Page 144 - The Social Animal

126 The Social Animal

presidential qualities. And that dilapidated house the realtor showed
you? You’ll never buy it—but it’s guaranteed to make all the other
houses you see next look like better deals. The lesson to be learned
from research on contrast effects is that the selection of comparisons
makes a difference. Depending on the context, objects and alterna-
tives can be made to look better or worse. Often we do not pay much
attention to the influence of context, much less question the validity
of the alternatives presented. This greatly enhances the power of
“context makers” such as politicians, advertisers, journalists, and sales
agents. The context they set can influence our perceptions and judg-
ments, lulling us into decisions that we might not otherwise make.
Important judgments we make about ourselves can also be pow-
erfully influenced by contrast effects. For example, many high school
valedictorians experience a dip in self-esteem when they arrive at an
elite college to find themselves surrounded by other former high
school valedictorians. No longer the smartest kid around, they can
13
feel stupid merely by being average. Similarly, research has shown
that, when people are exposed to images of beautiful people, they will
rate themselves as less attractive than those shown images of more
average-looking people. 14

Priming and Construct Accessibility One of the standard
comedic devices on television sitcoms is the double entendre. A typi-
cal double entendre goes like this: Early in the show, the teenage
daughter tells everyone but her father that she made the school’s
coed softball team as the starting catcher. On the other hand, her fa-
ther finds out about a big party sponsored by some of his daughter’s
classmates that promises to have “some wild goings-on” and just hap-
pens to be scheduled on the same night as the softball game.The cli-
mactic scene involves the father overhearing his “innocent” daughter
telling her friend about a pitcher: “Boy, I can hardly wait for
tonight—I am so excited. I’ve never played with Tommy before. I
love his technique. If he tries, I know he can go all the way. Tommy
has wonderful stuff.” The father is outraged and storms out of the
house to intercept his young daughter. The audience is entertained
because they know what is happening; the father thinks his daugh-
ter is talking about sex when she is really discussing softball.
The double entendre of the sitcom illustrates an important prin-
ciple of social cognition: How we interpret social events usually de-