PSYC UN2640: Intro to Social Cognition

Columbia UNY

Study guide, definitions & notes

Cognition: perceiving, interpreting, remembering and using info [aka our thoughts]

Social: related to or about people

Social Cognition

o Social cognition: how people perceive, interpret, remember and use info about

themselves and others

Influenced by needs, wants, and expectations

Active construction of meaning

The New Look Movement

o Perception is a decision process

o Perceiver decides whether a thing is A and not B

o Process could be conscious or not conscious

o Also influenced by our expectations, needs and wants

Framing Effects

o People make decisions based on how info is presented

Steak is 80% lean

Steak is 20% fat

More likely to want steak when it says 80% lean

Confirmation Bias

o We tend to seek info that confirms our ideas and neglect info that disconfirms an

idea

o We tend to interpret ambiguous info as confirmatory info

Horoscopes, psychic readings