Accuracy Of Social Perception Research Articles

The effect of exposure to fiction on attributional complexity, egocentric bias and accuracy in social perception.

We investigated the effects of long-term exposure to literary and popular fiction on attributional complexity, egocentric bias and accuracy. Results of a pre-registered study showed that exposure to literary fiction is positively associated with scores on the attributional complexity scale. Literary fiction is also associated with accuracy in mentalizing, measured via the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test, and with accuracy in predicting average social attitudes. The predicted negative association between literary fiction and egocentric bias emerged only when education and gender were controlled for–a covariance analysis that was not pre-registered. Exposure to popular fiction is associated solely with attributional complexity, but negatively. We discuss the significance of these findings in the context of the emerging literature regarding the relationship between fiction and social cognition.

The same with age: Evidence for age-related similarities in interpersonal accuracy.

Interpersonal accuracy refers to the ability to make accurate perceptions about others' social and emotional qualities. Despite this broad definition, the measurement of interpersonal accuracy remains narrow, as most studies focus on the accurate perception of others' emotional states. Moreover, previous research has relied primarily upon traditional tasks consisting of posed, prototypic expressions and behaviors as stimuli. These methodological limitations may constrain our understanding of how different interpersonal perception skills change in adulthood. The present study investigated the extent to which various interpersonal perception skills are worse, better, or remain the same with age using both traditional and nontraditional interpersonal accuracy tasks. One hundred fifty-one adults from 3 age groups (young, middle age, and older) completed a battery of interpersonal accuracy tasks that assessed eight different emotion perception skills and six different social perception skills. Analyses revealed age-related differences in accuracy for five interpersonal perception skills; differences were typically observed between younger and older adults on emotion perception accuracy and between younger and middle-age adults on social perception accuracy. In contrast, almost all remaining interpersonal perception skills-both emotional and social-revealed greater evidence for age-related similarities than differences in Bayesian analyses. Additional exploratory analyses indicated that the observed age differences in interpersonal accuracy may be attributable to individual differences in cognitive ability rather than age. Results provide a nuanced picture of how interpersonal perception skills change in adulthood and provide new methodological tools for a more complete and comprehensive assessment of interpersonal accuracy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

An evolutionary approach to accuracy in social perception.

An evolutionary approach highlights that accuracy should be expected over error because selection pressures will have shaped social perception to be functional. Behaviour is extremely complex and so it is unlikely that observers will be perfectly accurate, but an evolutionary view strongly predicts that people will behave as rational observers and in many cases social perception should favour adaptive responses.

Accuracy of Social Perception: An Integration and Review of Meta‐Analyses

AbstractThis review examines the overall accuracy of social perception across several research topics and identifies factors that influence the accuracy of social perception. Findings from 14 meta‐analyses examining topics such as social/personality judgments, health judgments, legal judgments, and academic/vocational judgments were obtained. Social perception accuracy was generally moderate, yielding an average effect size (r) of .32. However, individual meta‐analytic effects varied widely, with some topics yielding small effects (e.g., lie detection, eyewitness identification) and other topics yielding large effects (e.g., educational judgments, health judgments). Several moderators of social perception accuracy were identified, including the nature of the information source, familiarity of the target, type of personality trait, and severity of the outcome being judged. These findings provide a comprehensive summary and novel integration of disparate findings on the accuracy of social perception. Concluding remarks highlight avenues for future research and call for cross‐disciplinary collaborations that would enhance our understanding of social perception.

Précis of Social Perception and Social Reality: Why accuracy dominates bias and self-fulfilling prophecy.

Social Perception and Social Reality (Jussim 2012) reviews the evidence in social psychology and related fields and reaches three conclusions: (1) Although errors, biases, and self-fulfilling prophecies in person perception are real, reliable, and occasionally quite powerful, on average, they tend to be weak, fragile, and fleeting. (2) Perceptions of individuals and groups tend to be at least moderately, and often highly accurate. (3) Conclusions based on the research on error, bias, and self-fulfilling prophecies routinely greatly overstate their power and pervasiveness, and consistently ignore evidence of accuracy, agreement, and rationality in social perception. The weight of the evidence-including some of the most classic research widely interpreted as testifying to the power of biased and self-fulfilling processes-is that interpersonal expectations relate to social reality primarily because they reflect rather than cause social reality. This is the case not only for teacher expectations, but also for social stereotypes, both as perceptions of groups, and as the bases of expectations regarding individuals. The time is long overdue to replace cherry-picked and unjustified stories emphasizing error, bias, the power of self-fulfilling prophecies, and the inaccuracy of stereotypes, with conclusions that more closely correspond to the full range of empirical findings, which includes multiple failed replications of classic expectancy studies, meta-analyses consistently demonstrating small or at best moderate expectancy effects, and high accuracy in social perception.

Self as Functional Fiction

Beginning with James, self-theorists have entertained two complementary visions of the self. The me has denoted people's representations of themselves, or the characteristics that they impute to themselves. The I has referred to the sense of self, the homunculus-like entity that experiences and reacts to the world, constructs mental representations and memories, guides action, and so on. Here we contend that both the Me and the I are cognitive constructions or fictions. People rely on these reality based fictions to know what is expected of them, to understand how they fit into the world, and to guide behavior. We review past and contemporary work through the lens of our self as functional fiction perspective. Finally, we discuss the implications of this perspective for several issues, including the nature of accuracy in social perception and the experience of free will.

On the Reduction of Self-Other Asymmetries: Benefits, Pitfalls, and Other Correlates of Social Projection

Perceptions of similarity between the self and other individuals or groups are among the most replicable findings in social-perception research. As such, they present an apparent limitation to a variety of self-other asymmetries in social judgment. I first review evidence showing that perceptions of similarity are indeed (as hypothesized) mainly a matter of projection rather than introjection. People are far more likely to project their own attributes and attitudes to others than to “introject” the attributes or attitudes of others into the self. Then, building on the well-established finding that projection improves the accuracy of social perception, I show that projection also reduces various self-other biases, such as false uniqueness, pluralistic ignorance, and self-enhancement. I conclude with a discussion of so-called “empathy gaps,” in which projection actually leads to errors.

Misperceiving negotiation counterparts: When situationally determined bargaining behaviors are attributed to personality traits.

Several experiments provided evidence that negotiators make systematic errors in personality-trait attributions for the bargaining behaviors of their counterparts. Although basic negotiation behavior is highly determined by bargaining positions, negotiators primarily interpret their counterpart's behavior in terms of the counterpart's personality, such as his or her level of cooperativeness or agreeableness. Data support a model of 4 processes that contribute to misperceptions: (a) the primacy of situations in determining bargaining behavior, (b) the primacy of personality traits in attributions, (c) the lack of sufficient information about the other's situation to discount personality attributions, and (d) the potentially self-confirming consequences of personality attributions for subsequent interactions. The authors discuss implications for research areas such as social cognition in negotiation, accuracy in social perception, and the dynamics of belief confirmation.

Accurate Social Perception at Zero Acquaintance: The Affordances of a Gibsonian Approach

We review research on accurate social perception at zero acquaintance and apply a Gibsonian ecological approach to redress several shortcomings. We argue that recent use of Brunswik's lens model to determine what physical qualities accurately communicate psychological traits has limited utility because it fails to consider the structured information provided by configural physical qualities that is central to Gibson's (1979) theory. We elaborate a developmental model of relationships between physical and psychological qualities that highlights research needed to identify configural physical qualities that may inform accurate perceptions. This model and tenets of the ecological theory yield several hypotheses regarding such qualities. Finally, we advocate the value of studying perceived affordances (opportunities for acting, interacting, or being acted upon) because this will focus attention on the neglected issue of contextual influences on social perception accuracy, and because affordances may be perceived more accurately than global personality traits.

Dyad rapport and the accuracy of its judgment across situations: A lens model analysis.

Ecology of rapport and its perception within 2 contexts (i.e., adversarial and cooperative) were examined from a Brunswikian perspective. A lens model analysis determined (a) which observable cues were indicative of rapport, (b) whether observer judgments covaried with such cues, and (c) whether observers could assess accurately the rapport between opposite-sex interactants. Whereas the manifestation of rapport was context specific, judgment policies used by observers were not. Rapport judgments were driven by target expressivity regardless of social context. Results suggest an expressivity halo in behavioral stream judgments that is analogous to the physical attractiveness halo found in judgments made from still photos. Finally, social perception accuracy was higher in the cooperative context where rapport was more strongly associated with target expressivity.

A comparison of politics and personality in china and in the U.S.: Testing a “kernel of truth” hypothesis

Based on previous research on social perceptions and cross‐cultural judgments, two assumptions are derived: (1) the nationals of both the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the United States of America (USA) agree that the PRC would be more politically restricted than the USA and that the Chinese would be perceived as more obedient and less independent than Americans; and (2) political dimensions (e.g., restrictedness) are correlated to obedient and dependent personality. A total of 364 PRC and USA students participated in a cross‐cultural study. The results strongly confirmed the two assumptions. The “kernel of truth” hypothesis or social perception accuracy was further supported cross‐culturally. The limitations and implications of this study have been also discussed.

Becoming an In-Group: Reexamining the Impact of Familiarity on Perceptions of Group Homogeneity

This paper reports a field study investigating the relationship between familiarity and perceived in-group homogeneity. Previous work suggests that increasing familiarity within groups should decrease perceived homogeneity; this has been viewed as one potential explanation for the out-group homogeneity effect. In contrast, we hypothesized that increasing members' familiarity with each other as group members would increase perceived homogeneity. This hypothesis was tested in a field study of three interacting groups (N = 31) taking part in a 26-day Outward Bound course. As predicted, over time the groups were regarded as more homogeneous, and the members of each were more likely to be described in terms of stereotypic in-group norms. Possible alternative interpretations of the findings, and their implications for the relationship between stereotyping and accuracy in social perception, are discussed.

The Juncture of Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Knowledge: Self-Certainty and Interpersonal Congruence

It is proposed that when targets are especially certain of their self-views, their interaction partners will be especially likely to develop impressions of them that are consistent with these self-views. Two studies supported this prediction by demonstrating that, for self-views about which targets were highly certain, targets received self-consistent interpersonal appraisals. In contrast, in areas in which the same targets were relatively uncertain of their self-views, the appraisals they received were only weakly related to their self-views. This difference held for judgments of both valenced and nonvalenced traits and for judgments made by both poorly and well-acquainted raters. Potential mediators of interpersonal congruence are discussed, along with the implications of these findings for the accuracy of social perception and for the role of belief investment in self-concept maintenance.

Accuracy in social perception: contributions of facial and vocal information.

Accuracy in social perception: contributions of facial and vocal information.

Accuracy in social perception: contributions of facial and vocal information.

The validity of social perceptions was assessed on the basis of facial or vocal information. Specifically, impressions of stimulus persons' power and warmth were obtained on the basis of either a facial photograph or a voice recording. These were compared with the stimulus persons' self-reports along the same dimensions. Face- and voice-based impressions did predict self-view. The specific facial and vocal characteristics that mediated these links were also considered. Potential mechanisms that may yield the match between self-perceptions and impressions based on nonverbal cues are discussed.

Americans' Perceptions of Presidential Candidates: A Test of the Projection Hypothesis

According to psychological theories of cognitive consistency, voters are likely to overestimate the degree to which political candidates they like agree with their own policy preferences, and to overestimate the degree to which political candidates they oppose disagree with their own policy preferences. This paper reviews and critiques the literature evaluating these hypotheses, referred to as positive and negative projection. Then it reports results of a new empirical investigation that applied improved analytic methods to survey data on three issues collected during the 1984 American presidential election. Analyses using traditional methods replicated previous findings of both positive and negative projection, but improved analyses indicated that neither positive nor negative projection occurred. The vast majority of voters were accurate in their candidate perceptions, especially political experts and citizens to whom an issue was personally important. These findings provide further evidence of the generally high accuracy of social perception, particularly among individuals who are especially attentive to a stimulus.

The psychology of being "right": The problem of accuracy in social perception and cognition.

Several difficulties are noted with general questions psychologists have been asking about human accuracy, such as whether people are typically accurate or inaccurate, what the boundary conditions for accuracy are, or the general process whereby accuracy may be improved. Instead, a situationally specific approach to accuracy is adopted in which a central role is assigned to the judgmental process. Accordingly, two general paradigms are distinguished addressing accuracy from realistic and phenomenal perspectives. The realist paradigm focuses on subjects' judgments and the degree to which these correspond to an external criterion. The phenomenal paradigm focuses on subjects' internal criterion as well as their perceptions of the target judgment and the judgment-to-criterion correspondence. Research possibilities in each paradigm are noted. It is suggested that attention to judgmental factors may extend accuracy work in previously unexplored directions.

An Investigation of Some Cognitive Factors Involved in Person-Perception during Selection Interviews

The study examined some of the cognitive components in accuracy of social perception during the selection interview. 75 undergraduates completed several cognitive measures and were then required to interview a candidate for the job of accountant and make ratings of the candidate on several dimensions. Analysis showed pervasive sex differences in accuracy, and many effects specific either to same sex or to opposite sex dyads. Accuracy of female interviewers tended to be associated with greater cognitive complexity and integration of the interviewers. Accuracy of male interviewers was more dependent on the sex of the candidate; when interviewing a male candidate, accuracy was negatively associated with cognitive integration and when interviewing a female candidate, accuracy was negatively associated with the logical memory and visual recall subscales of the Wechsler Memory Scale.

The psychology of being "right": The problem of accuracy in social perception and cognition.

The psychology of being "right": The problem of accuracy in social perception and cognition.

Interpersonal Competence Instrument: Development and Preliminary Findings

A prototype measure of interpersonal competence, designed to measure effectiveness in dealing with other people, was developed-the Interpersonal Competence Instrument (ICI). The ICI is based on the videotape presentation of scenes of subordinates talking to a superior in a business setting. The examinee takes the role of the superior, his or her tape-recorded replies are assessed for effectiveness and originality, and his or her written judgments are evaluated for accuracy. In a pilot study (1) the three scores for the ICI were reliable, in terms of both interrater agreement and internal consistency; (2) the effectiveness and originality scores for replies were only moderately correlated with the accuracy scores for judgments, but the two replies scores were highly intercorrelated ; and (3) the correlations of the scores with background measures and other instruments, including measures of verbal ability and accuracy in social perception, generally supported the ICI's construct validity.