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A cross-sectionaJ study of dating partners and a longitudinal study of college roommates revealed that the confidence and accuracy of their impressions were often dissociated. For example, relationship length and degree of jnvolvement tended to increase the confidence of people's impressions, but neither variable consistently increased the accuracy of their impressions of their partners' sexual histories, activity preferences, and so on. A third study showed that relationship length and involvement increased the richness of impressions, and richness fostered confidence. The authors conclude that although confidence-accuracy dissociations are surely problematic in some instances, their apparent pervasiveness raises the possibility that confidence may sometimes contribute to relationship quality even when it is unrelated to accuracy.

Confidence in personality impressions is proposed to stem from the richness of people's mental representations of others. Representational richness produces confidence because it enhances the fluency with which people can make judgments, and it increases confidence even when it does not result in more accurate impressions. Results of 3 experiments support these propositions. A 4th experiment suggests that representational richness is increased by both pseudorelevant and relevant information, but not by irrelevant information. A 5th experiment suggests that representational richness has effects on confidence above and beyond the effects of metainformation (i.e., extracontent aspects of information). The implications of these findings for evaluating evidence of error in person perception and for reducing stereotyping and prejudice are discussed.

Two studies provide support for W. B. Swann's (1984) argument that perceivers achieve substantial pragmatic accuracy--accuracy that facilitates the achievement of relationship-specific interaction goals--in their social relationships. Study 1 assessed the extent to which group members reached consensus regarding the behavior of a member in familiar (as compared with unfamiliar) contexts and found that groups do indeed achieve this form of pragmatic accuracy. Study 2 assessed the degree of insight romantic partners had into the self-views of their partners on relationship-relevant (as compared with less relevant) traits and found that couples do indeed achieve this form of pragmatic accuracy. Furthermore, pragmatic accuracy was uniquely associated with relationship harmony. Implications for a functional approach to person perception are discussed.

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