What People Look for in Others: Influences of the Perceiver and the Perceived on Information Selection

Abstract

This research examines how (a) person information (morality vs. competence and positive vs. negative information) and (b) perceiver differences (prosocials vs. proselfs) influence active (Study 1) and more passive (Study 2) forms of information selection in impression formation. Consistent with the morality-importance hypothesis, the majority of participants first searched for morality information, and overall, participants assigned more attention and weight to morality information than to competence information. In line with the negativity-effect hypothesis, attention for competence information was decreased more after negative than after positive morality information, and negative morality information received more weight in impressions than did positive morality information. Finally, in line with the social-value-orientation hypothesis, (a) a greater number of proselfs than of prosocials searched for additional competence information after morality information and (b) proselfs’ impressions were affected more strongly by competence information and less strongly by morality information than prosocials’ impressions.