1
Social Cognition
Inhoud
Lecture 1: History & Concepts................................................................................................................2
Lecture 2: Memory.................................................................................................................................4
Lecture 3: Heuristics & Biases.................................................................................................................8
Lecture 4: Biases in deliberate decisions..............................................................................................10
Lecture 5: Affect, Mood & Emotions.....................................................................................................13
Lecture 6: Automaticity........................................................................................................................16
Lecture 7: Social Comparisons..............................................................................................................18
Lecture 8: Understanding Others..........................................................................................................20
Lecture 9: Deceiving Others..................................................................................................................23
Lecture 10: Stereotypes........................................................................................................................26
Lecture 11: Morality.............................................................................................................................29
Lecture 12: Prosociality........................................................................................................................32
Lecture 13: Persuasion and Consumer Behaviour................................................................................34
, 2
Lecture 1: History & Concepts
Social reality: is constructed by
1. The situation: what’s going on? What is the context?
2. The person: who processes the information?
3. The cognitive processes: how does thinking and feeling work?
Example Social Reality I – Experiment spinning dancer (Kayahara, 2003)
Due to a lack of depth cues in the black silhouette, the “floor
touching leg” can be construed either as the dancer’s left or
right leg
Vision and depth perception make people perceive the
situation differently.
Example Social Reality II – Elections
Votes for the German green party went
up due to different situations.
Phenomenology: systematic description of how people say they experience themselves, their
social environments, and themselves in their social environments.
Cognitive psychology: studying how basic human cognitions (memory, attention, perception,
etc.) are organized and different ways to use them.
Are cognitions even the cause of behaviour? There is no evidence on the causal direction of
cognition-behaviour link. Cognitions could be post-hoc rationalizations of behaviour.
Operant conditioning as main method of scientific inquiry. (= Radical behaviourism)
How to measure cognition? Cognitions cannot be observed (well). Rejection of introspective
methods to study the human mind. Reducing behaviour to stimulus-response until
measurement at the same level. (= Methodological behaviourism)
Overcoming methodological problems? (thanks to the cognitive revolution): Experimental
manipulation of the environment, Observe changes in behaviour, and Infer mental states (=
Social Cognition)
Example Use of Social Cognition – Turning Sticks (Festinger & Carlsmith, 1959)
The experiment: The control group was asked to do those tasks. Another group the
experimenter requests that the participant tells the next participant that the experiment
was interesting for $1. Yet another group the experimenter requests that the participant
tells the next participant that the experiment was interesting for $20.
The results: The control group and the twenty dollar group scored the same, but the
one dollar group enjoyed the tasks very much and would do it again.
The explanation: People have their individual self-concept (“I’m an honest guy”) and
situation-specific behaviour (“I just lied to that poor person”). “I must have liked the
, 3
study to lie for so little money.” Behaviourism cannot explain this. It is called
‘cognitive dissonance’.
Cognitive behaviourism: homo economicus:
1. Rational (non-emotional)
2. Maximizing utility
3. Objective (free from emotions)
4. Logical (free from cognitive processing errors or biases)
We make non-logical decisions following this homo economicus theory.
Example Irrational Behaviour – Perceptual Decision Task (Asch, 1951)
> People conformed to the group, which wasn’t rational or logical.
> 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”)
Example Exam Question: Which of the following is one of the three building blocks of
social realities?
(a) Memory
(b) Phenomenology
(c) Cognitive processes
(d) Need for cognition
, 4
Lecture 2: Memory
How is information organized in memory?:
Three stages of memory organization:
1. Creating memories: encoding
2. Having memories: storage
3. Recollecting memories: retrieval
Shallow encoding: memory without meaning
Example Shallow Encoding – Memorizing 2000 nonsense syllables (Ebbinghaus, 1885)
>Encoding without any without any context leads
to rapid memory loss
>This is not true for all memories
Deep encoding: memory with a lot of meaning
Example Deep Encoding – Losing your camera while on vacation
Different kinds of explicit long-term memory:
- Semantic memory: memory without meaning (e.g., diploma teacher).
o Ebbinghaus’ Forgetting Curve: Ebbinghaus tried to study memory in a ‘clean’
way. He memorized 2000 nonsense syllables.
o General principles
- Episodic memory: memory with a bit of meaning
o Example: experiment story about person who serenades (Bransford &
Johnson).
o Context-specific
- Autobiographical memory: memory with a lot of meaning
o Example: lost camera.
o Your life
Different kinds of implicit long-term memory:
- Procedural memory
o Motor skills
- Priming memory
o Activation
Social Cognition
Inhoud
Lecture 1: History & Concepts................................................................................................................2
Lecture 2: Memory.................................................................................................................................4
Lecture 3: Heuristics & Biases.................................................................................................................8
Lecture 4: Biases in deliberate decisions..............................................................................................10
Lecture 5: Affect, Mood & Emotions.....................................................................................................13
Lecture 6: Automaticity........................................................................................................................16
Lecture 7: Social Comparisons..............................................................................................................18
Lecture 8: Understanding Others..........................................................................................................20
Lecture 9: Deceiving Others..................................................................................................................23
Lecture 10: Stereotypes........................................................................................................................26
Lecture 11: Morality.............................................................................................................................29
Lecture 12: Prosociality........................................................................................................................32
Lecture 13: Persuasion and Consumer Behaviour................................................................................34
, 2
Lecture 1: History & Concepts
Social reality: is constructed by
1. The situation: what’s going on? What is the context?
2. The person: who processes the information?
3. The cognitive processes: how does thinking and feeling work?
Example Social Reality I – Experiment spinning dancer (Kayahara, 2003)
Due to a lack of depth cues in the black silhouette, the “floor
touching leg” can be construed either as the dancer’s left or
right leg
Vision and depth perception make people perceive the
situation differently.
Example Social Reality II – Elections
Votes for the German green party went
up due to different situations.
Phenomenology: systematic description of how people say they experience themselves, their
social environments, and themselves in their social environments.
Cognitive psychology: studying how basic human cognitions (memory, attention, perception,
etc.) are organized and different ways to use them.
Are cognitions even the cause of behaviour? There is no evidence on the causal direction of
cognition-behaviour link. Cognitions could be post-hoc rationalizations of behaviour.
Operant conditioning as main method of scientific inquiry. (= Radical behaviourism)
How to measure cognition? Cognitions cannot be observed (well). Rejection of introspective
methods to study the human mind. Reducing behaviour to stimulus-response until
measurement at the same level. (= Methodological behaviourism)
Overcoming methodological problems? (thanks to the cognitive revolution): Experimental
manipulation of the environment, Observe changes in behaviour, and Infer mental states (=
Social Cognition)
Example Use of Social Cognition – Turning Sticks (Festinger & Carlsmith, 1959)
The experiment: The control group was asked to do those tasks. Another group the
experimenter requests that the participant tells the next participant that the experiment
was interesting for $1. Yet another group the experimenter requests that the participant
tells the next participant that the experiment was interesting for $20.
The results: The control group and the twenty dollar group scored the same, but the
one dollar group enjoyed the tasks very much and would do it again.
The explanation: People have their individual self-concept (“I’m an honest guy”) and
situation-specific behaviour (“I just lied to that poor person”). “I must have liked the
, 3
study to lie for so little money.” Behaviourism cannot explain this. It is called
‘cognitive dissonance’.
Cognitive behaviourism: homo economicus:
1. Rational (non-emotional)
2. Maximizing utility
3. Objective (free from emotions)
4. Logical (free from cognitive processing errors or biases)
We make non-logical decisions following this homo economicus theory.
Example Irrational Behaviour – Perceptual Decision Task (Asch, 1951)
> People conformed to the group, which wasn’t rational or logical.
> 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”)
Example Exam Question: Which of the following is one of the three building blocks of
social realities?
(a) Memory
(b) Phenomenology
(c) Cognitive processes
(d) Need for cognition
, 4
Lecture 2: Memory
How is information organized in memory?:
Three stages of memory organization:
1. Creating memories: encoding
2. Having memories: storage
3. Recollecting memories: retrieval
Shallow encoding: memory without meaning
Example Shallow Encoding – Memorizing 2000 nonsense syllables (Ebbinghaus, 1885)
>Encoding without any without any context leads
to rapid memory loss
>This is not true for all memories
Deep encoding: memory with a lot of meaning
Example Deep Encoding – Losing your camera while on vacation
Different kinds of explicit long-term memory:
- Semantic memory: memory without meaning (e.g., diploma teacher).
o Ebbinghaus’ Forgetting Curve: Ebbinghaus tried to study memory in a ‘clean’
way. He memorized 2000 nonsense syllables.
o General principles
- Episodic memory: memory with a bit of meaning
o Example: experiment story about person who serenades (Bransford &
Johnson).
o Context-specific
- Autobiographical memory: memory with a lot of meaning
o Example: lost camera.
o Your life
Different kinds of implicit long-term memory:
- Procedural memory
o Motor skills
- Priming memory
o Activation
