Hockenbury Discovering Psychology 5th txtbk

Person Perception461To illustrate, glance at the margin photo of people crossinga street. Each person in the photo is a unique individual witha unique background and life experiences.Nevertheless, you probably made several rapid judgmentsabout the people in the photograph. That’s becauseprior experiences and beliefs about different social categoriescan trigger implicit social reactions ranging fromvery positive to very negative (Nosek & others, 2007).Without consciously realizing it, your reaction to anotherperson can be swayed by the other person’s age, gender,ethnicity, skin tone, physical attractiveness, weight, andclothing. Less obvious social categories that can trigger implicitreactions include sexual orientation as well as politicalor religious beliefs.In everyday life, people often assume that certain typesof people share certain traits and behaviors. This is referredto as an implicit personality theory. Different models existto explain how implicit personality theories develop andfunction (e.g., Fiske & others, 2002; Ybarra, 2002). But in general terms, your previoussocial and cultural experiences influence the cognitive schemas, or mentalframeworks, you hold about the traits and behaviors associated with different“types” of people. So when you perceive someone to be a particular “type,” you assumethat the person will display those traits and behaviors (see Uleman & others,2008).For example, your choice of a seatmate on the subway might well reflect some ofyour own implicit personality theories. You might feel comfortable sitting next tothe silver-haired man who’s reading the Wall Street Journal, wearing an expensivesuit, and carrying what looks like a leather laptop case. Why? Because these superficialcharacteristics lead you to assume that he’s a particular type of person—a conservativebusinessman. And on the basis of your implicit personality theory for a“conservative businessman,” you conclude that he’s probably a “law-abiding citizen”who is not likely to try to pick your pocket or whip out a gun and rob you.Physical appearance cues play an important role in person perception and socialcategorization. Particularly influential is the implicit personality theory that mostpeople have for physically attractive people (see Anderson & others, 2008; Langlois& others, 2000). Starting in childhood, we are bombarded with the cultural messagethat “what is beautiful is good.” In myths, fairy tales, cartoons, movies, and games,heroes are handsome, heroines are beautiful, and the evil villains are ugly. As a resultof such cultural conditioning, most people have an implicit personality theory thatassociates physical attractiveness with a wide range of desirable characteristics.Using Social Categories We often use superficialcues such as clothing and contextto assign people to social categories anddraw conclusions about their behavior. Forexample, you might characterize somepeople in this crowd as belonging to thecategory of “businessmen” because theyare wearing dress shirts and ties—and concludethat they are on their way to work.What other sorts of social categories areevident here?A Charitable Guy? As a highly successfulWall Street financial adviser, BernieMadoff managed money for individuals,financial institutions, and numerouscharitable foundations, includingdirector Steven Spielberg’s WunderkinderFoundation. A well-knownphilanthropist, he also gave substantialamounts of his own money to charities.But Bernie Madoff was actually acrook, swindling his clients out of billionsof dollars over a period of morethan 20 years. In what ways could implicitpersonality theories help explainhow Madoff got away with his crimesfor so long?implicit personality theoryA network of assumptions or beliefs aboutthe relationships among various types ofpeople, traits, and behaviors.