| The present studies investigated people's information gathering tendencies when trying to form an impression of an unknown other. Study 1 (n = 56) examined people's natural information search patterns by having participants spontaneously generate information about the qualities they would want to know most about an unknown other. Study 2 (n = 57) provided a conceptual replication of Study 1 by having participants select the traits they would most want to know about another person in order to form an impression of them. Both studies showed that information search is a process that can be affected by the very nature of the information that can be selected for verification, in particular the valence of the information. Specifically, these findings are consistent with the proposed social vigilance framework, especially the proposal that people are reluctant to ascribe positive characteristics to unknown others. The purpose of Study 3 (n = 203) was to examine this reluctant positivity tendency when initial impressions already exist that are based on positive compared to negative information. The results from Study 3 corroborate findings from the first two studies by showing that along with receiving positive information about someone comes a sense of uncertainty in what that information conveys about an unknown other. As expected, the more favorable the target impression was, the more difficult participants found it to make a character judgment about the target. Consequently, when given an opportunity to request information about an unknown target, participants requested more information when the initial impression of the person was positive compared to negative in valence. Further, when target impressions (i.e., their positivity or negativity) were controlled for, information search across conditions was indistinguishable. Hence, it is clear that the valence of the information and consequent impression led perceivers to search differentially for information in a manner consistent with the reluctant positivity hypothesis. Perceivers are less certain about what positive information says about others and they require more evidence to confirm what such people are like. |
