Nonverbal behaviour
important source of information
ex: facial expression, tone of voice, gestures, body position, use of touch, eye gaze
Uses of nonverbal behaviour
express emotion, convey attitude, communicate personality traits, facilitate verbal communication, repeat or complement spoken message, substitute for spoken messages
Darwin’s universality hypothesis
- primary emotions conveyed by the face are encoded and decoded across all humans
- Species specific, not culture specific
STUDY:
Read story to Fore tribe and ask to identify emotions through facial expressions; results same as in west
(6 basic emotions)
Research findings on facial expressions
- Happiness is most easily recognizable
- Quicker to decode anger in males and happiness in females
- We’re better at matching than naming
- more context, better accuracy (STUDY: took same neutral photo and preceded it with either happy or sad photo; people said opposite of what they just saw; Ex: if first saw happy then saw neutral, they said neutral looks sad; because context is changed - compared to the happy one she looks sad…compared to the sad one she looks happy
Accuracy of identifying facial expressions
- Accuracy can be decreased because:
1) affect blends
2) display rules (culturally based; ex men don’t cry; women should always be happy)
3) gender differences
Cultural emblems
non-verbal gestures that have a well-established meaning in a given culture
Implicit personality theories
- type of schema people use to group various kinds of personality traits together (Ex: many people think if someone is kind then they’re also generous)
- vary across cultures and are passed from generation to generation
- toss up between accuracy and economy: it’s quick/easy but less accurate (Ex: beauty myth – we tend to think ppl have a bunch of positive qualities when they’re attractive and opposite)
- EX: western have an artistic IPT and Chinese culture have a Shi Gu IPT and when given texts in either language to bilingual Chinese/English they will give the IPT that is in the culture of the language
Causal attributions
- Explanations for own behaviour or behaviour of others
- Internal (personal factors) or external (situational factors)
- Tend to explain personal behaviour situational, but others personal
Our relationship with others because of causal attributions
- Likely more forgiving and understanding of others when we make external attributions
o Study: when happy in marriage; partners more willing to attribute good behaviour to internal causes, and bad behaviour to external causes; when unhappy; partners more willing to attribute good behaviour to external causes, and bad behaviour to internal causes
Covariational model
- Compare person’s behaviour across situations and individuals to see how much it varies from the current behaviour
o Consensus: extent to which others behave in same manner (Ex: see boss yelling at co-worker; is it just your boss that gets mad at this person? Or do others also?)
o Distinctiveness: extent to which the behaviour is unique to this person/situation (ex: does the boss yell at everyone? Or just this one person?)
o Consistency: extent to which behaviour is repeated (ex: is the boss yelling at the co-worker in this situation only? Or have you seen them yell at different situation before) - Internal: low Consensus and distinct, high consistency
- External: all high.
- We rely heavier on consistency and distinctiveness
- Information on all three is NOT necessary; we fill in the blanks
Fundamental attribution error
- overemphasis on personality and underestimation of social factors
- corresponding bias: tend to infer that people’s behaviour matches their personality
ex: Fidel Castro study – ppl were forced to write either a pro castro or anti castro essay – participants read the essays and told that the people writing the essays didn’t have a choice for pro or against castro; then asked “what do you think the author’s actual stance is?” because of correspondence bias people believed that if someone wrote pro-castro they really were pro-castro and vice versa
- EX: Study: greeted by good looking lab assistant and given note written by lab assistant; and told that the lab assistant was told to write something nice; when asked if they thought the lab assistant was nice most said yes even though they knew he/she was forced to write something nice
Perceptual salience
- information that is the focus of people’s attention; people tend to overestimate the causal role of perceptually salient information
ex: study where observers sit around two discussing people in a way where they can only see one or both people; people said the one they were facing was more active and dominated the debate; those who could see both said they were equally dominating
Actor/Observer Difference
- As actors we focus on situations around us
- As observers we focus on actors
- Same event = internal attribution for observer, and external attribution for actor
Cultural differences in attributions
- Western: individual freedom and autonomy – dispositional explanations favoured
- Collectivist (often Eastern): group membership, interdependence, and conformity to group norms – situational explanations favoured
- Differences in fundamental attribution error?
Attributions and self-esteeem
Successes attributed internally
Failures attributed externally
This causes issues:
- Own actions are rational and defensible
- Other’s actions are unreasonable and unjustified
- Overestimate own contribution or involvement when working with others
Defensive attributions
- explanations for behaviour that avoid feelings of vulnerability and mortality
- Examples: Unrealistic optimism
- Good things are more likely to happen to us than to our peers and bad things less likely to happen to us rather than other
• Ex: breast cancer; AIDS; 6-8 / 10 women are likely to get breast cancer; aware of this but tend to think we’re not in that category
• Winning lottery, motorcyclists, relationship outcomes
Belief in a just world
- belief that bad things happen to bad people and good things to good people (form of defensive attribution)
- can cause us to blame the victim
First impressions
- notoriously wrong
- why? point of focus is us, selective attention, values over competence, negativity effect
