Repression-Sensitization and Item Desirability as Determinants of Accuracy of Person Perception

Abstract

It was predicted that repression-sensitization scores of perceivers and target persons, duration of exposure to targets, and social desirability values of items used in postdiction would affect accuracy of person perception. Two male targets selected from extremes of the repression-sensitization continuum were presented in either short or long video-taped exposures to 43 college students, whose task was correctly to guess each target's exact responses to a 182-item Repression-Sensitization scale. Estimated desirability value of each item was keyed; comparison of appropriate pairs of perceivers' and targets' protocols with one another and with the desirability key were used to determine perceivers' accuracy and reliance on item desirability in postdiction. Significant between-target differences were found for accuracy and for reliance on desirability. Duration of exposure exerted no main effects although there was some evidence that perceivers were correctly abandoning the desirability strategy in one condition. Correlational analysis suggested that perceivers who were themselves repressors tended to perceive the repressor target more accurately and those who were sensitizers perceived the sensitizer more accurately. Accuracy in postdicting the repressor target was negatively related to accuracy in postdicting the sensitizer.