PSYCH 135 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Anthropomorphism, Ikea, Georg Simmel
Attribution!
Heider and Simmel Demo - 1994!
•figures moving, 2 triangles, circle!
•people see shapes acting like people!
•we anthropomorphise these things!
•we see them as having human feelings!
•there are just shapes moving around randomly !
•we are built to see these shapes as having genders, emotions, personality, everything that
makes us human but none of it exists or is there!
•everyone who sees some type of social interactions falls into this trap!
•autistic people don’t tend to see these things, they just tend to see the shapes moving
around, they don’t describe them as having intentions and motivations !
Ikea Ad!
•we are attributing feelings to these inanimate objects!
•we do this all the time!
•especially when things are not working!
•eg when computer is not working - call names!
•we automatically infer that inanimate objects have states, emotions that!
•we are built to infer invisible mental !
•we are constantly !
•we are way too overconfindent in our ability to do this!
•to us they seem real - we see their desires, motivations, mental states!
•we feel very confident for making attributions of people’s mental states!
•we constantly think to ourselves - what did they really think ? why would he/she do that?!
Bachelor Finale Example!
•part of reality TV - creating that drama!
•we kinda want to know what is going on, although most of us !
•Dr. Smurda’s brother is actually a writer for reality TV shows!
•so it can’t all be reality !
Trump - Charlottesville Example!
•there was blame on many sides!
•because he usually tweets without filtering !
•the assumption is that he actually believes that both sides are to blame for the woman’s
murder!
•alternative point of view!
•doesn’t want to risk alienating his right wing supporters!
•we don’t really know what he is thinking!
•there is one or more possible explanation for his behavior!
Hillary - view on gay marriage finally evolved!
•what is she thinking here?!
•did her view really evolved?!
•it could also be that the American public’s view on gay marriage has evolved!
•in an interview: Do you think it’s the American public’s view that changed or only her view?!
•we don’t know what the truth is with any politician!
find more resources at oneclass.com
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What is reasonable to infer about someone else?!
•if we know someone’s traits, this might help us understand their mental states, which can help
us predict intention and thus behavior !
•we start with broad assumptions and then we get more narrow !
•it’s not actually what we do in everyday life, we see behavior and then work backwards to see
behavior !
•from intention we infer mental states !
•error - affirming the consequence !
•if we infer A then B !
•doesn’t mean that B means A!
•eg everytime it rains the game cancels doesn’t mean that everytime game is cancelled
is because it rains!
•it benefits us greatly to make these assumptions about people based on their behavior !
•what causes a golfball to roll?!
•someone hits the ball!
•it is circular !
•force needs to be applied !
internal: shape and nature!
external force being applied to it !
•Dispositional Factors - internal, personality factors, traits!
•Situational Factors - things that are external, things that are happing !
•when we explain people’s behavior we use either dispositional or situational !
•typically we don’t tend to focus on both, we tend to either focus on one or the other !
•eg why did Joe kick Fido?!
•because he has a bad temper in general - type of person = dispositional factor!
•because the dog bit him first - situation = situational factor !
•we only focus on one !
•how do we decide if we focus on the disposition or the situation !
•if he is acting this way across a variety of situations - can point out at his personality !
•you typically wouldn’t be angry at bday party!
Kelley’s Covariation Model !
•he is looking at how behavior covaries with situation!
•3 factors you need to decide what is going on!
•when Joe kicks Fido!
•1. Distinctiveness!
•is this a distinctive event!
•is Joe mean to a lot of different people or is this the only time !
•does this with everyone = not unusual = low in distinctiveness - not !
•
•2.Consensus!
•is everyone mean to Fido!
•points to the fact that !
•3. Consistency!
•does Joe always kick Fido !
•does repeatedly across time= high !
TO make a Dispositional Attribution!
•low distinctiveness = not usual !
•consensus = no !
•consistency = yes!
To make a Situational Attribution !
•high distinctiveness = very usual !
•consensus = yes!
•consistency = no !
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Bachelor finale example: we kinda want to know what is going on, although most of us, dr. smurda"s brother is actually a writer for reality tv shows so it can"t all be reality. Kelley"s covariation model he is looking at how behavior covaries with situation. 2. consensus is everyone mean to fido points to the fact that: consistency does joe always kick fido does repeatedly across time= high. To make a dispositional attribution low distinctiveness = not usual consensus = no consistency = yes. To make a situational attribution high distinctiveness = very usual consensus = yes consistency = no. 10:26 we tend to err on the side of wanting to make dispositional attributions situational reasons. Ford in star wars: dr. smurda saw him. 10 yrs ago ski season - end of season and ran into him. Study how likely would you be to do this if i asked you to do this people are bad at predicting.
