The effect on liking of underrating or overrating another

Abstract

People undoubtedly feel others deserve a correct and fair evaluation. This experiment tested the hypothesis that if an individual discovered he had accorded another less respect than the other deserved, he would attempt to make up for this injustice by a subsequent, temporary overestimation of the other. If he discovered he had accorded the other more respect than the other deserved, he would subsequently underestimate the other. It was expected that this “over-compensation” would occur even if the individual's unjust evaluation had been entirely private. This hypothesis was supported. In the experimental situation, both commitment to the initial unjust evaluation and responsibility for the unjust evaluation were held at a very low level. We felt these restrictions might be necessary to demonstrate the over-compensation response we were proposing. It was also proposed that as subjects became increasingly committed to their initial unjust evaluation, they would attempt to compensate for an initial injustice less and less often, and would increasingly attempt to justify their initial misjudgment. This expectation was not confirmed. Moderately committed subjects demonstrated as much, or more, over-compensation than uncommitted subjects. It was suggested that perhaps even the most committed groups were not in fact very committed to their initial unjust evaluations, which were anonymous.