Impression formation and cooperative behavior

Two studies investigated how behavioral information about the morality or i ntelligence of another person influences impressions, expectations of coope rative behavior, and own cooperation in a mixed-motive interdependence situ ation. Consistent with the morality-importance hypothesis, results revealed that morality information influenced impressions, expectations of other's cooperative behavior, as well as own cooperation more strongly than intelli gence information, and led to greater confidence in expectations and better recall. Consistent with the negativity effect hypothesis, negative informa tion about morality and intelligence had more impact on impressions and int eraction-relevant measures than positive information. An additional finding was that people overall expected more cooperation from others than they we re willing to display themselves, and that this difference was especially p ronounced for unintelligent and moral targets. Explanations and implication s are discussed from a behavioral-adaptive perspective on impression format ion. Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.