Spontaneous state inferences.

Abstract

Perceivers routinely draw inferences about others from their behavior in an attempt to make sense of the world. Previous research has established that spontaneous inferences include stable characteristics such as traits and a number of variable person-related concepts such as goals, intentions, and motivations. The current research investigated the occurrence of more general spontaneous state inferences. In a series of four pre-registered studies (N = 883), we adapted two established experimental paradigms frequently used in spontaneous social inference research to the investigation of spontaneous trait and state inferences. In Studies 1 and 2, we observed evidence for the occurrence of spontaneous state inferences from state-implying statements. In Studies 3 and 4, we observed the simultaneous occurrence of spontaneous trait and state inferences from statements that allowed for both inferences. In a fifth study (N = 97), we provide evidence that people represent states and traits as functionally di↵erent: Participants judged the likelihood of behavioral repetition higher when the same behavior was related to a trait-inference than a state-inference. The observation of multiple simultaneous spontaneous inferences in the current research suggests that further theory building regarding the underlying mechanisms and processes of spontaneous impression formation in person perception from behavior is warranted.

Trait impressions from faces depend on the goals of the perceiver

“…This approach has been used in the vast majority of existing studies (Sutherland & Young, 2022), including our own (Lin et al, 2021). However, in real life, people navigate the social world with specific goals and intentions (Custers & Aarts, 2010; Kruse & Degner, 2021). We argue that in the real world, perceivers' goals would modify the trait impressions made from faces.…”

Investigating mechanisms of political polarization: Perceivers spontaneously infer ideological categories from other people's behavior

“…Similarly, more research is needed to fully understand the conditions under which discounting of person attributions takes place. Recent research has shown that STIs are not always the dominant inference and can even occur in parallel with spontaneous inferences of mental states and situational constraints (Kruse & Degner, 2021; Todd et al, 2011). For instance, the behavior “Leo cannot get the computer started”; Ham & Vonk, 2003, p. 445) was shown to be as likely to elicit situational inferences (e.g., the computer is broken) as trait inferences (e.g., Leo is inept).…”

“…Whether a behavior elicits multiple inferences, a single trait, or an ideological inference might depend on that behavior's ambiguity. Whereas the stimuli used by Kruse and Degner (2021) and Todd et al (2011) were selected for their ambiguous implications, our materials were selected to be clearly and unambiguously implying ideological categories. They were thus likely to be perceived as highly diagnostic of those categories.…”

The effects of psychological distance on spontaneous justice inferences: A construal level theory perspective

“…Previous studies about justice have largely focused on explicit justice judgments using explicit measures like Likert-type rating scales (see Lind and Tyler, 1988 ; Colquitt and Shaw, 2005 ). A large body of research has shown that perceivers who observe actions often draw inferences spontaneously, called spontaneous social inferences ( Kruse and Degner, 2021 ). Importantly, Research findings have shown that people draw justice inferences spontaneously (unconsciously and/or unintentionally) when they observe a justice-implying event ( Ham and van den Bos, 2008 , 2011 ; Ham et al, 2009 ; Wang et al, 2014 ).…”