First impressions, ingratiation, and the learning disabled child.

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted concerning college students' immediate impressions of male learning disabled and nondisabled children. In both experiments, one half of the stimulus children within each group had been instructed to ingratiate an interviewer; the remaining youngsters had been instructed to act naturally. Interviews centered around the children's descriptions of their favorite television programs and movies. College students in the experiments viewed either 10- or 25-seconds of videotape of the interactions of each child. After each 10-or 25-second sequence the college students rated the child as to his degree of social adaptability and social hostility. Experiment I demonstrated that while LD children were judged more negatively under the “act naturally” instructions. thesechildren were judged as positively as nondisabled children when prompted to ingratiate. In Experiment II, judges based their ratings solely on the nonverbal behaviors of the target children. Again, a group by instruction interaction was found and was similar in nature to that found in Experiment I.