Rs. Wyer et al., PERSON MEMORY AND JUDGMENT - PRAGMATIC INFLUENCES ON IMPRESSIONS FORMED IN A SOCIAL-CONTEXT, Journal of personality and social psychology, 66(2), 1994, pp. 254-267
Ss who receive information about a person's traits and behaviors in a
social context are likely to focus their attention on the pragmatic im
plications of this information (i.e., why the information was conveyed
). To examine this hypothesis, Ss listened to a taped conversation in
which a male target (T) and another speaker (O) exchanged anecdotal ac
counts of T's behavior. Ss typically used O's trait description of T t
o form an evaluative concept of O rather than of T, whereas T's trait
description of himself had no effect on evaluations of him. Ss had bet
ter recall of statements O made when they were unfavorable and, theref
ore, violated a conversational norm to be polite. However, behaviors t
hat T himself mentioned were often recalled better when they were favo
rable, and therefore, in violation of a normative expectation to appea
r modest. The inconsistency of T's behaviors with initial trait descri
ptions of him had little effect on the recall of these behaviors.