James L. Hilton

Suspicion of ulterior motivation and the correspondence bias

Three studies examined the hypothesis that when perceivers learn of the existence of multiple, plausibly rival motives for an actors behavior, they are less likely to fall prey to the correspondence bias than when they learn of the existence of situational factors that may have constrained the actors behavior. In the first 2 studies, Ss who learned that an actor was instructed to behave as he did drew inferences that corresponded to his behavior. In contrast, Ss who were led to suspect that an actors behavior may have been motivated by a desire to ingratiate (Study 1), or by a desire to avoid an unwanted job (Study 2), resisted the correspondence bias. The 3rd study demonstrated that these differences were not due to a general unwillingness on the part of suspicious perceivers to make dispositional inferences. The implications that these results have for understanding attribution theory are discussed.

Suspicion and Dispositional Inference

The role of suspicion in the dispositional inference process is examined. Perceivers who are led to become suspicious of the motives underlying a targets behavior appear to engage in more active and thoughtful attributional analyses than nonsuspicious perceivers. Suspicious perceivers resist drawing inferences from a targets behavior that reflect the correspondence bias (or fundamental attribution error), and they consciously deliberate about questions of plausible causes and categorizations of the targets behavior They are, however, quite willing to make strong correspondent inferences about the target if they learn additional contextual information that renders alternative explanations for the targets behavior less plausible. Implications of these findings for current multiple-stage models of the dispositional inference process are discussed, and the need for these and other models to give more consideration to the social nature of social perception is asserted.

Inhibitory effect of schematic processing on perceptual encoding

It was hypothesized that although schemata facilitate organized conceptual processing, and hence recall, they simultaneously inhibit perceptual encoding. This inhibitory effect should emerge because schemata allow perceivers to rely on prior knowledge in place of incoming information and because schemata facilitate selective attention. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated that Ss encode less relevant perceptual information when they are provided with or are able to induce a schema. Experiment 3 demonstrated that Ss encode less relevant perceptual information when they are self-schematic in a domain, even though they have better recall for that information. Experiment 4 demonstrated that Ss encode less irrelevant perceptual information when they are provided with a schema. Thus, results show that although schemata facilitate recall. they simultaneously inhibit perceptual encoding.

Attitude Importance as a Moderator of the Relationship Between Implicit and Explicit Attitude Measures

The authors examined attitude importance as a moderator of the relationship between the Implicit Association Test (IAT) and explicit attitude measures. In Study 1 (N = 194), as ratings of attitude importance regarding the 2000 presidential election increased, the strength of the relationship between a Bush-Gore IAT and explicit attitude measures also increased. Study 2 provided a conceptual replication of these results using attitudes toward Coke and Pepsi (N = 112). In addition, across both studies, explicit attitude measures were better predictors of deliberative behaviors than IAT scores. In Study 3 (N = 77), the authors examined the role of elaboration as a mechanism by which attitude importance may moderate IAT-explicit attitude correlations. As predicted, increased elaboration resulted in stronger IAT-explicit attitude correlations. Other possible mechanisms by which attitude importance may moderate the IAT-explicit attitude relationship also are discussed.

Structural properties of stereotypic knowledge and their influences on the construal of social situations

This research focused on the role that higher order structural properties of stereotypic knowledge play in the processing of social information. It is argued that stereotypic assumptions about cause-effect relations provide important constraints for the causal structure underlying the perceivers subjective representation of social information. Experiment 1 shows how, within the context of a jury decision experiment, the causal structure underlying stereotypic knowledge about African Americans influences the construal of causality in a situation involving a member of that group. Results from 2 additional experiments indicate that this construal effect is based in part on stereotypic knowledge affecting the encoding of the trial evidence instead of on biasing responses at the output stage. The implications of these findings are discussed, and a theoretical framework is offered according to which the application of category knowledge involves not only the matching of stereotypic attributes but also the alignment of structural relations in the environment.

Dispelling negative expectancies: The impact of interaction goals and target characteristics on the expectancy confirmation process

Abstract The present study examined the impact of the interaction goals of perceivers and the characteristics of targets of a negative expectancy on the expectancy confirmation process. Perceivers were led to expect that their future interaction partner might have difficulty performing well under pressure. Perceivers were also placed in an interaction setting that made one of two interaction goals relevant: whereas some were encouraged to consider the partner as a possible teammate for a cooperative game; others were encouraged to have a casual conversation. Orthogonal to the interaction manipulation, subjects interacted with a target whose expectancy-relevant characteristics, if discovered during the interaction, could either support or refute the expectancy. Results indicated that the interaction goals perceivers inferred from the interaction setting influenced the extent to which they probed for information relevant to their negative expectancies. Their search strategies influenced what they discovered about the target, and these strategy-dependent discoveries, in turn, shaped their final impressions of the target. From this we argue that both the interaction goals of the perceivers and the characteristics of the targets of a negative expectancy are critical determinants of the fate of negative expectancies.

Multiple Audience Problem: A Strategic Communication Perspective on Social Perception

Examined how communicators send mixed messages containing an explicit surface content and a covert hidden content. In Study 1, Ss wrote constrained essays presenting either an introverted or extraverted personality. Although authors reported manipulating essay credibility and readers reported relying on credibility to make their judgments, readers succumbed to correspondence bias. In Studies 2 and 3, Ss again prepared either constrained essays (Study 2) or constrained videotapes (Study 3) and included in them a hidden message that would be understood by only their friends but not by strangers. Observers then read these essays or watched these videotapes. Friends detected and decoded the hidden messages, whereas strangers did not. We discuss these findings in terms of social perception and strategic communication.

The Role of Consistency in the Judgment of Stereotype-Relevant Behaviors

Two experiments examined the role that the consistency between a perceivers stereotype and a targets behavior plays in the judgment of stereotype-relevant behaviors. In Experiment 1, consistency was varied through a manipulation of the objective properties of the behavior and its referent distribution. Ambiguous behaviors were assimilated to the stereotype when they were objectively consistent with the stereotype and were contrasted away from the stereotype when they were objectively inconsistent with the stereotype. In Experiment 2, perceived consistency was manipulated directly while objective consistency was held constant. Behaviors were identified either with members of random groups, with members of extended families, or with single individuals. Consistent with predictions, the tendency to assimilate ambiguous behaviors increased as expected consistency increased. These findings are discussed in light of recent work on contrast and assimilation and stereotyping.

Thinking about interracial interactions

White people who have difficulty implicitly pairing black names with positive words also tend to be impaired on tasks requiring cognitive control after interacting with a black experimenter. A new functional imaging study finds that such subjects also show more activity in brain regions associated with cognitive control when looking at black faces that are irrelevant to their task.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecies and Self-Defeating Behavior

One of the most theoretically important findings to emerge from the sociological and psychological literatures has been the discovery that expectations frequently create the conditions that bring about their own fulfillment—an effect that Merton termed the self-fulfilling prophecy (Merton, 1948). Much of the excitement in the research that has followed Merton’s statement has been generated by its clear relevance to societal concerns, including the ways in which negatively stereotyped children are left behind in the educational process, to ways in which those who have sought treatment for mental difficulties are labeled by others and treated in a fashion that can sustain or increase their difficulties. In short, the idea that one individual, entrapped in the expectations and stereotypes of others, can somehow be caused to fulfill those expectations holds out the promise of understanding many social phenomena. Similarly, there is a great deal of interest in self-defeating behaviors—the nation that we sometimes engage in behaviors that harm or defeat us. And, as with the self-fulfilling prophecy, a deeper understanding of self-defeating behaviors may enable us to design interventions that minimize their harmful effects.