INFERRING INTERPERSONAL ATTITUDES - HYPOTHESES AND THE INFORMATION-GATHERING PROCESS

In two experiments subjects inferred perceivers' attitudes toward targ et girls of varied physical attractiveness. Subjects could select trai ts from a provided list and ask whether the perceiver ascribed to the target each of those traits. After each question they received feedbac k about the perceiver's trait ascriptions. The nature of the traits be ing asked for was analysed It was predicted and found that subjects se arched for information on ascriptions of extremely rather than mildly evaluative traits (the diagnosing strategy), and for ascriptions of tr aits highly probable under implicit hypotheses based on the target's a ttractiveness (desirable traits when the target was attractive but und esirable ones when she was unattractive - the positive-test strategy). Experiment 2 also showed that attractiveness-based hypotheses governe d information gathering only in an initial phase of this process and w ere later replaced by newly developed hypotheses based on the feedback information. Implications of these findings for information gathering in general, and for inferring interpersonal attitudes in particular, were discussed