SELECTIVITY IN GENERALIZATIONS ABOUT SELF AND OTHERS FROM PERFORMANCE

The willingness of perceivers to generalize about self and others from observed performance was investigated. In the first experiment, subje cts judged the specific memory ability and the global intelligence of self or another after performance on a short-term memory task. Subject s drew strong inferences about the specific memory abilities of both s elf and others from performance. Global inferences about intelligence, however, were drawn about others but not self. The second experiment examined the effects of chronic self-esteem on willingness to generali ze about self. High- and low-self-esteem subjects judged their specifi c and global qualities after performing an anagram task. High-self-est eem subjects drew global inferences about self after good performance but not poor performance, whereas low-self-esteem subjects drew global inferences about self after poor performance but not good performance . The study provides evidence of an important mechanism that may contr ibute to the maintenance of global self-appraisals and chronic self-es teem.