Observational goals and behavior unitization: A reexamination

In two studies, we found that perceivers with different observational goals -learning an actor's task, forming an impression of her, or no specific goa l-picked up qualitatively different information while viewing the actor's o ngoing behavior. Because we used a between-subjects design and analysis, ou r results rule out a demand-characteristics interpretation that may explain a similar finding in earlier research. We also found that the explicit goa l of learning a task or forming an impression (relative to having no specif ic goal) led to the selection of less information overall from the observed behavior. Finally, in contrast to previous work on this topic, we found th at the goal of learning a task did not lead perceivers to select more infor mation than did the goal of forming an impression. Implications of these fi ndings and future research possibilities are discussed. (C) 2000 Academic P ress.