Choice of Behavior Scripts in the Process of Social Objects Categorization

Abstract

We have studied the implementation of social representations in the process of decision making. The method was developed which allowed organizing a net-like (but not hierarchical) search space for strategy identification (behavioral scripts choosing) during the decision making concerning social objects. We used 8 female faces as social objects. In preliminary study the implicit constructs of these objects were revealed. We used two-step classification to extract three categories which discriminate sufficiently the implicit constructs («appearance», «literature preferences», «temperament»). On the basis of these constructs the verbal portraits of social objects were composed. Subjects had to find social object using the quest procedure. It is shown that during the social categorization subjects are guided by social representations.