Deck 3: Social Beliefs and Judgments

Question 1

Suppose a group of people who oppose gun control is presented with research evidence that is ambiguous about how well gun-control legislation will deter crime. Some of the evidence suggests that such laws would reduce crime, whereas other evidence suggests it would be ineffective or even backfire. After reviewing the evidence, how will most people in the group react?

A) They will be less opposed to gun control legislation.
B) Their attitudes will be unchanged, but they will call for more research.
C) They will become more strongly opposed to gun control legislation.
D) They will be more sympathetic to the opposing point of view.

Answer 1

They will become more strongly opposed to gun control legislation.

Question 2

Ross, Lepper, and Lord showed mixed research results on the deterrence effect of the death penalty to students who either favoured or opposed the death penalty. Showing the two sides this identical body of mixed evidence

A) had no effect on their pre-existing opinions.
B) narrowed the disagreement between the two sides.
C) changed the views of the pro students but not the anti.
D) increased the amount of disagreement between them.

Answer 2

increased the amount of disagreement between them.

Question 3

What concept best explains why disputing labour and management representatives may both perceive an impartial mediator to be biased toward the other side?

A) Belief perseverance
B) Misinformation effect
C) Illusory correlation
D) Powerful preconceptions

Answer 3

Powerful preconceptions

Question 4

It is not uncommon for people to hang on to their beliefs even when substantial evidence suggests they are untrue, counterproductive, and even harmful. This tendency is known as the

A) belief perseverance phenomenon.
B) belief continuity phenomenon.
C) correspondence bias.
D) belief disconfirmation bias.

Question 5

According to research by Anderson and colleagues, when integrating information about someone in forming an impression, you will probably give more weight to

A) first impressions than later ones.
B) traits that are important to you than traits that are not.
C) negative information than positive.
D) All of these choices

Question 6

Priming studies examining the unconscious suggest that the unconscious

A) is a superstitious belief.
B) controls our feelings.
C) has no control on our behaviour
D) may control much of our behaviour.

Question 7

To retrieve a memory, you need to activate one of the strands that leads to it, a process known as

A) belief perseverance.
B) reconstruction.
C) priming.
D) induction.

Question 8

According to your text, the reason why ambiguous information in politics, religion, and science often fuels conflict is because

A) it makes unclear statements
B) it reinforces pre-debate opinions.
C) it brings forth new information.
D) it says nothing new.

Question 9

According to the text

A) we construct reality; reality is a social construction.
B) there is a reality out there but our minds actively construe it. Other people may construe their reality differently and may therefore behave differently.
C) reality is based on false memories.
D) Both A and B

Question 10

The act of automatic (uncontrolled) activation of particular associations in our memory is best known as the

A) priming effect.
B) confirmation bias.
C) belief perseverance.
D) the misinformation effect.

Question 11

Research has demonstrated that when shown a face with a neutral expression, participants will interpret the expression as cruel or kind according to what they had been previously told about the individual (e.g., Gestapo leader versus leader in the anti-Nazi movement, respectively). Studies such as this demonstrate

A) how our preconceptions shape our interpretations of others.
B) how priming changes our interpretations of neutral stimuli.
C) that we infer traits of individuals based on their physical appearance.
D) how our own biases are more influential than information we are told by others.

Question 12

Although research has been very clear on the harmful effects of drug dependency, Carla continues to believe that one Tylenol a day is harmless. Carla's thinking clearly reveals

A) belief assimilation.
B) belief consolidation.
C) belief perseverance.
D) operation of the availability heuristic.

Question 13

One possible solution to the belief perseverance phenomenon is to

A) always attempt to justify one's position.
B) carefully review the objective evidence.
C) seek the opinions of others.
D) explain why an opposite belief might be true.

Question 14

The process where people associate traits that we talk about other people having with ourselves (e.g., you talk about how another person is a gossip, some people may unconsciously associate gossip with you) is known as

A) counterfactual thinking.
B) the priming effect.
C) spontaneous trait transference.
D) confirmation bias.

Question 15

Anderson, Lepper, and Ross provided people with evidence that either risk-prone or cautious people make better firefighters. Those who wrote an explanation for the findings were particularly susceptible to

A) the fundamental attribution error.
B) the hindsight bias.
C) behavioural confirmation.
D) belief perseverance.

Question 16

Preconceptions seem to influence our social judgments most when

A) social information is subject to multiple interpretations.
B) social information is clear and unambiguous.
C) the information we have is complete.
D) correspondence is highest.

Question 17

In a study of what's been called the "hostile media phenomenon," Valone, Ross, and Lepper (1985) showed pro-Israeli and pro-Arab students network news coverage of the 1982 killing of civilian refugees in Lebanon. Results showed

A) both groups perceived the news to be hostile to its side.
B) only pro-Israeli students perceived the news to be hostile to its side.
C) only pro-Arab students perceived the news to be hostile to its side.
D) both groups perceived the news to be sympathetic to its side and hostile to the opposing side.

Question 18

Following political debates, individuals typically

A) become more moderate in their view of their preferred candidate.
B) become even more supportive of their candidate than they were before the debate.
C) become somewhat more favourable toward the opposing candidate.
D) come to dislike both candidates.

Question 19

Jennifer is home alone and has just finished watching the movie re-make of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. She hears a noise in her garage and becomes very afraid as she thinks someone may be trying to break into her house. This example best represents the concept of

A) the availability heuristic.
B) the priming effect.
C) counterfactual thinking.
D) belief perseverance.

Question 20

Halfway through the 1972 hockey series between Canada and the Soviet Union, the officiating in the games became much stricter. Hockey fans attributed this change to

A) "goonlike" playing by the Canadian team.
B) influence by the Soviet media toward Soviet-chosen referees.
C) both of the given reasons, depending on the whether the fans were Canadians or Soviets.
D) None of these reasons

Question 21

According to the textbook, one reason for overconfidence is that people tend to

A) justify their judgments.
B) deny their mistakes.
C) forget their mistaken judgments.
D) recall their mistaken judgments as times when they were almost right.

Question 22

One reason people are overconfident is that they are not inclined to seek out information

A) from experts.
B) that is objective and factual.
C) that involves judging estimates and comparisons.
D) that might disprove what they believe.

Question 23

Which of the following statements about memory is false?

A) Memories are copies of past experiences that remain on deposit in a memory bank until withdrawn.
B) We easily and unconsciously reconstruct our memories to suit our current knowledge.
C) People often recall mildly pleasant events more favourably than they experienced them.
D) We not only forget ideas and beliefs, we also forget our previous attitudes.

Question 24

Studies of the overconfidence phenomenon show that _______________ feeds overconfidence.

A) incompetence
B) competence
C) overestimate
D) unawareness

Question 25

Steve is typically very confident about his opinions and beliefs - in fact, he is usually more confident than he is accurate about certain things. Steve's thinking illustrates

A) illusory correlation.
B) the I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon.
C) the overconfidence phenomenon.
D) belief perseverance.

Question 26

Upon finding your old report cards, you're surprised that you were just an average student in grade school rather than the "A" student you remember being. What best accounts for this discrepancy?

A) The overconfidence phenomenon
B) Counterfactual thinking
C) Rosy retrospection
D) Hindsight bias

Question 27

Studies of ____________________ show that our expectations for the future are vastly positive even though we know we've made mistakes in the past.

A) attitudes
B) the limits of the unconsciousness
C) judgmental overconfidence
D) experience reconstruction

Question 28

Dave typically reads information and watches programming that tends to support his existing beliefs. He's less inclined to seek information that might disprove his preconceptions. Dave's approach illustrates

A) the confirmation bias.
B) the misinformation effect.
C) the base-rate fallacy.
D) the overconfidence phenomenon.

Question 29

Which of the following is an effective remedy for the overconfidence bias?

A) Get people to think about why their judgments might be wrong.
B) Delay feedback regarding the accuracy of their judgments.
C) Inform people about the overconfidence bias.
D) None of these choices - there is no remedy.

Question 30

The act of incorporating misinformation in our mental reconstruction of past events is known as

A) priming effect.
B) confirmation bias.
C) belief perseverance.
D) the misinformation effect.

Question 31

Bem and McConnell had students write essays opposing student control over university curriculum. When asked to recall how they had felt about the same issue a week earlier, most of the students

A) remembered having held a very different attitude.
B) could not remember how they had felt.
C) mistakenly "remembered" having felt the same as now.
D) admitted they had always supported student control of curriculum but pretended to oppose it in their essays.

Question 32

On the way to his spring break at the ocean, Ben's flight was delayed 12 hours. Once on the beach he was disappointed that the condo was run-down and dirty. After the trip, Ben described his experience in nothing but positive terms. This accounting of the trip best reflects

A) rosy retrospection.
B) belief perseverance.
C) confirmation bias.
D) false memory.

Question 33

Investment experts' belief that their own expertise will enable them to select stocks that will outperform the market average best illustrates

A) the misinformation effect.
B) the overconfidence phenomenon.
C) the availability heuristic.
D) priming.

Question 34

Amanda stopped at the convenience store on her way home from work, and passed by a man with a baseball bat fleeing the store. She found out that the man had robbed the store clerk and caused damage in the store. While waiting for the police to arrive, all the witnesses were talking about what they remembered and what the assailant looked like. Although Amanda didn't recall the man having facial hair, a few other witnesses said he did. When she later thought about what the man looked like, she recalled him having facial hair. This example best represents the

A) confirmation bias.
B) misinformation effect.
C) representativeness effect.
D) availability heuristic.

Question 35

Studies of judgmental overconfidence show that our expectations for the future are vastly positive

A) even though we know we've made mistakes in the past.
B) based on our positive evaluation of our previous behaviour.
C) because we are not capable of recognizing the difficulty of the situation.
D) because we learn from our previous experiences.

Question 36

When an experimenter asks people to vividly imagine a childhood incident in which they knocked over a punch bowl at a wedding, approximately _______ will later recall the event as something that actually happened.

A) three-fourths
B) one-half
C) one-fourth
D) one percent

Question 37

The misinformation effect is to _________ as priming is to _________.

A) natural; unnatural.
B) situational; internal.
C) external; internal.
D) conscious; unconscious.

Question 38

According to research, we reconstruct our past behaviour

A) to suit our present views.
B) to avoid looking at the past.
C) to support views we held in the past.
D) such that it is as objective as possible.

Question 39

James has performed very well throughout the semester in his logic course. His buddy Kyle, on the other hand, has been consistently scoring in the D-range. Both sign up for a psychology experiment that requires them to engage in several problem-solving tasks. According to the overconfidence phenomenon, when they are asked how they think they will perform, who will be rate themselves as most confident?

A) James
B) Kyle
C) Both James and Kyle will rate themselves as highly confident in their abilities.
D) Both James and Kyle will rate themselves as not confident in their abilities.

Question 40

Cassandra has a 10-page paper due in her social psychology class. She keeps putting off the paper, using the justification that it will only take an evening to write the assignment. When she finally sits down to work on the assignment, it is taking her way longer than she originally thought, and she ends up handing it in 3 days late due to her underestimation of the time it took. This example refers to

A) the availability heuristic.
B) the confirmation bias.
C) "planning fallacy" overconfidence.
D) our tendency to reconstruct our past behaviours.

Question 41

The incorrect belief that more people live in Iraq (26 million) than Tanzania (24 million) can be understood in terms of

A) the availability heuristic.
B) hindsight bias.
C) regression toward the average.
D) the illusion of control.

Question 42

Counterfactual thinking occurs when we can easily picture an alternative outcome of an event and underlies our

A) prediction of future.
B) feelings of luck.
C) estimation of probability.
D) calculation of the event happened in the past.

Question 43

Our tendency to judge the likelihood of an event on the basis of how readily we can remember instances of its occurrence is called the

A) confirmation bias.
B) representativeness heuristic.
C) availability heuristic.
D) belief perseverance phenomenon.

Question 44

As we examine our beliefs or theories and explain how they may be true,

A) the more uncertain we become of them.
B) the more closed we become to discrediting information.
C) the more open we are likely to become to discrediting information.
D) the more complex our theories are likely to become.

Question 45

People's greater fear of flying than of driving may best be explained by the

A) representativeness heuristic.
B) confirmation bias.
C) availability heuristic.
D) belief perseverance phenomenon.

Question 46

Research on counterfactual thinking has revealed that

A) Olympic bronze medalists exhibit more joy than Olympic silver medalists.
B) counterfactual thinking is more intense the more significant the event.
C) counterfactual thinking occurs when we can easily picture an alternative outcome.
D) all of these choices.

Question 47

Which of the following terms might be used to describe best mental shortcuts?

A) base-rate fallacy
B) hindsight bias
C) illusion of control
D) heuristic

Question 48

According to textbook, "bad luck" refers to

A) unpredictable events.
B) good events that didn't happened but might have.
C) bad events that did happen but might not have.
D) good events that did happened later than expected time.

Question 49

"If only I hadn't called Brian when I was in a bad mood," whines Jenny, "maybe we wouldn't have had that fight and broken up!" Jenny's statement most clearly reflects

A) the self-fulfilling prophecy.
B) counterfactual thinking.
C) the availability heuristic.
D) pessimistic attributional style.

Question 50

According to research, people seek as friends and spouses those who

A) bolster their own self views even if they think poorly of themselves.
B) they like irrespective of how similar they are.
C) are just their opposite.
D) compliment them a lot.

Question 51

A rule-of-thumb strategy that enables quick, efficient judgments is called

A) the confirmation bias.
B) the overconfidence phenomenon.
C) an implicit attitude.
D) a heuristic.

Question 52

The tendency to search for information that confirms one's preconceptions has been labelled as

A) the overconfidence phenomenon.
B) the confirmation bias.
C) a heuristic.
D) an implicit attitude.

Question 53

What of the following best explains why women fear being assaulted by a stranger more than by an acquaintance, even though the opposite is more often the reality?

A) The base-rate fallacy
B) The availability heuristic
C) Counterfactual thinking
D) The misinformation effect

Question 54

The tendency to conclude that a person who likes to play chess and read poetry is more likely to be a college professor of classics than a truck driver most clearly illustrates the use of

A) the availability heuristic.
B) the representativeness heuristic.
C) belief perseverance.
D) the illusion of control.

Question 55

Our use of the availability heuristic highlights a basic principle of social thinking. This principle is:

A) people are slow to deduce particular instances from a general truth.
B) people are slow to infer general truth from a vivid instance.
C) people are quick to deduce particular instances from a general truth.
D) people are very accurate to explain the vivid instances based on general truth.

Question 56

Inferring a general truth from a vivid instance is referred to as

A) counterfactual thinking.
B) social beliefs.
C) the representativeness heuristic.
D) the availability heuristic.

Question 57

Our use of the availability heuristic highlights a basic principle of social thinking. This principle is:

A) people are quick to deduce a particular instance from a general truth.
B) people are remarkably quick to infer general truth from a vivid instance.
C) people are slow to infer general truth from a vivid instance.
D) people are very accurate to explain the vivid instances based on general truth.

Question 58

Darlene has a chance to go on a road trip with a bunch of her girlfriends for a few weeks. She decides that she can't afford to go away for that long. Instead, she chooses to stay home and work during that time to save money for the next trip. Later on, she thinks about making a different choice. According to the principles of counterfactual thinking, which choice is Darlene most likely to regret?

A) she will regret them both the same.
B) staying home to work and save money.
C) not going with her girlfriends on the road trip.
D) she would not regret either one of her choices.

Question 59

The strategy of judging the likelihood of things by how well they match particular prototypes constitutes the _______________ heuristic.

A) availability
B) representativeness
C) vividness
D) matching

Question 60

Social psychologists have labelled our tendency to make up imagined alternative scenarios and outcomes that might have happened but didn't as

A) the base-rate fallacy.
B) automatic thinking.
C) reflective bias.
D) counterfactual thinking.

Question 61

University students who receive unusually high scores on their first biology test can reasonably expect to receive ____________ scores on their second biology test.

A) very low
B) somewhat lower
C) equally high
D) even higher

Question 62

Joseph Forgas, a psychologist at the University of New South Wales, believes that moody people's "feelings seem to _________".

A) help their thinking
B) invade their thinking
C) not to affect their thinking
D) be more effective than their thinking

Question 63

Jim believes he can actually guess correctly the outcome of heads or tails of 10 consecutive fair coin trials. His belief can perhaps best be explained in terms of

A) self-fulfilling prophecy.
B) regression toward the average.
C) illusion of control.
D) hindsight bias.

Question 64

Research indicates that compared to unhappy people, happy people

A) are more trusting and loving.
B) choose long-term rewards over immediate small pleasures.
C) tolerate more frustration.
D) show all of the above characteristics.

Question 65

Dottie has the illusory belief that there is a correlation between washing her car and the occurrence of rain in her area. According to research, Dottie is now much more likely to notice when

A) it rains and she hasn't washed her car.
B) it rains and she has just washed her car.
C) it doesn't rain and she has just washed her car.
D) All of these choices.

Question 66

Our tendency of perceiving relationships/connections when none whatsoever exist is called

A) imaginary parallel.
B) counterfactual thinking.
C) illusory correlation.
D) regression toward the average.

Question 67

Dice players who throw softly to get low numbers and harder to get high numbers are demonstrating

A) the base-rate fallacy.
B) the illusion of control.
C) behavioural confirmation.
D) regression toward the average.

Question 68

Moods can affect our thinking by

A) triggering memories associated with those moods.
B) triggering more effortful, deep processing.
C) triggering self-fulfilling prophecies.
D) None of these choices.

Question 69

Joseph Forgas and his colleagues found that participants' judgments of their own videotaped behaviours were more positive if, while they watched the videotape, they were

A) in a good mood.
B) with a stranger.
C) distracted.
D) either depressed or anxious.

Question 70

Gus is in a terrific mood on the day goes to look for a new car. He instantly decides to buy the second car he test-drives. If Gus had been in a bad mood, what type of decision might he have made about a car purchase?

A) He would not have gone car shopping at all.
B) He would have bought the first car he test drove.
C) He would have taken more time to make a decision.
D) There would have been no difference in his decision.

Question 71

When peoples' memories and judgments change with their moods it is referred to as

A) illusory thinking.
B) counterfactual thinking.
C) mood infusion.
D) heuristics.

Question 72

According to the text, "mood infusion" refers to how

A) peoples' memories and judgments change with their mood.
B) peoples' moods change with a change in their thoughts and knowledge.
C) people prefer to make judgments based on their moods not thoughts.
D) people are unaware that their moods have an effect on their thoughts.

Question 73

Among the explanations below, which one can best explain our illusion of control over certain outcomes?

A) We fail to see our susceptibility to base-rate fallacy.
B) We fail to recognize the statistical phenomenon of regression toward the average.
C) We fail to see the operation of the representativeness heuristic.
D) We fail to recognize our tendency to counterfactual thinking.

Question 74

Which of the following is the most likely attribution to be made by someone in an unhappy marriage?

A) "She was late because of heavy traffic."
B) "She was late because she got tied up at the office."
C) "She was late because she doesn't care about me."
D) "She was late because it took so long to check out at the grocery store."

Question 75

We are especially likely to analyze and discuss why things happen when the event in question is

A) negative or unexpected.
B) positive or altruistic.
C) normal or public.
D) infrequent or private.

Question 76

After two years of intense publications (four per year), Ela's research productivity drops to one published paper per year. What term best explains Ela's fewer publications after two years of intense productivity?

A) overconfidence bias
B) base-rate fallacy
C) regression toward the average
D) schemata

Question 77

The prolonged debates that surround social issues, such as whether a homeless person is lacking initiative or has been victimized by job and social assistance cutbacks, illustrate how people attempt to

A) make judgments about who is responsible for such issues.
B) make attributions about others' behaviours.
C) explain why people act the way they do.
D) all of these choices

Question 78

Although Jason once scored a 270 in bowling, he has subsequently been unable to beat that record no matter how much he practices. His experience may be partially understood in terms of

A) illusory correlation.
B) regression toward the average.
C) the representativeness heuristic.
D) counterfactual thinking.

Question 79

Even when people are shown nothing but a random mix of results, they still like to believe one outcome is more likely than the other. This is tendency illustrates a concept known as

A) the self-fulfilling prophecy.
B) the representativeness heuristic.
C) illusory correlation.
D) social overconfidence.

Question 80

When baseball's rookie-of-the-year has a more ordinary second year, we shouldn't be surprised. This fact is easily explained by

A) illusory correlations.
B) the base-rate fallacy.
C) the illusion of control.
D) regression toward the average.