Experimental differentiation of meaning change and averaging explanations for context effects

Abstract

The effects of contexts on correlations between evaluations of traits were examined to provide a differentiation of meaning change and averaging explanations for context effects in evaluative impression formation. Two different types of traits (ambiguous and nonambiguous) were evaluated under two different instructional conditions (P, or person description, and W, or random words). Both types of traits manifested shifts in mean levels of evaluation in Condition P, but not in W, with little evidence for differentml efiects across types of traits. Correlational analyses revealed differences between ambiguous and nonambiguous traits. Ambiguous traits manifested large shifts in the magnitude of intratrait correlations across contexts in Condition P, indicating that meaning change had occurred. There was little evidence for such effects among nonambiguous traits. It was concluded that meaning change is a highly restricted effect and does not represent a serious challenge to averaging explanations for context effects on component ratings in impression formation.