The role of “communion” and “agency” in college students’ first impressions of their peers

Abstract

Four studies were conducted to test the main predictions of Abele and Wojciszke’s Dual Perspective Model of Agency and Communion, DPM-AC model. The studies took place in the context of university students, and new data were provided to obtain a better understanding of how impression formation can influence what is expected from peers. Study 1 confirmed that students prefer communal traits in others when they have a unilateral dependency relationship, and agentic traits when they are in mutual dependency relationships. Conversely, study 2 showed that when students are asked what they dislike most, both communal and agentic adjectives were disliked when they come from a unilateral dependency relationship. Lastly, studies 3 and 4 showed that university students are sensitive to being influenced by priming, with communal and agentic adjectives modifying their evaluations on the morality and the efficiency of their peers’ behaviors.