Although research has given substantial attention to understanding the antecedents of dispositional inferences, less attention has been directed at the consequences of these inferences, such that evidence linking dispositional inferences to downstream effects is relatively scarce. The present investigation examined whether dispositional inferences formed during initial observations elicited confirmatory processing of subsequent information about observed targets. Because confirmation biases influence a variety of information processing strategies, four experiments examined the extent to which dispositional inferences guided memory of new information (Experiment 1), interpretation of ambiguous information (Experiment 2), and information-seeking behavior (Experiments 3 and 4). Results indicated that biased processing of subsequent information was more likely when dispositional inferences were encouraged (i.e., impression formation objective) versus discouraged (i.e., narrative construction objective). This investigation highlights the role of causal inferences on confirmation biases and reveals the ease with which biases can be both bolstered and attenuated.
AllenT. J.ShermanJ. W.ConreyF. R.StroessnerS. J. (2009). Stereotype strength and attentional bias: Preference for confirming versus disconfirming information depends on processing capacity. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 1081-1087.
2.
BodenhausenG. V. (1988). Stereotypic biases in social decision making and memory: Testing process models of stereotype use. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55, 726-737.
3.
BrunerJ. S. (1957). On perceptual readiness. Psychological Review, 64, 123-152.
4.
CarlstonD. E.SkowronskiJ. J. (1994). Savings in relearning of trait information as evidence for spontaneous inference generation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 840-856.
5.
CopelandJ.SnyderM. (1995). When counselors confirm: A functional analysis. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 1210-1220.
6.
CostabileK. A. (2011). Rude or rushed? Effects of narrative and impression processing objectives on person perception. Social Cognition, 29, 445-475.
7.
CostabileK. A. (2016). Narrative construction, social perceptions, and the situation model. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 42, 589-602.
8.
CostabileK. A.KleinS. B. (2008). Understanding and predicting social events: The effects of narrative construction on inference generation. Social Cognition, 26, 455-472.
9.
ErberR.FiskeS. T. (1984). Outcome dependency and attention to inconsistent information. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 47, 709-726.
10.
FaulF.ErdfelderE.LangA.-G.BuchnerA. (2007). G*Power 3: A flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behavior Research Methods, 39, 175-191.
11.
FiedlerK.SchottM.MeiserT. (2011). What mediation analysis can (not) do. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47, 1231-1236.
12.
FindleyK. A.ScottM. S. (2006). Multiple dimensions of tunnel vision in criminal cases. Wisconsin Law Review, 2, 291-397.
13.
HamiltonD. L.KatzL. B.LeirerV. O. (1980). Cognitive representation of personality impressions: Organizational processes in first impression formation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 1050-1063. doi:10.1037/h0077711
14.
HeiderF. (1958). The psychology of interpersonal relations. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley.
15.
HeiderJ. D.SchererC. R.SkowronskiJ. J.WoodS. E.EdlundJ. E.HartnettJ. L. (2007). Trait expectancies and stereotype expectancies have the same effect on person memory. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 43, 265-272.
16.
JonasE.Shulz-HardtS.FreyD.ThelenN. (2001). Confirmation bias in sequential information search after preliminary decisions: An expansion of dissonance theoretical research on selective exposure to information. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 557-571. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.80.4.557
17.
JussimL. (1989). Teacher expectations: Self-fulfilling prophecies, perceptual biases, and accuracy. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 469-480.
18.
JussimL. (2012). Social perception and social reality: Why accuracy dominates bias and self-fulfilling prophecy. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
19.
JussimL.StevensS. T. (2016). Why accuracy dominates self-fulfilling prophecies and bias. In TruszS.BabelP. (Eds.), Interpersonal and intrapersonal expectancies (pp. 110-116). New York, NY: Routledge.
20.
KassinS. M.DrorI. E.KukuckaJ. (2013). The forensic confirmation bias: Problems, perspectives, and proposed solutions. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 2, 42-52.
21.
KelleyH. H.MichaelaJ. L. (1980). Attribution theory and research. Annual Review of Psychology, 31, 457-501.
22.
KlaymanJ.HaY.-W. (1987). Confirmation, disconfirmation, and information in hypothesis testing. Psychological Review, 94, 211-228. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.94.2.211
23.
LocksleyA.BorgidaE.BrekkeN.HepburnC. (1980). Sex stereotypes and social judgment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 821-831.
24.
LoehleC. (1987). Hypothesis testing in ecology: Psychological aspects and the importance of theory maturation. The Quarterly Review of Biology, 62, 397-409.
25.
MacKinnonD. P.FairchildA. J.FritzM. S. (2007). Mediation analysis. Annual Review of Psychology, 58, 593-614. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.58.110405.085542
26.
MalleB. F. (1999). How people explain behavior: A new theoretical framework. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 3, 21-43. doi:10.1207/s15327957pspr0301_2
27.
MalleB. F.HolbrookJ. (2012). Is there a hierarchy of social inferences? The likelihood and speed of inferring intentionality, mind, and personality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102, 661-684. doi:10.1037/a0026790
28.
McCarthyR. J.SkowronskiJ. J. (2011). What will Phil do next? Spontaneously inferred traits influence predictions of behavior. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47, 321-332.
29.
NeubergS. L. (1989). The goal of forming accurate impressions during social interactions: Attenuating the impact of negative expectancies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 374-386.
30.
NewmanL. S. (1996). Trait impressions as heuristics for predicting future behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24, 496-504.
31.
NickersonR. S. (1988). Confirmation bias: A ubiquitous phenomenon in many guises. Review of General Psychology, 2, 175-220.
32.
NisbettR. E. (1987). Lay personality theory: Its nature, origin, and utility. In GrunbergN. E.NisbettR. E.RodinJ.SingerE. E. (Eds.), A distinctive approach to psychological research: The influence of Stanley Schachter (pp. 87-117). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
33.
PennebakerJ. W.SkeltonJ. A. (1978). Psychological parameters of physical symptoms. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 4, 524-530.
34.
ReederG. D.TrafimowD. (2005). Attributing motives to other people. In MalleB. F.HodgesS. D. (Eds.), Other minds: How humans bridge the divide between self and others (pp. 106-123). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
35.
RichardF. D.BondC. F.Jr.Stokes-ZootaJ. J. (2003). One hundred years of social psychology quantitatively described. Review of General Psychology, 7, 331-363.
36.
RosenthalR.JacobsonL. (1968). Teacher expectations for the disadvantaged. Scientific American, 218, 19-23.
37.
RothbartM.EvansM.FuleroS. (1979). Recall for confirming events: Memory processes and the maintenance of social stereotypes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 15, 343-355.
38.
SnyderM.HaugenJ. A. (1994). Why does behavioral confirmation occur? A functional perspective on the role of the perceiver. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 30, 218-246.
39.
SnyderM.SwannW. B.Jr. (1978). Hypothesis-testing processes in social interaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 11, 1202-1212.
40.
SnyderM.TankeE. D.BerscheidE. (1977). Social perception and interpersonal behavior: On the self-fulfilling nature of social stereotypes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35, 656-666.
41.
SrullT. K.WyerR. S. (1980). Category accessibility and social perception: Some implications for the study of person memory and interpersonal judgments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 38, 841-856.
42.
ToddA. R.MoldenD. C.HamJ.VonkR. (2011). The automatic and co-occurring activation of multiple social inferences. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47, 37-49.
43.
ToddA. R.SimpsonA. J.TamirD. I. (2016). Active perspective taking induces flexible use of self-knowledge during social inference. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 145, 1583-1588.
44.
TodorovA.UlemanJ. S. (2003). The efficiency of binding spontaneous trait inferences to actors’ faces. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 39, 549-562. doi:10.1016/S0022-1031(03)00059-3
45.
WasonP. C. (1960). On the failure to eliminate hypotheses in a conceptual task, quarterly. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 12, 129-140. doi:10.1080/17470216008416717
46.
WinterD. G.JohnO. P.StewartA. J.KlohnonE. C.DuncanL. E. (1998). Traits and motives: Toward an integration of two traditions in personality research. Psychological Review, 105, 230-250.
47.
WordC. O.ZannaM. P.CooperJ. (1974). The nonverbal mediation of self-fulfilling prophecies in interracial interaction. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 10, 109-120.
48.
WyerN. A. (2004). Not all stereotypic biases are created equal: Evidence for a stereotype-disconfirming bias. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30, 706-720.
49.
ZuckermanM.KneeC. R.HodginsH. S.MiyakeK. (1995). Hypothesis confirmation: The joint effect of positive test strategy and acquiescence response set. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 52-60. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.68.1.52
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
