SELF-SERVING BIAS IN ATTITUDE JUDGMENTS - THE USE OF PERSON VERSUS ISSUE IMPLICATED LANGUAGE

This study examines participants' perceptions of the appropriateness o f judgmental language to describe own, similar, and dissimilar attitud es. The judgmental language consisted of pre-tested adjectives that va ried in terms of their descriptive content, evaluative connotation and type of implication. Adjectives were classified as person implicated if they primarily implied an evaluation of person(s), and as issue imp licated if their central focus was on an evaluation of the issue. Find ings confirm the prediction of a differential positivity bias. Partici pants preferred positive person implication adjectives as compared to positive issue implication adjectives to describe their own and simila r attitudes. When describing people with opposing attitudes participan ts preferred negative person implication adjectives over negative issu e implication adjectives. This finding is related to other self-servin g biases in the judgment of attitude positions and groups, and its app lication to different communicative contexts is discussed.