Abstract
This study examined whether a situational cue (the number of information presenters) influences the perceivers' formation of an impression of the target person's personality. The effects of the type of impression (positive or negative) and the number of presenters (three presenters or a single presenter) on formation of impressions were investigated. Thus, 119 participants were given one of the six personality descriptions presented by three people or by a single person about the target. After reading the description, they viewed a videotape of an interaction between the target and a male interviewer. Later, participants rated the target on 36 personality-related adjectives and selected a one-word impression (prototypical impression) describing the target. Analysis indicated that participants' impressions of the target's personality were biased by the type of prior information (positive or negative) and the number of the presenters. That is, participants given the prior information from a group of presenters formed impressions about the target actor different from those given the prior information from a single presenter. Also, the asymmetrical discrepancies of the interaction between one-word prototypical impression and positiveness/negativeness of the prior information were observed. Schema-consistency of the prior information was discussed in terms of its informativeness and saliency.
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