1 [Instructor Name] [Class Section Number]Social Cognition Social cognition is the area of social psychology that examines how people perceive and think about their social world. This module provides an overview of key topics within social cognition and attitudes. It can be taught in a single class period or less (30 – 50 min), with the unit as a whole taking 2-3 class periods. Technical Note: These slides may contain simple click animation so that you can focus students’ attention on a particular question, a selection of text, or an image and not have them be distracted by reading ahead. You can either preview the sequence of animation by going through the slides in slideshow view, visiting the animations tab, or reviewing the slide notes. In the notes you will see a cue - (Click) – that corresponds to each animation. You will also find hyperlinks to outside videos at various places in the slides. These hyperlinks are embedded in text and indicated by color and in the notes section. [Instructor Name] [Class Section Number]

2 Overview Introduction Simplifying our Social World Making PredictionsHot Cognition Activity Automaticity Priming Activity Prejudice Activity Attitudes This slide provides an overview of the material that will be covered during the lecture.

3 Warm-up Activity Schemas How do you act… On a first date?Studying in the library? Around a new roommate? With a new business associate? At a gym? How do you know how to act? This slide gets students thinking critically about social cognition. Warm-up Activity: Schemas (For detailed instructions see IM > Unit Social Psychology > Module 1: Social Cognition > Activities/Demonstrations.) Time: 5 – 10 min Materials: paper and a writing utensil Warm-up Topic: A schema is an internal representation of things we come across in our daily lives—particularly how we behave and expect others to behave in a given circumstance. For example, if you were to go to the beach on a summer day, you wouldn’t expect to see a man in a three piece suit playing volleyball. Directions: Following are some examples of common situations. Have students choose 2 – 3 of them and write a brief response about behaviors that fit their schemas regarding those situations. (Click) How do you act… On a first date? Studying at the library? Around a new roommate? With a new business associate? At a gym? Follow-up Questions (Click): How do you know how to act? Where do our schemas come from? How are they helpful in our lives? What are some examples of situations where your schemas didn’t match up with something that happened? Further Explanation: Social cognition is an area of social psychology that focuses on how people think about others and their social world. Schemas constitute just one aspect of social cognition.

4 Overview Introduction Simplifying our Social World Making PredictionsHot Cognition Activity Automaticity Priming Activity Prejudice Activity Attitudes This slide provides an overview of the material that will be covered during the lecture.

5 Simplifying Our Social WorldSchema Ourselves Others Objects Events This slide describes the ways in which schemas allow us to simplify our social worlds. Explanation: A schema—also called a script—is a mental model of a person, object, situation, or event that we develop from direct encounters as well as from information from secondhand sources. If we didn’t have schemas, we would waste copious amounts of time learning about everything we encountered (e.g., each new library we entered would be a complete mystery). Luckily for us, we can rely on our schemas to tell us that a library (for example) is probably a place to be quiet, where we can find something to read or study. This frees our cognitive abilities up to focus on higher-order tasks or to seek out novel information.

7 Overview Introduction Simplifying our Social World Making PredictionsHot Cognition Activity Automaticity Priming Activity Prejudice Activity Attitudes This slide provides an overview of the material that will be covered during the lecture.

8 Making Predictions First impressions?This slide illustrates how we make predictions in our social world, and examines the consequences of first impressions. Explanation: We can make fairly accurate predictions based on small amounts of data. Generally the more information we have, the more accurate our predictions are. We often make predictions based on first impressions—our initial exposure to something or someone. Given that sometimes first impressions are wrong, our ability to make predictions based on them is problematic. Discussion Questions (Click): If you saw this picture and didn’t know the identity of the person, what would your first impression be? Is he a devious criminal mastermind, an armed robber, jaywalker, drug dealer, or just a spectacular dresser picked up accidentally in a dragnet? Answer: The image is of Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft and currently (2014) the wealthiest person in the world. This mug shot was taken in 1977, for a “traffic violation.”

9 Making Predictions Problems with predictions Planning FallacyThis slide continues the discussion of predictions in the social world—specifically it presents the concept of the planning fallacy. Explanation: One common prediction failure is the planning fallacy—whereby we underestimate the time it will take to complete a task (e.g., writing a paper, finishing a project at work, even building a bridge). This helps explain why so many college students find themselves pulling all-nighters and why construction projects often run over schedule. However, the planning fallacy can also lead to positive outcomes—in getting individuals to pursue ambitious projects that may be worthwhile but would have been avoided had they anticipated the time commitment.

10 Making Predictions Impact Bias Durability BiasAffective Forecasting: Problems with predictions Impact Bias Durability Bias This slide continues the discussion of predictions in the social world—specifically, it presents the concept of affective forecasting. Discussion Question: How would you feel if you failed the next exam? Answers students generate might include: disappointed, frustrated, devastated, etc. Explanation: Affective forecasting allows us to make predictions about how we will feel. Like first impressions, affective forecasting presents its own prediction issues: (Click) Impact Bias Predictions about future feelings are influenced by impact bias, which is the tendency for a person to overestimate the intensity of their future feelings. For example, research has shown that people’s predictions about how they would feel following a positive event (e.g., winning the lotto) or a negative event (e.g., losing a job) tend to be overestimated compared to people who actually experience those events. (Click) Durability Bias Another problem with affective forecasting is the durability bias, which is the tendency for people to overestimate for how long positive and negative events will affect them. Further Explanation: The durability bias is much greater for predictions regarding negative events than positive events, and occurs because people are generally unaware of their own psychological coping mechanisms.

11 Overview Introduction Simplifying our Social World Making PredictionsHot Cognition Activity Automaticity Priming Activity Prejudice Activity Attitudes This slide provides an overview of the material that will be covered during the lecture.

12 Hot Cognition Hot Cognition - Mental processes that are influenced by desires and feelings. This slide presents the roles that hot cognition, goals, and needs play in influencing decisions. Lecture Info: “Hot cognition” refers to the mental processes that are influenced by desires and feelings. One form of hot cognition involves directional goals, or incentives to reach a particular outcome or judgment at the expense of processing information objectively. A similar form of hot cognition involves motivated skepticism, whereby our incentives cause us to be skeptical of evidence that does not support our goal. Discussion Question: Why might it be a bad idea to go grocery shopping on an empty stomach? Answers students generate may include: you’ll spend too much, you won’t stick to your list, you’ll buy high-calorie/low-nutrition items to satisfy a craving, etc. Explanation: The shopping example illustrates the principle of need for closure, another form of hot cognition, in which an individual can be motivated to make a decision without being particularly concerned about the quality of the decision. Need for closure is often induced by time constraints where a decision needs to be made quickly. Further Explanation: There are also situations wherein being overly-motivated to reach a correct or accurate decision can cause us to be too cautious, leading to indecision. Image: Depicted is a politician (left) whose personal agenda may cause him to make unreasonable arguments or otherwise doubt factual evidence, and a shopper (right) whose state of hunger may affect her judgment about what to purchase. n. This is often induced by time constraints or when there is a pressing need (e.g., hunger).

13 Hot Cognition Write about… Mood-Congruent Memory Your best birthdayThe best gift you ever received Your biggest achievement Mood-Congruent Memory This slide presents a brief activity to illustrate the phenomenon of mood-congruent memory. Activity: Mood-Congruent Memory Time: 5 – 10 min Materials: paper and a writing utensil Activity Directions: Ask students to take 1 – 2 minutes to think about their best birthday memory, and write down some memorable details. (Click) The best gift you ever received Now have students take 1 – 2 minutes to think about the best present they ever received, and make a note of it and the situation. (Click) Your biggest achievement Finally, have students write down their biggest achievement in life so far. Ask students to share how they are feeling, or simply ask students to raise their hand if they are feeling happy. (Click) Mood-Congruent Memory Explanation: This illustrates the concept of mood-congruent memory. By retrieving many happy memories, you might “feel” that you have had a wonderful life. Mood-congruent memory can also function as a mood trigger. In other words, the mood that we were in when the memory was recorded can affect our current mood upon memory-retrieval. And too, a person’s present mood can prime mood-congruent memories, making them come to mind more readily. Further Explanation: Mood can also affect the accuracy of memory. In a classic study, researchers found that participants rated themselves as less satisfied with their lives in general if they were asked when the weather happened to be rainy versus sunny. However, this phenomenon occurred only if the participants were not aware of the weather’s possible influence on their mood. In essence, participants were in worse moods on rainy days than sunny days, and incorrectly associated their mood as evidence of their overall life satisfaction.

14 Overview Introduction Simplifying our Social World Making PredictionsHot Cognition Activity Automaticity Priming Activity Prejudice Activity Attitudes This slide provides an overview of the material that will be covered during the lecture.

15 Automaticity Automatic behavior Chameleon effect Priming StereotypesThis slide describes behaviors that are automatic for humans, and the pitfalls of automaticity. Demonstration of concept: Start this portion of the lecture by pretending to offer a pen or other small object to a student by holding it out to him/her without saying anything. The student will likely reach for the object. Ask the student why her or she tried to take the object from you. The student will likely say something along the lines of, “Because you were handing it to me.” Point out that you were merely holding it out and did not say, “Here you go” or “Can you hold this?” Lecture Info: This brings us to automaticity. Many of our behaviors become automatic. A behavior or process is considered automatic if it is unintentional, uncontrollable, occurs outside of conscious awareness, or is cognitively efficient. Over time, even complex behaviors, like driving, become fairly automatic. Processes can become automatic through repetition, practice, or repeated associations. Driving, for example, is a very complex behavior, involving many tasks that become routine and fairly easy over time. In addition to repetition and practice resulting in automatic behaviors, some automatic processes appear to be innate, either due to apparent evolutionary advantage (e.g., fear responses) or pro-social outcomes, such as: (Click) Chameleon effect The chameleon effect is when individuals nonconsciously mimic the postures, mannerisms, facial expressions, and other behaviors of their interaction partners. This automatic mimicry is important to social cognition because it leads to an increased sense of fellowship between two individuals. Example: When a person approaches you and whispers, you will likely whisper back, mimicking his or her behavioral cue. (Click) Priming Priming is when certain concepts or behaviors are made more cognitively accessible via exposure to strongly associated concepts. For example, when presented with the concept of going on a date, one might be primed for associated concepts, such as “dinner” and a “movie.” Aside from causing associated concepts to be more cognitively accessible, priming can also affect behavior. The following video presents an example of primed behavior: Click the “Priming” hyperlink in the slide to view a video demonstrating the concept of priming. (Click) Stereotypes Stereotypes are very closely related to our general beliefs about a group and can lead to judgments without our conscious awareness. Research suggests that social contexts—which constantly bombards us with concepts—are extremely influential in priming us to form particular judgments and in guiding our thoughts and behaviors. Further Explanation: Automaticity provides the advantage of an efficient way for individuals to process and respond to the social world, because automatic thoughts and behaviors do not require the same level of cognitive processing as conscious, deliberate thinking and acting. However, this efficiency comes at a cost, as unconsciously held stereotypes and attitudes can sometimes influence us to behave in unintended ways.

16 Overview Introduction Simplifying our Social World Making PredictionsHot Cognition Activity Automaticity Priming Activity Prejudice Activity Attitudes This slide provides an overview of the material that will be covered during the lecture.

17 Priming Was the word quiet in the list? Was the word bed in the list?Pillow Night Comforter Bed Stars Night-Light Slumber Shut-eye Quiet Moon Dark Alarm clock Tired Drowsy Nap Was the word quiet in the list? Was the word bed in the list? Was the word teddy bear in the list? Was the word dark in the list? Was the word sleep in the list? Activity: Priming This activity illustrates the priming effect by allowing students to view a list of words associated with sleep. Activity Directions: Tell students they will be shown a list of words to memorize within 30 seconds. (The list will disappear automatically in the slide after 30 seconds.) Afterward, students will be shown questions about the list of words to test their memories, but also to demonstrate how priming functions via associations. (Click) List of words (When list disappears, cycle through the following questions by clicking your mouse or pressing the forward arrow key.) Follow-up Questions: (Click) Was the word quiet in the list? (Click) Was the word bed in the list? (Click) Was the word teddy bear in the list? (Click) Was the word dark in the list? (Click) Was the word sleep in the list? Answers: Yes No No. Instructor’s Note: There is a high likelihood that the majority of students will get the last question wrong, because all of the words primed students to think that “sleep” was in the list. Click a final time to make the list of words reappear and provide students with the answers.

18 Overview Introduction Simplifying our Social World Making PredictionsHot Cognition Activity Automaticity Priming Activity Prejudice Activity Attitudes This slide provides an overview of the material that will be covered during the lecture.

19 Are you a prejudiced person?Activity Are you a prejudiced person? Activity: Are you prejudiced? This slide begins the prejudiced activity (for detailed instructions see IM > Unit: Social Psychology > Module 1: Social Cognition > Activities/Demonstrations). Time: 5 minutes Materials: paper and a writing utensil. Instructor’s Note: Advance through the following activity slides by clicking your mouse or pressing the right arrow key.

20 Activity Directions: This exercise puts you (the students) in a hypothetical situation of meeting people for the first time. Pretend we are about to participate in a group project, but instead of you picking your own group members, I will be assigning them to you. Each of the following images represents a new member of your hypothetical team. Please write down your immediate reactions to who you see. Be brief, as we’ll be going through the images quickly. Be honest with your answers. You will not be required to share their responses or turn them in. Imagine….

21 Imagine yourself . . . (Give students a few moments to write down their reactions to each slide before moving on.)

22 Imagine yourself . . . (Give students a few moments to write down their reactions to each slide before moving on.)

23 Imagine yourself . . . (Give students a few moments to write down their reactions to each slide before moving on.)

24 Imagine yourself . . . (Give students a few moments to write down their reactions to each slide before moving on.)

25 Imagine yourself . . . (Give students a few moments to write down their reactions to each slide before moving on.)

26 Are you prejudiced? Activity Conclusion: Ask students to now look over the notes they made and evaluate their judgments/preconceived notions. Discussion Questions: What do your notes reveal about yourself, if anything? Even if your gut reactions don’t reveal negative feelings, rather they reveal feelings that you judge to be neutral, do you see how those feelings are still prejudices based on very little information? Do you see how people might be prejudiced even if they don’t think of themselves as prejudiced? Explanation: This is a bit of a gotcha! activity, since everyone has prejudices and biases based on the information they’ve gathered over the course of their lives. In fact, our prejudices are natural and in many ways help us function efficiently. The important thing to understand is that we shouldn’t always rely on or trust our prejudices, since they are not generated from specific circumstances, but are applied generalizations. To what degree our biases are correct is always at issue and worth examining, as a lot of times people let their prejudices guide them capriciously, causing them to negatively impact their social world.

27 Overview Introduction Simplifying our Social World Making PredictionsHot Cognition Activity Automaticity Priming Activity Prejudice Activity Attitudes This slide provides an overview of the material that will be covered during the lecture.

28 Attitudes Psychological tendency expressed with some degree of favor or disfavor Explicit vs. Implicit Measurements Implicit Association Test Evaluative Priming Task Related to prejudice, this slide presents the concept of attitude, its impact and measurement. Explanation: Our attitudes are a type of bias that predisposes us to responses that are positive or negative. For example, if we don’t like sushi, we are likely to avoid sushi restaurants and avoid thinking about sushi. Lecture Info: There are two primary types of attitudes: (Click) Explicit vs. Implicit Explicit attitudes are overtly expressed or verbalized attitudes. For example, if a friend asks your opinion of a restaurant you don’t particularly enjoy, you will likely express your attitude about it because the stakes are low in terms of your relationship. In other words, you won’t likely be risking your friendship over being honest. However, we are not always inclined to express our attitudes, nor are we always necessarily aware of them. Implicit attitudes are attitudes that are not expressed. For example, if you are on a first date with someone who goes on at length about the wonders of Alfredo sauce and you happen to dislike it, you would probably avoid saying, “I hate Alfredo sauce,” and instead say something along the lines of, “I prefer marinara.” Your attitude about Alfredo sauce in this situation would be an example of an implicit attitude—kept to yourself. (Click) Measurements Sometimes it is important to understand implicit attitudes, especially if they play a role in a psychological disorder. One method of measuring implicit attitudes is to record the time it takes a participant to label or categorize an attitude object (i.e., the person, concept, or object of interest), then infer the participant’s attitude from those reaction times. (Click) Implicit Association Test The implicit association task measures how quickly a participant pairs a concept (e.g., black and white) with an attribute (e.g., good or bad). (Click) Evaluative Priming Task The evaluative priming task measures how quickly a participant labels the valence of the attitude object when it appears immediately after a positive or negative image. Further Explanation: Individuals’ implicit attitudes are sometimes inconsistent with their explicitly asserted attitudes. Hence, implicit measures may reveal unreported biases, and can be particularly useful for examining the pervasiveness and strength of controversial attitudes and stereotypic associations, such as racial biases or associations between race and violence. Being aware of one’s own implicit attitudes is valuable in determining their social implications, especially when individuals do not have the cognitive facility to override such attitudes’ influence.

29 Photo Attribution Slide 1Photo Credit: Ashley Campbell Photography https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Slide 3 Photo Credit: roncaglia https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/ Slide 4 Photo Credit: mxlanderos https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/ Photo Credit: YoNoSoyTu Photo Credit: jayallen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/ > Slide 8 Albuquerque, New Mexico police department Slide 9 Photo Credit: Pragmagraphr Slide 10 Photo Credit: srgpicker Photo Credit: Montage Communications https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/ Slide 12 Photo Credit: ** RCB ** Photo Credit: Jeffrey Beall Slide 13 Photo Credit: A30_Tsitika Photo Credit: minxlj Slide 15 Photo Credit: Susan Sermoneta Slide 21 Photo Credit: Robert Thomson https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/ Slide 22 Photo Credit: Sydney Uni Slide 23 Photo Credit: pedrosimoes7 Slide 24 Photo Credit: Barack Obama Slide 25 Photo Credit: practicalowl Slide 28 Photo Credit: World to Table Photo Credit: eskimo_jo