SOCIAL PERCEPTION: Explain how attribution concepts are relevant for understanding these song lyrics. [Hint: Consider internal and external attributions, the fundamental attribution error, and the actor-observer difference.]

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SOCIAL PERCEPTION Explain how attribution
concepts are relevant for understanding these
song lyrics.Hint Consider internal and
external attributions, the fundamental
attribution error, and the actor-observer
difference.

• What Would You Do? City High
• 1st verseBoys and girls wanna hear a true
  story?Saturday night was at this real wild party
  They had the liquor overflowin' the cup, about 5
  or 6 strippers tryin to work for a buckand
  I-took one girl outside wit me, her name was
  Loni, she went to Junior High wit me, I said,
  Why you up in there dancin for cash?,I guess a
  whole lots changed since I seen you lastShe
  said.. ChorusWhat would you do?, if your son
  was at homecrying all alone on the bedroom
  floor, cuz he's hungryand the only way to feed
  him is ta sleep wit a manfor a little bit of
  money, and his daddy's gonesomewhere smokin'
  rock now, in and out of lock down,I aint gotta
  job now, so for you this is just a good timebut
  for me this is what I call life2nd
  verseGirl you aint the only one wit a
  baby,that's no excuse to be livin all crazythen
  she looked me right square in the eyeand said
  everyday I wake up hopin' to die,she said- ----
  I know about pain cuz, me and my sista ran away,
  so my daddycouldn't rape us, before I was a
  teenagerI done been through more s---, you can't
  evenrelate ta! continued on next page

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What Would You Do? (continued)

• ChorusOooooThen she said, What would you do?
  if....Get up on my feet and let go of every
  excuseWhat would you do? if....Cuz I wouldn't
  want my baby, to go through whatI went
  throughWhat would you do? if....Get up on my
  feet, stop makin tired excusesWhat would you do?
  if...Girl I know if my mother can do it, baby
  you can do itOooo, oooo, oooo-(yea, yea, yea,
  yea)ChorusWhat would you do? if yo son was
  at home, crying all alone on the bedroom floor,
  cuz he's hungryand the only way to feed him is
  to sleep wit a man for a little bit of money,
  and his daddy's gonesomewhere smokin rock now,
  in and out of lock down,I aint gotta job now, so
  for you this is just a good timebut for me this
  is what I call life (mmmChorus

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Social Perception Overview

• How do we make inferences about another person
  from nonverbal behavior?
• Social Interpretations Task (SIT Archer
  Costanzo Archer Akert)
• How well can we detect deception?
• How do we make attributions about social
  behavior?
• Internal versus External attributions
• Do people make attributions in a logical,
  rational way? Or, do we make some consistent
  errors?
• Fundamental attribution error
• Actor-observer bias

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How do we make inferences about another person
from nonverbal behavior?
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How well do you perceive others?

• Social Interpretations Task (SIT) developed by
  Dane Archer and colleagues.

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IPT Accuracy (based on 438 undergrads)

• Chance
  Accuracy
• 1.
• 2.
• 3.
• 4.
• 5.
• 6.
• 7.
• 8.

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Gender

• Are there gender differences on the IPT?

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Scores are fairly stable over time

• The IPT is stable reliability coefficients
  around .70 (e.g., over 2 wks)

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IPT

• Correlates modestly with personality measures
• High self-monitors (who attend to
  social/situational cues) tend to score __________
  than those who are low self-monitors (who are
  less likely to change their behavior in response
  to situational cues).
• Extraverts score _______ than introverts (Akert
  Panter, 1986).

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What does the IPT demonstrate?
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Lie Detection Rate Among Different Groups (Ekman
OSullivan, 1991)

• In this study, Ps had a 50-50 chance of guessing
  accurately. Chance 50
• Group Accuracy Rate
• College students
• CIA, FBI, military
• Police investigators
• Trial judges
• Psychiatrists
• U.S. Secret Service Agents

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Attributions

• How do we make social inferences, from both
  verbal and nonverbal behavior, to understand WHY
  a person might be behaving in a particular way?

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Example

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Causal attributions

• Internal attribution Explain in terms of
  something about the person (attitude,
  personality)
• External attribution Explain in terms of
  something about the situation

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2 big questions

• How do people explain anothers behavior?
• Role of subjective vs. objective
• What kinds of errors do people make when
  explaining anothers behavior?

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Two attributional biases

• Fundamental attribution error
• Actor-observer difference

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Fundamental attribution error

• Fundamental attribution error the tendency to
  overestimate the impact of internal, personality
  causes and to underestimate the impact of
  situational causes when explaining another
  person's behavior.

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Jones Harris (1967)

• Observers readily attribute another's behavior to
  personality even when situational factors clearly
  important
• Read essays or listened to speeches supposedly
  written by members of debating team. Speech
  supported or attacked Fidel Castro.

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Jones Harris

• IV 1 Debater choose or was assigned the pro-
  or anti-Castro position
• IV 2 Speech was Pro or Anti
• DV Observers estimated debaters true opinion

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Fundamental Attribution Error(Ross, Amabile,
Steinmetz, 1977)

• Demonstrates how people ignore the situation, and
  attribute behavior to dispositions.
• Simulated quiz game

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Causal Attribution

• The Actor/Observer Difference

The actor/observer difference is the tendency to
see other peoples behavior as dispositionally
caused, but focusing more on the role of
situational factors when explaining ones own
behavior.
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Causal Attribution

• The Actor/Observer Difference

One reason for the actor/observer difference is
perceptual salience (figure vs. ground) actors
notice the situations around them that influence
them to act, while observers notice the actors.
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Causal Attribution

• The Actor/Observer Difference

The actor/observer difference also occurs because
actors have more information about themselves
than do observers.
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Causal Attribution

• The Correspondence Bias People as Personality
  Psychologists

The Two-Step Process of Attribution occurs when
people analyze another persons behavior by first
making an automatic internal attribution, and
only then thinking about possible situational
reasons for the behavior, after which one may
adjust original internal attribution.
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Causal Attribution

• The Correspondence Bias People as Personality
  Psychologists

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Lying by College Students Community Members in
Everyday Life (DePaulo et al., 1996)

• Number lies/week
• lied to/week
• said told no lies
• Reasons for lying
• Self-centered Other-oriented
• Neither

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Lies, Lies (DePaulo et al., 1996)

• How was lie delivered?
• Face to face
• By telephone
• In writing
• Was lie discovered?
• No
• Yes
• Dont know
• Unclassified response
• said would tell the lie again