CORRESPONDENCE BIAS AND ATTITUDE TOWARD ABORTION - EFFECTS OF INFORMATION FROM OTHERS

This study investigated the influence of information from others on th e correspondence bias in the attribution of attitudes. Participants we re presented with an essay either for or against the legalization of a bortion. They also received either no information, an argument mention ing the target person's constraint, or behavior-inconsistent prior inf ormation about the target from a ''fellow classmate.'' Participants th en estimated the constrained target person's actual attitude. Results showed that the correspondence bias (CB) was substantially attenuated by the constraint argument and was reversed by the prior information. These findings demonstrate that arguments from others may prompt perce ivers to make an inferential adjustment to take into account the targe t's situational constraint, and that behavior-inconsistent prior infor mation from others may lead perceivers to assign greater inferential w eight to that information relative to the behavior.