ON LEAPING TO CONCLUSIONS WHEN FEELING TIRED - MENTAL FATIGUE EFFECTSON IMPRESSIONAL PRIMACY

An experiment examined the impact of mental fatigue on impression form ation. Subjects experiencing fatigue as a result of participation in a lengthy final examination at a university manifested greater magnitud e of primacy effects in impressions than did nonfatigued subjects. Tho se differences disappeared when subjects were held accountable for the ir impressions. The findings are discussed in reference to the possibi lity that fatigue renders information processing subjectively costly i nducing the need for cognitive closure (Kruglanski, in press) promotin g a ''freezing'' on impressions implied by early information about a s ocial target. Similarly, need for closure is assumed to be lowered by accountability concerns. This analysis is discussed in light of the al ternative possibility that the effects of fatigue on impressions stem from a depletion of cognitive capacity. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.