EVALUATION OF SELF-RELEVANT INFORMATION - ACCEPTANCE OF FAVORABLE ANDUNFAVORABLE PERSONALITY STATEMENTS AS FEEDBACK VS TEST ITEMS

An experiment with 71 college students was carried out to investigate how people evaluate favourable and unfavourable personality statements presented as feedback or as test items. In accord with previous resea rch, it was found that favourable Barnum personality statements were r ated more accurate than unfavourable statements and the statements wer e rated more accurate when presented as feedback than as test. A cogni tive-response analysis of the thoughts produced when evaluating the st atements showed that more confirmatory evidence was generated for favo urable than unfavourable statements and in the feedback than in the te st condition. Availability of confirmatory evidence accounted for the findings on accuracy ratings to a significant degree, but was not suff icient alone to explain the differences observed as a function of favo urability and feedback. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.