Increasing consensus in trait judgments through outcome dependency

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This experiment examined two methods for increasing consensus and reducing biases in trait judgment: (1) outcome dependency, and (2) the presence or absence of particular social roles when making trait judgments. Subjects participated in groups and watched videotapes of eight different peers being interviewed on questions relevant to trait attributes. Outcome dependent subjects were led to believe that they would choose one of the interviewees to teach them a game and that all subjects in the group would compete against one another to win a prize. Subjects rated each target on 12 different trait dimensions and completed a recall task. The trait ratings were analyzed using the Social Relations Model; results indicated that outcome dependency increased the consensus among judges (target variance) and reduced idiosyncratic judgments (relationship variance). No differences in the recall data as a function of outcome dependency occurred. In addition, the presence or absence of a rating task had no effect on any of the dependent variables.