To organize your thoughts about this chapter, you might find it useful to reflect on three themes that ran through it: the themes of bias, function, and implicit versus explicit mental processes.
1. Biases in social perceptions and attitudes can lead people to make judgments that are objectively untrue and unfair. You might think about each bias discussed in the chapter with the following questions in mind: What evidence was presented for the existence of the bias? In what contexts does the bias seem to occur or not occur? What, if any, functions might the bias serve for the person manifesting it? What harm might result from this bias, either to the person who manifests it or to the objects of the biased perception or thought? You will not find the answers to all these questions for every bias described in the chapter, but in most cases you will at least find hints. Apply such questions to the person bias, attractiveness bias, baby-face bias, biasing effects of others’ appraisals on self-concept, big-fish-in-little-pond effect, self-enhancing biases (including the self-serving attributional bias), group-enhancing biases, biasing effects of stereotypes, and insufficient-justification effect.
537
2. Social perceptions and attitudes serve life-promoting functions for the individual. From the functionalist perspective, the first question asked about any consistent human tendency is: How might it serve the needs of the individual who manifests that tendency? Some of the ideas in this chapter were presented quite explicitly from that perspective, and others were not. As you review each of the phenomena described, think about whether and how it serves the individual. Concerning the biases in person perception, you might well conclude that some do serve useful functions for the perceiver and that others may be nonadaptive side effects of the ways that our minds work. Concerning self-perception, think about the potential survival-promoting values of the looking-glass self, self-esteem (according to the sociometer theory), the use of social comparison to understand oneself, the self-enhancing biases, and the capacity to shift between personal identity and social identity. Think also about the functions of implicit and explicit attitudes for guiding behavior.
3. Social perceptions and attitudes may be implicit and automatic or explicit and controlled. The distinction between implicit and explicit mental processes was most directly discussed in the sections on stereotypes and on the relationship between attitudes and behavior. You saw how implicit stereotypes and attitudes affect judgments and actions automatically and unconsciously, while explicit stereotypes and attitudes operate through conscious, deliberate means. The implicit-explicit distinction is relevant to all the topics of this chapter. All the biases affecting the impressions we form of other people—including the person bias in attributions, the attractiveness bias, and the baby-face bias—operate implicitly; we are usually unaware of their effects on our judgments and actions. You also read of implicit and explicit processes in the section dealing with the roles of classical conditioning, heuristics, and rational thought in attitude formation. As you review each of the social perceptual and attitudinal phenomena discussed in this chapter, think about the degree to which it may arise from implicit or explicit mental processes. How might we bring explicit processes to bear in reducing or countering the irrational and unfair implicit judgments that we make?