Lecture 1 – History & concepts
PowerPoint
Blue slide = default
Yellow slide = active; talk with each other about it
Red slide = not good; bad research
Exam
80% multiple choice (40 questions)
20% open questions (3-5 questions)
Constructing (social) reality
Cognition
How we perceive the reality, depends on how it’s constructed.
Example: turning ballerina
Due to a lack of depth cues in the black silhouette, the
floor touching leg can be seen either as the dancer’s left
or right leg.
Social cognition
Even when the situation is the same, people perceive the social reality differently due to
different cognitive processes.
Different persons vote for different parties. It depends on what you think is important.
Study: Fukushima
• Anxious Alex is high in neuroticism and a huge pessimist.
“OMG, we also have nuclear power plants in Germany. Vote Green, otherwise we’re
going to die!”
• Curious Corinna is high in need of cognition and is interested in natural sciences.
“I wonder how safe German nuclear power plants are. No more votes for green,
according to my research!”
Different situations affect voting outcomes as well.
Votes for the green party differs hugely.
c
,Overview
Two types of research
1) Phenomenology = systematic descriptions of how people experience themselves,
their social environments and themselves in their social environments.
Lay theories, everyday psychology → there is not right or wrong.
2) Cognitive psychology = how basic human cognitions (memory, attention, perception,
etc.) are organized and different ways to use them.
Models of information processing → most reliable
Relevance of social cognition
• Marketing: promoting products and services
• Public policy: organizing society effectively
• Management: providing conditions for high productivity
• Public relations: engaging public opinion
• Journalism: communicate effectively
• NGOs: mobile supporters and administer services effectively
The Pepsi commercial with Kendall Jenner completely backfired, because social cognition had
not been taken into account.
History
Behaviorism
Cognitions are post-hoc rationalizations of behavior, not the cause of behavior.
Operant conditioning as main method.
Radical behaviorism
Measuring cognition
Rejection of introspective methods
New method: reducing behavior to stimulus-response until the measurement is at
the same level → methodological behaviorism
,Cognitive revolution
Overcoming methodological problems by…
• Experimental manipulation of the environment;
• Observe changes in behavior;
• Infer mental states.
Study: investigating cognitions
• Control: people don’t really like this experiment (baseline).
• 20$: people justify lying with payment, but still find the experiment boring.
• 1$: people think they can’t be bought for a measly dollar, so they must have liked it.
These patterns were a huge problem for the back then predominant behaviorism!
Cognitive dissonance
Cognitive dissonance = an aversive state caused by the co-occurrence of two or more
inconsistent cognitions that motivates individuals to find ways to relieve the discomfort.
Induced compliance paradigm = experimental paradigm where people can or must write an
essay about something they do not personally believe.
Study: induced compliance paradigm
Students write an essay about increasing tuition fees and it’s supposed to be counter-
attitudinal. Three conditions: a) low choice - 20$, b) high choice - 1$, c) high choice neutral.
Results:
• Attitude change is the same in low choice and high choice.
Choice does not play an important role in cognitive dissonance.
• Counter-attitudinal essays produce more attitude change.
Inconsistency between behavior and attitude does.
But these results could also be explained without any cognitive dissonance, but for example
self-persuasion. Thus, the phenomenology of this situation is still unclear.
Experimental nomenclature involves independent and dependent variables (IV and DV).
Cognition nowadays
Cognitive behaviorism
The homo oeconomicus is:
, • Rational
• Maximizing utility
• Objective = free from emotions
• Logical = free from cognitive processing errors or biases
Study: Is our behavior always rational?
Which line matches the reference? The control group
answers it alone, the experimental group has 7 other
participants who give wrong answers.
Results:
• Control group chooses C
• Experimental group are sometimes wrong
They also asked participants why they behaved the way they did after the experiment. Some
reasons that were given:
• Normative social influence: using others as a reference for what should be done.
“I didn’t want to look silly or be rejected by the group.”
• Informational social influence: using others as a source of information.
“Others must have had better eyesight or be better informed.”
• Construction of a different (social) reality: distorted perceptions.
“This answer is actually correct.”
Today I learned
• Social cognition = the study of how humans make sense of and construct their social
realities. Social cognition looks at persons, acting in situations, and pays special
attention to the cognitive processes that happen.
• Cognitions were not always en vogue in psychological research.
• While these principles seem important, the role of psychology in political and societal
decision making is still limited.
• We learned about two classical experiments.
PowerPoint
Blue slide = default
Yellow slide = active; talk with each other about it
Red slide = not good; bad research
Exam
80% multiple choice (40 questions)
20% open questions (3-5 questions)
Constructing (social) reality
Cognition
How we perceive the reality, depends on how it’s constructed.
Example: turning ballerina
Due to a lack of depth cues in the black silhouette, the
floor touching leg can be seen either as the dancer’s left
or right leg.
Social cognition
Even when the situation is the same, people perceive the social reality differently due to
different cognitive processes.
Different persons vote for different parties. It depends on what you think is important.
Study: Fukushima
• Anxious Alex is high in neuroticism and a huge pessimist.
“OMG, we also have nuclear power plants in Germany. Vote Green, otherwise we’re
going to die!”
• Curious Corinna is high in need of cognition and is interested in natural sciences.
“I wonder how safe German nuclear power plants are. No more votes for green,
according to my research!”
Different situations affect voting outcomes as well.
Votes for the green party differs hugely.
c
,Overview
Two types of research
1) Phenomenology = systematic descriptions of how people experience themselves,
their social environments and themselves in their social environments.
Lay theories, everyday psychology → there is not right or wrong.
2) Cognitive psychology = how basic human cognitions (memory, attention, perception,
etc.) are organized and different ways to use them.
Models of information processing → most reliable
Relevance of social cognition
• Marketing: promoting products and services
• Public policy: organizing society effectively
• Management: providing conditions for high productivity
• Public relations: engaging public opinion
• Journalism: communicate effectively
• NGOs: mobile supporters and administer services effectively
The Pepsi commercial with Kendall Jenner completely backfired, because social cognition had
not been taken into account.
History
Behaviorism
Cognitions are post-hoc rationalizations of behavior, not the cause of behavior.
Operant conditioning as main method.
Radical behaviorism
Measuring cognition
Rejection of introspective methods
New method: reducing behavior to stimulus-response until the measurement is at
the same level → methodological behaviorism
,Cognitive revolution
Overcoming methodological problems by…
• Experimental manipulation of the environment;
• Observe changes in behavior;
• Infer mental states.
Study: investigating cognitions
• Control: people don’t really like this experiment (baseline).
• 20$: people justify lying with payment, but still find the experiment boring.
• 1$: people think they can’t be bought for a measly dollar, so they must have liked it.
These patterns were a huge problem for the back then predominant behaviorism!
Cognitive dissonance
Cognitive dissonance = an aversive state caused by the co-occurrence of two or more
inconsistent cognitions that motivates individuals to find ways to relieve the discomfort.
Induced compliance paradigm = experimental paradigm where people can or must write an
essay about something they do not personally believe.
Study: induced compliance paradigm
Students write an essay about increasing tuition fees and it’s supposed to be counter-
attitudinal. Three conditions: a) low choice - 20$, b) high choice - 1$, c) high choice neutral.
Results:
• Attitude change is the same in low choice and high choice.
Choice does not play an important role in cognitive dissonance.
• Counter-attitudinal essays produce more attitude change.
Inconsistency between behavior and attitude does.
But these results could also be explained without any cognitive dissonance, but for example
self-persuasion. Thus, the phenomenology of this situation is still unclear.
Experimental nomenclature involves independent and dependent variables (IV and DV).
Cognition nowadays
Cognitive behaviorism
The homo oeconomicus is:
, • Rational
• Maximizing utility
• Objective = free from emotions
• Logical = free from cognitive processing errors or biases
Study: Is our behavior always rational?
Which line matches the reference? The control group
answers it alone, the experimental group has 7 other
participants who give wrong answers.
Results:
• Control group chooses C
• Experimental group are sometimes wrong
They also asked participants why they behaved the way they did after the experiment. Some
reasons that were given:
• Normative social influence: using others as a reference for what should be done.
“I didn’t want to look silly or be rejected by the group.”
• Informational social influence: using others as a source of information.
“Others must have had better eyesight or be better informed.”
• Construction of a different (social) reality: distorted perceptions.
“This answer is actually correct.”
Today I learned
• Social cognition = the study of how humans make sense of and construct their social
realities. Social cognition looks at persons, acting in situations, and pays special
attention to the cognitive processes that happen.
• Cognitions were not always en vogue in psychological research.
• While these principles seem important, the role of psychology in political and societal
decision making is still limited.
• We learned about two classical experiments.
