Effects of fortuitously activated constructs versus activated communication goals on person impressions.

Abstract

The relative impact of construct accessibility effects (i.e., the influence of accessible and applicable constructs) and communication goal effects (i.e., the influence of constructs activated through communication goals) on both the interpretation and transmission of ambiguous target information and Ss' private target impressions is examined. Whether communication goal effects can lead to recoding of target information is also examined. Ss were primed with either positive or negative trait constructs, were presented with ambiguous target information, and were instructed to communicate their description and impressions of the target to a recipient holding either positive, negative, or neutral attitudes toward the target. Construct accessibility effects were present in the case of the neutral recipient but were overridden by communication goal effects in the case of either the positive or negative recipient. Furthermore, communication goals introduced at retrieval led to recoding of target information. Research on the psychological processes underlying the formation of person impressions has tacitly accepted the assumption that impression formation is governed by intraindividual factors. The process of impression formation is thought to involve perceivers' attending to target behaviors and encoding the behaviors in line with relevant accessible constructs, at least when the behaviors are ambiguous. Thus, the impression of the target is decisively shaped by the constructs that happen to be accessible at encoding. (For alternative views, see Anderson, 1974; Brewer, 1988; and Jones & Davis, 1965.) However, the impression formation process can also be influenced by interindividual factors. For instance, when impressions are formed with a communicative intent, they may be molded by the demands of the communication process per se {e.g., characteristics of the recipient to whom target impressions are to be communicated), instead of or in addition to being shaped by relevant, accessible constructs. This article is concerned with the joint influence of intraindividual and inter individual factors on the formation of person impressions.