Social Psychology and Human Nature Brief 3rd Edition by Roy F. Baumeister – Test Bank

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CHAPTER 5—Social Cognition

MULTIPLE CHOICE

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Social cognition refers to a movement within social psychology that focuses on ____.

a. b. c. d. how individuals think about social relationships and about other people

group thinking and group decision-making

cross-cultural differences in how people think and problem-solve

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. d. the tendency for people to feel anonymous when they participate in large, tight-knit groups

male-female differences in the content of same-gender relationships

ANS: A DIF: Easy REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Applied

NOTE: New

in ____ research.

a. attribution theory

b. social cognition

c. motivation

d. prejudice

The false consensus effect, the illusory correlation, and the first instinct fallacy are all examples of topics

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. c. d. 1920s; a discipline that predated and helped to spur the development of, social psychology

1970s; a movement within social psychology

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

159Social Psychology & Human Nature, 3rd Edition

7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 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

circumstances)

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. b. c. d. does not care what other people think

tends to share his or her ideas freely with others

carefully and rationally thinks about each and every decision

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

160Chapter 5—Social Cognition

13. 14. 15. 16. 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. b. c. d. distinction between automatic thinking and deliberate thinking

tendency for ironic processes to occur in the wake of attempted thought suppressions

fact that thinking is guided by three different types of goals

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. b. c. d. do not have fully formed schemas

do not know how to read

have not made lasting associations between colors and particular objects

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. c. d. the tendency for nature to say “go” and culture to say “stop”

the tendency for people to “put people first”

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

a. dead enemy

b. happy children

c. sad tears

d. loving home

The unconscious mind would struggle most with the meaning of which of the following?

ANS: A DIF: Difficult REF: What Is Social Cognition TYPE: Applied

NOTE: New

161Social Psychology & Human Nature, 3rd Edition

17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 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 cocktails 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. c. d. You believe that it is bad luck to step on the cracks when walking on the sidewalk.

You know how to behave when you go out to dinner with your friend and her parents.

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

162Chapter 5—Social Cognition

22. 23. 24. 25. 26. If you have a schema about graduate students, then ____.

a. b. you probably tend to think about graduate students much more than the average person

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. b. c. d. They will simply rely on the information (and ignore their schema).

They will automatically incorporate that information into their existing schema.

They will tend to engage in more deliberate thought about the topic at hand.

They will automatically create a new schema altogether.

ANS: C DIF: Difficult REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Conceptual

163Social Psychology & Human Nature, 3rd Edition

27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 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

164Chapter 5—Social Cognition

34. 35. 36. 37. 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. b. c. d. stimulus that activates further processing of the same or related stimuli

way in which an argument is positioned

causal explanation for your own behavior

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. b. c. d. primed with words like “dangerous” and “risky”

primed with words like “fun” and “adventurous”

asked to avoid the fundamental attribution error

asked to avoid the ultimate attribution error

ANS: A DIF: Easy REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Applied

165Social Psychology & Human Nature, 3rd Edition

38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. In Bargh, Chen, and Burrows (1996), participants who were in the “rude” priming condition were more

likely to ____.

a. b. c. d. wait patiently for the experimenter to speak to them

interrupt the experimenter to get instructions

view the experimenter as conceited and aloof

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. b. c. d. Working out daily will help you maintain good health.

Failure to work out daily will risk health consequences.

People who don’t work out enough tend to struggle with their weight.

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. b. c. upside of a behavior’s consequences

downside of a behavior’s consequences

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

166Chapter 5—Social Cognition

44. 45. 46. 47. 48. When people want to suppress a thought, the automatic mind works to ____.

a. b. c. d. keep a lookout for anything that might remind them of the unwanted thought

redirect attention away from the unpleasant thought

“numb” the mind so that people do not think any thoughts

“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. b. c. d. keep a lookout for anything that might remind them of the unwanted thought

redirect attention away from the unpleasant thought

“numb” the mind so that people do not think any thoughts

“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

167Social Psychology & Human Nature, 3rd Edition

49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 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. b. c. d. wanting to get back together with her boyfriend

being more angry with her boyfriend than she was before

thinking about her boyfriend even more than she was before

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

168Chapter 5—Social Cognition

54. 55. 56. 57. 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? 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

TYPE: Factual

ANS: C DIF: Moderate

REF: Attributions and Explanations: Why Did that Happen? TYPE: Conceptual

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

169Social Psychology & Human Nature, 3rd Edition

58. 59. 60. 61. 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. d. “Jorge must have some sort of natural gift for physics; he is really smart!”

“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

17062. 63. 64. 65. Chapter 5—Social Cognition

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

171Social Psychology & Human Nature, 3rd Edition

66. 67. 68. 69. 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

17270. 71. 72. 73. 74. 75. Chapter 5—Social Cognition

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? The fundamental attribution error is sometimes also known as the ____.

a. correspondence bias

b. ultimate attribution error

TYPE: Conceptual

173Social Psychology & Human Nature, 3rd Edition

76. 77. 78. 79. 80. 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

17481. 82. 83. 84. 85. 86. Chapter 5—Social Cognition

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? 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

TYPE: Factual

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? NOTE: New

“Heuristic” is another word for ____.

a. causation

TYPE: Applied

175Social Psychology & Human Nature, 3rd Edition

87. 88. 89. 90. 91. 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

176Chapter 5—Social Cognition

92. 93. 94. 95. 96. 97. 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

177Social Psychology & Human Nature, 3rd Edition

98. 99. 100. 101. 102. 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. b. c. d. people usually do not “adjust” enough away from their anchors

people usually “adjust” too much away from their anchors

people will not engage in this heuristic if they know that the anchors are arbitrary

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 BiasesTYPE: 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. b. c. d. Women tend to estimate the number of sexual partners and men tend to make a mental list.

Men and women seem to define “sex” slightly differently.

Men and/or women lie to avoid embarrassment.

Homosexual 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

178103. 104. Chapter 5—Social Cognition

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

179Social Psychology & Human Nature, 3rd Edition

105. 106. 107. 108. 109. 110. The so-called illusory correlation can most directly help explain ____.

a. b. why people tend to think that they are “better than average” on most traits and abilities

why people tend to overestimate the degree to which members of minority groups engage

in criminal behaviors

c. d. why people tend to continue to gamble even when they have hit an “unlucky streak”

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 ___.

180Chapter 5—Social Cognition

111. 112. 113. 114. 115. a. b. c. d. think that the missionary believes he is better than her because of his hobby

believe she can persuade the missionary that her religion is the better world view

believe many Mormons collect rare books

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. b. c. d. it is more likely they will win the next hand than is actually the case

it is more likely they will lose the next hand than is actually the case

they are equally likely to win versus lose the next hand

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. c. (false) belief that one is far more skilled or gifted than are others

(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

181Social Psychology & Human Nature, 3rd Edition

116. 117. 118. 119. b. c. say that the last flip is more likely to be tails

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. b. c. d. overestimate the number of people who agree with them

underestimate the number of people who agree with them

rely too heavily on the primacy effect

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. c. d. hide the way they truly feel about an issue in order to reach a consensus

lean toward the most popular opinion of a group regardless of how they feel

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. b. c. d. their undesirable characteristics; their desirable characteristics

their desirable characteristics; their undesirable characteristics

their unusual characteristics; their more common characteristics

their more common characteristics; their unusual characteristics

ANS: A DIF: Moderate REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases

TYPE: Conceptual

182Chapter 5—Social Cognition

120. 121. 122. 123. 124. 125. Which of the following is an explanation for the false consensus effect, but not an explanation for the

false uniqueness effect?

a. b. c. d. People use themselves as an “anchor” when judging others.

People want to feel good about themselves.

People want to feel that they are consistent across time.

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. c. d. theories in science will only persevere as long as evidence supports them

social conformity plays the biggest role in the success of a theory

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

183126. 127. 128. 129. Social Psychology & Human Nature, 3rd Edition

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

184Chapter 5—Social Cognition

130. 131. 132. 133. 134. 135. “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. d. counterfactuals about past events; counterfactuals about future events

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

185Social Psychology & Human Nature, 3rd Edition

136. 137. 138. 139. 140. 141. 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. b. c. d. as a result of having had graduate training involving statistical reasoning, but not when

they are simply encouraged to carefully consider different alternatives.

when they are encouraged to carefully consider different alternatives, but not as a result of

having had graduate training involving statistical reasoning.

both as a result of graduate training involving statistical reasoning, and when they are

encouraged to carefully consider different alternatives.

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

186Chapter 5—Social Cognition

142. 143. 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. b. c. both humans and other animals; both humans and other animals

both humans and other animals; only humans

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

1. People tend to want to explore most issues thoroughly before making decisions.

ANS: F DIF: Easy REF: What Is Social Cognition? TYPE: Conceptual

2. 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

3. 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 ExplanationsTYPE: Conceptual

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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 homosexual sex.

ANS: F DIF: Difficult REF: (So-Called) Errors and Biases TYPE: Factual

7. 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

187Social Psychology & Human Nature, 3rd Edition

8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 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

188Chapter 5—Social Cognition

COMPLETION

1. 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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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)

6. ______________________.

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

189Social Psychology & Human Nature, 3rd Edition

7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 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

190Chapter 5—Social Cognition

ESSAY

1. 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

191Social Psychology & Human Nature, 3rd Edition

2. 3. 4. 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. iii. Deliberate processes redirect attention away from the undesirable thought.

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. b. c. d. Confirmation bias: Helps people to feel that their ideas and beliefs are the correct ones.

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.

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.

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

192Chapter 5—Social Cognition

5. 6. 7. 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

circumstances.

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. ii. iii. v. Try to think of multiple alternatives.

Try to rely less on memory.

Try to use explicit decision rules.

iv. Search for disconfirmatory information.

Use meta-cognition to reflectively evaluate thought processes and strategies.

DIF: Difficult REF: Are People Really Stupid? TYPE: Conceptual

193