The Effects of Trait Type and Situation Type on the Generalization of Trait Expectancies Across Situations

Abstract

Three experiments tested the cross-situational generality of trait expectancies. In each experiment, participants were told about a behavior that a target person performed in one situation and subsequently made predictions about the target person’s behavior in a different situation. In addition, the behaviors pertained to positive or negative hierarchically restrictive or partially restrictive trait dimensions. The findings from Experiments 1 and 2 indicated that behaviors consistent with the negative pole of hierarchically restrictive trait dimensions are most likely to be expected by participants to generalize across situations. In Experiment 3, the behaviors were relevant to ability rather than morality, and in this case, it was behaviors consistent with the positive pole of hierarchically restrictive trait dimensions that were most likely to be expected to generalize across situations.