THE ROLE OF THE HYPOTHESIS AND THE EVIDENCE IN THE TRAIT HYPOTHESIS-TESTING PROCESS

Two experiments were conducted to examine (1) whether a trait hypothes is about a target person sets up expectancies for the type of evidence that will be received and (2) how subjects use a trait hypothesis and actual evidence about the target to draw conclusions about the validi ty of the hypothesis and, thus, to form an impression of the target pe rson. In Experiment 1, regardless of the type of question selected (i. e., hypothesis true or alternative true), subjects expected to receive hypothesis consistent evidence. In Experiment 2, subjects' impression s of the target were a joint function of the initial trait being teste d and the type of evidence received. Hypothesis consistent evidence le d to dispositional attributions that the target possessed the hypothes ized trait. Consistent with Reeder and Brewer's (1979) analysis of tra it schemata, hypothesis inconsistent extraverted evidence led to dispo sitional attributions of extraversion, whereas hypothesis inconsistent introverted evidence led to hedging and situational attributions. Dis cussion focuses on the limitations of the question selection methodolo gy that predominates the trait hypothesis testing literature and on th e importance of considering the properties of traits to more fully und erstand the process of testing trait hypotheses. (C) 1994 Academic Pre ss, Inc.