Three studies investigated the effects of self-construal activation on behavior conducive to interpersonal proximity. Study 1 revealed that compared with control participants, participants who were primed with the independent (or personal) self sat further away from where they anticipated another person would sit in a waiting room. Results of Study 2 indicated that participants primed with the interdependent (or social) self sat closer to the anticipated other person than did those primed with the independent self. Finally, Study 3 used the chronic self-construal of participants to predict the seating distance in dyadic settings. Results showed that greater independence of participants' self-construals was associated with greater spatial distance during the interaction. Together, the studies provide clear evidence that self-construal activation automatically influences interpersonal behavior as reflected in the actual distance between the self and others. Results are discussed in terms of the functions and motives connected to self-construals.

Self-presentation via favorable self-descriptions may not lead to the desired impression, whereas positive descriptions by others may be more effective because they seem less susceptible to motivated bias. In four experiments, we investigated whether person descriptions have more impact on impressions when provided by third parties than by targets themselves. Results showed that target impressions were consistently more in line with the target description when positive sociability-related or positive competency-related information was given by a third party than by the target. This source effect always occurred for ratings of claimed traits. In addition, ratings of the target's sociability were also affected when the claim was about competency. Source effects were not obtained for negative self-descriptions. The results are discussed in terms of the presumed underlying process on the basis of mediation data.

Third parties are influential sources of information about other people, but their impact on audiences' impressions may depend on perceptions of their motives to provide the information. In two experiments we showed that when sources had a motive congruent with the target information they provided (i.e., negative information while having an obstructive motive and positive information with a facilitative motive) target impressions were less correspondent with the information (i.e., discounting). when sources had an incongruent motive (e.g., positive information while having an obstructive motive) target impressions were more correspondent with the information (i.e., augmentation). These effects were obtained with target information about likeability (Study 1) and competency (Study 2). Extending principles of attribution theory and ulterior motivation, these results show that inferences about one person can affect impressions of another one.

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