MISANTHROPIC PERSON MEMORY

Three experiments examined memory for behaviors associated with attrib utional information. A baseline established in Experiment 1, using beh aviors unaccompanied by attributions, indicated that expectancy-incons istent behaviors were better recalled than consistent ones. Experiment 2 linked these same behaviors to dispositional or situational attribu tions. After reconceptualizing the results, it was shown that negative dispositionally attributed behaviors and positive situationally attri buted behaviors were best recalled, suggesting that there is a negativ ity bias in person memory for behaviors that are accompanied by attrib utions. Experiment 3, using a different procedure, served as a replica tion of this misanthropic memory effect and demonstrated that the effe ct was only slightly altered by reducing the processing time allocated for this task. The findings were discussed in terms of their implicat ions for expectancy-driven information processing and also with regard to the types of impressions people may form from attributed behaviora l information.