The Role of Affective and Cognitive Individual Differences in Social Perception

Abstract

Three studies explored the connection between social perception processes and individual differences in the use of affective and cognitive information in relation to attitudes. Study 1 revealed that individuals high in need for affect (NFA) accentuated differences in evaluations of warm and cold traits, whereas individuals high in need for cognition (NFC) accentuated differences in evaluations of competent and incompetent traits. Study 2 revealed that individual differences in NFA predicted liking of warm or cold targets, whereas individual differences in NFC predicted perceptions of competent or incompetent targets. Furthermore, the effects of NFA and NFC were independent of structural bases and meta-bases of attitudes. Study 3 revealed that differences in the evaluation of warm and cold traits mediated the effects of NFA and NFC on liking of targets. The implications for social perception processes and for individual differences in affect-cognition are discussed.

Affective and Cognitive Orientations in Intergroup Perception

“…However, when we examined the entire sample of groups in Study 2, we found evidence that associations with NFA and NFC were mediated by evaluations of warmth and competence, respectively. This mediational pattern is consistent with previous findings by Aquino et al (2016), and Study 2’s findings should be more representative because this study included more groups than Study 1.…”

“…One potential mechanism entailed evaluations of warmth and competence as mediators. Although Study 1 found no initial support for this mechanism, Study 2’s larger sample of groups showed that the effects of NFA and NFC on attitudes are attributable to differences in the evaluations of warmth and competence, consistent with previous research by Aquino et al (2016). Hence, there is provocative evidence that NFA predicts favoring high warmth over low warmth, which in turn explains the preference for stereotypically warm but incompetent groups.…”

“…Nevertheless, prior work on interpersonal perception may provide indirect support for our present research focus (e.g., Hill, 1991). Of particular relevance to the present study, a recent set of experiments by Aquino, Haddock, Maio, Wolf, and Alparone (2016) showed that NFA and NFC predict attitudes at the interpersonal level. In their first experiment, the researchers presented participants with attributes varying along the warmth and competence dimensions.…”

“…In the study by Aquino et al (2016), NFA and NFC predicted the evaluation of individual targets along the warmth and competence dimension with a medium effect size (β = .30). Based on a recommended power of .80, a power analysis indicated that the required sample size for a medium effect size is 82 participants (G*Power; Faul, Erdfelder, Lang, & Buchner, 2007).…”

Sense or sensibility? The neuro-functional basis of the structural matching effect in persuasion

“…For both conceptual and methodological reasons, we operationalized the personal orientation of the participants as the difference between standardized NFA and NFC scores (range: -1.89-1.79). From a conceptual perspective, we were interested in examining the relative reliance on affect versus cognition (see also Aquino, Haddock, Maio, Wolf, & Alparone, 2016). From a methodological perspective, conceptualizing individual differences in the form of a difference score leads to statistical models with more degrees of freedom in their error terms.…”