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CHAPTER 5—Social Cognition
MULTIPLE CHOICE
- Social cognition refers to a movement within social psychology that focuses on ____.
| a. | how individuals think about social relationships and about other people |
| b. | group thinking and group decision-making |
| c. | cross-cultural differences in how people think and problem-solve |
| d. | conformity, obedience, and crowd mentalities |
ANS: A DIF: Easy REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Conceptual
- The text introduces revolutionary research in social cognition by Mercier and Sperber (2011), who studied ____.
| a. | the tendency for people to argue, in the sense of trying to influence others to their point of view |
| b. | the tendency for people to comply with authority figures even when they know that what they are doing is wrong |
| c. | the tendency for people to feel anonymous when they participate in large, tight-knit groups |
| d. | male-female differences in the content of same-gender relationships |
ANS: A DIF: Easy REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Applied
NOTE: New
- The false consensus effect, the illusory correlation, and the first instinct fallacy are all examples of topics in ____ research.
| a. | attribution theory |
| b. | social cognition |
| c. | motivation |
| d. | prejudice |
ANS: B DIF: Easy REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases TYPE: Factual
- The field of social cognition first emerged in the ____ as ____.
| a. | 1920s; a discipline that predated and helped to spur the development of cognitive psychology |
| b. | 1920s; a discipline that predated and helped to spur the development of, social psychology |
| c. | 1970s; a movement within social psychology |
| d. | 1970s; a discipline that is replacing social psychology |
ANS: C DIF: Easy REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Factual
- Before the rise of social cognition, the field of social psychology was dominated by ____.
| a. | the doctrine of behaviorism |
| b. | the doctrine of humanism |
| c. | Freudian theory |
| d. | neo-Freudian-theory |
ANS: A DIF: Moderate REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Factual
- Research indicates that the topic people think about most is ____.
| a. | other people |
| b. | sex |
| c. | work |
| d. | money |
ANS: A DIF: Easy REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Factual
- Current theory and research suggests that the power and size of the human cerebral cortex may have evolved largely in order to ____.
| a. | dominate other species |
| b. | influence other people |
| c. | obtain food |
| d. | fend off predators |
ANS: B DIF: Easy REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Factual
NOTE: New
- The term “cognitive miser” was coined to refer to ____.
| a. | people’s general reluctance to do much extra thinking |
| b. | people’s general reluctance to share their ideas with other people |
| c. | people’s tendency to give themselves the benefit of the doubt in ambiguous situations |
| d. | people’s tendency to blame negative experiences on other people (or on other external circ*mstances) |
ANS: A DIF: Easy REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Conceptual
- People generally prefer to conserve effort by relying on automatic modes of thought (rather than conscious modes of thought) whenever they can. That is, people tend to ____.
| a. | rely on base rates |
| b. | avoid using scripts |
| c. | make upward comparisons rather than downward comparisons |
| d. | be cognitive misers |
ANS: D DIF: Moderate REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Conceptual
- Researchers have found that people tend to ____ as little as possible.
| a. | make use of schemas |
| b. | make use of knowledge structures |
| c. | engage in conscious processing |
| d. | engage in automatic, nonconscious processing |
ANS: C DIF: Moderate REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Conceptual
- The opposite of a cognitive miser would be someone who ____.
| a. | does not care what other people think |
| b. | tends to share his or her ideas freely with others |
| c. | carefully and rationally thinks about each and every decision |
| d. | rarely compares himself or herself with peers |
ANS: C DIF: Moderate REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Conceptual
- A well-known test used in psychological research plays on the distinction between automatic and controlled processing. The test requires people to look at the written names of several colors (“green,” “red,” “blue,” etc.)—names which are in all cases written in “non-matching” colors of ink (e.g., the word “green” might be written in red ink, while the word “red” might be written in yellow ink)—and to identify, as quickly as possible, the color in which each word is written. This test is known as the ____.
| a. | Stroop test |
| b. | Myers-Briggs test |
| c. | Rorschach Inkblots |
| d. | Implicit Association Test (IAT) |
ANS: A DIF: Easy REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Factual
- The Stroop test is a psychological test that highlights the ____.
| a. | distinction between automatic thinking and deliberate thinking |
| b. | tendency for ironic processes to occur in the wake of attempted thought suppressions |
| c. | fact that thinking is guided by three different types of goals |
| d. | tendency for people to make the fundamental attribution error |
ANS: A DIF: Moderate REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Conceptual
- Three-year-old children tend to think that the Stroop test is really easy, as compared to six-year-old children, 12-year-old children, or adults. This is because, in general, three-year-olds ____.
| a. | do not have fully formed schemas |
| b. | do not know how to read |
| c. | have not made lasting associations between colors and particular objects |
| d. | are less likely to rely on automatic processing |
ANS: B DIF: Difficult REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Conceptual
- The Stroop test can be thought of as a demonstration of ____.
| a. | the duplex mind |
| b. | the tendency for nature to say “go” and culture to say “stop” |
| c. | the tendency for people to “put people first” |
| d. | the idea that the human brain evolved to effectively relate to other people |
ANS: A DIF: Difficult REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Conceptual
NOTE: New
- The unconscious mind would struggle most with the meaning of which of the following?
| a. | dead enemy |
| b. | happy children |
| c. | sad tears |
| d. | loving home |
ANS: A DIF: Difficult REF: What Is Social Cognition TYPE: Applied
NOTE: New
- Compared to deliberate thinking, automatic thinking involves a greater level of ____.
| a. | effort |
| b. | efficiency |
| c. | control |
| d. | intention |
ANS: B DIF: Moderate REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Factual
- Schemas and scripts are both examples of ____.
| a. | intentions |
| b. | knowledge structures |
| c. | heuristics |
| d. | counterfactuals |
ANS: B DIF: Moderate REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Factual
- A knowledge structure that contains information about a concept and its relationship to other concepts (e.g., a structure that contains information about judges and how judges relate to lawyers, criminals, the general public, and so forth) is known as a ____.
| a. | script |
| b. | schema |
| c. | heuristic |
| d. | map |
ANS: B DIF: Easy REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Conceptual
- Suppose that you have a certain idea about what a tropical island should be like: It should be a tourist destination, have palm trees, enjoy a warm climate, and contain plenty of bars that serve co*cktails with paper umbrellas. Your general understanding of what a tropical island is all about is most clearly an example of ____.
| a. | a script |
| b. | a schema |
| c. | a heuristic |
| d. | counterfactual thinking |
ANS: B DIF: Moderate REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Applied
- Which of the following is the best example of a schema?
| a. | You tend to assume that just because someone is Asian, that person must be good at mathematics. |
| b. | You believe that it is bad luck to step on the cracks when walking on the sidewalk. |
| c. | You know how to behave when you go out to dinner with your friend and her parents. |
| d. | You have a general sense of what cats are like, how they behave, and how they are different from other animals. |
ANS: D DIF: Moderate REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Applied
- If you have a schema about graduate students, then ____.
| a. | you probably tend to think about graduate students much more than the average person |
| b. | you have a general sense of what they are like, what they do, and how they are different from other people |
| c. | you probably have a tendency to separate the world into “graduate students” and “non-graduate students” |
| d. | you are very likely to become a graduate student in the future |
ANS: B DIF: Easy REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Applied
- Polina is three years old. She is just beginning to understand concepts such as “dog,” “cat,” “chair,” and “sofa,” and to understand how these concepts differ from one another. In other words, she is just beginning ____.
| a. | to employ framing |
| b. | to use heuristics |
| c. | to develop schemas |
| d. | to develop scripts |
ANS: C DIF: Moderate REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Applied
- People who have severe brain damage sometimes approach objects in the world as if they are seeing them for the first time. That is, instead of seeing a “chair,” for example, these people see “a wooden object with four legs.” Similarly, instead of seeing two dogs, such people might see “a small tan animal with fur and a large brown object with its tongue hanging out.” One might conclude that people with this kind of brain damage ____.
| a. | do not have schemas. |
| b. | have inaccurate schemas. |
| c. | do not use heuristics. |
| d. | have inaccurate heuristics. |
ANS: A DIF: Moderate REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Applied
- When you go to a restaurant, you know that there is a certain sequence of things that you need to do: (a) wait to be seated, (b) order, (c) eat, and then (d) pay. In other words, you have a _____ for what needs to be done at restaurants.
| a. | frame |
| b. | heuristic |
| c. | schema |
| d. | script |
ANS: D DIF: Moderate REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Applied
- What will people most likely do when they encounter information that is at odds with an existing schema?
| a. | They will simply rely on the information (and ignore their schema). |
| b. | They will automatically incorporate that information into their existing schema. |
| c. | They will tend to engage in more deliberate thought about the topic at hand. |
| d. | They will automatically create a new schema altogether. |
ANS: C DIF: Difficult REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Conceptual
- Within the field of social cognition, scripts can be thought of as ____.
| a. | more elaborate, or complex, versions of schemas |
| b. | schemas about events |
| c. | preliminary versions of schemas |
| d. | finalized versions of schemas |
ANS: B DIF: Moderate REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Conceptual
- In theory, it would be possible for a child to have a script of ____.
| a. | one of his or her parents |
| b. | himself or herself |
| c. | what is involved in going to a restaurant |
| d. | the advantages of cell phones over land lines |
ANS: C DIF: Moderate REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Conceptual
- Within the field of social cognition, the term “priming” refers to ____.
| a. | modeling a behavior for someone else |
| b. | activating a concept in the mind |
| c. | imitating a behavior |
| d. | engaging in a behavior without conscious awareness |
ANS: B DIF: Moderate REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Factual
- Social psychologists use the term ____ to refer to a process by which a given stimulus activates mental pathways, thereby enhancing their accessibility.
| a. | priming |
| b. | framing |
| c. | schematizing |
| d. | attribution |
ANS: A DIF: Easy REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Factual
- When most people think of the concept “sleeping,” they also tend to think about concepts like “dreaming,” “being tired,” and “yawning.” That is, when they think about “sleeping,” related concepts are ____.
| a. | framed |
| b. | scripted |
| c. | counterregulated |
| d. | primed |
ANS: D DIF: Easy REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Applied
- Whenever you smell coconut oil, you tend to think about your recent vacation in the Bahamas (where you and your friends used lots of coconut suntan oil). This also makes you think about all of the fun and crazy things you did on your trip. That is, the smell of coconut oil ____ memories of your trip.
| a. | frames |
| b. | primes |
| c. | contaminates |
| d. | simulates |
ANS: B DIF: Easy REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Applied
- When William James spoke of “wakening the associations,” he was referring to ____.
| a. | knowledge structures |
| b. | priming |
| c. | framing |
| d. | simulation |
ANS: B DIF: Difficult REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Factual
- People are faster to classify the target word “flower” when it is preceded by the word “plant” than when it is preceded by the word “elephant.” This effect is due to ____.
| a. | attribution |
| b. | priming |
| c. | simulation |
| d. | counterregulation |
ANS: B DIF: Moderate REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Conceptual
- A prime is a ____.
| a. | stimulus that activates further processing of the same or related stimuli |
| b. | way in which an argument is positioned |
| c. | causal explanation for your own behavior |
| d. | causal explanation for someone else’s behavior |
ANS: A DIF: Easy REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Factual
- You have just spent the afternoon volunteering in the post-anesthesia recovery unit at the local hospital, helping patients with a variety of ailments. Even though you are not actually ill, as you walk home from the hospital you do so with a slight limp, and begin coughing lightly. What phenomenon is most likely to be responsible for this?
| a. | attribution |
| b. | priming |
| c. | framing |
| d. | scripting |
ANS: B DIF: Moderate REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Applied
- As discussed in the textbook, research participants who read a story about a character named “Donald”—a character who engages in skydiving, demolition derby driving, and other similar activities—tend to think that Donald is especially reckless when they have been ____.
| a. | primed with words like “dangerous” and “risky” |
| b. | primed with words like “fun” and “adventurous” |
| c. | asked to avoid the fundamental attribution error |
| d. | asked to avoid the ultimate attribution error |
ANS: A DIF: Easy REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Applied
- In Bargh, Chen, and Burrows (1996), participants who were in the “rude” priming condition were more likely to ____.
| a. | wait patiently for the experimenter to speak to them |
| b. | interrupt the experimenter to get instructions |
| c. | view the experimenter as conceited and aloof |
| d. | view the experimenter as modest and warm |
ANS: B DIF: Difficult REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Factual
- Yogurt that is “low fat” can be described as “95% fat free” or as “5% fatty.” That is, it can be ____ in different ways.
| a. | framed |
| b. | primed |
| c. | scripted |
| d. | simulated |
ANS: A DIF: Easy REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Applied
- A gain-framed appeal focuses on framing something in ____ terms.
| a. | negative |
| b. | positive |
| c. | neutral |
| d. | truthful |
ANS: B DIF: Easy REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Factual
- Which of the following is the best example of a gain-framed appeal?
| a. | Working out daily will help you maintain good health. |
| b. | Failure to work out daily will risk health consequences. |
| c. | People who don’t work out enough tend to struggle with their weight. |
| d. | If you don’t work out, you might lose muscle mass. |
ANS: A DIF: Easy REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Applied
- A loss-framed appeal focuses on the ____.
| a. | upside of a behavior’s consequences |
| b. | downside of a behavior’s consequences |
| c. | most accurate portrayal of a behavior’s consequences |
| d. | priming of thoughts |
ANS: B DIF: Easy REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Factual
- Dr. Canne wants to encourage Kirk to lose weight. He tells Kirk, “If you don’t start working out soon, you are going to die young and leave your children without a father!” Dr. Canne is using a(n) ____.
| a. | prime |
| b. | script |
| c. | gain-framed appeal |
| d. | loss-framed appeal |
ANS: D DIF: Moderate REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Applied
- When people want to suppress a thought, the automatic mind works to ____.
| a. | keep a lookout for anything that might remind them of the unwanted thought |
| b. | redirect attention away from the unpleasant thought |
| c. | “numb” the mind so that people do not think any thoughts |
| d. | “cover up” the unwanted thought with other, competing thoughts |
ANS: A DIF: Difficult REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Factual
- When people want to suppress a thought, the deliberate mind works to ____.
| a. | keep a lookout for anything that might remind them of the unwanted thought |
| b. | redirect attention away from the unpleasant thought |
| c. | “numb” the mind so that people do not think any thoughts |
| d. | “cover up” the unwanted thought with other, competing thoughts |
ANS: B DIF: Difficult REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Factual
- As a child, the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy was once challenged by his older brother to remain standing in a corner until he could stop thinking of a white bear. That is, he was challenged to engage in ____.
| a. | ironic processing |
| b. | thought suppression |
| c. | the confirmation bias |
| d. | magical thinking |
ANS: B DIF: Moderate REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Applied
- The paradoxical effects of thought suppression have been linked to psychological disorders, especially ____.
| a. | schizophrenia and schizoaffective personality disorder |
| b. | phobias, panic disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder |
| c. | bipolar disorder and hypomania |
| d. | histrionic personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder, and borderline personality disorder |
ANS: B DIF: Difficult REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Factual
- Hilda is on a low carbohydrate diet, which restricts her from eating foods such as white bread, potato chips, and pretzels. The more Hilda thinks about the fact that she cannot eat such foods, however, the more desperately she begins to crave them. Social psychologists refer to this kind of pattern as a(n) ____.
| a. | oxymoronic attribution |
| b. | ironic process |
| c. | false activation |
| d. | mental paradox |
ANS: B DIF: Moderate REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Applied
- Yesi and her boyfriend have just broken up, and Yesi has been deeply upset about the breakup for several days. She is trying to take her mind off of her ex-boyfriend, though, and to focus her attention on other things instead. However, if this attempted thought suppression results in ironic processing, then Yesi will most likely end up ____.
| a. | wanting to get back together with her boyfriend |
| b. | being more angry with her boyfriend than she was before |
| c. | thinking about her boyfriend even more than she was before |
| d. | dating someone she doesn’t really like that much “on the rebound” |
ANS: C DIF: Moderate REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Applied
- Which of the following is the best example of ironic processing interfering with attempted thought suppression?
| a. | You are trying not to think about the fact that you made a fool of yourself at a party last weekend, but the thought pops into your head every few hours. |
| b. | You are trying not to think about the fact that you made a fool of yourself at a party last weekend, but the more you try not to think about it, the more the thought keeps popping into your head. |
| c. | The more you think about the fact that you made a fool of yourself at a party last weekend, the more mortifying and embarrassing the event seems. |
| d. | The more you think about the fact that you made a fool of yourself at a party last weekend, the less embarrassing it seems. |
ANS: B DIF: Difficult REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Applied
- Counterregulation is best described as the ____ effect.
| a. | “what the heck” |
| b. | “I am monitoring myself better than you are” |
| c. | “monkey says monkey do” |
| d. | “I knew it all along” |
ANS: A DIF: Moderate REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Conceptual
- Suppose that Dorothy and Tim are out to lunch together, and both are on restricted-calorie diets. Which of the following would be the best example of counterregulation?
| a. | Dorothy notices that Tim has ordered a cheeseburger (and broken his diet), and therefore she feels that she has “permission” to break her diet too. She then goes ahead and orders a cheeseburger for herself. |
| b. | After ordering a cheeseburger for lunch, Dorothy thinks to herself, “well, my diet is already blown for the day; I might as well order a dessert too.” She then goes ahead and orders a deluxe chocolate milkshake. |
| c. | Dorothy orders a cheeseburger and milkshake for lunch, and thus blows her diet for the day. When Tim starts to order a similar lunch, though, Dorothy chastises him and tells him that he should try to eat a less fattening lunch. |
| d. | After ordering a cheeseburger and milkshake for lunch, and thus blowing her diet for the day, Dorothy feels remorseful and decides to go to the gym and skip dinner that night. |
ANS: B DIF: Difficult REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Applied
- Kelly runs by the bank to check her balance and get cash before visiting her grandparents. Normally when she visits her grandparents, she walks with them slowly, at their pace. Today, though, after her earlier visit to the bank, she finds herself walking faster than them. This is because the visit to the bank probably produced a(n) ____.
| a. | dissimilarity mindset |
| b. | availability bias |
| c. | anchoring bias |
| d. | similarity mindset |
ANS: A DIF: Moderate REF: What is Social Cognition? TYPE: Applied
NOTE: New
- Priming people with money can ____.
| a. | make people focus on similarities instead of differences |
| b. | make people mimic the people with which they interact |
| c. | make people focus on differences instead of similarities |
| d. | makes people conform to stereotypes |
ANS: C DIF: Moderate REF: What is Social Cognition? TYPE: Factual
NOTE: New
- An attribution is a(n) ____.
| a. | knowledge structure |
| b. | causal explanation |
| c. | type of heuristic |
| d. | expectation |
ANS: B DIF: Easy
REF: Attributions and Explanations: Why Did that Happen? TYPE: Factual
- Attribution theory is most concerned with how people ____.
| a. | make decisions among a set of choices |
| b. | form scripts and schemas |
| c. | explain the events in their lives |
| d. | make predictions about future events |
ANS: C DIF: Moderate
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- Research on ____ is concerned with the causal explanations people give for their own and others’ behaviors, and for events in general.
| a. | heuristics |
| b. | schemas |
| c. | attribution |
| d. | self-regulation |
ANS: C DIF: Easy
REF: Attributions and Explanations: Why Did that Happen? TYPE: Factual
- Fritz Heider analyzed what he called “common sense psychology”—the ways in which people explain everyday events. He suggested that most people explain everyday events in terms of either ____ factors.
| a. | stable or unstable |
| b. | internal or external |
| c. | global or specific |
| d. | convergent or divergent |
ANS: B DIF: Difficult
REF: Attributions and Explanations: Why Did that Happen? TYPE: Factual
- Confucius just fell down a flight of stairs. One of his disciples makes an internal attribution for the fall. What might this disciple be thinking?
| a. | “Someone probably pushed Confucius!” |
| b. | “The stairs were probably very slippery!” |
| c. | “Confucius is so clumsy!” |
| d. | “I would have fallen if I were in his position!” |
ANS: C DIF: Easy
REF: Attributions and Explanations: Why Did that Happen? TYPE: Applied
- Why did the clown park his car in a red zone, where he might get a ticket? If you assume it is because his car happened to break down right then and there, in the red zone, then you have made a(n) ____.
| a. | internal attribution |
| b. | external attribution |
| c. | common sense assumption |
| d. | correspondence bias assumption |
ANS: B DIF: Easy
REF: Attributions and Explanations: Why Did that Happen? TYPE: Applied
- Jorge just received an A+ on a physics exam. If you make an external attribution for this event, what might you thinking?
| a. | “So what! The exam was really easy. I would have gotten an A+ too.” |
| b. | “Well, I’m still not that impressed. All Jorge ever does is study. If I studied all the time I would get grades like that too.” |
| c. | “Jorge must have some sort of natural gift for physics; he is really smart!” |
| d. | “Jorge is probably really good at physics, but I bet he does really badly in all of his other classes.” |
ANS: A DIF: Moderate
REF: Attributions and Explanations: Why Did that Happen? TYPE: Applied
- Mr. X thinks that Barack Obama became president of the U.S. because—even though he is not that brilliant or talented—he made a real effort to campaign well in 2008. But Mr. Y thinks that Barack Obama only became president because he was “in the right place at the right time,” and had good luck. Social psychologists would say that Mr. X is making ____ attributions for Obama’s success, while Mr. Y is making ____ attributions.
| a. | internal and unstable; external and unstable |
| b. | external and unstable; external and stable |
| c. | internal and stable; external and unstable |
| d. | external and unstable; external and stable |
ANS: A DIF: Difficult
REF: Attributions and Explanations: Why Did that Happen? TYPE: Applied
- Your friend Roger has recently been promoted at work to senior vice president. If you made an internal, unstable attribution for Roger’s promotion, what might you be thinking?
| a. | “Roger probably worked really hard to get that promotion!” |
| b. | “Roger is just brilliant; everything he touches turns to gold!” |
| c. | “Well, there is nothing that special about Roger; anyone with his background could have gotten that position.” |
| d. | “There is nothing that special about Roger at all; I think the promotion was a fluke; he seems to have gotten plain lucky!” |
ANS: A DIF: Moderate
REF: Attributions and Explanations: Why Did that Happen? TYPE: Applied
- One of your professors has apparently just lost his job. Suppose that the campus newspaper publishes an article about it, invoking external, stable attributions. Which of the following might be the headline of the article?
| a. | “Unlucky Series of Misunderstandings Leads to Professor Being Fired” |
| b. | “Another Great Professor Let Go as a Result of Budget Cuts” |
| c. | “Inappropriate Conduct Causes Professor’s Demise” |
| d. | “When Professors Get Lazy, Consequences Can Be Extreme” |
ANS: B DIF: Moderate
REF: Attributions and Explanations: Why Did that Happen? TYPE: Applied
- When people make external, unstable attributions for others’ successes or failures, these attributions tend to concern questions of ____.
| a. | ability or talent |
| b. | effort or hard work |
| c. | ease or difficulty of the task |
| d. | luck or chance |
ANS: D DIF: Moderate
REF: Attributions and Explanations: Why Did that Happen? TYPE: Factual
- When people make internal, stable attributions for others’ successes or failures, these attributions tend to concern questions of ____.
| a. | ability or talent |
| b. | effort or hard work |
| c. | ease or difficulty of the task |
| d. | luck or chance |
ANS: A DIF: Moderate
REF: Attributions and Explanations: Why Did that Happen? TYPE: Factual
- Raquel buys stock in two different companies. She makes $2000 from one of these investments, but loses $3000 on the other one. If you ask Raquel about her stocks, she makes self-serving attributions, saying, “I was very clever to invest in that first company, but I just had bad luck losing so much money with the other one.” In other words, ____.
| a. | she makes internal attributions in both cases |
| b. | she makes external attributions in both cases |
| c. | she makes an internal attribution for the $2000 earnings, but an external attribution for the $3000 loss |
| d. | she makes an internal attribution for the $3000 loss, but an external attribution for the $2000 earnings |
ANS: C DIF: Easy
REF: Attributions and Explanations: Why Did that Happen? TYPE: Applied
- Richard is a piano major and enters two music competitions in the same month. He places first in one of the competitions, but doesn’t place at all in the other. If Richard is like most people, he will probably ____.
| a. | make internal attributions in both cases. |
| b. | make external attributions in both cases. |
| c. | make an internal attribution for placing first, but an external attribution for not placing at all. |
| d. | make an internal attribution for not placing at all, but an external attribution for placing first. |
ANS: C DIF: Moderate
REF: Attributions and Explanations: Why Did that Happen? TYPE: Applied
- The so-called “self-serving bias” refers to the tendency for people to ____.
| a. | take credit for their successes but deny blame for their failures |
| b. | remember cases in which they succeeded but forget cases in which they failed |
| c. | notice when they are better than others at things, but fail to notice when they are worse than others at things |
| d. | think that their personal skills, traits, and characteristics are more valuable and desirable than they really are |
ANS: A DIF: Moderate
REF: Attributions and Explanations: Why Did that Happen? TYPE: Conceptual
- Across many different contexts and settings, people prefer to attribute their successes to ability and effort but tend to attribute their failures to bad luck or task difficulty. This is known as ____.
| a. | the self-serving bias |
| b. | correspondence bias |
| c. | a fundamental attribution |
| d. | the heuristic effect |
ANS: A DIF: Easy
REF: Attributions and Explanations: Why Did that Happen? TYPE: Conceptual
- Research indicates that ____ and ____ are two main motivations underlying the self-serving bias.
| a. | self-enhancement; self-presentation |
| b. | self-enhancement; consistency |
| c. | self-presentation; social comparison |
| d. | consistency; social comparison |
ANS: A DIF: Difficult
REF: Attributions and Explanations: Why Did that Happen TYPE: Conceptual
- People tend to attribute their own behaviors to situational factors, but to attribute others’ behaviors to dispositional factors. This pattern is known as the ____.
| a. | fundamental attribution error |
| b. | heuristic effect |
| c. | self-serving bias |
| d. | actor-observer effect |
ANS: D DIF: Moderate
REF: Attributions and Explanations: Why Did that Happen? TYPE: Factual
- According to research on the actor-observer effect, people have a tendency to make relatively more ____ for their own behaviors but relatively more ____ for others’ behaviors.
| a. | internal attributions; external attributions |
| b. | external attributions; internal attributions |
| c. | stable attributions; unstable attributions |
| d. | unstable attributions; stable attributions |
ANS: A DIF: Moderate
REF: Attributions and Explanations: Why Did that Happen? TYPE: Factual
- How does the fundamental attribution error (FAE) differ from the actor-observer effect (AOE)?
| a. | They make opposite predictions. |
| b. | They make similar predictions, but the FAE focuses on attributions that we make about others, while the AOE concerns attributions that we make about ourselves. |
| c. | They make similar predictions, but the FAE focuses on attributions that we make about ourselves, while the AOE concerns attributions that we make about others. |
| d. | They make similar predictions, but the FAE focuses on attributions that we make about others, while the AOE concerns attributions that we make about others AND attributions that we make about ourselves. |
ANS: D DIF: Moderate
REF: Attributions and Explanations: Why Did that Happen? TYPE: Conceptual
- The fundamental attribution error is sometimes also known as the ____.
| a. | correspondence bias |
| b. | ultimate attribution error |
| c. | self-serving error |
| d. | covariation principle |
ANS: A DIF: Moderate
REF: Attributions and Explanations: Why Did that Happen? TYPE: Conceptual
- The “correspondence bias” is another term that is used to refer to the ____.
| a. | ultimate attribution error |
| b. | self-serving error |
| c. | covariation principle |
| d. | fundamental attribution error |
ANS: D DIF: Moderate
REF: Attributions and Explanations: Why Did that Happen? TYPE: Conceptual
- Recall the “Castro study” conducted by Jones and Harris. In this study, participants were asked to read an essay that was supposedly written by another student. The essay was always about Castro, but it was either pro-Castro or anti-Castro. Also, participants were told either (a) that the essay-writer got to choose which side to take (pro- or anti-), or (b) that the essay-writer was ASSIGNED to one side or the other. The researchers found that ____.
| a. | participants made the fundamental attribution error—but only for the pro-Castro essays |
| b. | participants made the fundamental attribution error—but only for the anti-Castro essays |
| c. | participants made the fundamental attribution error for both types of essays |
| d. | participants only made the fundamental attribution error when they themselves had strong views about Castro |
ANS: C DIF: Difficult
REF: Attributions and Explanations: Why Did that Happen? TYPE: Factual
- Which of the following is the weakest explanation for the fundamental attribution error?
| a. | Behavior is more noticeable than situational factors. |
| b. | People are cognitive misers and internal attributions are easier. |
| c. | Situational factors are not reliable indicators. |
| d. | People assign insufficient weight to situational causes even when they are aware of them. |
ANS: C DIF: Difficult
REF: Attributions and Explanations: Why Did that Happen? TYPE: Conceptual
- In his research, Malle concluded that there is ____.
| a. | no consistent tendency for observers to make stronger dispositional attributions than actors |
| b. | strong evidence for the actor-observer bias |
| c. | no such thing as social cognition, and psychology should return to its behaviorist roots |
| d. | no need to distinguish between drawing conclusions about self versus others |
ANS: A DIF: Moderate
REF: Attributions and Explanations: Why Did that Happen? TYPE: Factual
NOTE: New
- People tend to judge others by ____, and people tend to judge themselves by ____.
| a. | intentions; actions |
| b. | actions; intentions |
| c. | actions; actions |
| d. | intentions; intentions |
ANS: B DIF: Difficult
REF: Attributions and Explanations: Why Did that Happen? TYPE: Factual
NOTE: New
- Jason is buying a new iPhone this semester, as are most of his friends. According to Malle’s work on attribution, what will Jason most likely think when he sees his friends buying an iPhone?
| a. | “Maybe I won’t buy the iPhone.” |
| b. | “I want to be just like them!” |
| c. | “What a bunch of conformists!” |
| d. | “My friends have done their research.” |
ANS: C DIF: Difficult
REF: Attributions and Explanations: Why Did that Happen? TYPE: Applied
NOTE: New
- Research on conformity and attribution reveals that people are ____.
| a. | largely aware that they conform, and feel dissonance about this |
| b. | largely aware that they conform, and are comfortable with this |
| c. | largely unaware that they conform |
| d. | more likely to conform if they make internal attributions for the rest of the group |
ANS: C DIF: Difficult
REF: Attributions and Explanations: Why Did that Happen? TYPE: Conceptual
NOTE: New
- Research suggests that the basic distinction people make in attributions is between ____.
| a. | intentional and unintentional behavior |
| b. | internal and external motives |
| c. | kind and unkind acts |
| d. | intelligent and unintelligent behavior |
ANS: A DIF: Moderate
REF: Attributions and Explanations: Why Did that Happen? TYPE: Factual
NOTE: New
- Actors are also more likely than observers to explain their acts by ____.
| a. | sharing their desires |
| b. | citing their beliefs |
| c. | analyzing their perceptions |
| d. | taking responsibility for any issues |
ANS: B DIF: Difficult
REF: Attributions and Explanations: Why Did that Happen? TYPE: Factual
NOTE: New
- Isabelle is exhausted from staying up too late and doesn’t perform very well at her swim meet as a result. Isabelle will probably describe her poor performance as ____.
| a. | unintentional and due to exhaustion |
| b. | unintentional and due to staying up too late |
| c. | intentional and due to exhaustion |
| d. | intentional and due to staying up too late |
ANS: A DIF: Difficult
REF: Attributions and Explanations: Why Did that Happen? TYPE: Applied
NOTE: New
- “Heuristic” is another word for ____.
| a. | causation |
| b. | network |
| c. | pathway |
| d. | shortcut |
ANS: D DIF: Easy REF: Heuristics: Mental Shortcuts TYPE: Factual
- The automatic system of the duplex mind makes use of a series of mental shortcuts in order to obtain quick information about the likelihood of different outcomes. These are known as ____.
| a. | heuristics |
| b. | scripts |
| c. | attributions |
| d. | schemas |
ANS: A DIF: Easy REF: Heuristics: Mental Shortcuts TYPE: Factual
- You and a friend are visiting a new city and would like to splurge and go out for a fine meal. You look at the restaurant listings in the newspaper and find one that is very expensive. Your friend says: “Let’s go for it. With prices like that, we’re bound to have a delicious meal!” In making this statement, your friend was most likely guided by the ____.
| a. | vacation effect |
| b. | representativeness heuristic |
| c. | contrast effect |
| d. | primacy effect |
ANS: B DIF: Moderate REF: Heuristics: Mental Shortcuts TYPE: Applied
- Montana and Sarah are playing cards. Montana has a great hand—four aces—while Sarah’s hand is just average—a 2 of hearts, a 3 of spades, a 5 of spades, and a 7 of clubs. Even though the statistical probability of both hands is the same, many people (incorrectly) assume that Montana’s exact hand is rarer than Sarah’s exact hand. This common misconception stems most directly from the ____.
| a. | base rate fallacy |
| b. | representativeness heuristic |
| c. | availability heuristic |
| d. | false consensus effect |
ANS: B DIF: Difficult REF: Heuristics: Mental Shortcuts TYPE: Applied
- Even though Vlad never actually exercises, you have always assumed that he is an athlete because he hangs around at the gym (like other athletes), drinks bottled water nonstop, and wears sweat suits everywhere. Your (false) assumption that Vlad is an athlete is most clearly an example of the ____.
| a. | availability heuristic |
| b. | actor-observer bias |
| c. | representativeness heuristic |
| d. | anchoring and adjustment heuristic |
ANS: C DIF: Moderate REF: Heuristics: Mental Shortcuts TYPE: Applied
- Even though stomach cancer kills more people than plane crashes do, most people tend to assume that plane crashes cause more deaths. This misconception seems to arise from ____, since plane crash fatalities tend to be widely publicized and are therefore relatively easy for people to recall.
| a. | the representativeness heuristic |
| b. | the availability heuristic |
| c. | the anchoring and adjustment heuristic |
| d. | information overload |
ANS: B DIF: Moderate REF: Heuristics: Mental Shortcuts TYPE: Applied
- People might very well overestimate the likelihood for celebrity marriages to end in divorce, since celebrity divorces tend to be highly publicized (while happy celebrity marriages do not make front page news as easily). The overestimation could be explained in terms of ____.
| a. | the representativeness heuristic. |
| b. | the availability heuristic. |
| c. | the anchoring and adjustment heuristic. |
| d. | information overload |
ANS: B DIF: Moderate REF: Heuristics: Mental Shortcuts TYPE: Applied
- Quite understandably, students are often more upset about missing an exam question when they had previously circled the correct answer—and then changed it to an incorrect answer—as opposed to when they had chosen an incorrect answer all along. This is most directly related to the ____.
| a. | representativeness heuristic |
| b. | anchoring and adjustment heuristic |
| c. | simulation heuristic |
| d. | confirmation bias |
ANS: C DIF: Difficult REF: Heuristics: Mental Shortcuts TYPE: Applied
- The tendency for people to judge the frequency or likelihood of an event by the ease with which they can imagine or mentally visualize it is known as the ____.
| a. | representativeness heuristic |
| b. | anchoring and adjustment heuristic |
| c. | simulation heuristic |
| d. | confirmation bias |
ANS: C DIF: Moderate REF: Heuristics: Mental Shortcuts TYPE: Factual
- Suppose that Greg and Marsha both apply for a prestigious scholarship program, and both get rejected. Greg finds out that his application was flat out rejected (he never had a chance), while Marsha finds out that she was the first runner up (she nearly won). Who is likely to be more disappointed? Why?
| a. | Greg—because of the simulation heuristic |
| b. | Greg—because of the confirmation bias |
| c. | Marsha—because of the simulation heuristic |
| d. | Marsha—because of the confirmation bias |
ANS: C DIF: Moderate REF: Heuristics: Mental Shortcuts TYPE: Applied
- The simulation heuristic tends to invoke ____ thinking.
| a. | debiasing |
| b. | magical |
| c. | counterregulatory |
| d. | counterfactual |
ANS: D DIF: Moderate REF: Heuristics: Mental Shortcuts TYPE: Conceptual
- Suppose that you meet an old man named Al. You have no idea how old he is. To try to guess his age you start with your grandfather’s age (80), and then add on a few years since Al seems to be a little older. That is, you make use of ____.
| a. | priming |
| b. | counterfactual thinking |
| c. | the anchoring and adjustment heuristic |
| d. | the simulation heuristic |
ANS: C DIF: Easy REF: Heuristics: Mental Shortcuts TYPE: Applied
- Research on the anchoring and adjustment heuristic indicates that ____.
| a. | people usually do not “adjust” enough away from their anchors |
| b. | people usually “adjust” too much away from their anchors |
| c. | people will not engage in this heuristic if they know that the anchors are arbitrary |
| d. | people will not engage in this heuristic if they know that it can lead to faulty decisions |
ANS: A DIF: Easy REF: Heuristics: Mental Shortcuts TYPE: Conceptual
- The state of having too much information to make a decision or remain informed about a topic is known as ____.
| a. | statistical regression |
| b. | the gambler’s fallacy |
| c. | the conjunction fallacy |
| d. | information overload |
ANS: D DIF: Easy REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases TYPE: Factual
- In a national poll conducted by ABC News, men reported an average of ____ sex partners and women reported an average of ____ sex partners.
| a. | twenty; six |
| b. | six; twenty |
| c. | ten; ten |
| d. | ten; five |
ANS: A DIF: Difficult REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases TYPE: Factual
- When researchers survey men and women about the number of sex partners they have had, they tend to find that men report far more partners than women—which would seem to be logically impossible. What are one of the most likely reasons for this?
| a. | Women tend to estimate the number of sexual partners and men tend to make a mental list. |
| b. | Men and women seem to define “sex” slightly differently. |
| c. | Men and/or women lie to avoid embarrassment. |
| d. | hom*osexual sex and prostitution skew the data enough to account for the results. |
ANS: B DIF: Difficult REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases TYPE: Factual
- When buying a new car, people tend to look at statistical information and case history information. Research shows that they tend to be more influenced by ____.
| a. | case history information—regardless of whether or not it is the first time they have purchased a car |
| b. | statistical information—regardless of whether or not it is the first time they have purchased a car |
| c. | case history information if it is the first time they have purchased a car, but statistical information if they have purchased cars in the past |
| d. | statistical information if it is the first time they have purchased a car, but case history information if they have purchased cars in the past |
ANS: A DIF: Moderate REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases TYPE: Factual
- Jules and Jim are reading a book review about a book that both of them have read. Jules hated the book, and seems to feel that the reviewer also hated it. Meanwhile, Jim thought the book was witty and provocative, and he seems to think that the reviewer shares HIS views. It seems as though both Jules and Jim are “seeing” different things when reading the book review. That is, both of them seem to be engaging in the ____.
| a. | confirmation bias |
| b. | self-fulfilling prophecy |
| c. | false consensus effect |
| d. | illusory correlation |
ANS: A DIF: Difficult REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases TYPE: Applied
- In a famous early study in social psychology, fans of two rival football teams were asked to watch footage of an actual game that was very close. Researchers found that fans of the two teams literally “saw” different games; things that were deemed “out” by fans of one team, for example, were deemed “in” by fans of the other. This was early evidence of the phenomenon known as ____.
| a. | counterfactual thinking |
| b. | the illusory correlation |
| c. | the confirmation bias |
| d. | the simulation heuristic |
ANS: C DIF: Difficult REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases TYPE: Applied
- The so-called illusory correlation can most directly help explain ____.
| a. | why people tend to think that they are “better than average” on most traits and abilities |
| b. | why people tend to overestimate the degree to which members of minority groups engage in criminal behaviors |
| c. | why people tend to continue to gamble even when they have hit an “unlucky streak” |
| d. | why people tend to assume that it is more common for people to die from plane crashes than from lung cancer |
ANS: B DIF: Difficult REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases TYPE: Applied
- The tendency for people to overestimate the link between variables that are related only slightly or not at all is known as the ____.
| a. | conjunction fallacy |
| b. | illusory correlation |
| c. | representativeness heuristic |
| d. | base rate fallacy |
ANS: B DIF: Moderate REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases TYPE: Factual
- In informal surveys, people always overestimate the number of lesbians who have AIDS. Lesbians actually have extremely low rates of AIDS, but people tend to associate lesbians with gay men (who have relatively high rates). Thus, people tend to think that they see a lesbian-AIDS relationship when in fact there is no such relationship. This is a good example of the ____.
| a. | false consensus effect |
| b. | illusory correlation |
| c. | belief in a just world hypothesis |
| d. | contrast effect |
ANS: B DIF: Moderate REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases TYPE: Factual
- Elenita is from a relatively sheltered background. When she goes to college, she meets a Hispanic student. This student is the only Hispanic person she has ever known. The student is very independent and outspoken on their first meeting. After that meeting, Elenita decides that Hispanics in general must be independent and outspoken. Elenita’s reaction illustrates the ____.
| a. | base-rate fallacy |
| b. | false consensus effect |
| c. | illusory correlation |
| d. | one-shot illusory correlation |
ANS: D DIF: Difficult REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases TYPE: Applied
- The tendency to overestimate the link between variables that are related only slightly or not at all after just one exposure to a group member performing a behavior illustrates the ____.
| a. | illusory correlation |
| b. | one-shot illusory correlation |
| c. | hot hand |
| d. | magical thinking |
ANS: B DIF: Difficult REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases TYPE: Factual
- Letha has just met her first Mormon missionary. In conversation, she finds out that he is a collector of rare books. If Letha commits the one-shot illusory correlation, she will ___.
| a. | think that the missionary believes he is better than her because of his hobby |
| b. | believe she can persuade the missionary that her religion is the better world view |
| c. | believe many Mormons collect rare books |
| d. | attribute his collection behavior to his scholarly character |
ANS: C DIF: Moderate REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases TYPE: Applied
- Suppose that you meet someone who is smart, adventurous, and highly knowledgeable about rockets and outer space. Even though there are not many astronauts in the world, you might immediately assume that this person is an astronaut just because he or she fits your image of what an astronaut is like. That is, you might ____ and rely on the ____.
| a. | commit the base rate fallacy; representativeness heuristic |
| b. | commit the conjunction fallacy; representativeness heuristic |
| c. | engage in the confirmation bias; availability heuristic |
| d. | engage in the false consensus effect; availability heuristic |
ANS: A DIF: Difficult REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases TYPE: Applied
- People who think they have a “hot hand” after winning five poker hands in a row tend to think that ____.
| a. | it is more likely they will win the next hand than is actually the case |
| b. | it is more likely they will lose the next hand than is actually the case |
| c. | they are equally likely to win versus lose the next hand |
| d. | their winning is due to having better traits than the other players |
ANS: A DIF: Moderate REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases
TYPE: Conceptual
- You flip a coin ten times in a row. Every single time it comes up heads. On the eleventh flip, is it more likely to be heads, tails, or are heads and tails equally likely ? If you are a hot hand player, you will answer ____.
| a. | heads |
| b. | tails |
| c. | heads and tails are equally likely |
| d. | that you need time to think it over |
ANS: A DIF: Easy REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases
TYPE: Conceptual
- The so-called “gambler’s fallacy” refers to the ____.
| a. | (false) belief that chance events are affected by previous events, and that chance events will “even out” across a relatively short period of time |
| b. | (false) belief that one is far more skilled or gifted than are others |
| c. | (false) belief that one can control or change situations that are completely (or almost completely) due to chance |
| d. | tendency to compare oneself to people who are far, far worse off in order to feel better about oneself |
ANS: A DIF: Moderate REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases
TYPE: Conceptual
- Suppose that a coin is flipped 20 times. The first 19 flips are all heads. Is the last flip more likely to be heads, more likely to be tails, or equally likely to be heads or tails? When people engage in the gambler’s fallacy, they ____.
| a. | say that the last flip is more likely to be heads |
| b. | say that the last flip is more likely to be tails |
| c. | say that the last flip is more likely to be heads OR say that the last flip is more likely to be tails. |
| d. | say that the last flip is equally likely to be heads or tails |
ANS: C DIF: Difficult REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases TYPE: Applied
- The false consensus effect refers to the tendency for people to ____.
| a. | overestimate the number of people who agree with them |
| b. | underestimate the number of people who agree with them |
| c. | rely too heavily on the primacy effect |
| d. | not rely heavily enough on the primacy effect |
ANS: A DIF: Easy REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases TYPE: Factual
- According to the false consensus effect, most people ____.
| a. | overestimate the proportion of people who would respond the same way as them in a situation |
| b. | hide the way they truly feel about an issue in order to reach a consensus |
| c. | lean toward the most popular opinion of a group regardless of how they feel |
| d. | assume that they will be in the minority because they are nonconformist |
ANS: A DIF: Moderate REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases TYPE: Factual
- People apply the ____ exclusively to their own desirable behaviors.
| a. | gain-loss effect |
| b. | fundamental attribution error |
| c. | false uniqueness effect |
| d. | self-fulfilling prophecy |
ANS: C DIF: Easy REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases TYPE: Factual
- Research indicates that people are especially likely to engage in the false consensus effect when it comes to ____, and especially likely to engage in the false uniqueness effect when it comes to ____.
| a. | their undesirable characteristics; their desirable characteristics |
| b. | their desirable characteristics; their undesirable characteristics |
| c. | their unusual characteristics; their more common characteristics |
| d. | their more common characteristics; their unusual characteristics |
ANS: A DIF: Moderate REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases
TYPE: Conceptual
- Which of the following is an explanation for the false consensus effect, but not an explanation for the false uniqueness effect?
| a. | People use themselves as an “anchor” when judging others. |
| b. | People want to feel good about themselves. |
| c. | People want to feel that they are consistent across time. |
| d. | People tend to ignore base rate information when making probability estimates. |
ANS: A DIF: Moderate REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases
TYPE: Conceptual
- The longer people think about something, the more ____ their opinion becomes.
| a. | extreme |
| b. | liberal |
| c. | conservative |
| d. | moderate |
ANS: A DIF: Easy REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases TYPE: Factual
NOTE: New
- Blaine thinks a lot about politics and leans towards being a conservative. The more he focuses about politics, what will happen to his position?
| a. | It will become polarized. |
| b. | It will become more balanced. |
| c. | It will become more theoretical. |
| d. | It will become more liberal. |
ANS: A DIF: Moderate REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases TYPE: Applied
NOTE: New
- Theory perseverance is the idea that ____.
| a. | once the mind draws a conclusion, it tends to stick with it, even if evidence points to the need for a change |
| b. | theories in science will only persevere as long as evidence supports them |
| c. | social conformity plays the biggest role in the success of a theory |
| d. | the most consistent theory will naturally weed out weaker theories |
ANS: A DIF: Easy REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases
TYPE: Conceptual NOTE: New
- Joe takes on his sister’s view that all people from “up north” are snobs. Later, Joe learns that his sister’s opinion was based on the fact that her boyfriend from “up north” recently dumped her. Yet Joe persists in his belief that people from “up north” are snobby. This best illustrates the ____ effect.
| a. | theory perseverance |
| b. | availability heuristic |
| c. | false consensus |
| d. | false uniqueness |
ANS: A DIF: Easy REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases TYPE: Applied
NOTE: New
- The so-called “Sports Illustrated jinx”—the tendency for athletes to experience a dip in performance directly after appearing on the cover of Sports Illustrated—can be best explained by ____.
| a. | statistical regression |
| b. | magical thinking |
| c. | illusory correlation |
| d. | the base rate fallacy |
ANS: A DIF: Difficult REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases
TYPE: Conceptual
- Suppose that Mr. Yipol gives 100 students a reading exam. He then selects the five students with the highest scores for a special reading program. At the end of the reading program, he administers the same reading exam again. To Mr. Yipol’s astonishment, though, the students actually perform worse this time. While it might well be the case that the reading program actually negatively impacted the students’ reading ability, Mr. Yipol would be wise to consider that the decrease could be due to ____.
| a. | false consensus |
| b. | false uniqueness |
| c. | statistical regression |
| d. | illusion of control |
ANS: C DIF: Difficult REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases TYPE: Applied
- Sometimes people blow on dice when playing a board game to make sure they get the numbers they need to advance in the game. When people believe they can affect the dice by blowing on them they are experiencing the ____.
| a. | gambler’s fallacy |
| b. | illusory correlation |
| c. | conjunction fallacy |
| d. | illusion of control |
ANS: D DIF: Moderate REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases TYPE: Applied
- The belief that people can control totally chance situations is the ____.
| a. | illusion of control |
| b. | fundamental attribution error |
| c. | availability heuristic |
| d. | first instinct fallacy |
ANS: A DIF: Easy REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases TYPE: Factual
- The illusion of control tends to produce ____.
| a. | more risky behavior |
| b. | more conservative behavior |
| c. | covariation |
| d. | distinctiveness |
ANS: A DIF: Moderate REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases
TYPE: Conceptual
- “If only I had decided to take a different route home, I wouldn’t have hit that stupid tree and ended up getting this huge ticket! Argh!” This thought is an example of ____.
| a. | the false uniqueness effect |
| b. | illusory correlation |
| c. | magical thinking |
| d. | counterfactual thinking |
ANS: D DIF: Easy REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases TYPE: Applied
- The belief that one should not change an answer on a test, even if additional consideration has led one to believe another answer might be the correct one, is called the ____.
| a. | false consensus effect |
| b. | magical thinking |
| c. | contamination |
| d. | first instinct fallacy |
ANS: D DIF: Easy REF: Counterfactual Thinking TYPE: Factual
- Jacob is taking his economics final exam. He answers question #31 with “D” but isn’t sure about it. After answering all the other questions, he goes back to 31 and starts to believe that perhaps “C” was the right answer. He decides to stick with “D,” most likely because of ____.
| a. | downward counterfactual thinking |
| b. | upward counterfactual thinking |
| c. | debiasing |
| d. | the first instinct fallacy |
ANS: D DIF: Moderate REF: Counterfactual Thinking TYPE: Applied
- Which of the following kinds of thinking can help explain the first instinct fallacy?
| a. | ironic processing |
| b. | counterfactual thinking |
| c. | illusion of control |
| d. | automatic processing |
ANS: B DIF: Difficult REF: Counterfactual Thinking TYPE: Conceptual
- Research demonstrates that, in counterfactual thinking, people engage in far more ____ than ____.
| a. | upward counterfactuals; downward counterfactuals |
| b. | downward counterfactuals; upward counterfactuals |
| c. | counterfactuals about past events; counterfactuals about future events |
| d. | counterfactuals about future events; counterfactuals about past events |
ANS: A DIF: Difficult REF: Counterfactual Thinking TYPE: Factual
- Feeling sorry for misfortunes, limitations, losses, transgressions, shortcomings, or mistakes is called ____.
| a. | counterfactual thinking |
| b. | counterproductive thinking |
| c. | regret |
| d. | optimism |
ANS: C DIF: Easy REF: Counterfactual Thinking TYPE: Conceptual
NOTE: New
- Given the research on cognitive errors and biases, it can be concluded that ____.
| a. | people are not nearly as smart as they are usually given credit for |
| b. | people can be extremely unpredictable in terms of when and why they will engage in rational versus irrational decision-making styles |
| c. | people rely on irrational thinking much of the time, but are still capable of engaging in careful, conscious thought when they need to make important decisions |
| d. | these errors are extremely serious, and tend to have cumulatively biasing effects across time |
ANS: C DIF: Moderate REF: Are People Really Stupid? TYPE: Conceptual
- Research shows that people tend to engage in fewer cognitive errors and biases in everyday thinking ____.
| a. | as a result of having had graduate training involving statistical reasoning, but not when they are simply encouraged to carefully consider different alternatives. |
| b. | when they are encouraged to carefully consider different alternatives, but not as a result of having had graduate training involving statistical reasoning. |
| c. | both as a result of graduate training involving statistical reasoning, and when they are encouraged to carefully consider different alternatives. |
| d. | neither as a result of having had graduate training involving statistical reasoning, nor when they are encouraged to carefully consider different alternatives. |
ANS: C DIF: Moderate REF: Are People Really Stupid? TYPE: Factual
- Reducing errors and biasing by getting people to use deliberate rather than automatic processing is called ____.
| a. | debiasing |
| b. | meta-cognition |
| c. | ironic processing |
| d. | anchoring |
ANS: A DIF: Easy REF: Are People Really Stupid? TYPE: Factual
- Which of the following would be least helpful in debiasing your thinking?
| a. | Take a statistical reasoning class. |
| b. | Think reflectively on your problem-solving strategies. |
| c. | Use explicit decision rules. |
| d. | Rely more on your memories. |
ANS: D DIF: Difficult REF: Are People Really Stupid? TYPE: Conceptual
- Madison’s is taking a freshman seminar at her university. In that class, the teacher works with students to help them identify the criteria they use to make decisions, and points out how some of the criteria might not produce the desired outcomes. The teacher is probably trying to ____.
| a. | develop a script |
| b. | prime the students for success |
| c. | promote heuristic processing |
| d. | debias the students’ thinking |
ANS: D DIF: Moderate REF: Are People Really Stupid? TYPE: Applied
- Thinking about thinking is called ____.
| a. | magical thinking |
| b. | meta-cognition |
| c. | counterregulation |
| d. | information overload |
ANS: B DIF: Easy REF: Are People Really Stupid? TYPE: Factual
- Wing Tung is reading his textbook for history class. At the end of each paragraph, he stops and asks himself what the paragraph was about. Once he feels like he knows that, he goes on. Wing Tung is using ____ to improve his thinking.
| a. | meta-cognition |
| b. | contamination |
| c. | conjunction |
| d. | attribution |
ANS: A DIF: Moderate REF: Are People Really Stupid? TYPE: Applied
- Research indicates that ____ engage in counterfactual thinking; and that ____ engage in meta-cognition.
| a. | both humans and other animals; both humans and other animals |
| b. | both humans and other animals; only humans |
| c. | only humans; both humans and other animals |
| d. | only humans; only humans |
ANS: D DIF: Moderate
REF: What Makes Us Human? Putting the Cultural Animal in Perspective TYPE: Factual
TRUE/FALSE
- People tend to want to explore most issues thoroughly before making decisions.
ANS: F DIF: Easy REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Conceptual
- Counterregulation occurs when people indulge in a behavior they are trying to regulate after an initial regulation failure.
ANS: T DIF: Moderate REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Factual
- The self-serving bias refers to people’s tendency to think that others are more similar to them than they really are when it comes to their faults and weaknesses.
ANS: F DIF: Moderate REF: Attributions and Explanations TYPE: Conceptual
- Malle’s research has supported the traditional notion of the actor-observer bias.
ANS: F DIF: Moderate REF: Attributions and Explanation TYPE: Factual
NOTE: New
- Jack read about the swine flu in the papers for the past two weeks. When he comes down with fever, chills, and a bad cough, he is absolutely certain that he has the swine flu because of all the media coverage it has received. Jack is illustrating the simulation heuristic.
ANS: F DIF: Moderate REF: Heuristics: Mental Shortcuts TYPE: Applied
- The fact that men and women report having had very different numbers of sex partners can be almost completely explained by the fact that men have engaged in more hom*osexual sex.
ANS: F DIF: Difficult REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases TYPE: Factual
- The tendency to think that all African Americans are likely to be great athletes because LeBron James (2008-09 NBA League MVP) is such a great athlete illustrates the illusory correlation.
ANS: T DIF: Difficult REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases TYPE: Applied
- One explanation for the false consensus effect is that people use their own attitudes and behaviors as “anchors” for predicting others’ attitudes and behaviors.
ANS: T DIF: Difficult REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases
TYPE: Conceptual
- If a moderately liberal person watches a lot of liberal news media television and listens to liberal news radio programs, her viewpoints will probably become more liberal.
ANS: T DIF: Easy REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases TYPE: Factual
NOTE: New
- People who receive extremely low scores on IQ tests almost always perform better the second time around. This pattern can be attributed to statistical regression.
ANS: T DIF: Difficult REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases
TYPE: Conceptual
- The older students get, the more variance there is in their reading test scores. This pattern can be attributed to statistical regression.
ANS: F DIF: Difficult REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases
TYPE: Conceptual
- The first instinct fallacy refers to the false belief that it is better not to change one’s first answer even if one starts to think that a different answer is correct.
ANS: T DIF: Easy REF: Counterfactual Thinking TYPE: Factual
COMPLETION
- The term ____________________ was coined to refer to people’s general unwillingness to do much extra conscious thinking (i.e., people’s mental “laziness”).
ANS: cognitive miser
DIF: Moderate REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Conceptual
- Polina is three years old. She is just beginning to understand concepts such as “dog,” “cat,” “chair,” and “sofa,” and to understand how these concepts differ from one another. In other words, she is just beginning to develop ____________________.
ANS: schemas
DIF: Moderate REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Applied
- Within the field of social cognition, the term ____________________ essentially refers to schemas that are about events.
ANS: scripts
DIF: Moderate REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Factual
- Social psychologists call how information is presented to others ____________________, while politicians call it ____________________.
ANS: framing spin
spin framing
DIF: Moderate REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Conceptual
- Hilda is on a low carbohydrate diet, which restricts her from eating foods such as white bread, potato chips, and pretzels. The more Hilda thinks about the fact that she cannot eat such foods, however, the more desperately she begins to crave them. Social psychologists refer to this kind of pattern as a(n) ______________________.
ANS: ironic process
DIF: Moderate REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Applied
- Once a dieter has slipped up and indulged at the Dairy Queen, he or she is likely to engage in ____________________.
ANS: counterregulation
DIF: Easy REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Applied
- The actor-observer bias holds that actors tend to make _____________________ attributions.
ANS: external
DIF: Moderate REF: Attributions and Explanations: Why Did that Happen?
TYPE: Factual NOTE: New
- Recent research suggests that the basic distinction people make in attribution processes is between _____________________ and _____________________ behavior.
ANS: intentional unintentional
unintentional intentional
DIF: Difficult REF: Attributions and Explanations: Why Did that Happen?
TYPE: Conceptual NOTE: New
- The tendency to judge the frequency or likelihood of an event by the ease with which relevant instances come to mind is called the ____________________ heuristic.
ANS: availability
DIF: Easy REF: Heuristics: Mental Shortcuts TYPE: Factual
- Suppose that you are trying to guess how much money a co-worker of yours makes. You have no idea how much she makes off-hand. To try to guess, you start with your own salary and then add on a few dollars since she has been at your workplace longer than you have. That is, you make use of the ____________________ heuristic.
ANS: anchoring and adjustment
DIF: Moderate REF: Heuristics: Mental Shortcuts TYPE: Applied
- The state of having too much information to make a decision or remain informed about a topic is known as ____________________.
ANS: information overload
DIF: Easy REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases TYPE: Factual
- When the illusory correlation occurs after only one exposure to a behavior performed by a member of an unfamiliar group, the ____________________ has occurred.
ANS: one-shot illusory correlation
one shot illusory correlation
DIF: Easy REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases TYPE: Factual
- Monique tends to spend more money than she should on shoes. However, she makes the mistake of thinking that most people spend lots of money on shoes. This makes her feel better about the fact that she herself overspends. It appears that Monique is engaging in the cognitive bias known as the ____________________ effect.
ANS: false consensus
DIF: Moderate REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases TYPE: Applied
- People who receive extremely low scores on IQ tests almost always perform better the second time around. This pattern can be attributed to ____________________.
ANS: statistical regression
regression to the mean
DIF: Difficult REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases TYPE: Conceptual
- The ____________________ fallacy refers to the false belief that it is better not to change one’s first answer even if one starts to think that a different answer is correct.
ANS: first instinct
DIF: Moderate REF: Counterfactual Thinking TYPE: Factual
ESSAY
- Define scripts and schemas, explain how they enable us to better process information, and give an example of each.
ANS:
| a. | Scripts are knowledge structures that represent substantial information about a concept, its attributes, and its relationships to other concepts. |
| b. | Scripts are knowledge structures that define situations and guide behavior. They can be thought of as schemas for behavioral sequences or events. |
| c. | Both operate according to the automatic system. They allow us to more easily categorize incoming information, to more readily access relevant memories and other data, and to better remember schema-consistent information. As a result, schemas and scripts both guide behavior and decision-making. Without schemas and scripts we would need to “re-learn” what a car or a dog or a restaurant, for example, is all about each and every time we encountered them. |
DIF: Difficult REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Applied
- Describe the ironic consequences of thought suppression, and what strategies might work better to accomplish that same goal.
ANS:
| a. | There are two main consequences to thought suppression. | |
| i. | Automatic processes keep a look out for anything that might remind one of the unwanted thought. | |
| ii. | Deliberate processes redirect attention away from the undesirable thought. | |
| iii. | Ironically, though, when the deliberate system relaxes, the automatic system continues its vigilance, leading people to actually think more about the thought they intended to suppress. | |
| b. | Distraction and rumination are better at suppressing thoughts than directly trying to suppress them. People will actually think less about it if they distract themselves or if they allow themselves to think about it in a ruminative fashion. | |
DIF: Moderate REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Conceptual
- Define and give an example of three heuristics that are discussed in the textbook.
ANS:
| a. | The representativeness heuristic: The tendency to judge the frequency or likelihood of an event by the extent to which it resembles the typical case. |
| b. | The availability heuristic: The tendency to judge the frequency or likelihood of an event by the ease with which relevant instances come to mind. |
| c. | The simulation heuristic: The tendency to judge the frequency or likelihood of an event by the ease with which you can imagine or visualize it. |
| d. | The anchoring and adjustment heuristic: The tendency to judge the frequency or likelihood of an event by using a starting point (anchor) and then making upward or downward adjustments. |
DIF: Easy REF: Heuristics: Mental Shortcuts TYPE: Applied
- What sorts of cognitive biases do people engage in that help them to feel better about themselves (i.e., what cognitive biases work to satisfy the motivation for self-enhancement)?
ANS:
| a. | Confirmation bias: Helps people to feel that their ideas and beliefs are the correct ones. |
| b. | False consensus effect: People tend to show this effect for opinions and attitudes, as well as for their weaknesses and faults; helps them to feel that their views are the correct ones and that their weaknesses and faults are relatively forgivable. |
| c. | False uniqueness effect: People tend to show this effect for their strengths; helps them to feel that their strengths are even more impressive than they really are. |
| d. | Illusion of control: Helps people to feel that they have more power over things than they really do. |
DIF: Difficult REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases TYPE: Factual
- There are a number of heuristics, errors, and biases upon which people routinely rely that suggest that they are not naturally skilled at making estimates of statistical probabilities. Identify and discuss at least three of these.
ANS:
| a. | The base rate fallacy |
| b. | The conjunction fallacy |
| c. | The availability heuristic |
| d. | Etc. |
DIF: Moderate REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases TYPE: Conceptual
- Although some social psychologists might argue that the cognitive errors discussed in this chapter stem from laziness and motivational biases, there is another perspective that puts a more positive spin on this. Articulate the two main parts of this other, more positive, perspective.
ANS:
| a. | The first part of the more positive view of cognitive errors is that people evolved the ability to think to promote the ability to argue with and influence others. | |
| b. | The second prong of this view is that heuristics actually work quite well. Much of the time in the real world, we do not have access to full information required for purely logical processing. Heuristics and intuition help us make good decisions in these sorts of circ*mstances. | |
DIF: Moderate REF: Flawed or Clever Thinking? TYPE: Conceptual
NOTE: New
- Describe how one might reduce cognitive errors in processing social information.
ANS:
| a. | The general notion of how to reduce errors, or debias thinking, is to reduce dependency on automatic processing and increase the deliberate processing of information. Several strategies are available for doing so. | ||
| i. | Try to think of multiple alternatives. | ||
| ii. | Try to rely less on memory. | ||
| iii. | Try to use explicit decision rules. | ||
| iv. | Search for disconfirmatory information. | ||
| v. | Use meta-cognition to reflectively evaluate thought processes and strategies. | ||
DIF: Difficult REF: Are People Really Stupid? TYPE: Conceptual
