Humans are social thinkers, and therefore, have actions that are influenced by their social situations. Social cognition is how people select, interpret, judge, and store the information they receive from other people. Basically, we remember the information we deem important and that means something to us, and use shortcuts to fill in the rest. We do this to converse mental effort, to save time and thought.
One shortcut we use is going off of our current expectations, which can sometimes lead to holding stereotypes (Trope & Thompson, 1997) (Kenrick 76). For example, when I went tailgating this weekend, I noticed I did this as well. Although I didn’t know the fraternity boys who were around me, I found myself accidentally judging them. For the …show more content…
A study by John Edwards and Gifford Weary in 1993 revealed that students who were depressed were, “Less likely to rely on their academic stereotypes to form impressions of other students,” (Kenrick 96). Being a person who has struggled with depression my entire life, I agree with this and can see it in myself. I try to avoid mental shortcuts, and give many people the benefit of the doubt. I keep in mind that I never know what someone is going through, and therefore don’t tend to hold one’s behavior against them. I’m often told that I am an extremely understanding, open-minded, and even wise person. However, I don’t see it as being wise, I see it as taking my time to try and understand people instead of using social cognitive shortcuts. After all, the last thing I want to do is accidentally offend someone, and make them sad as well. I worked at Fareway Food Stores for about three years and I can look back and see how I avoided short cuts and tried to be understanding of people. To this day I’m surprised by how many of my coworkers would complain of mean or crazy customers, as I felt I rarely came across people like this. However, I soon realized that it wasn’t because we were interacting with different people. It was because when I noticed someone was in a bad mood, I couldn’t hold it against them, and instead did whatever I could to try and make their day easier and cheer them up. This is one aspect of myself that I will always love, considering I would much rather make people happy then make them upset, or let them remain
One shortcut we use is going off of our current expectations, which can sometimes lead to holding stereotypes (Trope & Thompson, 1997) (Kenrick 76). For example, when I went tailgating this weekend, I noticed I did this as well. Although I didn’t know the fraternity boys who were around me, I found myself accidentally judging them. For the …show more content…
A study by John Edwards and Gifford Weary in 1993 revealed that students who were depressed were, “Less likely to rely on their academic stereotypes to form impressions of other students,” (Kenrick 96). Being a person who has struggled with depression my entire life, I agree with this and can see it in myself. I try to avoid mental shortcuts, and give many people the benefit of the doubt. I keep in mind that I never know what someone is going through, and therefore don’t tend to hold one’s behavior against them. I’m often told that I am an extremely understanding, open-minded, and even wise person. However, I don’t see it as being wise, I see it as taking my time to try and understand people instead of using social cognitive shortcuts. After all, the last thing I want to do is accidentally offend someone, and make them sad as well. I worked at Fareway Food Stores for about three years and I can look back and see how I avoided short cuts and tried to be understanding of people. To this day I’m surprised by how many of my coworkers would complain of mean or crazy customers, as I felt I rarely came across people like this. However, I soon realized that it wasn’t because we were interacting with different people. It was because when I noticed someone was in a bad mood, I couldn’t hold it against them, and instead did whatever I could to try and make their day easier and cheer them up. This is one aspect of myself that I will always love, considering I would much rather make people happy then make them upset, or let them remain