Lecture 5- Impression Formation Flashcards
What is impression formation?
The way in which we form impressions, often, of others and attribute specific characteristics to them
What are the main principles of the configuration model?
(also known as the Gestalt Approach) It suggests that we immediately form an overall consistent impression of someone when we meet them, rather than using a combination of small traits and evidence.
What did Asch show?
That central traits, such as being “warm” or “cold” can have an impact on overall impression, and tend to have a larger impression than being “polite/blunt”. This was found through explicit word list test.
What did Asch show about first impressions?
he showed how the primary effect means that we tend to pick up on the traits people first present and characterise people by those traits (he did this by comparing word list descriptions where positive or negative traits were shown first)
Who was the cognitive algebra model proposed by?
Anderson et al in 1965
What does the cognitive algebra model suggest?
suggests that we form impressions because they form an adaptive function to recognise danger and safety that can help us survive. This is based on each person’s subjective value to what traits others present- i.e. how much we value their traits. It combines negative and positive traits to therefore create an overall impression
What are the two ways we can use the cognitive algebra model to represent the strength and quality of impressions?
We can represent it in an algebraic manner, assigning traits values (i.e. generous +4 or unreliable -2) and then creating an overall score based on the different traits. We can also use averages to create an overall impression, with people who have more strong traits having a more distinctive overall impression and people with mild traits having a less distinctive overall impression (distinctive impressions would be qualitatively larger
How did Willis and Todorov (2006) research how quickly impressions form?
They studied 117 undergraduate participants they were each shown an image of someone on a computer screen and were made to judge them on the presence of specific traits. The IV was the different time lengths that the image was shown for (100 milliseconds vs 1000 milliseconds vs unlimited time). The no time-constraint condition was the control group. The correlations between 100ms-1000ms correlated highly with the unlimited time constraints judgements (no correlation lower than 0,5). This shows that 1 tenth of a second is sufficient time to form impressions.
how have some criticised Willis and Todorov?
some have criticised this study as the sample was small and could be argued to be biased as it was all uni students and doesn’t address impressions formed by non-physical traits.
What is negativity bias?
3 points
We are more likely to let negative information influence our impressions than positive or neutral information. So negative traits have a greater impact on impression than positive traits. Negative information was also shown by Pratto and John 1991 to be remembered more easily.
What is the Halo effect?
the principle that generally people attribute positive qualities to physically attractive people
One study showed that attractive people tend to be approached and conversed with more, whereas attractive adults are more likely to be hired for jobs.
How did Olson and Marshuetz research whether attractive faces bias subsequent cognitive knowledge?
They showed 21 students either an attractive or unattractive face and then judged whether a list of words shown to them were positive or negative. Their reaction times were then measured, as it was an implicit task involving priming, hypothesising that being shown an attractive face would make someone more likely to recognise positive words, as they have experienced a positive stimuli. The participants were significantly faster to recognise words as positive if they had seen an attractive face.
How can having a “baby face” be linked to impressions?
What is one research example of this?
Baby faced adults tend to be linked to forming an impression of child-like characteristics (e.g. week, submissive, naive etc). This was shown by a study by Keating, where they edited JFK to be more or less baby faced. 51 participants then rated the faces on 10 traits after the different baby faced levels of JFK were shown for 3 seconds. The baby faced JFK was reported as less powerful than the older JFK.
How did Zebrowitz show that face perception is often the same between cultures?
They tested 30 US men and 40 indigenous Bolivian men, asking them to rate photos of either US or Bolivian faces
There was strong agreement both US and Bolivian samples that the baby-faced photos/people were rated as less dominant and that people who were more attractive were rated as seeming more friendly and kind (halo effect)
How did Zebrowitz change their study to be more accommodating to other cultures?
The ways that the rating and data was collected was specified for the different cultures (for the Bolivian sample, they used a photo album and piles of stones, rather than a laptop or numerical values)
