scholarly journals Good and Evil as Softwares of the Brain: On Psychological ‘Immediates’ Underlying the Metaphysical ‘Ultimates’. A contribution from Cognitive Social Psychology and Semantic Differential Research

1986 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 210-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guido Peeters
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Semantic Differential ◽  
Good And Evil ◽  
The Brain

Priors and Prejudice: How prior knowledge shapes intergroup perception

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugh McGovern ◽  
Marte Otten
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Prior Knowledge ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Social Neuroscience ◽  
Intergroup Bias ◽  
Predictive Processing ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Intergroup Perception ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Processing Framework

Bayesian processing has become a popular framework by which to understand cognitive processes. However, relatively little has been done to understand how Bayesian processing in the brain can be applied to understanding intergroup cognition. We assess how categorization and evaluation processes unfold based on priors about the ethnic outgroup being perceived. We then consider how the precision of prior knowledge about groups differentially influence perception depending on how the information about that group was learned affects the way in which it is recalled. Finally, we evaluate the mechanisms of how humans learn information about other ethnic groups and assess how the method of learning influences future intergroup perception. We suggest that a predictive processing framework for assessing prejudice could help accounting for seemingly disparate findings on intergroup bias from social neuroscience, social psychology, and evolutionary psychology. Such an integration has important implications for future research on prejudice at the interpersonal, intergroup, and societal levels.

scholarly journals From likely to likable: The role of statistical typicality in human social assessment of faces

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (47) ◽  
pp. 29371-29380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chaitanya K. Ryali ◽  
Stanny Goffin ◽  
Piotr Winkielman ◽  
Angela J. Yu
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Theoretical Result ◽  
Face Image ◽  
Societal Implications ◽  
Facial Features ◽  
Efficient Coding ◽  
Typical Data ◽  
Log Likelihood ◽  
The Brain

Humans readily form social impressions, such as attractiveness and trustworthiness, from a stranger’s facial features. Understanding the provenance of these impressions has clear scientific importance and societal implications. Motivated by the efficient coding hypothesis of brain representation, as well as Claude Shannon’s theoretical result that maximally efficient representational systems assign shorter codes to statistically more typical data (quantified as log likelihood), we suggest that social “liking” of faces increases with statistical typicality. Combining human behavioral data and computational modeling, we show that perceived attractiveness, trustworthiness, dominance, and valence of a face image linearly increase with its statistical typicality (log likelihood). We also show that statistical typicality can at least partially explain the role of symmetry in attractiveness perception. Additionally, by assuming that the brain focuses on a task-relevant subset of facial features and assessing log likelihood of a face using those features, our model can explain the “ugliness-in-averageness” effect found in social psychology, whereby otherwise attractive, intercategory faces diminish in attractiveness during a categorization task.

Altérité et identité vues par le psycho-sociologue

1971 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 357-373
Author(s):  
Abraham A. Moles ◽  
Tamar Grunewald
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Cultural Study ◽  
Jewish Identity ◽  
Configuration Space ◽  
Semantic Differential ◽  
Theoretical Background ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Affective Meaning ◽  
Cross Cultural Study ◽  
Semantic Differential Technique

The paper gives the theoretical background of a Cross- Cultural Study carried out in the Institute of Social Psychology in Strasbourg. If the fact that Jews are different is an objective one, there must be observable differences in their attitudes and especially in those covert attitudes : the affective meaning of the language in which we express our thoughts. Using the Semantic Differential technique, Jews and Non- Jews were given the same list of concepts to evaluate with the help of descriptive scales. The analysis of the data provides evidence of the relevant concepts for which the variable Jew/ Non-Jew is determinative, independently from other variables, thus demonstrating the existence of a Jewish specifisity. If the same phenomenon can be observed cross-culturally, we can speak of a Jewish identity. Using a couple of other techniques which enable us to identify some constants, each of them being a dimension of a configuration space, we could locate the test subjects (J, J, J,... Jn for Jews and NJ, NJ, NJ,... NJ n for Non-Jews) and then measure the distance between the two main clusters, which we identify as the Judaicity factor.

scholarly journals The Change in William I. Thomas’s View of Biology

Stan Rzeczy ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 75-94
Author(s):  
Łukasz Remisiewicz
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Psychological Development ◽  
Departure Point ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Brain

In this article the author shows how the exploding role of biology in William Thomas’s sociology and social psychology has changed. Since the beginning of his career, this researcher addressed numerous topics that involved both biological and social factors – he commented on the nature of gender, race, instincts, prejudice and evolution. His departure point was biologism, which proclaimed that innate predispositions are a variable independent of social processes. In the following years, Thomas changed his beliefs, recognising that it was culture and society that left its mark on physiological and psychological development. The changes in Thomas’s reasoning are described by the author against the background of past and present views on the relationship between society and the brain, claiming that his late views could resonate with today’s approaches.

scholarly journals ADVERTISING BRANDS BY MEANS OF SOUNDS SYMBOLISM: THE INFLUENCE OF VOWELS ON PERCEIVED BRAND CHARACTERISTICS

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alina Catalina Duduciuc
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Current Practice ◽  
Semantic Differential ◽  
Brand Names ◽  
Sound Symbolism ◽  
Brand Name ◽  
Front Vowel ◽  
Applied Social Psychology ◽  
Back Vowel ◽  
And Performance

The aim of this study is to test the influence of sound symbolism on perceived characteristics of a brand as well as to highlight the importance of applied social psychology to current practice of advertising. Previous research showed that the phonetic structure of brand name communicates its characteristics, i.e. it drives consumers to assess certain features and performance of the product. I assumed that when consumers encounter an unknown brand name, they automatically infer characteristics from the meaning conveyed by the sounds (e.g. phonemes). Therefore, I supposed that a brand name for a shampoo (artificially created on experimental purpose) containing back vowel is evaluated better by consumers when they compare it to another brand name with front vowels. Furthermore, for the accuracy of responses, I used the semantic differential scale to measure the differences between two brands in terms of certain attributes of product. To this end, fifty students (N=50) participated in a research based on questionnaire. As the results of the current research showed, the brand name with back vowel outnumbered the brand name with front vowel on two dimension, i.e. on brand activity and brand efficiency. The brand name containing front vowel was rated better when subjects evaluated the product in generally. Last, but not least, when it comes to convey meanings, the sound of back vowels [a] could be used more when marketers promote products that communicate its characteristics such as efficiency, velocity and health. The back vowel could be also assessed to products with larger packing or special sailing such as extra quantity. Meanwhile, the brand names with front vowels [ie] could be created for more expensive products with good quality, mainly addressed to men.

Cognitive and Affective Rejection of Mentally ILL Persons as a Function of Dogmatism

1974 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 543-549 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph W. Hood
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Semantic Differential ◽  
Psychology Students ◽  
Classroom Situation ◽  
Cognitive Level ◽  
Mentally Ill Persons ◽  
Affective Attitudes ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Relationship

Cognitive and affective attitudes toward the mentally ill were studied in introductory social psychology students categorized on the basis of their dogmatism. On a purely cognitive level highly dogmatic Ss held more stereotypical attitudes toward the mentally ill than low-dogmatic Ss. After a series of regularly scheduled lectures on the social psychology of deviance in a normal classroom situation, highly dogmatic Ss significantly decreased their stereotypical attitudes toward the mentally ill. However, on semantic-differential scales to measure affective attitudes toward the mentally ill highly dogmatic Ss increased their affective rejection of the mentally ill after this series of regularly scheduled lectures. There was no difference between high- and low-dogmatic Ss on an objective test measuring learning with respect to the lectures on deviance. The implications of these data for dogmatism theory are discussed, especially in terms of the relationship between dogmatism, anxiety, and the cognitive and affective rejection of others.

Image Sponsoring: A Methodology to Match Event and Sponsor

1996 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 278-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alain Ferrand ◽  
Monique Pagès
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Mineral Water ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Semantic Differential ◽  
Social Representation ◽  
Semantic Differential Scale ◽  
Convenience Sample ◽  
Commercial Enterprise ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Canonical Analyses

This study is part of a larger investigation concerned with a methodology to evaluate the effectiveness of image sponsoring. The notion of image, which is equivalent to the idea of social representation from social psychology, is central to this series of studies. This study was concerned with the similarities and dissimilarities in the images or social representations of the Lyon's Tennis Grand Prix, France (GPTL) and Perrier, a seller of mineral water. In the first phase, a convenience sample of 80 subjects was presented with a list of 300 adjectives and requested to identify those adjectives that described the tennis event and Perrier, Frequency analyses of these responses showed that 23 adjectives were most often cited as representative of the tennis event, while 16 were cited as representative of Perrier. These items were used in the construction of a semantic differential scale, which was administered to 162 randomly selected subjects who were familiar with both the tennis event and Perrier. Canonical analyses showed that the GPTL and Perrier shared the images of (a) being highly popular and entertaining and (b) being dynamic and successful, but distracting. The results also showed that the GPTL had the images of (a) a distinguished, as opposed to a commercial, enterprise and (b) popular because of its arousal value. Perrier's images dimension was considered to be natural and young as opposed to appreciated. The practical implications of the results are discussed.

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