The Cost of Forming More Accurate Impressions: Accuracy-Motivated Perceivers See the Personality of Others More Distinctively but Less Normatively Than Perceivers Without an Explicit Goal

摘要

Does the motivation to form accurate impressions actually improve accuracy? The present work extended Kenny's (1991,1994) weighted-average model (WAM)—a theoretical model of the factors that influence agreement among personalityjudgments—to examine two components of interpersonal perception: distinctive and normative accuracy. WAM predicts thatan accuracy motivation should enhance distinctive accuracy but decrease normative accuracy. In other words, the impressionsof a perceiver with an accuracy motivation will correspond more with the target person's unique characteristics and lesswith the characteristics of the average person. Perceivers randomly assigned to receive the social goal of forming accurateimpressions, which was communicated through a single-sentence instruction, achieved higher levels of distinctive self-otheragreement but lower levels of normative agreement compared with perceivers not given an explicit impression-formation goal.The results suggest that people motivated to form accurate impressions do indeed become more accurate, but at the cost ofseeing others less normatively and, in particular, less positively.