 This is lecture three. In this lecture, we'll be discussing social cognition, and we'll start off by talking about how knowledge is structured in our brain. But let's first look further into the concept of social cognition. With social cognition, we refer to the ways in which people think about themselves and the social world around them. Specifically, we look into how people select information, interpret information, remember it, and also use social information to make judgments and decisions. And that's of course very important in our endeavor to try to understand human beings better. So our brains are very complex. We have a lot of knowledge. And luckily for us, there are smart systems that we use in the brain that we can rely on when we make social decisions. So one part of these systems is called schemas. And with schemas, we refer to the way in which our knowledge is structured in the brain. So schemas are mental structures that sort of organizes knowledge about a specific topic. For example, all the information that we have about our colleagues, about our family, about our friends, but also about completely different topics like hurricanes, like your favorite soda, like your favorite breakfast. So all these different parts of different topics have a specific structure in our brain. And this is sort of all captured in a certain schema. So all the information on a certain topic. So you can imagine how many schemas we have in our brains. There are so many different parts of information that we know a lot about. And luckily for us, these schemas are not always activated. That would be exhausting if you would all the time think about all the information that you have in our brain. So these schemas are sometimes activated and sometimes they aren't. And it's important to understand when these schemas are activated because the moment they get activated and that part of the brain with a specific type of knowledge is active, it starts to impact your decision making. So it's really important for us to know how these schemas become active and what happens once they become active. So in the first, if you try to understand when schemas get activated, it's important to realize that some schemas are always accessible. They are always active. This is called chronic accessibility. And this is for example about knowledge that is very important to you. For example, knowledge about yourself. In lecture five, we're going to extensively talk about the self. And we will see that all the knowledge that we have about ourselves is basically always activated. And that is because we are very important to ourselves. So everything we know about you, yeah, that will impact you. And if you hear information about yourself, it will be automatically influencing your behavior. But also about other topics that are really important to you. For example, information about your family. That's also very important for you. And therefore, the concept of family or certain family members that you are very close to or your best friend, that information is always accessible as well. Interestingly enough, one part of information that also becomes easily accessible is when we try to suppress a thought, which is somehow a little bit ironic. So the moment that we are very interested in forgetting something, for example, I think we can all relate to the feeling that you're lying in bed, and maybe you're worrying about an upcoming exam that you have, and you're lying in bed, and you only think to yourself, I need to stop worrying because I need to rest in order to do this exam well. So you tell yourself, stop thinking about the exam. Stop thinking about the exam. Does it help? Probably not. And that is because the moment we try to suppress thoughts, this is very effortful, and especially if we're tired, we have a very hard time doing so. And ironically, these thoughts that you try to suppress become highly accessible, very active. So this is a little bit ironic. So the moment you try to stop yourself from thinking about something, actually that knowledge becomes more accessible. And this has also been studied in, I think, a very smart and funny way. I'm going to do this very short test with you now. So I'm going to give you an assignment. You can think of everything you want to think about. So it doesn't matter at all. You can think about whatever you want, except for a white beer, like a polar beer or any white beer, you cannot think about it. So for the next 10 seconds, think about anything you want but not about a white beer. Don't forget, don't think about the white beer. Are you doing it? Don't think about it, huh? Don't do it. Yeah, that's very difficult. So this has actually been coined the white beer effect, because in research on exactly this assignment, it turned out that people had a very hard time resisting thoughts of a white beer, even though they never think about a white beer. When do you ever think about a white beer unless when you're visiting the zoo, maybe? Or you're watching a documentary. But yeah, this is not a topic that you think about a lot. So it's interesting that something that is not relevant for you, that is not important to you at all, and you rarely think about it the moment you cannot think about it, it becomes more active. And that's also when it's very difficult if, for example, you're in a family gathering and before you go to the meeting and you enter the room with all your aunts and uncles and your mom says to you, whatever you do, don't bring up the divorce with your arms. It's a very sensitive topic, so don't talk about the divorce. That's impossible. So trying to suppress thoughts is really difficult, and that actually leads to chronic accessibility. So some of these schemas are chronically accessible, also when we try to suppress them, but most schemas are actually temporarily accessible, and this is called priming. So priming means the temporary activation of certain knowledge. So some topics just become more relevant at a certain point in time than others. And this happened, for example, a year ago when my oldest son, he really wanted to have a dog, and he talked about it all the time, and when we were out and we were walking around, and all the time he said, look mom, there's a dog, there's a dog. So everywhere we went, he saw dogs, and it seemed like the whole world was just overpopulated with dogs, because this concept of dogs was temporarily active for him, and he pointed out that everywhere he looked, he saw dogs. And that is because once a schema is activated, we become highly susceptible for information that's related to the schema. So you just see more dogs when you're really preoccupied with that topic. Just like when I was pregnant, I saw pregnant women all over where I was looking. I saw pregnant women. It seemed like there were more pregnant women than ever. That's not the case, but that's just the way our brain works. So when something is really important to you and you're preoccupied with it temporarily, then this is also steering your perception of the world. And a last example, so my parents are actually contemplating buying a minivan or maybe a camper, and when they did so, they told me that everywhere they looked, they saw campers on the street, and it was just the way that they were perceiving their social world. So the schemas that are activated for you also impact the way you're looking at the world. And this concept of priming has a very big allure also for researchers. This is a very cool concept, if you think about it, that our temporary activation of knowledge is steering the way we look at the world, but also how we make decisions. Somewhere between 2000 and 2010, there was a lot of research on this. For example, by John Barge, who did, I think, a very cool study in which he studied priming as well, and the task was as follows. He asked participants to look at a number of words, and there were two different groups. So this is an experiment. Two different groups, people were randomly assigned to the groups, and for one group of participants they just saw random words on the screen, so not related to any specific schema. The other group saw words that were related to the concept of elderly, like gray, wrinkle, bingo, all the words that sort of activate, temporarily activate the schema elderly. And he was interested whether this priming also impacted their behavior. So what he did next, after the participants had this manipulation, this priming, he asked them to go to another room. And he said, so the next part of the experiment is in another room, and he actually, the next part of the experiment was not in the other room, it was the walk they had, so how long it took for them to walk from one room to the elevator that they needed to go to the other room. So he sort of, with a stopwatch, he measured how long it took participants to walk to the elevator. And his idea was if the concept of elderly is activated, maybe this sort of unconsciously also impacts your behavior, and maybe you start behaving more like an elderly as well, meaning that you might walk to the elevator slower compared to when the schema is not activated. Pretty smart, huh? So that was what he did, and he found that indeed group number two, primed with the concept of elderly, walked to the elevator slower. This study had a huge impact in the field, it was very clever, people liked it a lot, it was also wrote about it a lot. But recently, we found out that this study is actually not as solid as John Barge thought when he run the study, because this study failed to replicate. So this means that this study was actually repeated with a bigger sample size, so actually a better study with better methods, and these results were not found again, which does not mean that the concept of priming is not real, it is definitely real, but in this specific context, it's not working the way that John Barge thought it would. You're not starting to walk slower if you think about the concept of elderly. Okay, let's look at another example, another study also executed by John Barge, who really loved this topic of priming, and this is actually something that's also discussed in your book, this study. So again, concepts of priming, so what he did was he gave participants a cup, and this cup was either warm or it was cold, so either like a warm cup of coffee or a cup with ice cold water or a soda drink, and then he asked participants to look at a certain person, someone they didn't know yet, and he gave an impression of the personality of that stranger, of that person they didn't know, and John Barge thought that maybe if you're holding a warm cup of coffee and you're looking at a stranger, you also think that this person has a warm personality, so you might actually like a person more, think this person is more friendly when you're holding a warm cup of coffee versus a cold cup of water or another drink. So that was his idea, and indeed he found that there was a difference between these two groups, also discussed in the book. However, recently, again, this specific study was executed again, it was repeated with a bigger sample size, better methods, and failed to replicate again. And I'm mentioning this also to note how quickly our field is changing and that some studies that are actually discussed in the book failed the replication test, so it's important to pay attention and watch these lectures so I can update you when this is the case. Still, even though these studies that became very famous to replicate, this whole concept of priming is very popular, this idea is very popular, also not only amongst researchers but also amongst marketeers. So for example, you're probably familiar with the concept product placement and that means that when you're, for example, watching TV, watching video clips like you see over here, you see a still of a video clip from Lady Gaga in which she has cans of Diet Coke rolled in her hair, which is actually marketing. It's a very smart way of Diet Coke Coca-Cola to prime their brand while you're watching a video clip. And of course, this is sort of subtle way of advertising Diet Coke. Also, this product placement is happening all the time, also in movies, for example, where here you see a bag of Dorito chips. And there was actually, I think, a cool example of product placement in 2010 when the final of the World Cup, Soccer World Cup was in which Spain won. And I think for people living in the Netherlands, we probably have not a lot of memory or not a lot of active memory on this final because we lost, the Netherlands lost again in the final against Spain so it was very traumatizing. So don't forget about the soccer and forget about the outcome but focus on the product placement because here you see, I think, one of the most stunning acts of product placement in the history, which is the FIFA trophy was actually presented on the page in a Louis Vuitton travel case, which also became very popular then. So it's a smart way for Louis Vuitton to also make sort of, this is the way in which the biggest trophy in the world is carried in this specific suitcase. So product placement, priming, very popular concept. So researchers study it, marketeers love it, but priming happens all the time, even if you're just talking to random people. So we are primed with products when we go about our world, but we're also primed with people and with ideas all day every day. So let's imagine that you work in a company and you know that you're going to have a new boss. This new boss is coming into work. And then you're asking around to other people, asking like, do you know this person? I don't know him. Do you think he's going to be a good boss? And then one of your, you know, acquaintances, not a close friend but someone you just know comes up to you and says to you, you know what? I know that you're going to have this new boss. And I heard rumors that he is not a nice person at all. He's very dominant. He has a very directive and sort of merciless leadership style. So this is really going to be very tough for you. So you hear this from someone, which is actually also priming. So this whole concept of someone, a nasty boss, someone that's not going to be positive and not going to have a positive impact in your work fields, that's going to be activated. And you're going to walk around with this idea. And we know from research that if you, if this type of knowledge is activated and inserted in memory, it's very persistent. So this idea, this initial conception of a person being a bully or being a bad boss, this is probably going to persist even when you hear later that this rumor was completely false. So we are actually very bad as human beings. We are very good at incorporating information and placing people in categories, bad boss, good boss. But once we have this social categorization process completed, it's very hard for us to change the ideas. So even when we hear later, and this acquaintance comes up to you again and says, okay, you need to completely forget about what I said to you, because I was actually talking about someone else, then still this belief persists. And this is called the perseverance effect or a belief perseverance. So when then later on this new boss comes actually into the office and maybe you don't immediately have a meeting with the boss, but you're just going to watch the behavior and you watch him talk to specific people. Maybe you see this boss having an interaction with the secretary and maybe raising his voice a little bit and saying, well, this really needs to be dealt with. This really needs to be changed and improved. And this is in line with your idea. So you already have this idea, this boss is going to be a bully, it's going to be a bad boss. And then you're going to be on the lookout for examples that you're actually correct. This is called confirmation bias. This concept is really important. So we're going to come back to this concept a lot so if you don't immediately grasp it, it's not a problem. But just for now, let's keep in mind that the moment that we hear a concept when we have a certain idea and what a person is like, we're going to look for cues that our initial idea is correct. So we're going to pay specific attention when this boss is indeed maybe reacting in a bit of a dominant way. When later on you see this boss, for example, interacting with your colleague, making a laugh, being very friendly, being very warm, you're probably going to ignore it. That's also how our brain works. So if we see contradictory information, we're just not really paying attention because this is not in line with our concept. This is not in line with our idea. So in this way, we are looking for confirmation of our preexisting beliefs. So then maybe there comes a moment that you actually have a meeting with your new boss. You had this idea that it was a bully. You went on the lookout to search for cues that this boss was indeed not friendly. And then you have a meeting. How are you going to come into the meeting? Are you going to be very open? Are you going to be vulnerable and friendly? So you're probably also going to change your behavior in line with your preexisting beliefs. So maybe you're going to be a bit cold. Maybe you're going to be a bit distant. Maybe even also a little bit unfriendly already. And what happens then is that your new boss is going to respond. Your new boss is going to respond in an unfriendly way because you are unfriendly. And this is called a self-fulfilling prophecy. So all these initial ideas we have about people set in motion, our perception, we're going to look for information that's in line with the ideas, and it's also impacting our behavior. So we're actually also behaving in a way which makes it more likely for our initial ideas to be confirmed. Self-fulfilling prophecy. So this basically means that our expectations trigger behavior. And let's imagine you never heard the gossip in the beginning. You never did so. And you were fully open-minded. And probably you would have an entirely different meeting with your new boss. You would have given him a chance and you might actually have a very cooperative and productive work relationship with him. So it's important to really understand because this is at the core of how our social interactions work. Expectations do a lot. And one of the consequences of this whole process is that stereotypes and prejudice also remains in the same way. Here you see the world according to Donald Trump in 2016 when he was still powerful in the world. Still pretty much is. But here you see his stereotypical beliefs of people around the globe. So you see some terrorists. You see the Miss Universe Farm. You see Trump worlds. So this is basically how the world, the schemas of people in different parts of the world according to Donald Trump. So these are his pre-existing beliefs. He's also, of course, going to be on the lookout for behavior of these people in different groups that is in line with his initial ideas. So if you have a certain prejudice against people, if you have stereotypical beliefs about people from certain countries, certain groups, this is going to steer your perception. It's going to steer your interpretation of their behavior. And in the case of Donald Trump, he actually became in a position of power and it also steered his behavior. So he started to show immediately when he ran office and he became the president of the United States, he showed discriminatory behavior immediately at the very start of when he became president. He set in motion a temporary ban on Muslims, basically entering the United States. So this was for people from several countries, like people from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, they were all banned from the U.S. And he sort of sold this as a temporary ban, but actually this ban stayed in place the entire time when he was president, which is, of course, just a mere discriminatory behavior. So he discriminated against people from Muslim countries, which is because he had these pre-existing ideas of prejudice and stereotyping. I think luckily for the people from these countries and also just for sort of human dignity and justice, this ban is now reversed. This was actually the first act of the new president, Biden, when he was installed. He reversed this act, so this is not going on anymore. And we'll be talking more about the topic of stereotyping discrimination and prejudice in lecture 13. So more to come. And this is all for now. Thanks.