PERSON MEMORY AND JUDGMENT - PRAGMATIC INFLUENCES ON IMPRESSIONS FORMED IN A SOCIAL-CONTEXT

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.