Accuracy motivation attenuates covert priming: The systematic reprocessing of social information.

Abstract

Three studies tested the hypothesis that assimilation of impressions to primed constructs is a product of relatively superficial processing and is unlikely to occur when behavioral information about a target person is processed systematically. In Study 1, the impressions of accuracy-motivated Ss did not assimilate to covertly primed trait constructs, although the impressions of unmotivated Ss did. Studies 2 and 3 showed that when Ss become accuracy motivated after exposure to target information, both retrieval of that information and opportunity for effortful processing of it were necessary to eliminate assimilation effects. In addition, accuracy-motivated Ss showed no special attention to primes or awareness of their influence on judgment. Even when one is unaware of the potential biasing influence of primed constructs, they often may not bias impression formation, so long as available target information is processed systematically.Imagine a manager who needs to decide whether to promote an employee to an important stock-trading position-a job that requires taking reasonable, but not foolish, risks. The manager starts to review the employee's record at home one evening, but is tired and the file offers no clear picture of the employee's risktaking tendencies, so the manager decides to review it at work the next day. On the way to the office the next morning, the manager is almost run off the road by a speeding driver. What implications might this event have for the manager's later evaluation of the employee? Research on social perception provides some clues. Construct Accessibility and Social JudgmentResearch on category accessibility effects has demonstrated that when people encode social stimulus information that is applicable to competing, alternative trait constructs, whichever construct has a higher state of "activation" will "capture" the Editor's Note. I gratefully acknowledge Eliot R. Smith, who served as ad hoc action editor on this article.

The Role of Contextual Constraints and Chronic Expectancies on Behavior Categorizations and Dispositional Inferences

“…In fact, some have argued that such recategorization does not occur (Trope & Alfieri, 1997). However, a few researchers recently have found evidence that, with sufficient motivation and cognitive resources, perceivers can effortfully correct their categorizations for biasing influences, at least under certain circumstances (Thompson, Roman, Moskowitz, Chaiken, & Bargh, 1994). For example, Weary et al (1999) recently have demonstrated that perceivers can recategorize behavior if they are aware of a biasing influence on their initial judgments and if they perceive that influence to be illegitimate.…”

Getting at the truth or getting along: Accuracy- versus impression-motivated heuristic and systematic processing.

“…Accuracy concerns may often be dwarfed by interpersonal motives in the nonattitude domains of person perception, stereotyping, and relationships (cf. Sedikides, 1990;Thompson, Roman, Moskowitz, Chaiken, & Bargh, 1994). If this intuition is correct, the present research represents one step toward understanding the more and less effortful cognitive pathways by which social goals determine our impressions and judgments of others, and possibly in turn our feelings and actions toward them.…”

Chronic and temporarily activated causal uncertainty beliefs and stereotype usage.

“…Immediately prior to reading the case summary, participants in the accuracy goal conditions were given instructions designed to activate accuracy concerns. These instructions were adapted from E. P. Thompson, Roman, Moskowitz, Chaiken, and Bargh (1994) and from . They were as follows:…”