Social psychology of visual perception

351 Pages·2010·2.573 MB·English

by  Emily Balcetis, G Daniel Lassiter

Social Psychology of
Visual Perception

Social Psychology of
Visual Perception
Edited by
Emily Balcetis
New York University
and
G. Daniel Lassiter
Ohio University
Published in 2010 Published in Great Britain
by Psychology Press by Psychology Press
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
ISBN 0-203-84804-7 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN: 978–1–84872–804–2 (hbk)
Contents
About the Editors vii
Contributors ix
Foreword: A New Look at the “New Look” xi
Jerome Bruner
Introduction 1
Emily Balcetis and G. Daniel Lassiter
SectionI: Motivation and the Social Psychology of
Visual Perception 5
1 Ambiguity and Social Perception 7
Kristin Pauker, Nicholas O. Rule, and Nalini Ambady
2 Motivation Across Time and Place: What Gaze Can Tell
Us about Aging and Culture 27
Derek M. Isaacowitz and Helene H. Fung
3 Cultural Modes of Seeing through Cultural Modes of

Being: Cultural Influences on Visual Attention 51
Sean Duffy and Shinobu Kitayama
4 Wishful Seeing: Motivational Influences on Visual
Perception of the Physical Environment 77
Emily Balcetis and David Dunning
5 Male or Female? An Investigation of Factors that
Modulate the Visual Perception of Another’s Sex 103
Lucy Johnston, Lynden Miles, and C. Neil Macrae
vi CONTENTS
SectionII: Neuroscience and the Social Psychology
of Visual Perception 123
6 Affect as a Source of Visual Attention 125
Mariann Weierich and Lisa Feldman Barrett
7 Through the Lens of Emotion: The Role of the Amygdala in
Emotionality, Arousal, and Attention to the Visual World 149
Rebecca M. Todd and Adam K. Anderson
8 Context and Social Effects on Face Recognition 171
Maria Pia Viggiano and Tessa Marzi
9 Embodied Simulation: A Conduit for Converting
Seeing into Perceiving 201
Lindsay M. Oberman, Piotr Winkielman, and
Vilayanur S. Ramachandran
SectionIII: Ecological Approach to the Social Psychology
of Visual Perception 223
10 Top-down Influences on the Perception of Ongoing Behavior 225
G. Daniel Lassiter, Matthew J. Lindberg,
Jennifer J. Ratcliff, Lezlee J. Ware, and
Andrew L. Geers
11 A New Look at Person Construal: Seeing Beyond
Dominance and Discreteness 253
Kerri John son and Jonathan B. Freeman
12 Emotional High: Emotion and the Perception of Spatial Layout 273
Jeanine K. Stefanucci
13 “Cue, View, Action”: An Ecological Approach to
Person Perception 299
Joann M. Montepare
Index 325
About the Editors
Emily Balcetis is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at New York University.
She received her Ph.D. in 2006 from Cornell University in Social and Personality
Psychology. Her research provides a comprehensive examination of the pervasive-
ness of motivational biases in visual perception and decision-making, exploring
both conscious and unconconscious effects using a balance between traditional
and novel techniques, paradigms, and approaches.
Her research has been recognized by the Society for Experimental and Social
Psychology 2007 dissertation of the year award, a highly selective and esteemed
honor, and the Cornell Clark Teaching Award in part for her involvement of
undergraduate students in the research process. In addition, her research has
been appreciated and supported by the popular media as it has received attention
in Science, ScienCentral, APS Observer, Skeptical Inquirer, National Public
Radio, Time magazine, and many major news outlets. In addition, she has
received funding from organizations to continue her research from a variety of
funding agencies.
G. Daniel Lassiter is Professor of Psychology at Ohio University and a fellow of
the Association for Psychol ogical Science. He received his Ph.D. in 1984 from
the University of Virginia and held positions at Northwestern University and the
University of Florida before arriving at Ohio University in 1987. For more than
25 years, he has conducted research on perceptual mechanisms in social judgment
and decision-making. His systematic investigations of the way observers per-
ceptually organize continuous streams of behavior into discrete, discriminable,
describable actions has provided fundamental insights about the nature and
comprehension of social action and interaction.
A related, but more applied, program of scholarship aimed at examining the
effect of presentation format on how mock jurors evaluate confession evidence
has influenced national policy in New Zealand and earned Dr. Lassiter the 2010
Award for Distinguished Contributions to Research in Public Policy from the
American Psychological Association. Both lines of Dr. Lassiter’s research have
been supported by funds from the National Science Foundation and together
have resulted in more than 75 scientific publications. He is the editor of Interro-
gations, Confessions, and Entrapment (2004); co-editor of Police Interrogations
and False Confessions: Current Research, Practice, and Policy Recommendations
viii ABOUT THE EDITORS
(in press); and is presently consulting editor for the journals Law and Human
Behavior, Legal and Criminological Psychology, and the Open Access Journal of
Forensic Psychology.
Contributors
Nalini Ambady Jonathan B. Freeman
Department of Psychology Psychology Department
Tufts University Tufts University
Medford, MA, USA Medford, MA, USA
Adam K. Anderson Helene H. L. Fung
Affect and Cognition Laboratory Department of Psychology
University of Toronto Chinese University of Hong Kong
Toronto, Canada Hong Kong
Emily Balcetis Andrew L. Geers
Psychology Department Department of Psychology
New York University University of Toledo
New York, USA Toledo, OH, USA
Lisa Feldman Barrett Derek M. Isaacowitz
Interdisciplinary Affective Science Department of Psychology
Laboratory Brandeis University

Boston College Waltham, MA, USA
Chestnut Hill, MA, USA
Kerri Johnson
Jerome Bruner Department of Communication
School of Law Studies and Psychology
New York University University of California Los Angeles
New York, USA Los Angeles, CA, USA
Sean Duffy Lucy Johnston
Department of Psychology Department of Psychology
Rutgers University University of Canterbury
Camden, NJ, USA Christchurch, New Zealand
David Dunning Shinobu Kitayama
Department of Psychology Department of Psychology
Cornell University University of Michigan
Ithaca, NY, USA Ann Arbor, MI, USA