation Bias

• School: McGill University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 215
• Professor: Mark Baldwin

Document Summary

Chapter 4: social cognition: thinking about people and. Study of how people think about the social world and the judgements they make. People make snap judgements" instantaneously; as soon as we see someone. Judgements are made based on 2 dimensions. Positive and negative dimension (trustworthy or not trust-worthy, aggressive or non- aggressive) Baby faces > perceived as lassie, harmless, weak. An individual"s snap judgements is usually in agreement to the consensus opinion. Still don"t tell us what the person is actually like. Reasonably accurate assessments are made based on thin-slices of behaviour. Therefore snap judgements only have some validity, but not entirely true. Pluralistic ignorance = misperception of a group norm that reflects from observing people who are acting at variance with their private beliefs out of a concern for the social consequences those actions reinforce the erroneous group norm.