Experiments in micro‐history: Attributions about the recent vs. the remote subjective past

Abstract

Demonstrated in two studies ( N = 64, N = 79) that information about a hypothetical stimulus person that appears to be 3 h old is judged more positively than information that appears to be 45 min old ( p < .03, p < .007 respectively). In both instances, the information was received I % h ago, but by unobtrusively manipulating the speeds of a clock by a factor of two, subjects were led to believe that they received the information either 45 min or 3 h ago. The implications of thefindings for theories of attribution and social judgment are pointed out.