Heuristics mental shortcuts that allow people to make inferences rapidly and with reduced effort.

. Useful but can lead to errors in judgment. Availability People consult their memories for examples. he easier it is to find examples! the more fre"uent the event is judged to be. leads to overestimation the occurrence of well#publicised events. people who are aware that they are influenced by the media do not adjust their judgments. $epresentativeness Heuristic% &nap judgment on whether someone'something fits a category. he more similar an individual is to the typical members of a given group! the more likely we are to decide that the individual is a member of that group. (hy) Allows us to rapidly assume much information about the person without having to take the time to determine if it is true. *ut! there are often individual differences. +ap#filling may lead us astray. (e make incorrect judgments when we rely on small samples. &mall sample does not show the pattern of the larger sample or what exists in reality. Anchoring , Adjustment Heuristic% (e need to start with some beginning value and then adjust it. &tarting point may be arbitary! we may not have the correct one. *ased on availability. &imulation heuristic use ease with which particular outcomes come to mind to judge what is likely to happen. (hen we gather information from our environemtn! our schemas can lead to us making mistakes. -ne way it happens! heuristics. .nd way it happens! by overlooking potentially useful information! exaggerating the importance of the information we actually have. /gnoring base rate information% /nstead of using basic factual information! we tend often to rely on more vivid information or on availability of information. /llusory correlations% Perception of a relationship when there is none' stronger relationship than what exists. -ccur based on prior expectations and associations of meaning. -n basis of paired distinctiveness. 0raming the way an issue is posed. How an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions. *est way to market met! 123 lean! .23 fat 0alse consensus effect 4 People5s own beliefs! values! and habits tend to bias their perceptions of how widely they are shared in the general population. (e assume people like what we like. /mpression formation% 6ery important aspect of social cognition. People form impressions of people they5ve never met! seen on television. Used as a base to decide how we will feel and act. here is a structure that underlies our impressions of people. Asch /mpression 0ormation &tudy 789:;<' =onfigural >odel Asch read out a list of adjectives about a person! difference in 8 word% (arm'=old /mpression of said person differed greatly. ?id not have same effect when polite'blunt used. =old'(arm% =entral traits because of their influence. Polite'*lunt% Peripheral traits! does not significantly change overall interpretation of a person5s personality.

@elley 7892A< Primacy effect% endency for earlier information to be more influential in social perception and interpretation. &tudents responded more positively when lecturer has been introduced as warm'cold. =entral trait'primacy effect or both) /n play. ?o first impressions count) &ame list of words! read in reverse. Bnvious C top vs Bnvious C btm. Primacy effect% 0irst items on the list tends to be most influential! impact of subse"uent items decline. $ecency effect% Dater information more helpful. =an occur when you pay little attention in the beginning! but then a change of circumstances means that you pay closer attention to the information subse"uently available. /mplicit Personality heory ype of schema people use to group various kinds of personality traits together. Using these theories helps us form well#developed impressions of other people "uickly. Assumptions about which traits do and do not go together and develop implicit theories about personality. &tereotypes Assumptions about the attributes! attitudes! behaviours and personality of other people based in group membership. Positivity and Eegativity Absence of information think best of people Eegative information tends to take precedence over other information. Physical appearance halo effect Anderson5s =ognitive Algebra 789;.!89;2< Asch is a summation of traits! take bits and pieces of information in and add together. &eperate pieces of information are averaged. Bmphasis is placed on the context. (eighted average model is regarded as best model. F(hen looking for doctor and friend! emphasis differsG =riticisms% Asch 4 unlikely to have list of traits read out before meeting. &ensory information may impact personality perception! *aby#faced! for example. Eo chance for person being judged to respond! motives not taken into account. 0iske and Eeuberg 7899A< % =ontinuum model! both processes (hen forming impressions! default option is to use or schemas. /f data is inconsistent with the schema! re#categorise the stimulus. /f re#categorisation not available! perceiver will arrive at an individuated impression.