Social Psychological Skill and Its Correlates

Abstract

Abstract. In six studies (N = 1,143), we investigated social psychological skill – lay individuals’ skill at predicting social psychological phenomena (e.g., social loafing, attribution effects). Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated reliable individual differences in social psychological skill. In Studies 2, 3, and 4, attributes associated with decreased cognitive and motivational bias – cognitive ability, cognitive curiosity, and melancholy and introversion – predicted social psychological skill. Studies 4 and 5 confirmed that social psychological skill is distinct from other skills (e.g., test-taking skills, intuitive physics), and relates directly to reduced motivational bias (i.e., self-deception). In Study 6, social psychological skill related to appreciating the situational causes of another individual’s behavior – reduced fundamental attribution error. Theoretical and applied implications are considered.

Autism spectrum traits predict higher social psychological skill

“…Potentially, then, unlike person perception judgments, which require mentalizing and affective empathy (9), predicting social psychological phenomena relies on systemizing. Consistent with this interpretation, social psychological skill, but not person perception, is linked to skill in intuitive physics (11), which relates to systemizing (15).…”

“…In both studies, the social psychological skill measure included 40 true/false and multiple-choice questions about social psychological phenomena (e.g., social loafing, bystander effect, outgroup bias), for instance, for social loafing: “In most cases, people expend less effort when in a group than when alone: True – False.” Past research has documented the validity (e.g., temporal, internal) of this measure (11). Each correct item scored a point, for a total 40 possible points; study 1: M = 26.81, SD = 4.72, ω = 0.74; study 2: M = 24.38, SD = 5.51, ω = 0.83.…”

“…Gollwitzer and Bargh (11) recently developed a measure to assess the accuracy of people’s generalized social prediction. They measured participants’ skill at predicting social psychological phenomena (e.g., social loafing, bystander effect, misattribution, outgroup bias) independent of participants’ psychological background.…”

“…In study 1, participants likely to be diagnosed with ASD—participants who scored higher than the diagnostic cutoff point on the AQ-10—exhibited greater social psychological skill. This potential link likely only applies to individuals with ASD who have normal intelligence, however; individuals with lower-than-average intelligence would likely exhibit poor social psychological skill given the cognitive demands associated with this skill (11).…”

Polygenic risk for autism spectrum disorder associates with anger recognition in a neurodevelopment-focused phenome-wide scan of unaffected youths from a population-based cohort

“…We hypothesize that this paradoxical relationship stems from positive associations between ASD and the ability to predict social phenomena more generally. Recently characterized by Gollwitzer and Bargh [ 29 ], people perceptive skills ( e . g ., “People prefer to interact with people who are different than them, rather than similar to them?” True-False) and person perceptive skills ( e .…”