Social reality makes the social mind: Self-fulfilling prophecy, stereotypes, bias, and accuracy

Jussim, Lee; Harber, Kent D.; Crawford, Jarret T.; Cain, Thomas R.; Cohen, Florette

doi:10.1075/is.6.1.07jus

Article published In: Making Minds I
Edited by Petra Hauf and Friedrich Försterling
[Interaction Studies 6:1] 2005
► pp. 85–102

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Social reality makes the social mind

Self-fulfilling prophecy, stereotypes, bias, and accuracy

Lee Jussim | Rutgers University

Kent D. Harber | Rutgers University at Newark

Jarret T. Crawford

Thomas R. Cain

Florette Cohen

Published online: 18 April 2005

https://doi.org/10.1075/is.6.1.07jus

This paper contests social psychology’s emphasis on the biased, erroneous, and constructed nature of social cognition by: (1) showing how the extent of bias and error in classic research is overstated; (2) summarizing research regarding the accuracy of social beliefs; and (3) describing how social stereotypes sometimes improve person perception accuracy. A Goodness of Judgment Index is also presented to extract evidence regarding accuracy from research focusing on bias. We conclude that accuracy is necessary for understanding social cognition.

Keywords: stereotypes, self-fulfilling prophecies, bias, accuracy, social perception

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