The Influence Of Generalization Of Warmth And Competence On Impression Formation Of Strange Faces

The generalization effect plays a critical role in forming a person's impression of strange faces.As two major dimensions of social perception,warmth and competence hold vital theoretical and practical significance in studying the generalization mechanism.This research aims at examining how the generalization effect of warmth and competence can influence the formation of impression of strange faces and decision-making behavior regarding strangers,as well as the influence of the primacy of warmth and expectation of mixed stereotype adherence on the generalization of warmth and competence,at an attempt to provide a new perspective to gain a better understanding of the interpersonal interaction among strangers.Experiment 1 adopts the learning-evaluation task paradigm and examines whether four characteristic combinations,namely warmth and competence,can both cause a generalization effect to influence a person's cognition of strange faces,and whether the generalization of warmth and competence is subject to the influence of the primacy of warmth and the expectation of mixed stereotype adherence.Research adopts 2(face type: faces for learning,synthesized faces which are 50% similar)× 2(warmth: positive warmth,negative warmth)×2(abilities: positive abilities,negative abilities)within-subjects design.The respondents(n=51)are required to assess the warmth and abilities of the faces after learning sentences matched with warmth and abilities and the synthesized faces which are 50% similar.Results suggest that,under explicit conditions,four characteristic combinations of warmth and competence have all undergone a significant generalization effect,thus leading to consistent assessment of familiar faces and strange faces which are similar to the familiar faces;generalization of warmth and competence is subject to the influence of the primacy of warmth and expectation of mixed stereotype adherence.Meanwhile,the generalization effect of the warmth is more stable than the generalization effect of the competence,and the expectation of mixed stereotype adherence can,to some extent,adjust the impression formed by the generalization effect,increasing the consistency of the impression of strange faces with theimpression of mixed stereotype adherence to influence the generalization effect.Experiment 2 adopts the learning-launch task paradigm to investigate whether four characteristic combinations of warmth and competence can cause a generalization effect to influence a person's cognition of strange faces,and whether the generalization of warmth and competence is influenced on the primacy of warmth.Research adopts 2(face type: faces for learning,synthesized faces which are 50% similar)× 2(warmth: positive warmth,negative warmth)× 2(abilities: positive abilities,negative abilities)within-subjects design.The respondents(n=31)are required to assess positive words or negative words appearing after the launch of faces.Results indicate that,under implicit conditions,four characteristic combinations of warmth and competence have experienced a significant generalization effect,leading to consistency assessment between familiar faces and strange faces similar to familiar faces.Meanwhile,the generalization of warmth and competence is influenced by the primacy of warmth,and the generation of the former happens earlier than that of the latter Comparison of the results of Experiment 1 and Experiment 2 reveals that the influence of the generalization effect on the impression formation of strange faces is not influenced by the perceiver's consciousness of similarity.Experiment 3 adopts the learning-evaluation task paradigm and the trust game model to study whether the coexistence of the generalization of warmth and competence can influence the respondent's decision-making to trust the stranger or not and the respondent's evaluation of the stranger's credibility.Research adopts 2(face type: faces for learning,synthesized faces which are 50% similar)× 2(warmth: positive warmth,negative warmth)× 2(abilities:positive abilities,negative abilities)within-subjects design.The respondents(n=51)are required to assess the investment quota of entrusted agents(faces for learning,synthesized faces which are 50% similar)and credibility of entrusted agents.Results show that the generalization of warmth and competence can influence the respondent's trust decision-making behavior and credibility evaluation of the stranger.As a result,strange faces which are similar to familiar faces,and with negative warmth or competence score higher in terms of the investment quota and credibility rating obtained by strange faces which aresimilar to familiar faces,but with positive warmth or competence.Additionally,the trust decision-making and credibility assessment will be influenced by the primacy of warmth.Thereby,strange faces with negative but positive warmth,compared with strange faces with positive warmth but negative competence,score higher in terms of their investment quota and credibility.Combining the above research results,this paper comes to the conclusion that the four characteristic combinations of warmth and competence will both undergo a significant generalization effect,either under the explicit conditions or under the implicit conditions.Besides,the generalization effect is not subject to the perceiver's awareness of similarity.Moreover,generalization of warmth and competence will be influence by the primacy of warmth and the expectation of mixed stereotype adherence.Last but not least,the generalization of warmth and competence will further influence a person's credibility evaluation of strange faces,finally leading to a person's change of his or her trust decision-making behavior towards strangers.