EVIDENCE FOR EGOCENTRIC COMPARISON IN SOCIAL JUDGMENT

People often disagree in their judgments of the traits and the abiliti es of others. Three studies suggested that these differences arise bec ause people activate and use their own particular behaviors as norms w hen evaluating the performances of others. In Study 1, 71% of particip ants reported comparing a target's behavior with their own behavior wh en providing judgments of that target. Participants also provided desc riptions of their own behavior more quickly after judging another pers on's behavior, suggesting they had activated information about their o wn behavior when judging that of another (Studies 2 and 3). In all 3 s tudies, judgments of another's behavior tended to be egocentrically re lated to the participants' own behavior, particularly among those who displayed the strongest evidence of activation of self-information (St udies 1 and 2). Discussion centers on the generality of these findings and their implications for past and future research.