Spontaneous Trait Inferences Research Articles

The Social Explanatory Styles Questionnaire: assessing moderators of basic social-cognitive phenomena including spontaneous trait inference, the fundamental attribution error, and moral blame.

Why is he poor? Why is she failing academically? Why is he so generous? Why is she so conscientious? Answers to such everyday questions—social explanations—have powerful effects on relationships at the interpersonal and societal levels. How do people select an explanation in particular cases? We suggest that, often, explanations are selected based on the individual's pre-existing general theories of social causality. More specifically, we suggest that over time individuals develop general beliefs regarding the causes of social events. We refer to these beliefs as social explanatory styles. Our goal in the present article is to offer and validate a measure of individual differences in social explanatory styles. Accordingly, we offer the Social Explanatory Styles Questionnaire (SESQ), which measures three independent dimensions of social explanatory style: Dispositionism, historicism, and controllability. Studies 1–3 examine basic psychometric properties of the SESQ and provide positive evidence regarding internal consistency, factor structure, and both convergent and divergent validity. Studies 4–6 examine predictive validity for each subscale: Does each explanatory dimension moderate an important phenomenon of social cognition? Results suggest that they do. In Study 4, we show that SESQ dispositionism moderates the tendency to make spontaneous trait inferences. In Study 5, we show that SESQ historicism moderates the tendency to commit the Fundamental Attribution Error. Finally, in Study 6 we show that SESQ controllability predicts polarization of moral blame judgments: Heightened blaming toward controllable stigmas (assimilation), and attenuated blaming toward uncontrollable stigmas (contrast). Decades of research suggest that explanatory style regarding the self is a powerful predictor of self-functioning. We think it is likely that social explanatory styles—perhaps comprising interactive combinations of the basic dimensions tapped by the SESQ—will be similarly potent predictors of social functioning. We hope the SESQ will be a useful tool for exploring that possibility.

Os fenómenos das inferências e transferências espontâneas de traço: O que são, de onde vieram, para onde vão?

O fenómeno das Inferências Espontâneas de Traço (IETs) consiste na constatação de que, no seguimento da exposição a um comportamento implicativo de um traço de personalidade, se verifica uma inferência do traço acerca do respectivo autor, sem que haja intenção nem consciência por parte do observador (Winter & Uleman, 1984). Recentemente, o fenómeno de Transferências Espontâneas de Traço (TETs) veio revelar que os traços implicados pelas descrições comportamentais se podem vincular a outros sujeitos que não o seu autor, tais como um comunicador do comportamento. A descoberta do efeito de TETs veio incidir uma nova luz sobre a caracterização das IETs. Especificamente, enquanto que alguns autores definiram as IETs como um processo de natureza inferencial, por oposição às TETs, que se caracterizariam por processos associativos, outros sugeriram que a ambos os efeitos subjaz um mesmo mecanismo associativo. O presente artigo incidirá sobre a investigação na área das IETs e TETs, fazendo uma exposição crítica do debate entre as duas explicações oferecidas e propondo novas formas empíricas de o esclarecer.

'She called her partner-hence she is needy': depressed patients show increased tendencies to make spontaneous trait inferences.

Interpersonal stress generation is an important maintaining factor in major depression; however, little is known about the psychological mechanisms that undermine interpersonal functioning. This study investigated the role of deficits in person perception to this regard. Depressed patients (n = 20) and healthy controls (n = 20) completed a false recognition task that measured participants' tendencies to make spontaneous trait inferences (STIs), that is to spontaneously ascribe personality traits to other people. Participants then reported interpersonal daily hassles for one week following the task. Tendencies to make STIs were significantly higher in depressed patients, particularly those with a history of childhood trauma. The degree to which participants made STIs was significantly related to depression severity, and predicted the occurrence of interpersonal daily hassles during follow-up across, but not within groups. The results suggest that depressed patients show characteristic biases in person perception that may contribute to the generation of interpersonal stress.

PERSONAL NEED FOR STRUCTURE AND CONTROL MOTIVATION: LINKING SOCIAL COGNITION AND INTERPERSONAL MOTIVATION

Abstract: The authors examined the assumption that Personal need for structure (PNS) is negatively related to the approach component of control motivation and positively related to the avoidance component of control motivation. Participants (n = 60 university students) were administered self-report Personal Need for Structure scale and semi-projective Multi-Motive Grid. Analysis showed that PNS was positively related to Fear of Losing Control. No relation between PNS and Hope for Control was found. Results are interpreted in the context of dispositional and situational conditions influencing control motivation.Key words: personal need for structure, control motivation, hope for control, fear of losing controlOSOBNA POTREBA STRUKTURY A KONTROLNA MOTIVACIA: PREPOJENIE SOCIALNYCH KOGNICII A INTERPERSONALNEJ MOTIVACIESuhrn: Autori skumali predpoklad, ze potreba struktury (PNS) je v negativnom vztahu s motivaciou ku kontrole v zmysle priblizovania a v pozitivnom vztahu s motivaciou ku kontrole v zmysle vyhýbania. Participantom (n = 60 univerzitným studentom) bol administrovaný sebavýpovedový dotaznik Potreba struktury (PNS) a semi-projektivny dotaznik Multimotivacna mriezka (MMG). Výsledky ukazali, ze potreba struktury je v pozitivnom vztahu so Strachom zo straty kontroly. Data nepodporili predpoklad o negativnom vztahu potreby struktury a Tuzbou po kontrole. Výsledky su interpretovane v kontexte dispozicných a situacných podmienok ovplyvnujucich motivaciu ku kontrole.INTRODUCTIONAttention and subsequent information processing are selective, especially in case of social stimuli, and determined by our goals (Neuberg et al., 2005). Cognitive processes and motives do not operate in isolation, but rather work together to determine decisionmaking (Roets, Van Hiel, 2011) or behavior generally (e.g., Burger, 1993). Major theories of social-cognitive revolution addressing motivational influences on cognition deal with the effect of epistemic goals on information processing (Fiske, Neuberg, 1990; Kruglanski, 1989; Cacioppo, Petty, 1982; Bar- Tal, 1994), while research on other fundamental motives is rare (Neuberg et al., 2005).One of the personality and cognitive constructs addressing the issue of epistemic motivation and cognition is personal need for structure (PNS, Neuberg, Newsom, 1993; Sarmany-Schuller, 2001). People differ in the way they cognitively approach the world - some people prefer a clear and simple structure, others appreciate complex information. Personal need for structure is a construct indicating how much organization people prefer to have in their lives (Neuberg, Newsom, 1993). The tendency to reduce information quantity and complexity has its implications for various aspects of psychological functioning, especially social information processing and social interaction. Individuals high in PNS tend to arrange their social interactions in ways that enable them to avoid complexity, they prefer predictable and scripted social situations with stable and clear rules (Neuberg, Newsom, 1993). They are also more likely to use stereotypes and previously acquired categories in new situations and form less complex representations of the self and the others. Once an answer is found, they are more likely to freeze on the first available explanation and are less likely to search for alternatives (Neuberg, Newsom, 1993). In attribution processes, high PNS individuals tend to attribute the performance of other people to internal causes rather than external constraints such as task difficulty (Schaller et al., 1995) and are more likely to form spontaneous trait inferences when categorizing behavior than those who are low in PNS (Moskowitz, 1993). In context of a working environment, Slijkhuis et al. (2013) showed that high PNS individuals tend to welcome any type of evaluation situations, whereas in low PNS individuals only informational (not controlling) feedback had positive effect on motivation and creative performance. …

The Development of Spontaneous Trait Inferences: Evidence from Chinese Children

Spontaneous trait inferences are trait inferences that are made without intention or conscious awareness on exposure to trait-implying behaviors. Most studies in the area of spontaneous trait inferences have been undertaken with adults, but little attention has been paid to the developmental course. Using a recognition probe paradigm, the current study was performed to examine the development of Chinese children's spontaneous trait inferences, comparing 8-, 9-, 10-, 11-, and 12-year-olds. Results indicated that children could infer traits from trait-implying behaviors spontaneously from the age of 8 years. Moreover, the strength of spontaneous trait inferences peaked at age 10 years, and decreased steadily from ages 10 through 12. These results suggest developmental changes in the tendency to engage in spontaneous trait inferences.

Seeing others through rose-colored glasses: An affiliation goal and positivity bias in implicit trait impressions

People infer traits from other people's behaviors without intention, awareness, or effort, and this spontaneous trait inference (STI) effect has been shown to be robust. The purpose of the present research was to demonstrate the flexibility of STIs despite the ubiquity. Specifically, we examined the effect of an affiliation goal on STI formation and found a positivity bias. In Experiment 1, perceivers with an affiliation goal formed more positive (versus negative) spontaneous trait inferences compared to those without this goal and those who had been primed with semantically positive, affiliation-unrelated words. Experiment 2 provided evidence that this effect was driven by a motivational state by showing that the positivity bias occurs only when a perceiver's goal to affiliate remains unfulfilled. The goal's interaction with trait valence showed focused, goal-relevant bias. These studies are the first to show that STIs form flexibly in response to perceivers' primed social goals supporting the functionality account of STIs in implicit impression formation.

Inferences Are For Doing

Spontaneous trait inferences (STIs) are ubiquitous and occur when perceivers spontaneously infer actor traits from actor behaviors. Previous research has elucidated the processes underlying STIs, but little work has focused on the functions of STIs. This article proposes that these unintentional early inferences serve a general approach or avoidance function. Two studies are reported in which external approach and avoidance motivations elicited via flexion-extension (Study 1) or physical warmth (Study 2) affect the encoding of trait-implying behavioral statements in a valence-matching manner. The results suggest that somatic states can act as cues that affect unintentional social information processing independently of the actual experience of the psychological states associated with those somatic states. Implications for a functional perspective on STIs are discussed.

How social cognition can inform social decision making

Social decision-making is often complex, requiring the decision-maker to make inferences of others' mental states in addition to engaging traditional decision-making processes like valuation and reward processing. A growing body of research in neuroeconomics has examined decision-making involving social and non-social stimuli to explore activity in brain regions such as the striatum and prefrontal cortex, largely ignoring the power of the social context. Perhaps more complex processes may influence decision-making in social vs. non-social contexts. Years of social psychology and social neuroscience research have documented a multitude of processes (e.g., mental state inferences, impression formation, spontaneous trait inferences) that occur upon viewing another person. These processes rely on a network of brain regions including medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), superior temporal sulcus (STS), temporal parietal junction, and precuneus among others. Undoubtedly, these social cognition processes affect social decision-making since mental state inferences occur spontaneously and automatically. Few studies have looked at how these social inference processes affect decision-making in a social context despite the capability of these inferences to serve as predictions that can guide future decision-making. Here we review and integrate the person perception and decision-making literatures to understand how social cognition can inform the study of social decision-making in a way that is consistent with both literatures. We identify gaps in both literatures—while behavioral economics largely ignores social processes that spontaneously occur upon viewing another person, social psychology has largely failed to talk about the implications of social cognition processes in an economic decision-making context—and examine the benefits of integrating social psychological theory with behavioral economic theory.

Causal Uncertainty Prompts Abstract Construal of Behavior

When people experience Causal Uncertainty (CU; the sense that they have failed to understand the causal structure of the social world) they search for information that will restore their understanding. Three studies explore information processing strategies that guide this search. We hypothesized that CU would promote abstract construal of behavioral information. In Study 1, CU promoted faster spontaneous trait inferences; in Studies 2 and 3, individuals with chronically activated CU beliefs, and those primed with CU, showed broader unitization of the behavioral stream (Study 2) and increased preference for abstract construal of behaviors (Study 3). We argue that these strategies reflect a search for diagnostic causal information about the social world.

Appearance-based inferences bias source memory

Previous research varying the trustworthiness of appearance has demonstrated that facial characteristics contribute to source memory. Two studies extended this work by investigating the contribution to source memory of babyfaceness, a facial quality known to elicit strong spontaneous trait inferences. Young adult participants viewed younger and older babyfaced and mature-faced individuals paired with sentences that were either congruent or incongruent with the target's facial characteristics. Identifying a source as dominant or submissive was least accurate when participants chose between a target whose behavior was incongruent with facial characteristics and a lure whose face mismatched the target in appearance but matched the source memory question. In Experiment 1, this effect held true when older sources were identified, but not own-age, younger sources. When task difficulty was increased in Experiment 2, the relationship between face-behavior congruence and lure facial characteristics persisted, but it was not moderated by target age even though participants continued to correctly identify fewer older than younger sources. Taken together, these results indicate that trait expectations associated with variations in facial maturity can bias source memory for both own- and other-age faces, although own-age faces are less vulnerable to this bias, as is shown in the moderation by task difficulty.

What I infer depends on who you are: The influence of stereotypes on trait and situational spontaneous inferences

In the present work, the moderating role of stereotypes in trait and situational spontaneous inferences is examined. Previous research has shown that stereotypes affect the likelihood of spontaneously inferring personality traits from behaviors, but whether stereotype knowledge also interferes with the likelihood of making situational inferences is something that remains unknown. In two experiments, the stereotypes associated with the actors and their corresponding behavioral descriptions allowed both trait and situational inferences. Results showed that spontaneous trait inferences were more likely to be made for stereotype-consistent behaviors than for stereotype-inconsistent behaviors, whereas spontaneous situational inferences follow the opposite pattern. Our findings support the hypothesis that spontaneous trait and situational inferences interplay with stereotype knowledge in the service of preserving the coherence of information received.

Spontaneous trait inferences among Japanese children and adults: A developmental approach

Prior research has indicated that spontaneous trait inferences (STIs) occur more easily among fifth graders than among adults, although STIs generally develop only among Westerners. However, no prior studies on STI include Asian children. This study explored the development of STIs among Japanese fifth graders, seventh graders, and undergraduates. Experiments 1 and 2 used a relearning paradigm, and participants' recollections of photo‐trait pairs after being presented with congruent behaviours were compared with those after being presented with incongruent behaviours. If participants showed better recollection after being presented with congruent behaviour descriptions (saving effects), this indicated that they had made STIs from the behaviour. The results showed that STIs occur among Japanese children and adults, although their occurrence was associated with a trait valence factor. STIs occurred to a small extent from positive‐trait‐implying descriptions only among fifth and seventh graders, not undergraduates. In contrast, STIs occurred clearly from negative‐trait‐implying descriptions in all age groups. The results of Experiment 3, which used a trait‐rating task that required less storage capacity of long‐term memory, confirmed that fifth and seventh graders, as well as adults, made spontaneous inferences of specific traits implied from behavioural descriptions and not a wide positive–negative framework. The developmental model of STIs depending on trait valence and culture is discussed.

Effects of Gender Stereotypes on Spontaneous Trait Inferences and the Moderating Role of Gender Schematicity: Evidence from Chinese Undergraduates

Using a recognition probe paradigm, two studies were performed to examine the role of gender stereotypes activated by faces in Chinese undergraduates' spontaneous trait inferences (STIs). In Experiment 1, compared to the baseline, participants made stronger STIs for gender stereotype-consistent behaviors and weaker STIs for gender stereotype-inconsistent behaviors. These results suggest both facilitatory and inhibitory effects of stereotype activation on STI processes. In Experiment 2, these effects were replicated for gender-schematic participants, whereas neither facilitatory nor inhibitory effects were obtained for gender-aschematic participants. These results suggest a moderating role of gender schematicity in the influence of gender stereotypes on perceivers' STIs from actors' behaviors.

Social class differences in N400 indicate differences in spontaneous trait inference.

An emerging literature indicates that dispositional bias in causal attribution of social behavior is weaker for people with working-class (vs. middle-class) backgrounds. However, it is unknown whether this difference is also present in spontaneous forms of trait inference. In the current work, American undergraduates were asked to merely memorize many pairings of a target face and a trait-implying behavior. In a subsequent lexical judgment task, after each face was presented as a fixation, either an implied trait or its antonym was given as a target. As expected, participants with college-educated parents (middle class) showed a strong N400 event-related potential component to the antonym (vs. the implied trait), suggesting spontaneous trait inference during the memorization phase. In contrast, those with high-school-educated parents (working class) showed no such effect. It is important to note that the N400 spontaneous trait inference effect was associated with perceived significance of dispositions in accounting for social behaviors.

Primed Self-Construal, Culture, and Stages of Impression Formation

The effects of culture on impression formation are widely documented but poorly understood. Priming independent and interdependent self-construals, and focusing on particular stages of impression formation, could help remedy this because such self-construals differ across cultures. In three experiments, participants’ were primed with independent or interdependent self-construals before they formed spontaneous or intentional impressions of others. In Experiment 1, lexical decision reaction times showed that both traits and situational properties were activated spontaneously, but were unaffected by self-construal priming. In Experiment 2, a false-recognition paradigm showed that spontaneous trait inferences were bound to relevant actors’ faces, again regardless of self-construal priming. In Experiment 3, explicit ratings did show priming effects. Those primed with independent (but not interdependent) self-construal inferred traits more strongly than situational properties. Primed self-construals appear to affect intentional but not spontaneous stages of impression formation. The differences between effects of primed and chronic self-construals are discussed.

Inconsistencies in spontaneous and intentional trait inferences

This study explores the fMRI correlates of observers making trait inferences about other people under conflicting social cues. Participants were presented with several behavioral descriptions involving an agent that implied a particular trait. The last behavior was either consistent or inconsistent with the previously implied trait. This was done under instructions that elicited either spontaneous trait inferences ('read carefully') or intentional trait inferences ('infer a trait'). The results revealed that when the behavioral descriptions violated earlier trait implications, regardless of instruction, the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) was more strongly recruited as well as the domain-general conflict network including the posterior medial frontal cortex (pmFC) and the right prefrontal cortex (rPFC). These latter two areas were more strongly activated under intentional than spontaneous instructions. These findings suggest that when trait-relevant behavioral information is inconsistent, not only is activity increased in the mentalizing network responsible for trait processing, but control is also passed to a higher level conflict monitoring network in order to detect and resolve the contradiction.

An examination of detection possibility of spontaneous trait inferences by the Go/No-Go Association Task

An examination of detection possibility of spontaneous trait inferences by the Go/No-Go Association Task

N400 and LPP in spontaneous trait inferences

Past research on spontaneous trait inferences using event related potentials (ERPs) has consistently reported increased late positive potential (LPP) amplitudes following social expectancy violations, but no N400 modulation. In the present study, participants read scenarios describing behaviors of unknown actors. They entailed descriptions of several positive trait implying behaviors, followed by a single final sentence describing behavior that was either consistent or inconsistent with the previously implied trait. As in previous studies, we found significantly increased LPP amplitudes following inconsistent behaviors at multiple frontal sites. Unlike in previous research, we also found increased N400 amplitudes at several centro-parietal sites. The divergence of these results is explained from minor differences in the stimulus presentation procedure and possible overlap of ERP components of opposite polarity. Temporal principal component analysis (PCA) confirmed the separate influence of concurrent LPP and N400 ERP modulations, and the source of the largest factors was located using sLORETA. It is suggested that the increased N400 in response to trait inconsistencies reflects difficulties in understanding unanticipated behavior, while the LPP effect might reflect evaluative incongruence.

Spontaneous Trait Inference Is Culture-Specific

People with an independent model of the self may be expected to develop a spontaneous tendency to infer a personality trait from another person’s behavior, but those with an interdependent model of the self may not show such a tendency. We tested this prediction by assessing the cumulative effect of both trait activation and trait binding in a diagnostic task that required no trait inference. Participants first memorized pairings of facial photos with trait-implying behavior. In a subsequent lexical decision task, European Americans showed clear evidence of spontaneous trait inference: When they were primed with a previously studied face, lexical decision for the word for the implied trait associated with that face was facilitated, and the antonym of the implied trait elicited an electrophysiological sign associated with processing of semantically inconsistent information (i.e., the N400). As predicted, however, neither effect was observed for Asian Americans. The cultural difference was mediated by independent self-construal.

Spontaneous goal inferences are often inferred faster than spontaneous trait inferences

We present four experiments in which participants were exposed to texts depicting behaviors that afforded inferences about actors' traits and goals. Results from a false recognition task with varying response deadlines revealed heightened activation of goal inferences already within a 350 ms response deadline. In contrast, trait inferences were made only when there was no response deadline, and when the behavior also implied a goal. These results indicate that spontaneous inferences on goals are often encoded more strongly in memory and are reactivated much more quickly in comparison with spontaneous trait inferences. Moreover, spontaneous trait inferences are often facilitated when an inference is first made on the goal of the behavior. These findings are discussed in light of recent developmental and neuroscientific evidence on social inferences, and current theories on impression formation.