Implicit cues in social interaction and decision making

Social interactions are complex and people often need to ‘go beyond the information given’ in order to develop an understanding of the social situation. This process has important implications for people’s experiences and subsequent decisions. The studies in this dissertation contribute to our understanding of how people go beyond the information given by describing how they rely on various cues that frequently arise in social interactions.

The aim of this dissertation is twofold. I explore in a variety of social interactions (1) how people rely on various cues that people employ to make sense of their social situation and (2) how these cues influence subsequent decisions like whom to reward or punish, with whom to cooperate or with whom to negotiate.