Donal E. Carlston

Spontaneous trait transference: Communicators take on the qualities they describe in others.

Spontaneous trait transference occurs when communicators are perceived as possessing the very traits they describe in others. Study 1 confirmed that communicators become associated with the trait implications of their descriptions of others and that such associations persist over time. Study 2 demonstrated that these associations influence specific trait impressions of communicators. Study 3 suggested that spontaneous trait transference reflects simple associative processes that occur even when there are no logical bases for making inferences. Finally, Study 4 used more naturalistic stimuli and provided additional evidence that the phenomenon reflects mindless associations rather than logical attributions. Together these studies demonstrate that spontaneous trait transference is a reliable phenomenon that plays a previously unrecognized role in social perception and interaction.

The effects of verbal and visual interference on impressions: An associated-systems approach

This study investigated associated-systems theorys prediction that interference with the visual or verbal mental systems should alter person impressions by removing or reducing the impact of the information represented within those systems, while accentuating the influence of other information. In Experiment 1, interference with the verbal system decreased the influence of verbal information on trait judgments and increased the influence of visual information on attractiveness and liking judgments. In Experiment 2, visual interference decreased the impact of visual information on attractiveness judgments and, at least for attractive targets, increased the impact of verbal information on trait and liking judgments. These results support the premise that impressions consist of representations allied with separate processing systems and that those impressions can be affected by other activities involving those systems.

Spontaneous evaluative inferences and their relationship to spontaneous trait inferences.

Three experiments are reported that explore affectively based spontaneous evaluative impressions (SEIs) of stimulus persons. Experiments 1 and 2 used modified versions of the savings in relearning paradigm (Carlston & Skowronski, 1994) to confirm the occurrence of SEIs, indicating that they are equivalent whether participants are instructed to form trait impressions, evaluative impressions, or neither. These experiments also show that SEIs occur independently of explicit recall for the trait implications of the stimuli. Experiment 3 provides a single dissociation test to distinguish SEIs from spontaneous trait inferences (STIs), showing that disrupting cognitive processing interferes with a trait-based prediction task that presumably reflects STIs, but not with an affectively based social approach task that presumably reflects SEIs. Implications of these findings for the potential independence of spontaneous trait and evaluative inferences, as well as limitations and important steps for future study are discussed.

In Advertising, a Double Negative Does Not Equal a Positive

This research investigates the effectiveness of double negative ads relative to positive, self-promoting ads as it relates to impression formation. The study was conducted using a 3 (ad valence/intensity: extreme double negative, moderate double negative, positive) x 2 (impression type: incidental, intentional) repeated measures design study using print ads designed for fictitious brands. Overall, brands in double negative ads received less positive impression ratings and the double negative ad format was less memorable. These effects were even more pronounced as the valence of the double negative ads became more extreme.

Multiple Behavior Descriptions Affect the Acquisitions of STI and STT

Four studies pursued the idea that spontaneous trait inferences (STIs) involve the formation of both inferential knowledge and associative knowledge while spontaneous trait transferences (STTs) involve only the formation of associative knowledge. These studies varied the type and amount of behavioral information from which perceivers could extract trait information. Experiments 1a and 1b used a modified savings-in-relearning paradigm and demonstrated that repeated presentations of an individual and a behavior description increased the strength of association between the target and implied trait, and this effect did not depend on whether the repeated presentations involved redundant information or new information. In comparison, Experiments 2a and 2b used a trait ratings dependent variable and demonstrated that the effects of repetition were stronger for STI, but not STT, when the added information differed from information that was previously encountered, but not when it was redundant with the previously encountered information.