Relevance of Information and Assimilation-Contrast in Interpersonal Prediction

Abstract

43 judges predicted the responses of 4 targets to interest test items. Three factors (information relevance, perceived similarity, and real similarity) were varied. Information relevance had a sizable independent effect on predictive accuracy. There was a significant interaction between perceived similarity and real similarity in terms of their effects on accuracy in a direction consistent with Berkowitz' assimilation-contrast model of social judgment. The assimilation effects were considerably more marked than the contrast effects. An hypothesized three-way interaction between the independent variables was found to be not significant. The latter two results were discussed in terms of the possible effects of stereotyping and the personal relevance of the predictive items.