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Social Perception and Social Reality: Why Accuracy Dominates Bias and Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Abstract
This book contests the received wisdom in the field of social psychology that suggests that social perception and judgment are generally flawed, biased, and powerfully self-fulfilling. The book reviews a wealth of real-world, survey, and experimental data collected over the last century to show that, in fact, social psychological research consistently demonstrates that biases and self-fulfilling prophecies are generally weak, fragile, and fleeting. Furthermore, research in the social sciences has shown stereotypes to be accurate. The book overturns the received wisdom concerning social perception in several ways. It critically reviews studies that are highly cited darlings of the bias conclusion and shows how these studies demonstrate far more accuracy than bias, or are not replicable in subsequent research. Studies of equal or higher quality, which have been replicated consistently, are shown to demonstrate high accuracy, low bias, or both. The book is peppered with discussions suggesting that theoretical and political blinders have led to an odd state of affairs in which the flawed or misinterpreted bias studies receive a great deal of attention, while stronger and more replicable accuracy studies receive relatively little attention. In addition, the book presents both personal and real-world examples (such as stock market prices, sporting events, and political elections) that routinely undermine heavy-handed emphases on error and bias but are generally indicative of high l…
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“SFPs are, however, neither pervasive nor all-powerful (Jussim 2012), and there are various conditions for them to occur (Snyder and Klein 2007).”
From What Is the Function of Confirmation Bias? (2022) · cites this paper as Jussim 2012
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Metadata
- Authors
- Jussim, L.
- Corresponding author
- Jussim, Lee
- ORCID
- Jussim, Lee
- Venue
- Oxford University Press eBooks
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Published
- 2012-04-06
- OpenAlex
- W2989983672
- Cited by
- 271
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 21 · 2024: 30 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 66 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 32 · 2016: 15 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 11.09
- Type
- book
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Oxford University Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › General Decision Sciences › Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › General Psychology › Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology
- Keywords
- social perception, social judgment, cognitive biases, self-fulfilling prophecy, stereotypes, replication, rationality, stock prices, political elections, sports prediction, social psychology theory
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