PSYB10H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4-7: Fundamental Attribution Error, Counterfactual Thinking, Attribution Bias
Document Summary
Chapter 4 social cognition: thinking about people and situations. By studying errors of judgment, psychologists can understand how people make judgments and learn what can be done to avoid mistakes. Sometimes people make judgments on the basis of very little information, such as making personality judgments based on physical appearance. Mistaken inferences can arise from pluralistic ignorance, which tends to occur when people are reluctant to express their misgivings about a perceived group norm; their reluctance in turn reinforces the false norm. People"s judg(cid:373)e(cid:374)ts (cid:272)a(cid:374) see(cid:373) to the(cid:373) (cid:373)ore a(cid:272)(cid:272)urate tha(cid:374) they really are (cid:271)e(cid:272)ause of the self- fulfilling prophecy. More specifically, people can draw mistaken inferences about others that seen valid because they act in ways that elicit the very behaviour they were expecting (cid:271)eha(cid:448)iour that (cid:449)ould(cid:374)"t ha(cid:448)e happe(cid:374)ed other(cid:449)ise. Information received second-hand often does not provide a full account of what happened, instead stressing certain elements at the expense of others.
