The self and social judgment: Effects of affective reaction and "own position" on judgments of unambiguous and ambiguous information about others.

Abstract

Ss who differed in the extremity of self-definition ("own position") with respect to a given trait (sociability, independence, or patience) made trait and evaluative judgments of behavioral stimuli that varied in their descriptive implications for that trait. Across 4 experiments, individual differences in trait ratings of unambiguous information were mediated largely by differences in Ss* affective reactions to these stimuli rather than by direct use of own position as a judgmental anchor. When the target information was ambiguous, however, own position influenced trait judgments independently of Ss' affective reactions to these stimuli. These latter effects were moderated by either encoding or informational mechanisms. A theoretical framework is presented that accounts for these results and predicts how effects of self-knowledge on judgments of others should vary across different trait dimensions.

Another look at reasons for choosing and rejecting

“…These include judgments of attitudes (Judd & Harackiewicz, 1980), traits (Lambert & Wedell, 1991), and outgroup members (Linville & Jones, 1980). Explanations of these effects have centered on the use of affective reactions to guide judgments and the moderating effects of schema complexity.…”

The Thick and the Thin of It: Contextual Effects in Body Perception

“…If previous research generalizes to our current experimental paradigm, then we would expect a tendency for individuals exposed to the positively skewed distribution of body images to rate their satisfaction with their own body image lower. Research on how characteristics of the self affect judgments of others also suggests that the questionnaire data may provide insights into individual differences in the body judgment tasks (Lambert & Wedell, 1991).…”

Typicality and group variability as dual moderators of category-based inferences

“…Hence, although our framework, like that of the Sherif and Hovland model, has general implications of assimilative effects in social judgment, the specific considerations involved in such effects are rather different. [For a discussion of some unresolved issues associated with the Sherif and Hovland (1961) model of assimilation, see Lambert and Wedell (1991).] compared to typical information, but this was only true when the category was homogeneous.…”