Social Judgment Theory

What is Social Judgment Theory?

Social Judgment Theory is a psychological theory that explains how people process and evaluate information about social issues and events. It proposes that people use a variety of mental processes to evaluate new information and that these processes are influenced by their preexisting attitudes and beliefs.

According to Social Judgment Theory, people have a "latitude of acceptance" and a "latitude of rejection" for each of their attitudes. The latitude of acceptance is the range of positions on an issue that a person is willing to accept, while the latitude of rejection is the range of positions that a person is unwilling to accept. When people encounter new information, they will either assimilate it into their existing attitudes (if it falls within their latitudes of acceptance) or they will reject it (if it falls outside their latitudes of acceptance).

Social Judgment Theory also proposes that people use a variety of mental shortcuts, or "heuristics," to evaluate new information. These heuristics include things like the availability heuristic (which is based on the ease with which information comes to mind), the representativeness heuristic (which is based on the degree to which information seems typical or representative of a larger category), and the anchoring and adjustment heuristic (which is based on the tendency to anchor on initial estimates and then adjust based on additional information).

Social Judgment Theory is a key concept in the field of psychology, and it has important implications for the way in which people process and evaluate information about social issues and events.