[Post Script: 7/11/10, this entry is full of so many lies.. lol]
I fall for (romantically, not literally) good musicians easily and it takes a lot for me to get over them. I attribute this crazy tendency of mine to the primacy effect (Asch, 1946). The primacy effect is our tendency to place a greater weight on information that we receive earlier, rather than later. Essentially, first impressions count more than anything we find out later on about a person.
Once we have formed an impression of another person (or musician) it is easy to succumb to confirmation biases. Confirmation biases are our tendencies to (1) look for more information that agrees with our impression, (2) interpret any vague or unclear information in a way that it fits with our impressions, and (3) ignore any information that does not fit our impression.
To illustrate, I’ll let you in on my high school infatuation with Bob, the tambourine for The Nameless Band. The Nameless Band were a local ska band that I simply had to go listen to every time they played at Fitzgerald’s in Houston. The first time I saw Bob play I went weak in the knees and my heart went all fluttery just watching him.
Needless to say, my initial impression of Bob was a good one. From there I should have seen that it was all down hill, but due to my firmly solidified first impression of him such was not the case.
Because he was in a ska band – and I love ska music – I assumed that he would like the same bands as me, so I found out what his favorites were. They were, indeed, similar to my taste, which served to further reinforce my impression (or infatuation). This manner of unintentionally searching for information to confirm one’s expectations is called confirmatory hypothesis testing (Snyder & Swann, 1978). I didn’t think to ask about his favorite folk musicians; if I had, I would have found out information about him that didn’t support my he’s-so-perfect-for-me impression of him. In other words, because I expected Steve to be a certain kind of person, I asked questions about him that would verify my expectations without knowing it.
Similarly, I eventually began to talk to Bob, but occasionally he would do something rather mean (e.g., ignore me at a party or not respond to my emails). This should have served to sufficiently anger me and bring an end to his good impression. For years I was proved wrong time again; my belief that he was an insightful, charming, artist was discredited, but I still clung to the idea that my initial impression of him was correct – that he really was as awesome as he was the first time I saw him on stage. This tendency for individuals, such as myself, to hold onto their beliefs even after they have been proven wrong is called belief perseverance (Ross, Lepper, & Hubbard, 1975).
In the end, my little crush was, well, crushed. I got over Bob and many more after him, but not before suffering through the primacy effect and the confirmation biases that followed it. I’m now extremely happy with a non-musician with no social psychological concepts involved… I think.
_______________________________
Asch, S. E. (1946). Forming impressions of personality. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 41, 258-290.
Ross, L., Lepper, M., & Hubbard, M. (1975). Perseverance in self-perception and social perception: Biased attributional processes in the debriefing paradigm. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 32, 880-892.
Snyder, M., & Swann, W. B., Jr. (1978). Behavioral confirmation in social interaction: From social perception to social reality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36, 1202-1212.
Once we have formed an impression of another person (or musician) it is easy to succumb to confirmation biases. Confirmation biases are our tendencies to (1) look for more information that agrees with our impression, (2) interpret any vague or unclear information in a way that it fits with our impressions, and (3) ignore any information that does not fit our impression.
To illustrate, I’ll let you in on my high school infatuation with Bob, the tambourine for The Nameless Band. The Nameless Band were a local ska band that I simply had to go listen to every time they played at Fitzgerald’s in Houston. The first time I saw Bob play I went weak in the knees and my heart went all fluttery just watching him.
Needless to say, my initial impression of Bob was a good one. From there I should have seen that it was all down hill, but due to my firmly solidified first impression of him such was not the case.
Because he was in a ska band – and I love ska music – I assumed that he would like the same bands as me, so I found out what his favorites were. They were, indeed, similar to my taste, which served to further reinforce my impression (or infatuation). This manner of unintentionally searching for information to confirm one’s expectations is called confirmatory hypothesis testing (Snyder & Swann, 1978). I didn’t think to ask about his favorite folk musicians; if I had, I would have found out information about him that didn’t support my he’s-so-perfect-for-me impression of him. In other words, because I expected Steve to be a certain kind of person, I asked questions about him that would verify my expectations without knowing it.
Similarly, I eventually began to talk to Bob, but occasionally he would do something rather mean (e.g., ignore me at a party or not respond to my emails). This should have served to sufficiently anger me and bring an end to his good impression. For years I was proved wrong time again; my belief that he was an insightful, charming, artist was discredited, but I still clung to the idea that my initial impression of him was correct – that he really was as awesome as he was the first time I saw him on stage. This tendency for individuals, such as myself, to hold onto their beliefs even after they have been proven wrong is called belief perseverance (Ross, Lepper, & Hubbard, 1975).
In the end, my little crush was, well, crushed. I got over Bob and many more after him, but not before suffering through the primacy effect and the confirmation biases that followed it. I’m now extremely happy with a non-musician with no social psychological concepts involved… I think.
_______________________________
Asch, S. E. (1946). Forming impressions of personality. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 41, 258-290.
Ross, L., Lepper, M., & Hubbard, M. (1975). Perseverance in self-perception and social perception: Biased attributional processes in the debriefing paradigm. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 32, 880-892.
Snyder, M., & Swann, W. B., Jr. (1978). Behavioral confirmation in social interaction: From social perception to social reality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36, 1202-1212.
1 comment:
I think that happens to us all with celebrities, musicians, and Olympic swimmers :). The first time we see them, they're at their best, and we instantly idolize them. When we later find out that they are alcoholic or really way too old for us or don't look good without so much make-up, we turn a blind eye and fulfill belief perseverance. When people we really like have traits that we don't like, as consistency seekers, we either pretend that the trait is not a big part of the equation in Anderson's information integration theory or that the person is an exception to the schema and is unlikely to have other bad traits associated with that trait. Maybe that's why people care so much about what celebrities think. Unless it's one of the scandalous celebs, we downplay their flaws so much they seem better than they are. This is also why it's such a big deal when something surfaces that cannot be downplayed.
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