EUROPEAN REVIEW OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY VOLUME 12
EUROPEAN REVIEW OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
EUROPEAN REVIEW OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Editorial Board Dominic Abrams Michael Diehl AliuEagly KlausFi�er Kenneth Gergen Michael A. Hogg Charles M. Judd Arie W. Kruglanski Anne Maass Antony Manstead David Messick Gerold Mikula John Rijsman BemardRime Fritz Strack Thomas A. Wills
University ofKent, UK Universitiit Tiibingen, Germany Northwestern University, USA Universitiit Heidelberg, Germany Swarthmore College, USA University of Queensland, Australia University of Colorado, Boulder, USA University of Maryland, USA Universita di Padova, Italy Universiteit van Amsterdam, The Netherlands Northwestern University, USA Universitiit Graz, Austria Tilburg University, The Netherlands Universite Catholique de Louvain, Belgium Universitiit Wiirzburg, Germany Ferkauf Graduate School, USA
Editors Wolfgang Stroebe Miles Hewstone
Utrecht University, The Netherlands Oxford University, UK
About the editors
Wolfgang Stroebe has published widely on the topics of attitudes, group processes and health psychology. A former President of the European Association of Experimental Social Psychology and a fellow of the British Psychological Society, the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, and the Society of Personality and Social Psychol ogy, he is currently Professor of Social, Organizational and Health Psychology at the University of Utrecht (The Netherlands). Miles Hewstone has published widely on the topics of social cognition and intergroup relations. He was awarded the British Psychological Society's Spearman Medal in 1987 and its Presidents' Award for Distinguished Contributions to Research in 2001 . He was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, California from 1987-1988 and 1999-2000, and is an Academician of the Academy of Learned Societies in the Social Sciences. Having held Chairs at the Universities of Bristol, Mannheim and Cardiff, he has recently joined the Department of Experimen tal Psychology at the University of Oxford and is a Fellow of New College.
EUROPEAN REVIEW OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOG1( VOLUME12 Edited by WOLFGANG STROEBE
Utrecht University, The Netherlands
and MlLES HEWSTONE
Oxford University, UK
JOHN WILEY & SONS, LTD
Copyright© 2002 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Baffins Lane, Chichester, West Sussex P019 1 UD, England National 01243 779777 International (+44) 1243 779777 e-mail (for orders and customer service enquiries): cs-book @wiley.co.uk Visit our Home Page on http:Hwww.wiley.co.uk or http:Hwww.wiley.com All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except under the terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 9HE, UK, without the permission in writing of the Publisher.
European Review ofSocial Psychology
Published annually by John Wiley & Sons
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data:
European review of social psychology. Vol 12, 2002. - (European review of social psychology) I. Stroebe, Wolfgang II. Hewstone Miles III. Series 302.094 ISBN 0-47 1-48675-2 Typeset in 10/12pt Times by Dorwyn Ltd, Rowlands Castle, Hants Printed and bound in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham This book is printed on acid-free paper responsibly manufactured from sustainable forestry, in which at least two trees are planted for each one used for paper production.
Contents
Contributors
vii
X
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1
Intention-Behavior Relations: A Conceptual and Empirical Review Paschal Sheeran
Chapter 2
Ambivalence and Attit udes Mark Conner and Paul Sparks
Chapter 3
Expanding the Assessment of Attitud1e Components and Structure: The Benefits of Open- ended Measure!! Victoria M. Esses and Gregory R. Maio
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Shifting Standards and Contextual Variation in Stereotyping Monica Biernat and Elizabeth R. Thompson
David
L.
Hamilton, Steven 1� Sherman and Luigi Castelli
103
139
The Meaning and C onsequences of Pmceived Discri minati on in Disadvantaged and Privileged Social Groups Michael T. Schmitt and Nyla R. Br a,nscombe
Chapter 7
11
A Group By Any Other Name-The Role of Entitativity in Group Perception
Chapter 6
37
Goal-based Explanations of Actions and Outcomes
John McClure
167
201
CONTENTS
vi Chapter 8
The Self in Relationships: Whether, How and When Close Others Put the Self "in Its Place" Constantine Sedikides, W. Keith Campbell, Glenn D. Reeder and Andrew J. Elliot
237
Prospects, Pitfalls and Plans: A Proactive Perspective on Social Comparison Activity Lisa G. Aspinwall, Douglas L. Hill and Samantha L. Leaf
267
Chapter 10 Social and Cognitive Influences in Group Brainstorming: Predicting Production Gains and Losses Paul B. Paulus, Karen Leggett Dugosh, Mary T. Dzindolet, Hamit Coskun and Vicky L. Putman
299
Author Index Subject Index
327 341
Chapter 9
Contributors
Department of Psychology, University of Utah, 380 South 1530 East, Room 502, Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0251, USA
LISA G. AsPINWALL,
Department of Psychology, 1415 Jayhawk Blvd, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045-7556, USA
MoNICA BIERNAT,
R. BRANSCOMBE, Department of Psychology, 1415 Jayhawk Blvd, Uni versity of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045-7556, USA
NYLA
W. KEITH CAMPBELL, Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Uni versity Plaza, A tlanta, GA 30303, USA Department of Psychology, University of Padova, Via Vene zia 8, Padova 35131, Italy
LuiGI CASTELLI,
MARK CONNER,
School of Psychology, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 911:
UK HAMIT CosKUN,
Department of Psychology, Abant I zzet Raysal University,
Bolu, Turkey Department of Psychology and Human Ecology, Cameron University, Lawton, OK 73505, USA
KAREN LEGGETT DuGOSH,
T. DziNDOLET, Department of Psychology, Box 19528, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX 76019, USA
MARY
viii
CONTRIBUTORS
Department of Psychology, University of Rochester, Wilson Boulevard, Rochester, NY I4627, USA
ANDREW J. ELLIOT,
Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5C2
VICTORIA M. EssEs,
Department of Psychology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
DAVID L. HAMILTON,
DouGLAS L. HILL,
Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742-4411, USA
Department of Psychology, University of Utah, 380 South I530E, Room 502, Salt Lake City, UT 84112-025I, USA
SAMANTHA L. LEAF,
GREGORY R MAIO,
School of Psychology, Cardiff University, PO Box 90I, Cardif! CF13YG, UK
School ofPsychology, Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand
JoHN McCLURE,
B. PAULUS, Department of Psychology, Box I9528, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX 760I9, USA
PAUL
Department of Psychology, Box I9528, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX 760I9, USA
VICKY L. PUTMAN,
Department of Psychology, Illinois State University, Urbana, IL 6I80I, USA
GLENN D. REEDER,
T. ScHMITT, Department of Psychology, I4I5 Jayhawk Blvd, Uni versity ofKansas, Lawrence, KS 66045-7556, USA
MICHAEL
Department of Psychology, University of South ampton, Highfield Campus, Southampton S017 IBJ, UK
CoNSTANTINE SEDIKIDES,
Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield SJO 2 TN, UK
PASCHAL SHEERAN,
Department of Psychology, Indiana University, Terre Haute, Indiana, IN 47809, USA
STEVEN J. SHERMAN,
ix
CONTRffiUTORS
PAUL SPARKS, School of Social Sciences, Uniwersity of Sussex, Fa/mer, Brighton, East Sussex BN 1 9SN, UK ELIZABErn R. THOMPSON, Department of Psychology, 426 Fraser Hall, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS
66045-2160,
USA
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the following reviewers who helped us and the authors to shape these chapters into their final versions; Abakoumkin, D. Abrams, C. Armitage, D. de Ridder, N. de Vries, M. Diehl, A. Eagly, K. Fiedler, F. Forsterling, A. Haslam, D. Hilton, M. Hogg, K. Jonas, M. Lalljee, H. Lodewijkx, A. Maass, B. Major, A. S. R. Manstead, B. Nijstad, and T. A. Wills.
G.
Chapter 1
Intention-B ehavior Relations: A Conceptual and Empirical Review Paschal Sheeran
University of Sheffield, UK
ABSTRACT This chapter addresses two questions; how big is the "gap" between intentions and behavior, and what psychological variables might be able to "bridge" the intention-behavior gap? A meta-analysis of meta-analyses is used to quantify the gap and a conceptual analysis of intention-behavior discrepancies is pre sented. Research is described on the extent to which four groups of variables behavior type, intention type, properties of intention, and cognitive and person ality variables-moderate intention-behavior relations. Finally, the scope of the intention construct is discussed in the light of recent evidence concerning the role of habits and automaticity in human behavior.
Several social psychological models, including the theory of reasoned action (Fishbein, 1980; Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975), the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1985, 1991), Triandis's (1980) attitude-behavior theory, and protec tion motivation theory (Rogers, 1983) converge on the proposal that the most immediate and important predictor of a person's behavior is his/her intention to perform it. The assumption is that people do what they intend to do and do not do what they do not intend. This raises two questions: (a) how well do intentions predict behavior? and, (b) what determines how well intentions Correspondence regarding this chapter should be addressed to: Paschal Sheeran, Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield SlO 2TN, UK. E mail:
[email protected] European Review ofSocial Psychology, Volume 12. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Edited by Wolfgang Stroebe and Miles Hewstone.
2
PASCHAL SHEERAN
predict behavior? The purpose of this chapter is to review recent research that has attempted to answer these questions. The chapter is divided into five sections and begins by defining behavioral intentions and briefly describing their status in models of attitude-behavior relations and theories of health-related behavior. Next, the strength of the intention-behavior relation is quantified in a meta-analytic synthesis and the role of measurement artifacts in attenuating observed associations is dis cussed. The third section presents a conceptual analysis of the intention behavior "gap". Evidence concerning four factors that seem to influence the degree of consistency between intentions and behavior is then reviewed. These factors are behavior type, intention type, properties of behavioral in tentions, and personality and cognitive variables. Finally, the scope of the intention construct is discussed in the light of recent research on automaticity and habits. BEHAVIORAL INTENTIONS AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGICAL MODELS OF BEHAVIOR
"Behavioral intentions are instructions that people give to themselves to be have in certain ways" (Triandis, 1980, p. 203). They are people's decisions to perform particular actions. Intentions can be inferred from participants' re sponses that have the form, "I intend to do X", "I plan to do X", or "I will do X". In psychological terms, a behavioral intention indexes a person's motivation to perform a behavior. That is, behavioral intentions encompass both the dir ection (to do X vs. not to do X) and the intensity (e.g., how much time and effort the person is prepared to expend in order to do X) of a decision. The intention construct lies at the heart of theories of attitude-behavior relations and models of health-related behavior (see e.g., Abraham, Sheeran, & Johnson, 1998, for review). According to the theory of reasoned action, intentions are the proximal predictors of behavior and mediate the influence of both the theory's predictors (attitudes and subjective norms) and extra neous variables (e.g., personality) on behavior. Likewise, protection motiva tion theory assumes that behavioral intentions mediate the relationship between the putative predictors (threat appraisal and coping appraisal) and behavior. The theory of planned behavior also assumes that intentions are the most important predictor of behavior but acknowledges that people may not always have sufficient control over performing the behavior to actually enact their intentions (Ajzen, 1985, 1991). Similarly, Triandis ( 1980) suggests that "low facilitating conditions" could prevent performance of an intended be havior. Triandis also points out that certain behaviors are more likely to be controlled by "habits" than by conscious intentions-an issue that is con sidered in the final section. For present purposes, it is sufficient to say that all
THE INTENTION-BEHAVIOR GAP
3
of these models agree that if a researcher wants to know how people will behave, then the best way to find out is to ask people how they intend to behave. HOW WELL DO INTENTIONS PREDICT BEHAVIOR?
Intentions have been used to predict an impressive range of behaviors, includ ing consumer and leisure decisions (e.g., Warshaw & Davis, 1984), diet (e.g., Conner & Sparks, 1996), physical activity (e.g., Norman & Smith, 1995; Sheeran & Orbell, 2000a), weight loss (e.g., Bagozzi & Warshaw, 1990), smo king (Norman, Conner, & Bell, 1999), academic activities and achievement (e.g., Manstead & van Eekelen, 1998; Sheeran, Orbell, & Trafimow, 1999), sex, contraception and abortion (e.g., Davidson & Morrison, 1983; Smetana & Adler, 1980; Warshaw & Davis, 1984), illicit drug use (e.g., Conner, Sherlock, & Orbell, 1998), gambling (e.g., Sheeran & Orbell, 1999b), voting (e.g., Bassili, 1995), occupational choice (LaRocco, 1983), driver behavior (Parker, 1997), attendance behaviors (e.g., Sheeran & Orbell, 2000b ), whether or not to have a child (e.g., Vinokur-Kaplan, 1978), and prosocial behaviors such as blood donation (e.g., Warshaw, Calantone, & Joyce, 1986). The intention-behavior relationship has been the subject of both narrative (e.g., Ajzen, 1991) and meta-analytic (e.g., Sheeran & Orbell, 1998) reviews. A literature search (January 2000) using computer databases and informal sources (see Mullen, 1989) revealed 10 meta-analyses that reported the total number of participants included in the analyses (n ), the number of hypotheses studied (k), and the sample-weighted average correlation ( r+) (five meta analyses could not be included because n was not reported: Godin & Kok, 1996; Notani, 1998; Ouelette & Wood, 1998; Ryan & Bonfield, 1975, and Zimmerman & Vernberg, 1994). The 10 meta-analyses include reviews of the theory of reasoned action (e.g., Sheppard, Hartwick, & Warshaw, 1988), the theory of planned behavior (Armitage & Conner, in press) and protection motivation theory (Milne, Sheeran, & Orbell, 2000), as well as reviews of specific behaviors (e.g., condom use; Sheeran & Orbell, 1998), and all involve prospective measures of behavior. Since these meta-analyses overlap quite modestly, it is possible to conduct ameta-analysis ofmeta-analyses in order to provide a precise answer to the question of how well intentions predict be havior in previous research. Table 1 . 1 presents findings from each of the meta-analyses included in the review. Correlations ranged from 0.40 to 0.82 and had a standard deviation of 0.12. The sample-weighted average correlation derived from these studies was 0.53 with a 95% confidence interval from 0.52 to 0.53 based on 422 hypotheses and a total sample size of n 82,107. This means that intentions account for 28% of the variance, on average, in prospective studies. =
4
PASCHAL SHEERAN
Table Ll
A meta-analysis of meta-analyses of the intention-behavior relationship
Authors
n
k 48
R2
r
0.47 0.47 0.82 0.40 0.45 0.44 0.51 0.53 0.57 0.62 0.53
Armitage & Conner (in press) Hausenblas et a/. (1997) Kim & Hunter (1993) Milne, Sheeran, & Orbell (2000) Randall & Wolff (1994) Sheeran & Orbell (1998) Sheeran & Sutton (1999) Sheppard, Hartwick, & Warshaw (1988) Trafimow et a/. (1999) Van den Putte (1993)
7318 10621 5216 432 26906 2532 6301 11566 1475 9740
40 87 9 58
0.22 0.22 0.67 0.16 0.20 0.19 0.26 0.28 0.33 0.38
Overall
82107
422
0.28
32 18 4 98 28
But is explaining 28% of the variance in behavior good or bad (cf. Sutton, 1998)? It may appear bad-after all, 72% of the variance has not been ex plained. However, as Hunter and Schmidt (1990) pointed out: The "percent variance account[ed] for" is statistically correct but substantively erroneous. It leads to severe underestimates of the practical and theoretical significance of relationships between variables. This is because R2 (and all other indices of percent variance accounted for) are related only in a very non-linear way to the magnitudes of effect sizes that determine their impact in the real world. (p. 199).
There are alternatives to percentage variance accounted for as a measure of effect size which provide for more accurate interpretations regarding how strongly intentions are related to behavior. As an illustration, consider the example (from Sutton's, 1998, seminal review of the intention-behavior rel ationship) of an intervention and a control group (n = 100 in both cases) who have success rates of 70% and 30% , respectively, at giving up smoking. The difference in success rates for the two groups is 40% , the relative success rate is 2.3, and the odds rate is 5.4. These indices all suggest that the intervention was very successful in helping people to quit smoking (see also Abraham, Sheeran, & Orbell, 1998, for a discussion of Rosenthal & Rubin's, 1979, Binomial Effect Size Display). However, when these findings are considered in terms of percentage variance accounted for, the result is only R2 0.16- this value appears much less impressive. Given such difficulties in interpreting percentage variance, it would be valuable to have standards that one could use to judge how big are particular effects. Fortunately, Cohen's (1992) power primer provides a useful guide to interpreting correlations and R2• According to Cohen's analysis, r+ = 0.10 is a "small" effect size, r+ 0.30 is "medium", and r+ 0.50 is "large". The =
=
=
5
THE INTENTION-BEHAVIOR GAP
sample-weighted average correlation of 0.53 obtained here is, therefore, a "large" effect size. Consequently, explaining 28% of the variance should probably be considered "good". Measurement Artifacts and Attenuation of Intention-Behavior Correlations
It is also the case that r+ 0.53 underestimates the "true" relationship be tween intentions and behavior. This is because a variety of measurement artifacts attenuate the observed association. Kim and Hunter (1993) provided a dramatic illustration of how serious the attenuation produced by just two such artifacts could be. The uncorrected average correlation between inten tions and behavior in their meta-analysis was r+ 0.46 (only slightly lower than the value obtained here). After correction due to (artificial) dichotomiz ation of measures of intentions and/or behavior, the average correlation in creased to 0.54. However, when the effects of both dichotomization and measurement error (lack of reliability in measures of intentions and behavior) were corrected, r+ increased to 0.82. Dichotomization and measurement error are just two of the artifacts that reduce intention-behavior correlations. There have also been empirical demon strations of attenuation due to: (a) lack of compatibility between intentions and behavior in terms of the action, target, context, and time specified in the two measures (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1973, 1974); (b) lack of correspondence between the scales used to measure intentions and behavior [e.g., when a dichotomously worded intention measure ("Do you intend to use a condom in the next month?") is used to predict a frequency measure of behavior ("How often did you use a condom in the last month?"), see Courneya, 1994); and (c) the marginal distributions of the intention and behavior measures do not match (see Sutton, 1998). In sum, researchers should carefully scrutinize their data for measurement artifacts before concluding that small or non-significant correla tions indicate a lack of relationship between intentions and behavior. =
=
WHY IS THERE A "GAP" BETWEEN INTENTIONS AND BEHAVIOR? A CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS
Notwithstanding attenuation due to dichotomization, measurement error, compatibility, scale correspondence, and mismatched marginal distributions, even the most optimistic estimates of intention-behavior consistency are far from perfect (r 1.00). This suggests that there is more than sub-optimal measurement involved in discrepancies between intentions and behavior. It can also be argued that correlations tend to obscure the nature of the intention-behavior "gap" (Orbell & Sheeran, 1998). This is because correla tional (and regression) analyses really only tell us that positive intention =
6
PASCHAL SHEERAN
scores are related to greater likelihood of behavioral performance than nega tive intention scores (and the converse; that negative intention scores are related to less likelihood of behavioral performance than positive intention scores). However, it is helpful to decompose intention-consistency into a 2 (positive intention vs. negative intention) x 2 (performance vs. non performance of the behavior) matrix (McBroom & Reid, 1 992; Orbell & Sheeran, 1998). So doing means that it is possible to discern the sources of both consistency and discrepancy between intentions and subsequent action (see Table 1 .2). Table 1.2
Decomposition of the intention-behavior relationship Intention
Subsequent behavior Positive Acted Did not act
Inclined actor Inclined abstainer
Negative Disinclined actor Disinclined abstainer
Note. A "positive" intention or being "inclined" can refer both to an intention to perform a behavior and to an intention not to perform a behavior. The issue here is whether or not the person intends to act, not whether the action to be performed involves an approach versus an avoidance response. Relatedly, "actor" and "ab stainer" refer to performance versus non-performance of the focal behavior, re gardless of whether that behavior involves the person doing something or avoiding doing something.
According to this analysis, intention-behavior consistency can be attributed to two groups of participants, namely, those participants with positive inten tions who subsequently act (designated "inclined actors") and participants with negative intentions who do not act ("disinclined abstainers"). Import antly, it is also possible to see who is responsible for the gap-the two groups of participants who do not act according to their intentions. These are the participants with positive intentions who fail to act (inclined abstainers) and the participants who perform the behavior despite negative intentions to do so (disinclined actors). But how general is this analysis? And are inclined abstainers or disinclined actors predominantly responsible for the "gap"? Table 1.3 presents findings from selected studies of intention-behavior rel ations indicating the percentage of participants with positive intentions (the inclined) who acted or did not and the percentage of participants with nega tive intentions (the disinclined) who acted or did not. Findings seem to indi cate that analysing intention-behavior consistency in terms of inclined actors, inclined abstainers, disinclined abstainers and disinclined actors has some generality. In four out of the six cases, all four cells contained entries (in fact, the two cases where this was not true both involved just a single participant who was "disinclined"; Sheeran & Orbell, 2000b ; Stanton et a/., 1996). More
7
THE INTENTION-BEHAVIOR GAP
importantly, Table 1.3 indicates that the lack of consistency between inten tions and behavior is mainly due to inclined abstainers rather than disinclined actors. The median percentage of intenders who failed to enact their inten tions was 47% whereas the median percentage of non-intenders who subse quently performed the behavior was 7% . Thus, it is those participants who fail to act upon their positive intentions who are mainly responsible for the intention-behavior gap. Table 1.3
Percentages of participants with positive versus negative intentions who subsequently acted versus did not act in selected studies of intention-behavior relations Authors
Behavior
Actors
Abstainers
Actors
Abstainers
43 43 46 70 74 61
57 57 54 30 26 39
10 12 3 0 35 0
90 88
(%)
Gallois et at. (1992) Orbell & Sheeran (1998) Sheeran & Orbell (2000a ) Sheeran & Orbell (2000b ) Sutton et at. (1994) Stanton et al. (1996)
Condom use Cancer screening Exercise Cancer screening Cancer screening Condom use
Disinclined
Inclined
(%)
(%)
(%) 97
1 00 65 100
Two further points are worth noting regarding Table 1 .3. The first is that, although this analysis involves a relatively small number of studies-and fur ther tests are required to determine generality-there do not appear to be strong grounds for assuming that these findings are atypical, at least in terms of the strength of the intention-behavior correlations. For example, the relev ant correlations were 0.44 in the case of Gallois et al. ( 1992) and 0.51 in the case of Sheeran and Orbell (2000a). The second point is that Table 1 .3 seems to show how well-paved with good intentions is the proverbial road to hell; it is disconcerting to consider that almost one-half of participants who intended to use a condom, attend for cancer screening or exercise at a particular level subsequently failed to do so. Can Traditional Variables Discriminate between Patterns of Intention Behavior Consistency?
The present analysis of patterns of intention-behavior consistency begs an important question, namely, can traditional social psychological models of behavior discriminate between inclined actors and inclined abstainers? It could be the case that inclined abstainers have lower perceived behavioral control than inclined actors, which would explain why they do not translate their intentions into action (cf. Ajzen, 1991). In fact, Orbell and Sheeran (1998) used variables specified by protection motivation theory (perceived
8
PASCHAL SHEERAN
susceptibility, perceived severity, worry, response e fficacy, and self-e fficacy) to try to distinguish between all four groups and were unable to discriminate inclined abstainers from the other groups. However, two aspects of their analyses bear comment. First, protection motivation theory has weaker pre dictive validity than the theory of planned behavior (Milne et a/., 2000), so perhaps findings would have been different if the theory of planned behavior had been employed. Second, Orbell and Sheeran (1998) did not employ a measure of strength of intention. Thus, their study leaves open the possibility that inclined actors simply had stronger intentions to perform the behavior than did inclined abstainers. To provide a sterner test of the ability of cognitive variables to discrimi nate inclined abstainers from the other groups, I reanalysed data from Sheeran and Orbell's (2000a ) study of exercise behavior (note that this study found a "strong" correlation between intentions and behavior, r = 0.51 ). Participants whose intention scores were on the scale midpoint (4) were excluded from the analysis and the remaining sample was partitioned into disinclined ( 1-3) and inclined ( 5 -7). Decomposition showed that there were n = 31 inclined actors, n = 36 inclined abstainers, n = 2 disinclined actors, and n = 69 disinclined abstainers. Because there were so few disin clined actors, these participants were excluded from further analysis. Dis criminant function analysis was then employed to determine whether intentions (the continuous measure), attitudes, subjective norms, and per ceived behavioral control could distinguish between inclined actors, inclined abstainers, and disinclined abstainers. Findings showed that the first discriminant function was statistically rel iable but that the second derived function was not. To aid interpretation, the group centroids were plotted and analysis of variance was used to compare the means for theory of planned behavior variables for the three groups. As Figure 1 . 1 shows, the first discriminant function clearly distinguished the disinclined abstainers from the two inclined groups. ANOVAs confirmed that disinclined abstainers h ad lower scores on each of the predictors than both inclined actors and inclined abstainers. However, Figure 1.1 also shows that the second discriminant function was not capable of distinguishing be tween inclined actors and inclined abstainers. ANOVAs confirmed that in clined actors and inclined abstainers did not differ on intentions, attitudes, subjective norms, or perceived behavioral control (see Table 1 .4 ). Thus, despite the fact that the theory of planned behavior would suggest that perceived behavioral control in particular should be capable of distinguish ing between inclined actors and inclined abstainers, this was not the case here. I suspect that most applications of the theory of planned behavior would reveal a sizable number of participants with equivalent intentions, perceived behavioral control, etc., who nonetheless differ in their subse quent behavior.
TtlE INTE"lTION-BF.KA VIOR GAP 3 2
N c 0
u s:::
� lL
Inclined 0 -I
c
c
0
Disinclined abstainers
actors
Inclined abstainers
-1 -3 �--�----�---r--�r---�---, 0
Function
1
f'iCwt: Ll Groups centroids for inclined actors, inclined abstainers, and disinclined abstainers on two discriminant functions detlv.ed front tile tlleory of planned behaviorTable 1.4
Comparisons of means for theory of
clined actors, inclined abstainers. Sheeran & OrbeD, 2000a) Variable
Intention Attitude Subjective norm Perceived control
planned behavior variables f<X in (secoodary analysis a
and disinclined abstainers
Inclined actors
Inclined abstainers
6.0611 6J)98
5.79"
4 .5 5 "
5.6Qa
5.75"
4.64"
5.16"
No� One way ANOVAs are signiflcanr it1 all ease.o;. Means wirl1 different significantly ar p < 0.05 u�ing Newman-Keuls poat hoc res:.�.
Disinclined abstainers 1.95b
4.35b 3.Slb 1.S2b $upencripc;
differ
WHAT DETERMINES HOW WELL INTENTIONS PREDICf BEHAVIOR'? Beharior Type: lssaes of Control It is evident from meta-analyses of different behaviors that the type of be havior influences t he degree of intention-behavior consistency. For example, Sheeran and Sutton's (1999) review foood correlations ranging from 0.03 for
cancer screening (Montano & Taplin, 1991) to 0.84 for illicit drug u:se (Conner
& McMillan, 1999). One factor detennining how well intentions predict
10
PASCHAL SHEERAN
behavior is whether the behavior being predicted is a single action or a goal (an outcome that can be achieved by performing a variety of single actions). Intentions are likely to be superior predictors of single actions, such as read ing a textbook or attending one's lectures, than the goal of getting an "A" in an examination. This is because getting an "A" is dependent upon reading the textbook and attending one's lectures and other factors. In fact, the extent to which the performance of particular behaviors actually controls whether or not a goal will be achieved is the critical factor. For example, a person may have strong intentions to get an "A", and perform a range of study behaviors, but still not achieve his/her goal if the study behaviors he/she has performed do not control the outcome (e.g., because the lecturer jokingly decides to fail everyone regardless of their examination answers). There is also another sense in which control is important in determining the strength of intention-behavior relations-the person must have control over performing a behavior if the intention to perform that behavior is to be realized. Several control factors are important in determining whether an intention is translated into action. These factors include knowledge (e.g., in order to realize my intention to use a condom, I must know what a "condom" is and what to do with one), ability (e.g., my partner or I must be able to put on a condom in order to use one), resources (e.g., one needs money to buy a condom so it can be used), opportunity (e.g., one needs a sexual partner to realize the intention to use a condom), availability (e.g., a condom must be available for the intention to use one to be realized), cooperation (e.g., my partner must agree to using the condom) and unexpected situations (e.g., I find myself in a sexual situation that I had not anticipated). In sum, these factors determine the amount of control a person actually possesses over performing the behavior and should moderate the intention-behavior relationship. Very little research has been specifically concerned with demonstrating that actual control determines the extent of consistency between intentions and behavior. I suspect that this is the case for two reasons. First, it is logically impossible for certain behaviors to be performed in the absence of particular abilities, resources, and so on, and demonstrations of this logical impossibility are likely to be trivial (a possible exception is examination of the effects of unexpected situations on intention-behavior consistency where it could be valuable to know from, e.g., a service delivery viewpoint, the extent to which uncontrollable factors prevented performance of the behavior; cf. Cote, Mc Cullough, & Reilly, 1985). The second reason why the effects of actual control have not been studied is that researchers generally study controllable be haviors (cf. Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). That is, researchers are rarely interested in behaviors that are actually impossible for their participants to perform. Indeed, it seems unlikely that many people would intend to perform be haviors that, in reality, they cannot perform.
11
THE INTENTION-BEHAVIOR GAP
In field studies of the theory of planned behavior, it is not generally feasible for researchers to determine how much actual control participants possess over performance of the behavior. For this reason, researchers have relied on participants' perceived behavioral control (PBC) on the assump tion that perceptions of control are reasonably accurate reflections of actual control (Ajzen, 1991). Evidence concerning whether perceived behavioral control moderates the intention-behavior relationship is equivocal. For ex ample, Armitage and Conner (in press) reviewed 19 studies and found that only nine ( 47% ) obtained a significant interaction between perceived be havioral control and intention (in all cases higher perceived behavioral con trol was associated with greater consistency between intentions and behavior). To provide a stronger test of this relationship, I reanalysed data from a theory of planned behavior study of 30 behaviors by Sheeran, Trafimow, Finlay, Norman and Orbell (1999). Between-participants moderated regres sion analyses showed that only seven (23% ) interactions between perceived behavioral control (PBC) and intentions were significant (greater PBC � stronger intention-behavior relations). Moreover, the stronger test afforded by within-participants regressions of behavior on intentions, perceived be havioral control, and their interaction failed to provide evidence of modera tion. Of course, statistical explanations for these findings can be adduced, such as the difficulty of detecting moderation in field studies (McClelland & Judd, 1993) and the consideration that linear models generally explain psychologi cal data quite well, even when the data were generated by a multiplicative model (e.g., Busemeyer & Jones, 1983). However, the data also revealed evidence related to my previous points about researchers being mainly interested in controllable behaviors and the effects of lack of perceived behavioral control on intentions to perform the behavior. Out of 5580 responses to measures of perceived behavioral control (30 behaviors by 186 participants), less than 1% (i.e., 52 responses) had a mean equal to 1.00 on a 1-7 scale. Moreover, of these 52 responses, in only two cases was the associated intention above the scale midpoint (participants do not generally intend to perform behaviors they perceive to be outside their control). Interestingly, there was a significant relationship between the pro portion of the sample below the mean for perceived behavioral control and whether or not the interaction between perceived behavioral control and intention was statistically reliable (r 0.45). This finding suggests that it may be difficult to discern moderation of the intention-behavior relation by per ceived behavioral control unless a substantial proportion of the sample have low perceived behavioral control. Clearly, however, further research is re quired to test the hypothesis that low levels of perceived behavioral control (in the absolute rather than relative sense) reduce the consistency between intentions and behavior. =
12
PASCHAL SHEERAN
Intention Type: Intentions versus Expectations
Warshaw and Davis (1985) drew a distinction between behavioral intent ions and behavioral expectations. Whereas intentions are typically measured by responses to statements such as, "I intend to do X", expectations are mea sured by estimates of the likelihood of performance, such as "How likely are you to do X?" Expectations are assumed to capture "various factors that could cause [participants] to be unsuccessful in their attempt to carry out [their] intentions" (Sheppard et a/., 1988, p. 328) and should, therefore, pos sess greater predictive validity than intentions. Findings from Sheppard et a/. 's (1988) meta-analysis supported this view, where the average correlations were 0.57 and 0.49 for expectations and intentions, respectively. However, more recent meta-analyses by Armitage and Conner (in press) and Sheeran and Orbell (1998) both failed to obtain reliable differences in the average correla tions obtained for intentions versus expectations. More seriously, it is debata ble whether behavioral expectation qualifies in causal models of behavior (can the expectation of performing a behavior be said to cause that behavior? cf., Ajzen, 1985). That is, behavioral expectation may predict behavior but this construct might not explain behavior (see Sutton, 1998, for discussion of the distinction between prediction and explanation). Another difficulty is that it is unclear how well expectations capture control factors such as ability and resources, or whether using a measure of perceived behavioral control alongside a traditional intention measure makes employment of an expecta tion measure redundant. Future research on behavioral expectations should be directed towards determining its construct validity and explanatory value. However, at present, it appears that whether the type of intention measure is a traditional one or an estimate does not influence how well intentions predict behavior. Intention Type: Implementation Intentions
Perhaps the most exciting development in intention-behavior relations in recent years is Gollwitzer's (1993, 1996, 1999) concept of implementation intent ions. Whereas behavioral intentions have the form "I intend to do X", implementation intentions involve propositions of the form, "I intend to do X in situation Y". The usual paradigm in studies of implementation intentions has been to measure intentions (and other theory of planned behavior or protection motivation theory constructs) prior to a manipulation that asks one half of the sample to nominate the time and place for performing the be havior. Despite equivalent intentions to perform the behavior, participants who specify the situation for performing an intended action in this manner (form implementation intentions) seem invariably to demonstrate increased likelihood of performance compared to controls. Findings have shown that
13
THE INTENTION-BEHAVIOR GAP
participants who form implementation intentions are more likely to attend for cervical cancer screening (Sheeran & Orbell, 2000b), take vitamin supple ments (Sheeran & Orbell, 1999a), perform a breast self-examination (Orbell, Hodgkins, & Sheeran, 1997), eat healthily (Verplanken & Faes, 1999), ex ercise (Milne, Orbell, & Sheeran, in press), resist smoking (Stephens & Con ner, 1999), resist alcohol consumption (Murgraff, White, & Phillips, 1996), and complete their work on time (Gollwitzer & BrandsUitter, 1997, Study 1, inter alia) (see Table 1.5). Table 1.5
Meta-analysis of the effects of implementation intentions on behavioral performance Authors
Aarts, Dijksterhuis, & Midden (1999) Gillholm et at. (1999) Study 1 Gillholm et at. (1999) Study 2 Gollwitzer & Brandstatter (1997) Study 1 Milne, Orbell, & Sheeran (in press) Murgraff, White, & Phillips (1996) Orbell, Hodgkins, & Sheeran (1997) Orbell & Sheeran (200 0) Sheeran (1999a) Sheeran & Orbell (200 0a) Sheeran & Orbell (1999a) Study 1 Sheeran & Orbell (1999a) Study 2 Silverman & Sheeran (1999) Stephens & Conner (1999) Verplanken & Faes (1999) Overall
Behavior Collect a coupon Mundane activities Mail response forms Complete a written report Exercise Binge drinking Breast self-examination Recovery of functional activities Independent study Cervical cancer screening Vitamin supplement use Vitamin supplement use Attendance at workplace fire training Resist taking up smoking Healthy eating
n
d
r
40 28 50 36
0.63 1.01 0.02 0.85
0.3 0 0.45
O.Dl
248 102 155 64 172 104 78 37 271
1.25 0.67 1.22 0.70 0.60 0.58 0.43 0.60 0.52
0.53 0.32 0.52 0.33 0.29 0.28 0.21 0.29 0.25
124 102
0.37 0.47
0.18 0.23
1611
0.70
0.33
0.39
Implementation intentions have been found to increase both the likelihood of performing a behavior [e.g., 92% of participants who formed implementa tion intentions attended for cancer screening compared to 69% of controls in Sheeran & Orbell's (2000b) study) and the speed of action initiation (e.g., patients undergoing joint replacement surgery who formed implementation intentions recovered functional activities 2.45 weeks sooner, on average, than control participants in Orbell & Sheeran's, 2000b, study). Implementation intentions are effective for both discrete "one-off" behaviors, such as annual attendance at fire training (Silverman & Sheeran, 1999), and for repeated behaviors that are performed daily, such as vitamin supplement use (Sheeran & Orbell, 1999a). Moreover, effectiveness has been demonstrated for student (e.g., Sheeran & Orbell, 1999a), general population (Sheeran & Orbell, 2000b), and clinical samples (e.g., Lengfelder & Gollwitzer, 1998, cited in Gollwitzer, 1999) and for both self-report (e.g., Orbell et al., 1997) and less
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PASCHAL SHEERAN
subjective behavioral measures, such as medical attendance records (Sheeran & Orbell, 2000b ) and pill counts (Sheeran & Orbell, 1999a ). In sum, forming an implementation intention seems to be very effective at turning inclined abstainers into inclined actors. To gain insight into the overall effectiveness of implementation intentions in promoting behavior, I conducted a meta-analysis of studies to date. Table 1 .5 describes characteristics of the 15 studies that could be included in the review. Because Pearson correlations are probably more familiar estimates of effect size than (the technically correct) statistic d, both indices are presented. Correlations from individual studies ranged from 0.01 to 0.53 and had an SD of 0.13. Not surprisingly, given the range of different behaviors examined, the sample correlations were heterogeneous, x.Z ( 14) = 36.59, p < 0.01. Import antly, however, the Fail Safe N (FSN) criterion (5k + 10; see Rosenthal, 1984) was reached (FSN 85, tolerance = 85), indicating that the average correla tion is robust (i.e., likely to be resistant to future null findings). The overall sample weighted average correlation was r+ = 0.33 and the 95% confidence interval was 0.29-0.38. This is a "medium" effect size according to Cohen's (1992) power primer. This is an impressive finding when one considers that r+ 0.33 represents the magnitude of the difference in subsequent behavior for participants who formed an implementation intention compared to particip ants with equivalent behavioral intentions who did not form an implementa tion intention. =
=
Why Are Implementation Intentions Effective? Gollwitzer (1993, 1999) has presented several lines of evidence that suggest that implementation intentions are effective because the process of specifying where and when one will perform the behavior means that the environmental cues one has specified elicit the behavior once those cues are encountered. In effect, the person passes the burden of remembering what he/she is supposed to do to a specified situational context, which then automatically prompts the behavior. A number of findings from field studies of implementation inten tions have been consistent with this proposal. First, several studies have dem onstrated that forming implementation intentions does not affect intentions or other theory of planned behavior or protection motivation theory variables (e.g., Milne et a/., in press; Sheeran and Orbell, 1999a). Thus, the effects of implementation intentions cannot be attributed to changes in participants' motivation. Second, consistent with the idea that specified environmental cues elicit the behavior, participants who form implementation intentions rarely report "forgetting" to perform the behavior whereas control participants often seem to forget (e.g., 43% "forgot" in Sheeran & Orbell, 1999a, and 70% "forgot" in Orbell et a/., 1997). Third, participants who form implementation intentions demonstrate remarkable consistency between the time and place
THE INTENTION-BEHAVIOR GAP
15
specified i n their implementation intentions and the time and place that they perform the behavior-reported by participants to be several weeks later (Milne et al. , in press; Orbell et al., 1997; Sheeran & Orbell, 1999a). Moreover, these reports appear to have some validity. A re-analysis of data from Sheeran and Or bell (2000b) for the present chapter showed that medical center records indicated that 74% of participants made their appointment for cervical cancer screening on the date that they had specified in their imple mentation intention. A fourth piece of evidence consistent with Gollwitzer's proposal is that the effects of implementation intentions do not diminish over time in the same manner exhibited by behavioral intentions (see Sheeran & Orbell, 1998). For example, Silverman and Sheeran (1 999) found that implementa tion intentions were just as effective at increasing attendance at fire training when participants specified a course in the next 5-8 weeks as when particip ants specified a course in the next 1-4 weeks (according to attendance re cords). Finally, and perhaps most impressively, implementation intentions appear to be able to replace previous action tendencies with new behaviors that participants intend to perform. The idea here is that implementation intentions involve a cognitive rehearsal of the link between a specific action and specific environmental cues. This cognitive rehearsal parallels the be havioral rehearsal of the link between an action and a situation which is characteristic of the development of a habit. Thus, cognitive rehearsal can attach the environmental cues previously associated with another behavior to a new behavior whose performance is desired by the actor. Consistent with this reasoning, Orbell et al.'s ( 1 997) study of breast self-examination showed that past behavior was the best predictor of future behavior among controls, but past behavior did not predict future behavior among particip ants who formed implementation intentions. Similarly, Sheeran and Orbell (2000b) found that forming an implementation intention significantly at tenuated the correlation between previous delay behavior and subsequent attendance (r -0.29 vs. r 0.70). In sum, implementation intentions seem to be effective because the contextual cues specified in those intentions are effective in eliciting an intended behavior. =
=
The Issue of Specifying the Behavior in the Implementation Intention A neglected issue regarding implementation intentions concerns what be havior should be specified in the implementation intention. When a single action is to be performed, then things are simple; the intention to do X is simply supplemented by the implementation intention, "I intend to do X in situation Y". Indeed, single actions have mainly been studied in applications of implementation intentions (e.g., Orbell et al., 1 997; Sheeran & Orbell, 1999a; Silverman & Sheeran, 1999). However, what if the person intends to
16
PASCHAL SHEERAN
achieve a goal or outcome? Here, the behavior to be performed in the service of the goal must be specified. In other words, "I intend to do X" must be supplemented by an implementation intention of the form "To achieve X, I intend to do W in situation Y". Of course, the problem then is what is the behavior W that will achieve goal X. Sheeran and Orbell (2000b ) found that forming an implementation intention to make an appointment to attend for screening (behavior W) was very successful in achieving the goal of attending for cervical cancer screening. This was because there was a perfect relationship between behavior W and goal X in this case-all of the women who made an appointment subsequently attended for screening. However, a potentially serious limit to the utility of implementation intentions in promoting performance is apparent here. The effectiveness of implementation inten tions in promoting goal achievement is directly related to the strength of both (a) the relationship between implementation intentions and perfor mance of the behavior in the service of the goal, and (b) the relationship between performance of the behavior and the achievement of the goal. It is, therefore, very important to specify a behavior that is strongly related to the focal goal. Such specification might not always be easy. For example, is forming implementation intentions to resist distractions likely to be more effective in promoting performance than forming implementation intentions to increase persistence (cf. Schaal & Gollwitzer, 1999, cited in Gollwitzer, 1999)? What are the cognitive or behavioral strategies that are likely to be most effective for resisting distraction or for promoting persistence? Rel atedly, what sorts of behaviors should be specified in order to achieve goals such as preventing infection by HIV/AIDS (cf. Sheeran, Abraham, & Or bell, 1999), quitting smoking or other addictive substances, or improving the quality of the relationship with one's partner? Further research is required to test the utility of implementation intentions in the case of these complex goals. Properties of Behavioral Intentions
Another line of research has addressed properties of behavioral intentions that might determine how well intentions predict behavior. Characteristic measures of "strength" of intention generally capture the direction and inten sity of a decision only (i.e., to what extent a person intends to do X/intends not to do X). However, two people might have identical scores on a characteristic 1-7 intention scale but still differ in the quality of their motivation. This is because people's intentions possess other dimensions or properties that can affect their predictive validity. Important among these properties of intention are temporal stability, degree of intention formation, attitudinal versus nor mative control, and certainty and accessibility.
17
THE INTENTION-BEHAVIOR GAP
Temporal Stability of Intentions The theories of reasoned action and planned behavior both acknowledge that participants' intentions can change prior to performance of a behavior (e.g., as a result of new information), and that, consequently, the original intention measure may not provide accurate prediction of behavior (Ajzen, 1985, 1991; Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980; Fishbein, 1980; Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). Fishbein and Ajzen, therefore, repeatedly recommended that intentions should be measured as closely as possible to the time at which the behavior will be performed. Interestingly, however, Randall and Wolff's (1994) meta-analysis did not support this proposal; they found that the time interval between measurements of intentions and behavior was not related to the strength of intention-behavior correlations. Sheeran and Orbell ( 1998) criticized the database employed in Randall and Wolff's study on the grounds that there were insufficient studies involving the same behavior type to draw firm con clusions. Sheeran and Orbell conducted equivalent, but more powerful, analyses in the context of a single behavior (condom use) and found a nega tive relationship between the time interval and intention-behavior consis tency (r -0.59). Although this finding is consistent with the hypothesis that the temporal stability of behavioral intentions moderates intention-behavior relations, this does not consititute a direct test of the moderator hypothesis (because inten tion stability was not measured). Direct tests were conducted by Bagozzi and Yi (1989) and Doll and Ajzen ( 1992), who computed measures of intention stability using within-participants correlations between intention scores taken at two time points. Findings were contradictory, however; Doll and Ajzen obtained significant moderation, but Bagozzi and Yi did not. Sheeran, Orbell, & Trafimow (1999) pointed out that one difficulty with these studies might be that intention stability was computed from measures taken before and after the behavioral performance. Thus, the intention stability measure may have been subject to self-presentational or consistency biases. Sheeran et al. (1999) computed an intention stability measure using within participants correlations between measures of intention taken at two time points prior to the performance of the behavior (studying over the winter vacation). Findings indicated that when intentions were unstable, they did not predict behavior. Rather, previous study behavior was the best predictor of future behavior. In contrast, when intentions were stable, past behavior did not predict future behavior and intentions were strong predictors of behavior. One difficulty with Sheeran et al 's (1999) study is that the focal behavior may not constitute the most stringent test of the capacity of temporal stability to moderate intention-behavior relations. This is because studying over the winter vacation involves an unstable context (i.e., students will be studying in their family home rather than at university, where they usually study); and =
.
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PASCHAL SHEERAN
intentions should be particularly good predictors of behaviors performed in unstable contexts because habits are less likely to develop in unstable contexts (see Ouelette & Wood, 1998). Conner, Sheeran, Norman, and Armitage (2000) , therefore, examined two behaviors that involved stable contexts but differed in terms of their frequency of performance (annual attendance for health screening vs. eating a low-fat diet daily). Intention stability was com puted using a four-item index that was strongly associated with the within participants correlation measure. Findings confirmed those obtained by Sheeran et a/. (1999). Intention stability and PBC stability moderated past behavior-future behavior relations for health check attendance and eating a low-fat diet, respectively. More importantly, stable intentions were much bet ter predictors of both behaviors than were unstable intentions. In sum, ac cumulated evidence indicates that intention stability strongly determines how well intentions predict behavior. Degree of Intention Fonnation Degree of intention formation refers to the extent to which participants have thought through the consequences of their decision to act in a particular manner. Thinking through the basis of one's intention should influence how well intentions predict behavior because participants who have not thought the decision through (i.e., possess poorly formed intentions) will be more likely to encounter unforeseen disadvantages or difficulties with performing the behavior and should be more likely to change their intention. Participants who possess well-formed intentions, on the other hand, anticipate possible outcomes and obstacles and should be more likely to try to continue to enact their intentions. Consistent with this reasoning, evidence suggests that well formed intentions exhibit greater temporal stability than poorly formed inten tions (Bagozzi & Yi, 1989). Bagozzi and Yi (1989) were the first to demonstrate that degree of intention formation moderates intention-behavior consistency. They manipulated the degree of intention formation by giving one half of the sample the oppor tunity to consider the consequences of performing a novel behavior (well formed intentions condition), whereas the other half of the sample were assigned a distractor task. The findings showed a significantly stronger intention-behavior relationship for participants with well-formed intentions (see also Verplanken, Aarts, van Knippenberg, & Moonen, 1998). Sheeran, Norman, Trafimow, Armitage, Conner, and Orbell (1999) at tempted to extend this analysis to behaviors that are known to participants (as opposed to the novel behavior studied by Bagozzi and Yi, 1989). They argued that the coefficient of determination (R2) between intention and attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control could be used to indicate the extent to which participants had thought about the behavioral, normative,
THE INTENTION-BEHAVIOR GAP
19
and control consequences of their decision. ConJsistent w ith this reasoning, intentions were better predicted by theory of planned behavior variables in the well-formed intentions condition than in tht: poor ly-formed intentions condition. using an experimental manipulation similar to that employed by Bagozz:i and Yi (1989). A re-analysis of data. from Ajzen (1991) and Godin and Kok (1996) showed that there was a strong positive relationship between the variance explained in intention by the predictors and the strength of the intention-behavior relationship. Moreover, this relationship remained strong when the studies involved a single behavior (exerdse) and when correlations were corrected for attenuation due to measurememt error (r 0.54). Sheeran. Norman, Trafimow et al.'s ( 1999) final study used within-participants regres sion analyses to confirm that the variance explained in intentions by attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioral cont rol is related to how well intentions predict behavior. ""
Attitudinally versus Normatively Controlled Intentions
Degree of intention formation refers to how well cognitions about a behavior are related to intentions to perform that behavior. However, it is also poss ible to determine which cognition explains the greatest variance in intentions. Par ticular attention bas been paid to whether an inten1tion is predominantly deter mined by attitude (att:itudinally controlled intentions) or by subjective norms (normatively controlled intentions). For example, Trafimow and Finlay (1996) demonstrated that attitudinal versus normative control of intentions depends not only on the type of behavior (e.g., private vs. public behaviors), but also upon the type of person (i.e., there are individual differences in attitudinal vs. normative control that are independent of the type of behavior� Whether intentions are attitudinally versus normatively controlled should affect how well intentions predict behavior (Sh1eeran, Norman, & Orbell, 1999). This is because intentions based on attitllldes derive from pe rsonal beliefs, whereas :intentions based on subjective norms derive from the poten tial to obtain approval, rewards, or punishment from significant others. Ac cording to self-determination theory (e.g., Deci & Ryan, 1990; Ryan, Sheldon, Kasser, & Deci, 1 996}, attitudinally controlled iJntentions have an internal locus of causality (they are experienced as self-chosen or autonomous inten tions) and should, therefore, be associated with g�reater likelihood of perfor mance. Normatively controlled intentions, on tb1e other hand, are initiated and pursued because of pressures external to the self (they have an external locus of causality and are characterized as contralled intentions) and should have poorer motivational impact. Evidence suggests that intentions defined as autonomous in self-determination theory terms a re associated with stronger attitude-intention and intention-behavior relationships (e.g., Chatzisaranti.s & Biddle, 1 999; Chatzisarantis, Biddle, & Meek, 1997).
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PASCHAL SHEERAN
Sheeran, Norman, and Orbell (1999) tested the effects of attitudinal versus normative control of intentions on the intention-behavior relationship. Within-participants analyses showed that participants with attitudinally con trolled intentions had stronger intention-behavior correlations than did parti cipants with normatively controlled intentions. Between-participants analyses showed that intentions to perform 21 out of the 30 behaviors studied were more strongly predicted by attitudes than by subjective norms. Importantly, these attitudinally controlled intentions were associated with greater likeli hood of performance than normatively controlled intentions-even when strength of intention was statistically controlled. In sum, whether behavioral intentions are attitudinally versus normatively controlled affects how well intentions determine behavior. Certainty and Accessibility of Intentions Two other properties of behavioral intentions that have received attention are certainty (measured by participants' ratings of how certain they are about their intention) and accessibility (measured by response latencies to intention items). Several authors have demonstrated that intentions held with greater certainty or confidence are associated with greater intention-behavior consis tency (Bagozzi & Yi, 1989; Bassili, 1993; Pieters & Verplanken, 1995). Sheeran (1999a) computed a certainty index based on participants' ratings of the strength of the focal intention compared to other (own) intentions and other participants' intentions. Findings showed that participants with more certain intentions exhibited stronger correlations between their intentions and subsequent examination performance than did participants with less cer tain intentions (r = 0.59 vs. r = 0.15, respectively). Findings concerning the accessibility o f intentions have been more contra dictory. Bassili (1993, 1995) showed that participants with highly accessible voting intentions were more likely to vote for their intended candidate than were participants with less accessible intentions; indeed, greater accessibility was related to a perfect intention-behavior relationship in Bassili's (1995) study and accessibility better moderated the intention-behavior relation than certainty in Bassili's (1993) study. However, Doll and Ajzen (1992) failed to obtain evidence of moderation of the intention-behavior relationship and concluded that intention stability had greater influence on intention-behavior relationships. Further research is required to test the role of accessibility in determining intention-behavior consistency. Personality and Cognitive Variables
The final category of variables that affects how well intentions determine behavior examined here are personality and cognitive variables. Personality
THE INTENTION-BEHAVIOR GAP
21
variables involve people's general tendencies to think and behave in certain ways and their importance has rarely been examined in the context of intention-behavior relations. However, Pieters and Verplanken (1995) showed that individual differences in the tendency to engage in reasoning (indexed by the need for cognition scale; Cacioppo & Petty, 1982) were related to amount of reasoning about the behavior, which in turn was associ ated with greater consistency between intentions and behavior (a finding that seems to be consistent with the analysis of degree of intention formation presented earlier). Action Control Greater attention has been devoted to Kuhl's (1985; Kuhl & Beckmann, 1994) action-control scale. According to Kuhl's analysis, participants who are action-orientated have a tendency to focus on the actions required to reduce the discrepancy between their current and future intended state; unlike state orientated participants, who tend to focus exclusively on their current state or the intended state and do not consider alternative actions required for goal achievement. Consequently, greater action control should produce stronger intention-behavior relations. In fact, tests of this hypothesis have been equivocal. Kuhl (1982) and Schif ter and Ajzen (1985) both obtained significant moderation of the intention behavior relation, whereas Kendzierski's (1990a) and Bagozzi, Baumgartner, and Yi's (1992) findings did not support moderation. One explanation for this discrepancy could be that most of the studies involved single behaviors and it is generally difficult to find relationships between broad personality variables and single actions (cf. Ajzen, 1988). Norman, Sheeran, and Orbell (in press) conducted a sterner test using within-participants analyses of the intention behavior relation for 30 behaviors. Overall findings did not support the view that greater action-orientation is related to greater intention-behavior consis tency. However, subsample analyses indicated that state-orientated particip ants had stronger intention-behavior relations for normatively controlled behaviors than did action-orientated participants. These findings are consis tent with Kuhl's theory (e.g., Fuhrmann & Kuhl, 1998), which posits complex interactions between action and state orientation, attitudinal versus norma tive control of intentions (whether reward or punishment systems are acti vated), goal difficulty, and participants' use of strategies to control attention, motivation, and impulses, inter alia (cf. Kuhl & Fuhrmann, 1999). A great deal more research is required that tests the variety of interactions proposed by this intriguing theory. The other line of research has tested whether particular cognitions about behaviors moderate intention-behavior relations. Here, moderation has been demonstrated for anticipated regret, self-schemas, and conflicting intentions.
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PASCHAL SHEERAN
Anticipated Regret Anticipated regret refers to participants' beliefs about the extent of regret, tension, or upset they would feel if they did not perform a particular behavior. Evidence suggests that anticipated regret is not the same construct as attitude towards the behavior and that anticipated regret has strong associations with intentions to perform behaviors after other predictors have been controlled (e.g., Parker, Manstead, & Stradling, 1995; Richard, van der Pligt, & de Vries, 1995, 1996). Sheeran and Orbell (1999b) proposed that anticipating regret about performing a behavior might bind participants to their intentions, such that participants who both intend to perform a behavior and anticipate con siderable regret if they do not perform it, should exhibit greater intention behavior consistency than participants with equivalent intentions who do not anticipate regret. Findings from a study of lottery play confirmed that antici pated regret moderated intentions in this manner; lottery play was greatest when participants both intended to play and anticipated regretting not play ing. More recently, Abraham and Sheeran (2000) tested whether anticipated regret moderated intentions to exercise (using both correlational and experi mental designs) and found an equivalent effect of the interaction between anticipated regret and behavioral intentions. Abraham and Sheeran also con firmed that moderation of the intention-behavior relation by anticipated re gret was independent of participants' past exercise behavior. Self-schemas Self-schemas refer to people's self-definitions in domains of enduring invest ment and concern (e.g., Markus, 1977) and are characteristically measured by ratings of the descriptiveness and importance of traits related to the be havioral domain (e.g., ratings of "physically active" and "keeps in shape" have been used to measure exercise self-schemas, Kendzierski, 1990b ). Self schemas systematically affect information processing (e.g., Markus & Wurf, 1987) and should affect intention-behavior relations in the schema-relevant domain. This is because schematics (participants for whom the domain is highly self-descriptive and highly important) have more stable intentions compared to aschematic participants (Kendzierski & Whitaker, 1997). Ken dzierski and Whitaker also observed a (non-significant) tendency for schema tics to exhibit stronger intention-behavior relationships. Sheeran and Orbell (2000a) used slightly different procedures to test whether self-schemas mod erated the relationship between intentions and exercise behavior and found that intentions provided significantly better prediction of behavior for parti cipants who were schematic for exercise. A second study also showed that self-schemas moderated the relationship between dieting intentions and be havior (Sheeran, 1999b).
THE INTENTION-BEHAVIOR GAP
23
Conflicting lnlentions Sheeran, Orbell, and Norman ( 1998) and Abnham, Sheeran, Norman, Conner, de Vries, and Otten
(1 999)
both examine:d the role of conflicting in
tentions in attenuating the relationship between intentions and behavior.
Sheeran et al. ( 1998) distinguished between competing intentions and conflict
ing intentions. Competing intentions involve behaviors that make it imposs ible to perform the focal behavior because the intentions both specify the same time (e.g., if a student travels abroad duning a particular week, this makes it impossible for her to attend lectures during that week). Conflicting intentions, on the other hand, are also negatively correlated with the focal
intention but involve behaviors that, if they am performed, are likely to impede (rather than render impossible) performance of the focal behavior. For example, intentions to go to bars and clubs might be conflicting intentions for the intention to attend all of one's lectures (however, note that going to
bars and clubs does not make it impossible to atten1d all of one's lectures-just less likely).
Sheeran et al. tested this idea in a longitudinal study of lecture attendance.
Theory of planned behavior variables were measured with respect to lecture attendance in the next
2
weeks and conflicting intentions were oper
ationalized by intentions to go to bars and clubs during the same period. Intentions to attend were positively correlated with subsequent behavior
0.38)
(r =
and conflicting intentions were negatively co:rrelated with both the focal
intention and subsequent behavior
(r = --0.20 and I' = --0. 13, respectively). The
sample was decomposed into inclined actors, incl ined abstainers, disinclined actors, and disinclined abstainers in the manm�r describe d in Table 1.2 (however, there were too few disinclined actors to be included in subsequent analyses). Discriminant analysis confirmed that illlclined abstainers were dis tinguished from inclined actors by having stronger conflicting intentions. That
is, stronger conflicting intentions made it less l ikely that the focal intention to
attend lectures was enacted
Abraham et al. ( 1999) used a questionnaire smvey to distinguish between
participants who intended to use a condom the last time they had sex but failed to use one ( inclined abstainers, n
=
1 1 1) and participants who intended
to use a condom and did so (inclined actors,
n = 308).
Participants completed
several measures, including items that assessed the relative importance of
having sex versus using a condom during sex. Dis,;riminant analysis indicated that this measure of conflicting intentions/goals had the strongest correlation with the function that distinguished between the two groups. It is also notable that support was obtained for the role of planning specific behaviors (e.g., how to negotiate condom use with one's partner) in the service of the goal inten tion of using a condom-consistent with Gollwitzer's ( 1999) analysis of implementation intentions.
24
PASCHAL SHEERAN
Relationships between DetermiDants of Intention-Behavior Consistency An important outstanding issue that will need to be addressed by future
research concerns the relationships between variables in each of the catego ries (behavior type, intention type, properties of intentions, and cognitive and personality variables) described above. For example, degree of intention formation, anticipated regret, and self-schemas are all assumed to affect intention-behavior consistency because they affect the temporal stability of behavioral intentions (the grounds for this hypothesis being that temporal stability is a defining and antecedent property of intentions; see Sheeran et a/., 1999). Although there is evidence demonstrating that, for example, the be havioral intentions of schematics exhibit greater stability than those of un schematics (Kendzierski & Whitaker, 1997), no formal test of whether intention stability mediates the effects of self-schemas (or other variables) on the intention-behavior relationship appears to have been conducted. Such tests are warranted in future studies. Several other interrelationships between variables also merit investigation. For example, does being schematic in the behavioral domain or possessing greater action orientation cause people to spontaneously form implementa tion intentions? Do more stable or well-formed intentions mean that particip ants can identify behaviors that are effective in achieving particular goals or mean that participants can shield their current intention from conflicting in tentions? Relatedly, it remains to be determined which of the properties of behavioral intentions identified here is best capable of turning inclined ab stainers into inclined actors. Tests also need to be conducted on the volitional strategies identified by Kuhl and Fuhrmann (1999) to determine their effec tiveness in translating intentions into action and to examine their relation ships with other moderators. In sum, although there has been a good deal of progress in identifying determinants of how well intentions predict behavior, much more research is required to understand the mechanisms that underlie their effectiveness.
THE SCOPE OF THE INTENTION CONSTRUCT: INTENTIONS, AUTOMATICITY, AND HABITS
This final section of this chapter considers the scope of the intention construct in the light of several recent lines of research that suggest that intentional control of behavior may be a great deal more limited than, for example, the theories of reasoned action and planned behavior appear to assume. For example, Wegner and Wheatley (1999) proposed that " . . . the real causal mechanisms underlying behavior are never present in consciousness. Rather, the engines of causation are unconscious mechanisms of the mind" (p. 490).
THE INTENTION-BEHAVIOR GAP
25
According to this analysis, the idea that intentions cause behavior is in fact an illusion. Wegner and Wheatley suggested that the experience of intentionality can be analysed from an attributional perspective and cite an experiment that varied the priority of a thought about an action over the subsequent action (i.e., how soon before the action participants were induced to think about that action). Despite the fact that participants had no control over the action, participants were more likely to report that they had intended to perform it if the thought occurred 5 seconds or 1 second before the action than if the thought occurred 30 seconds before the action or 1 second after the action. Thus, participants can be led to believe that their intention caused a particular action when the experimental situation rules out the possibility that intention was the causal factor. A related line of research by Bargh (e.g., Bargh, 1997, Bargh & Chartrand, 1999; Bargh, Chen, & Burrows, 1996) suggests that behavior may be governed either by intentions or by automatic processes. However, the assumption is that most human behavior is governed by automatic processes rather than by intentions ("99 and 44/too% automatic" as Bargh, 1997, p. 243, polemically suggested). Bargh's analysis also sheds light on what are the "unconscious mechanisms of the mind" that actually guide behavior. First, there is a direct link between perception and behavior, such that priming stereotypes or traits outside participants' awareness automatically produces behavior consistent with those constructs. Thus, for example, participants primed with traits re lated to rudeness were more likely to interrupt an experimenter during a subsequent encounter, and participants primed with traits related to polite ness were less likely to interrupt the experimenter, compared to controls (Bargh, Chen, & Burrows, 1996, Study 1 ; see also Dijksterhuis et al., 1998, for examples of behavioral contrast following priming of exemplars rather than stereotypes or traits). Second, there is a direct link between goals and be havior, such that goals activated outside of participants' conscious awareness produce predictable shifts in their behavior. Thus, for example, participants primed with the achievement goal were more likely to continue working on a verbal task (surreptitiously) when they had been told to stop, compared to controls who had not been primed (Bargh, Gollwitzer, & Lee-Chai, 1999, cited in Bargh & Chartrand, 1999). Bargh, Raymond, Pryor, and Strack (1995) have also demonstrated that situational features can activate goals without participants being aware that those goals have been activated. A third uncon scious process with behavioral consequences is automatic evaluation. Chen and Bargh (1999) found that participants automatically demonstrated an ap proach response for liked stimuli but demonstrated an automatic avoidance response for disliked stimuli, using a reaction time task that involved pushing (avoid response) versus pulling (approach response) a lever. The third-related-line of research that challenges the role of intentions as predictors of behavior concerns the oft-cited finding in studies of the
26
PASCHAL SHEERAN
theories of reasoned action and planned behavior that a measure of past behavior often predicts future behavior better than a measure of intention. According to certain analyses of this issue, correlations between past behavior and future behavior may indicate the operation of habits (e.g., Ouelette & Wood, 1998), where "habits" refers to behaviors that are automatically eli cited by situational cues. This automatic elicitation occurs because of the strong cue-response links produced by repeated performance of a behavior in a particular context. Consistent with this reasoning, Ouelette and Wood's ( 1998) meta-analysis showed that for behaviors performed frequently in sta ble contexts ( i.e., contexts conducive to habit formation), past behavior pre dicts future behavior better than do intentions. In contrast, for behaviors that are infrequently performed in unstable contexts (contexts less conducive to habit formation), intentions predict future behavior better than does past behavior. This suggests that another "behavior type" distinction should be made on the basis of the frequency and stability of the context of performance of behaviors, since this constitutes another determinant of how well intentions predict behavior. These analyses by Wegner and Wheatley ( 1999), Bargh ( 1997), and Ouelette and Wood ( 1998) are both compelling and thought-provoking. Most re searchers are likely to agree that people sometimes see intentions as causes of their behavior when intentions are not the cause, and that automatic processes have an important role in understanding behavior. However, there is currently too little evidence to warrant the conclusion that intentions cause 0% or only 0.56% of human behavior. The fact that certain behaviors can be primed in the laboratory without participants being aware of it does not tell us how often such priming is responsible for human behavior outside the laboratory. Moreover, it is unclear whether priming studies really bypass participants' intentions. For example, participants in Bargh et al.'s ( 1996) Study 1 were induced to interrupt or not interrupt an experimenter without their being aware of it. However, it seems safe to assume that most participants formed an intention about whether or not to interrupt the experimenter. It also seems likely that if participants had been asked their intentions, then those inten tions would have been affected by the manipulation (e.g., Sheeran, 1999c, showed that participants primed with an image of Princess Diana had stronger intentions to give to charity than controls) . It may be that the reasons for these intentions are not available to conscious scrutiny, but there are probably a wide variety of influences on intentions of which we are not aware. However, this does not rule out the possibility that, in many instances at least, particip ants' conscious intentions may mediate the effects of unconscious primes on behavior. Macrae and Johnston's ( 1998) demonstration, that manipulating either the attractiveness of the target behavior or the presence of competing goals eliminated the effect of a "helpfulness" prime on subsequent behavior, seems to be consistent with this idea.
THE INTENTION-BEHAVIOR GAP
27
Applied social psychologists are also likely to be concerned about the gen erality of these analyses. For example, the sorts of behaviors that have been examined in priming studies are much less involving for participants than are the behaviors that have characteristically been examined in applications of the theories of reasoned action and planned behavior (see van der Pligt, de Vries, Manstead, & van Harreveld, 2000, for discussion of this point in rela tion to deliberative vs. automatic analyses of attitudes). To be entirely con vinced by this approach, applied researchers will want to see demonstrations that the sorts of behaviors that have been predicted by intentions in their research (e.g., condom use, exercise) are better predicted by priming traits, stereotypes, or goals outside participants' conscious awareness. In sum, much more research is required on the scope of automatic processes in order to warrant the conclusion that they provide better prediction of behavior than do behavioral intentions. Similarly, the past behavior-intention-future behavior relationship re quires a great deal more attention before clear conclusions can be drawn about the relative importance of past behavior versus intentions as predictors of future behavior. For example, although Ouelette and Wood's (1998) meta analysis is compelling, only eight studies of frequently performed behaviors and six studies of infrequently performed behaviors were included in their analyses. Verplanken and Aarts (1999) have also pointed out that examina tions of correlations between these three variables may not be terribly il luminating because of problems of shared method variance (see, however, Conner, Warren, Close, & Sparks, 1999, for an exception) and because of the possibility that unmeasured variables are responsible for the associations. The recent development of a script-based measure of habit (e.g., Aarts, Ver planken, & van Knippenberg, 1997; Verplanken, Aarts, van Knippenberg, & van Knippenberg, 1994; Verplanken et al., 1998) that eschews frequency of past behavior represents an important methodological advance in this area and deserves more widespread use. Care also needs to be taken when attributing variance to "habit" in analyses of past behavior-intention-future behavior relations. For example, the fact that someone has not performed a behavior in the past and subse quently does not perform the behavior does not constitute sufficient evidence to designate this sequence a "habit". If sequences of non-performance of a behavior constituted habits, then every behavior that one has not performed over the course of one's lifetime could be characterized as a "habitual" be havior. In fact, much of the strength of past behavior-future behavior correla tions might be attributable to such sequences of non-performance. Adapting the analysis presented in Table 1 .6 (see also McBroom & Reid, 1992) in order to decompose the relationship between past behavior, inten tions, and future behavior may provide greater insight into whether past behavior (possibly "habit") or intentions better predict future behavior.
PASCHAL SHEE RAN
28
According to the analysis presented in Table Ui, the relat ive likelihood of performing a behavior that one has performed in the past but that one intends not to perform (i.e., the likelihood of being an experienced
disinclined ab
stainer vs. an experienced disinclined actor) represc�nts the best test of whether
habits or intentions better predict behavior. This is because these groups allow one to test whether intentions can overcmne an
existing
behavioral
te ndency (habit); performance consistent with one's intentions but not with one s past behavior supports the role of intentiions, whereas performance '
consistent with one's past behavior but not with one's intentions supports the
rote of habit when participants have experience with the behavior. However, in the case of the equivalent inexperienced gTOJups (inexperienced inclined
actOI's and inexperienced inclined abstainers), only in some instances will it
be
possible to say ftt certain that there is a "habit" tlhat must be overcome (e.g., when the behavior involves a choice between al te matives). Thus, although '
the likelihood of being an inexperienced inclined ac:torversus an inexperienced inclined abstainer tells us how wen intentions pr·edict behavior, it does not
provide information about the role of habit unles:s we can delineate an alter
native behavior that has been frequently perfonned in the same context. Further r�ch that decomposes past behavior-intention-future behavior
relations in this manner would be valuable for comparing the predict ive valid ity of inten ions and habits. t
T.we L6
Deco mposition of the rdationsbip between past behavior, intentions, and future behavior
Past behavior
Subsequent behavior
No
Yes
Acted Did not ae. t
Positive intention
Negative intention
Positiv�= intention
Negative iutention
Experienced inclin.ed actors
Experienced disinclined actors
Inexpe1ienced inclined actors
Inexperienced disincliDed &ClOTS
Ell:perieneed
EXpetienced
lnexpe•·ienced
IneXperienced
inclined abstainers
disinclined abstainers
inclined abstaineTS
disinc tiDed
Relatedly, formal moderator analyses
(see
abstainers
Bar
tively infrequent in the literature, although such tc::sts could also be helpfUl in determining
wh ether past behavior actually �rnoderates the
intention
behavior relationship (Verplanken & Aarts, 1999). For example, Ouelette
and Wood's (1998) analysis suggests that intentions will better predict be
havior when participants have little experience c1f performing the behavior than when participants have greater exper ience of performing the behavior. However, moderator analyses by Kashima, Gall•ois, and McCamish ( 1993)
29
THE INTENTION-BEHAVIOR GAP
obtained precisely the opposite find ing, that intention-behavior relationships
were stronger among more experienced as opposed to less experienced
participants-a finding that may be indicative of more stable intentions among experienced participants (cf. Sheeran, Orbell, & Trafimow, 1999). In
fact, evidence suggests that past behavior does not affect the intention behavior relationship for participants with stable intentions, regardless of the frequency or context of performance of that behavior (Conner et a/., in press; Sheeran, Orbell, & Trafimow, 1999). Further rese:arch that corroborates the
role of intention stability (and other types and Jpmperties of intention) in attenuating the impact of past behavior on intention-behavior consistency would be valuable.
CONCLUSION Intention is the key index of a person's mental readiness for action in several social psychological models of behavior and the ir�tention construct has been employed extensively to understand social and applied issues. A meta analysis of meta-analyses indicated that intention s explain
28%
of the vari
ance, on average, in future behavior. Notwithstand�ng the variety of measure ment artifacts that affect estimates of intention--behavior consistency, the "gap" between intentions, and behavior is not negligible. A good deal of progress has been made in delineating the types of behaviors, the types and properties of intentions, and the cognitive and personality variables that affect
how well intentions predict behavior. Most notable in this regard is the ac
cumulated evidence supporting the utility of im]plementation intentions in
enabling people to enact their intentions. However, further research is needed to understand the relationships between differen1t moderators of intention behavior consistency. Although research on automaticity and habits seems to
suggest that intentional control of behavior may b,e a great deal more limited
than_ previously thought, it seems likely that intentions will remain the key
psychological predictor of behavior for social and applied psychologists for
the foreseeable future. Thus, despite my original intention to avoid doing so, I must end this chapter by calling for more research to address the issues raised here.
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS I thank Charles Abraham, Mark Conner, Paul Norman, and David Trafimow, plus the editors and two anonymous reviewers, for comments on an earlier draft of this chapter.
I
am also grateful to colleagues in the Social Cognition
Around Manchester (SCAM) reading group ( Ma lik Conne r, Martin Hagger,
30
PASCHAL SHEERAN
Kevin McKee, Paul Norman, Sheina Orbell, Diane Parker, & Marco Perugini) for discussions on several issues related to this chapter. Particular thanks are due to Chris Armitage and Mark Conner for providing additional information about their research (on several occasions and at short notice). REFERENCES Aarts, H., Dijksterhuis, A., & Midden, C. (1999) . To plan or not to plan? Goal achieve ment or interrupting the performance of mundane behaviours. European Journal of Social Psychology, 29, 971-9. Aarts, H., Verplanken, B., & van Knippenberg, A. (1997). Habit and information use in travel mode choices. Acta Psychologica, 96, 1-14. Abraham, C. & Sheeran, P. (2000). "How bad will I feel if I don't?" Anticipated regret, the theory of planned behavior, and exercise behavior (manuscript under review). Abraham, C., Sheeran, P., & Johnson, M. (1998). From health beliefs to self regulation: Theoretical advances in the psychology of action control. Psychology and Health, 13, 569-92. Abraham, C., Sheeran, P., Norman, P., Conner, M., Otten, W., & de Vries, N. (1999) . When good intentions are not enough: Modelling post-intention cognitive correlates of condom use. Journal ofApplied Social Psychology, 29, 2591-612. Abraham, C., Sheeran, P., & Orbell, S. (1998). Can social cognition models contribute to the effectiveness of HIV -preventive behavioural interventions? A brief review of the literature and a reply to Joffe (1996, 1997) and Fife-Schaw (1997). British Journal of Medical Psychology, 71, 297-310. Ajzen, I. (1985). From intentions to actions: A theory of planned behavior. In J. Kuhl & J. Beckmann (Eds), Action Control: From Cognition to Behavior (pp. 11-39). Berlin: Springer-Verlag. Ajzen, l. (1988). Attitudes, Personality, and Behavior. Milton Keynes: Open University Press. Ajzen, I. (1991 ). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, SO, 179-2 1 1 . Ajzen, l . , & Fishbein, M . (1973). Attitudinal and normative variables as predictors of specific behaviors. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, rT, 41-57. Ajzen, 1., & Fishbein, M. (1974). Factors influencing intentions and the intention behavior relation. Human Relations, 27, 1-15. Ajzen, 1., & Fishbein, M. (1980). Understanding Attitudes and Predicting Social Be havior. Englewood-Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Armitage, C. J., & Conner, M. (in press). Efficacy of the theory of planned behaviour: A meta-analytic review. British Journal ofSocial Psychology. Bagozzi, R P., Baumgartner, H., & Y� Y. (1992). State versus action orientation and the theory of reasoned action: An application to coupon usage. JournalofConsumer Research, IS, 505-18. Bagozzi, R. P., & Warshaw, R. P. (1990). Trying to consume. Journal of Consumer Research, 11, 127-40. Bagozzi, R. P., & Yi, Y. (1989). The degree of intention formation as a moderator of the attitude-behavior relationship. Social Psychology Quanerly, 52, 266-79. Bargh, J. A. (1982). Attention and automaticity in the processing of self-relevant information. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 43, 425-36.
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THE INTENTION-BEHAVIOR GAP Kim, M. S., & Hunter, J.
33
E. (1993). Relationships among attitudes, behavioral inten tions, and behavior: A meta-analysis of past research, Part 2. Communication Re search, 20, 331-64. Kuhl, J. (1982). Handlungkontrolle als metakogitivier Vermittler zwischen Intention und Handeln: Freizeitaktivitaeten bei Hauptschuelern. Zeitschriftfur Emwicklungs psychologie und Paedagogische Psychologie, 14, 141-8. Kuhl, J. (1985). Volitional mediators of cognition-behaviour consistency: Self regulatory processes and action control. In J. Kuhl & J. Beckmann (Eds), Action Control: From Cognition to Behaviour (pp. 101-28). Berlin: Springer-Verlag. Kuhl, J., & Beckmann, J. (1994). Volition and Personality: Action versus State Oriema tioTL Seattle, WA: Hogrefe. Kuhl, J., & Fuhrmann, A (1999). Decomposing self-regulation and self-control: The volitional components inventory. In J Heckbausen & C. Dweck (Eds.), Life Span Perspectves i on Motivation and Comrol. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. LaRocco, J. M. (1983). Job attitudes, intentions and turnover: An analysis of effects using latent variables. Human Relations, 36,813-26. Macrae, C. N., & Johnston, L. (1998). Help, I need somebody: Automatic action and inaction Social Cognition, 16, 400-17. Manstead, A. S. R, & van Eekelen, S. A. M. (1998). Distinguishing between perceived behavioral control and self-efficacy in the domain of academic achievement inten tions and behaviors. Journal ofApplied Social Psychology, 28, 1375-92 Markus, H. (1977). Self-schemata and processing information about the self.Joumal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35, 63-78. Markus, H., & Wurf, E. (1987). The dynamic self-concept A social psychological perspective. ATLnUal Review ofPsychology, 38, 299-337. McBroom, W. H., & Reid, F. W. (1992). Towards a reconceptualization of attitude behavior consistency. Social Psychology Quarterly, 55, 205-16. McClelland, G. H., & Judd, C. M. (1993). Statistical difficulties of detecting interac tions and moderator effects. Psychological Bulletin, 114, 376-90. Milne, S., Orbell, S., & Sheeran, P. (in press). Combining motivational and voit l ional interventions to promote exercise participation: Protection motivation theory and implementation intentions. British Journal ofHealth Psychology. Milne, S., Sheeran, P., & Orbell, S. (2000). Prediction and intervention in health related behaviour: A meta-analytic review of protection motivation theory. Journal ofApplied Social Psychology, 30, 106-43. Montano, D. E., & Taplin, S. H. (1991). A test of an expanded theory ofreasoned action to predict mammography participation. SocialScience and Medicine, 32, 733-41. Mullen, B. (1989). Advanced BASIC Meta-analysis, Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Murgraff, V., White, D., & Phillips, K. (1996). Moderating binge drinking: It is possible to change behaviour if you plan it in advance. Alcohol and Alcoholism, 6, 577-82. Norman, P., & Smith, L. (1995). The theory of planned behaviour and exercise: An investigation into the role of prior behaviour, behavioural intentions and attitude variability. European Journal ofSocial Psychology, 25, 403-15. Norman, P, Conner, M., & Bell, R (1999). The theory of planned behaviour and smoking cessation Health Psychology, 18, 89-94. Norman, P., Sheeran, P., & Orbell, S. (in press). Does state versus action orientation moderate the intention-behaviour relationship? Journal of Applied Social Psychology. Notani, A. S. (1998). Moderators of perceived behavioral control's predictiveness in the theory of planned behavior: A meta-analysis. Journal ofConsumer Psychology, 7, 242-72. Orbell, S., Hodgkins, S., & Sheeran, P. (1997). Implementation intentions and the theory of planned behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 953-62.
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Orbell, S., & Sheeran, P. (2000) . Motivational and volitional processes in action initia tion: A field study of the role of implementation intentions. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 30, 780-97. Orbell, S., & Sheeran, P. (1998). "Inclined abstainers": A problem for predicting health-related behaviour. British Journal of Social Psychology, 37, 151-65. Ouelette, J. A., & Wood, W. (1998). Habit and intention in everyday life: The multiple processes by which past behaviour predicts future behaviour. Psychological Bulletin, 124, 54-74. Parker, D. (1997). The relationship between speeding attitudes and speeding be haviour. Paper presented to the Department of Transport, Behavioural Studies Seminar, Esher, UK. Parker, D., Manstead, A. S. R., & Stradling, S. G. (1995). Extending the theory of planned behavior: The role of personal norm. British Journal of Social Psychology, 34, 127-37. Pieters, R. G. M., & Verplanken, B. (1995). Intention-behavior consistency: Effects of consideration set size, involvement and need for cognition. European Journal of Social Psychology, 25, 531-43. Randall, D. M., & Wolff, J. A. (1994). The time interval in the intention-behaviour relationship: Meta-analysis. British Joumal ofSocial Psychology, 33, 405-18. Richard, R., van der Pligt, J., & de Vries, N. K. (1995). Anticipated affective reaction and prevention of AIDS. British Journal of Social Psychology, 34, 9-21. Richard, R . , van der Pligt, J., & de Vries, N. K. (1996). Anticipated affect and be havioral choice. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 18, 1 1 1-29. Rogers, R. W. (1983). Cognitive and physiological processes in fear appeals and atti tude change: A revised theory of protection motivation. In B. L. Cacioppo & L. L. Petty (Eds), Social Psychophysiology: A Sourcebook. London: Guilford. Rosenthal, R. (1984). Meta-analytic Procedures for Social Research. Beverley Hills, CA: Sage. Rosenthal, R., & Rubin, D. B. (1979). A note on percent variance explained as a measure of the importance of effects. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 9, 395-6. Ryan, M. 1., & Bonfield, E. (1975). The Fishbein extended model and consumer behavior. Journal of Consumer Research, 2, 1 1 8-36. Ryan, R. M., Sheldon, K. M., Kasser, T., & Deci, E. L. (1996). All goals are not created equal: An organismic perspective on the nature of goals and their regulation. In P. M. Gollwitzer & 1. A. Bargh (Eds), The Psychology of Action (pp. 7-26). London: Guilford. Schifter, D. E., & Ajzen, I. (1985). Intention, perceived control, and weight loss: An application of the theory of planned behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49, 84�51. Sheeran, P. ( 1999a). Strength of intention and intention-behaviour relations (un published raw data). Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, UK. Sheeran, P. (1999b). Self-schemas. intentions and dieting behaviour (unpublished raw data). Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, UK, Sheeran, P. (1999c). Doing and Di: Effects of priming Princess Diana on intentions to give to charity (unpublished raw data). Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, UK, Sheeran, P., Abraham, C., & Orbell, S. ( 1999). Psychosocial correlates of heterosexual condom use: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 125, 90-132. Sheeran, P., Norman, P., & Orbell, S. (1999) . Evidence that intentions based on atti tudes better predict behaviour than intentions based on subjective norms. European Journal of Social Psychology, 29, 40�.
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Sheeran, P., Norman, P., Trafimow, D., Armitage, C. J., Conner, M., & Orbell, S. (1999). Why reason one's actions or plan one's behaviour: Degree of intention formation and intention-behavior relations (manuscript under review). Sheeran, P., & Orbell, S. ( 1998). Do intentions predict condom use? Meta-analysis and examination of six moderator variables. British Journal of Social Psychology , 37, 231-50. Sheeran, P., & Or bell, S. ( 1999a). Implementation intentions and repeated behaviour: Augmenting the predictive validity of the theory of planned behaviour. European Journal of Social Psychology, 29, 349-69. Sheeran, P., & Orbell, S. (1999b). Augmenting the theory of planned behavior: Roles for anticipated regret and descriptive norms. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 29, 2107-42. Sheeran, P., & Orbell, S. (2000a). Self-schemas and the theory of planned behaviour. European Journal of Social Psychology, 30, 533-50. Sheeran, P., & Orbell, S. (2000b). Using implementation intentions to increase attend ance for cervical cancer screening. Health Psychology, 18, 283-9. Sheeran, P., Orbell, S., & Norman, P., (1998). The theory of planned behaviour and intention-behaviour relations: Significance of conflicting and complementary inten tions. Unpublished manuscript. University of Sheffield, UK. Sheeran, P., Orbell, S., & Trafimow, D. (1999). Does the temporal stability of be havioral intentions moderate intention-behavior and past behavior-future behavior relations? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 721-30. Sheeran, P., & Sutton, S. (1999). Past behaviour and the theory of planned behaviour: A meta-analytic review (unpublished raw data). University of Sheffield, UK. Sheeran, P., Trafimow, D., Finlay, K. A. & Norman, P. (in press). Evidence that the type of person affects the perceived behavioral control-intention relationship. British Journal of Social Psychology.
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Chapter 2
Ambivalence and Attitudes Mark Conner
University of Leeds, UK Paul Sparks
University of Sussex, UK
ABSTRACT This chapter explores the concept of ambivalence and its relationship to atti tudes. Definitions and different measures of ambivalence are reviewed. We present three dimensions on which measures of ambivalence can be classified. We then go on to examine some of the elicitors of ambivalence and present some preliminary findings on attitude objects that generate high levels of ambivalence. The major section of the chapter then reviews findings related to treating the ambivalence construct as an aspect of attitude strength. Research is presented in relation to four major predictions: (a) temporal stability of attitudes; (b) impact of attitudes on intentions and behavior, (c) pliability of attitudes; and (d) impacts on information processing. The final section offers suggestions for further re search in this area.
Attitude has retained its position in social psychology as the most distinctive and indispensable concept for well over 50 years (Allport, 1935). Interest remains high, with significant advances in our understanding of the antece dents and consequences of attitudes (see Eagly & Chaiken, 1993, for an extensive review). A particular focus of research interest in recent years has been on aspects of the structure (e.g., Pratkanis, Breckler, & Greenwald, 1989) and strength (e.g., Petty & Krosnick, 1995) of attitudes. The recent Correspondence regarding this chapter should be addressed to: Mark Conner, School of Psycho! ogy, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK. E mail:
[email protected] European Review of Social Psychology, Volume 12. Edited by Wolfgang Stroebe and Miles Hewstone. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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MARK CONNER AND PAUL SPARKS
interest in attitudinal ambivalence can be partly attributed to the resurgence of interest in the dimensions of attitude structure and strength within which ambivalence fits. Attitudinal ambivalence may be defined as a psychological state in which ". . . a person holds mixed feelings (positive and negative) towards some psychological object" (Gardner, 1987, p. 241). Ambivalence thus is at odds with traditional views of the attitude concept as a unidimensio nal evaluation (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993). This chapter explores the am bivalence concept through a review of research on its definition, measurement, antecedents, and consequences. The ambivalence concept was introduced into social psychology by Scott (1966, 1968, 1969), followed by other important contributions by Kaplan (1972), and Katz and Hass (1988). Nevertheless, the resurgence of interest in the con cept has occurred principally in the 1990s (see Jonas, Bramer, & Diehl, 2000; Priester & Petty, 1996; Thompson, Zanna, & Griffin, 1995, for reviews of earlier research with the ambivalence concept). Research with the ambivalence con cept since 1990 has principally focused on predictions for the general concept of ambivalence, although there has also been interest in ambivalence in specific domains, such as racist attitudes (e.g., Katz & Hass, 1988), sexist attitudes (e.g., Glick & Fiske, 1996), and consumer attitudes (Otnes, Lowrey, & Shrum, 1997) (see Jonas et a/., 2000, for a useful review of this research). The present chapter will focus on the general concept of ambivalence. Jonas et a/. (2000) provided an earlier review of the literature on ambivalence. That chapter provided an excellent review of the origins and history of the ambivalence concept and of the relative utility of different formulae employed to tap measures of ambivalence. Neither of these issues are the focus of attention of the present chapter. Both chapters consider the implications of treating am bivalence as a measure of attitude strength. Jonas et al. focus on distinguishing ambivalence from attitude strength and give relatively brief attention to empirical data supporting the presumed implications of treating ambivalence as a measure of attitude strength. In contrast, the focus in the present chapter is reversed. The first section of the present chapter explores various definitions of the ambivalence concept that have been offered. The differing definitions suggest a number of different forms of ambivalence. In considering the variously used measures of ambivalence, we present three dimensions along which different measures of ambivalence can be classified. We then present some preliminary data on the interrelationship of these different measures of ambivalence and show that the measures possess discriminant validity, but suggest that further work on this issue is required. We then go on to explore some of the elicitors of ambivalence. After presenting some preliminary findings on the types of attitude objects that gener ate high levels of ambivalence, we examine the relationship between various individual difference variables and ambivalence. The largest section of the present chapter then explores the consequences of holding ambivalent attitudes. Based on treating ambivalence as a dimen-
AMBIVALENCE AND A TIITUDES
39
sion of attitude strength, we examine the evidence to support four predicted consequences of ambivalence-its impacts on: (a) the temporal stability of attitudes; (b) the relationship of attitudes to intentions and behavior; (c) the pliability of attitudes; and (d) the processing of information (Krosnick & Petty, 1995). The final section of our chapter offers a number of suggestions for further research with the concept of attitudinal ambivalence. DEF INITIONS OF AM BIVALENCE
Ambivalence has been defined in various ways. Given our belief in the im portance of ambivalence to attitude research, we should spend some time on an assessment of different approaches to the concept. Most definitions in the psychological literature make reference to the simultaneous existence ofposi tive and negative evaluations of an attitude object (see Table 2. 1 for a selec tion). However, there are important differences between the various definitions of the concept that merit some attention. Table 2.1
Interpretations and definitions of ambivalence
"The existence of simultaneous or rapidly interchangeable positive and negative feelings toward the same object or activity, with the added proviso that both the positive and negative feelings be strong" (Meehl, 1964, quoted in Emmons, 1 996) "A psychological state in which a person holds mixed feelings (positive and negative) towards some psychological object" (Gardner, 1987, p. 241) "The extent of beliefs' evaluative dissimilarity (or inconsistency)" (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993, p. 123) "A conflict aroused by competing evaluative predispositions" (Breckler, 1994, p. 359) " . . . the extent to which one's reactions to an attitude object are evaluatively mixed in that both positive (favorable) and negative (unfavorable) elements are included" (Wegener, Downing, Krosnick, & Petty, 1995, p. 460) An inclination " . . . to give it [an attitude object] equivalently strong positive or negative evaluations" (Thompson et al., 1995, p. 367). "An approach-avoidance conflict-wanting but at the same time not wanting the same goal object" (Emmons, 1996, p. 326)
First, the idea that posttlve and negative evaluations need to be simultaneous is not a universal feature of orientations to the ambivalence concept. Ainslie (1986), for example, with his focus on temporal dimensions of choice, suggests that long-term interests (e.g., health) and short-term inter ests (e.g., hedonic pleasure) are not invariably evaluated in conjunction with one another to form a consistent choice because each may be "dominant" at
40
MARK CONNER AND PAUL SPARKS
different times. From Ainslie's decision-making perspective on competing choice options, ambivalence is defined as an "inability to make a stable choice between two alternatives despite familiarity with their consequences" (Ainslie, 1992, p. 370). Moreover, a distinction has been made between dia chronic ambivalence and synchronic ambivalence (see Stocker, 1990) to re flect the distinction between "inconstancy" and "inconsistency" in evaluations. Like diachronic ambivalence, the notion of "attitude variability" (e.g., Sparks, Hedderley, & Shepherd, 1992) focuses on vacillating attitudes over time, whereas the simultaneous experience of positive and negative eval uations is central to the (synchronic) ambivalence, which is of predominant current interest to social psychologists researching the relationship between attitudes and ambivalence. However, lay people's responses to, for example, direct measures of ambivalence in research work (see below) will of course reflect their own interpretations of the questions put to them. Second, attitude objects may be, for example, behaviors, targets, events, or states of affairs. People may be ambivalent towards behaviors (e.g., reducing fat consumption), towards goals (e.g., losing weight), towards events (e.g., Millennium celebrations) or states of affairs [e.g., the existence of 70 mph (112 kph) motorway speed limits]. They may feel ambivalent about a particular behavior because the behavior has both negative and positive attributes, but there may also be a fundamental ambivalence about any one attribute. In this chapter, we are principally concerned with ambivalence towards behaviors, since most contemporary attitude research also displays this orientation and because we believe that closely specified personal behaviors are an appropri ate focus for the study of motivational conflicts. Third, some approaches to ambivalence focus more on people's beliefs, while others more directly on their attitudes. Given that the relationship between beliefs and attitudes may be complex, we have a general preference for the more direct focus on people's attitudes (although exploratory work on both is of great interest), since these are central to the evaluative issues at stake in the notion of ambivalence. While outcome evaluations may be as sessed in conjunction with behavioral beliefs within the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA; Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB; Ajzen, 1991), it is the specific evaluation of behaviors on which we are concentrating here for our assessment of ambivalence. Fourth, it is likely to be fruitful to examine other approaches to am bivalence, given that this concept attracts attention across different disci plines. For example, ambivalence is implicated in political science perspectives on people's conflicting values (Zaller & Feldman, 1992), so ciological work on conflicting role demands (Merton, 1976), and psychological approaches to both the mixed feelings that people may have about the objects of their attitudes (Tourangeau, Rasinski, Bradburn, & D' Andrade, 1989) and to conflicting parts of their personality (Freud, 1962). It is expected that
41
AMBIVALENCE AND AlTITUDES
insights from these approaches may well serve to develop and expand social psychologists' interests in attitudes and ambivalence. Most attempts to arrive at a method for quantifying ambivalence in recent social psychological research have acknowledged the need to examine both (a) the "intensity" of people's feelings (i.e. both how positive and negative those feelings may be) about an attitude object and (b) the "similarity" of the intensity of positive and negative feelings. This way of thinking about atti tudes involves a departure from some traditional conceptualizations, which tend to be characterized as referring to attitudes as reflecting either positive or negative evaluations of an attitude object (see Allport, discussion of these issues).
1935,
for an early
As well as having implications for the theoretical
status of the attitude concept, there are also a number of possible empirical
consequences that follow from this way of interpreting attitudes: these form
the focus of the
current chapter.
MEASUREMENT OF AMBIVALENCE There is currently a lack of consensus about the best way to measure am bivalence (Breckler,
1994; Conner, Sparks, Povey, James, & Shepherd, 1999c; 1996;Thompson et
Eagly & Chaiken, 1998; Jonas et al., 2000; Priester & Petty,
al., 1995).
Previous research into ambivalence has operationalized am
bivalence in different ways. For example, whilst Lavine, Thomsen, Borgida (1998) examined affective�ognitive consistency, Bassili sured global ambivalence, and Sparks
et al. (1992)
Zanna, and
(1996) mea
investigated attitude vari
ability. The extent to which these are interchangeable is unclear. However, there is good reason to expect differences between affectiv�ognitive, evaluative�gnitive, and evaluative-affective inconsistency (e.g., Chaiken, Pomerantz, & Giner-Sorolla,
1995). In order to ensure that the present discus
sion of ambivalence measurement is internally coherent, the present chapter focuses on global measures of ambivalence (see Thompson et al.,
1995). Even
amongst global measures of ambivalence there may be a number of forms that possess discriminant validity. The different measures that have been em
ployed to tap ambivalence can be classified along three dimensions (see Table
2.2).
The first dimension is in terms of direct versus indired measurement Bassili (1996) usefully divides measures of attitude strength into meta-attitudinal and operative indexes (see also Greenwald & Banaji, 1995). Meta-attitudinal mea sures of attitude strength are based upon the attitude holder's subjective impression of his/her own attitude. In relation to attitudinal ambivalence,
such measures might tap the subjective impression of the extent to which the individual's attitude was "mixed" or consisted of both positive and negative evaluations, beliefs or feelings. We refer to such measures as direct measures
42 Tllble 2.2
MARK CONNER AND PAUL SPARKS aassification of ambivalence measures Overal evaluation measure'
Cognitive conflicts
Direct measures
Indirect measures
I have conflicting thoughts about X (strongly agree-strongly
My thoughts about X are . . . (extremely positive not at all positive; extremely negative not at aU negative)
disagree)
Affective conflicts
Cognitive/affective confticts
I have mixed fedings about X (strongly agree-strongly disagree) My thoughts and feelings about X are conflicting (strongly agree strongly disagree)
My feelings about X are . . . (extremely pleasant-not at all pleasant; extremely unpleasant not at all unpleasant)
My thoughts about X are . . .2
(extremely positive not at all
positive) My feelings about X are . (extremely unpleasant-not at al unpleasant) .
.
1 Note that belief-based measuresaU fall into the indirect category in thisscheme but can be used to tap cognitive, affective, or cognitive affective conflicts, based m a classification of the beliefs. Belief-based measures can also be either dosed-ended (e.g., Van Ha.rreveld et aJ� 1999) or open ended (e.g� CoMer eta/., l999c), Closed-ended measures present sets of beliefs from which the respondent select& Open-ended measures require the respondent to self-generate beliefs. 2 This represents a measure of priH)()gnitivelcon-affective cognitive/affective ambivalence (see Thompson et al., 1995). An alternative con-cognitive/pro-affective cognitive/affective am bivalence might use items such as, "My thoughts about X are . . . extremely positive not at all positive'' and "My feelings about X are . . . extremely unpleasant-not at all unpleasant".
(Jonas et al., 2000, use the term "experienced ambivalence") because they require respondents to report directly the extent to which they experience mixed thoughts or feelings (see Tourangeau et al., 1989, for one simple ex ample of the use of such a measure). For example, Lipkus, Green, Feaganes, and Sedikides (in press) report a smoking-specific measure of "felt" am bivalence. This was a six item self-report measure (e.g., "You have strong feelings both for and against smoking", strongly agree-strongly disagree). Ambivalence is reported as the mean or summed score across a number of related statements. One advantage of such measures is the possibility of com puting internal reliability measures (e.g., Cronbach's alpha). Such measures are often regarded as the ••gold standards" against which to compare other measures of ambivalence (see Jonas et al., 2000; Thompson et al., 1995). However, it has been suggested that, in general meta-attitudinal measures seem to be more open to extraneous influences that can undermine their validity (Bassili, 1996). For example, it is not clear whether the information required for an accurate judgment is readily available to consciousness and so easily retrievable from memory (cf. Wilson, Lindsey, & Schooler, 2000. on explicit and implicit attitudes).
AMBIVALENCE AND ATfiTUDES
43
Indirect or ''formula-based" (Jonas et al., 2000) measures of ambivalence consist of separate measures of the positive and negative thoughts or feelings that an attitude object produces. Such measures possess some similarity to Bassili's (1996) operative indexes of attitude strength. Operative indexes of attitude strength are derived from the attitude judgment process or its out comes and have an advantage over meta-attitudinal measures because they stem from the same cognitive response and information processing respons ible for judgmental and behavioral manifestations of the attitude (Bassili, 1996, p. 638). Operative indices appear to provide a less reactive means of assessing the properties of attitude strength and might be preferred to direct (or meta-attitudinal) measures of ambivalence because they are less reactive to extraneous influences (Conner et al., 1999c). Kaplan (1972) was the first to suggest such a measure of ambivalence. He modified a widely used measure of attitudes (the semantic-differential technique) by separately assessing the positive and negative attributes ascribed to an attitude object; one measure assessed the positive attributes and another assessed the negative attributes (usually with the instruction to ignore the oppositely valenced attributes when making the judgment). Generally, the two measures have been found to show low negative correlations with one another. For example, Sparks, Conner, James, Shepherd, and Povey (2001) employed such split semantic differential measures to tap ambivalence towards eating chocolate (e.g., "For a moment consider only the positive things about eating chocolate and ignore any nega tive things about it. Please rate how positive those positive things are . . .", not at all positive-extremely positive; "For a moment consider only the negative things about eating chocolate and ignore any positive things about it. Please rate how negative those negative things are . . . ", not at all negative extremely negative). These separate judgments are then combined within a formula into an overall measure of ambivalence (see below). If several posi tive and negative judgment items are used, it is possible to compute reliability coefficients for the sets of positive and negative judgments (Conner et al., 1999c). The second dimension along which ambivalence measures can be classified is whether the measures tap overall evaluations or whether they tap beliefs. Overall evaluation measures are exemplified by the split semantic differential measure of Kaplan (1972): the attitude object is simply rated on one or more evaluations designed to tap either positive or negative reactions. Belief-based measures of ambivalence tend to focus on the nature of object-relevant infor mation and take two main forms: either closed-ended measures or open ended measures. Closed-ended belief-based measures of ambivalence require respondents to select (or evaluate) a series of positive and negative beliefs about an attitude object. For example, Van Harreveld, Van der Pligt, and De Vries (1999) required participants to select the important attributes they asso ciated with an attitude object from a list. Ambivalence is then computed using
44
MARK CONNER AND PAUL SPARKS
a formula based on the number of positive and negative attributes selected as being important (see Van der Pligt, De Vries, Manstead & Van Harreveld, 2000, for a review of this research). Open-ended belief-based measures em ploy a similar approach, but require respondents to self-generate their beliefs in response to a prompt (Bell, Esses, & Maio, 1996). For example, Conner et a/. (1999c), in a study of ambivalence towards eating a low-fat diet, used the prompt, "The thoughts and feelings I associate with eating a low fat diet are . . . " to elicit such beliefs. Participants can also be requested to rate each belief in terms of how positive or negative it is (alternatively, independent judges can rate each belief as positive or negative). The numbers of positive and negative beliefs or the sum of the ratings of the positive and negative beliefs can then be entered into an equation to compute a measure of am bivalence (see Erber, Hodges, & Wilson, 1995 for a similar "belief homoge neity" measure). The third dimension along which measures of ambivalence can be classified is in terms of the content of ambivalence judgments (focusing on cognitive conflicts, affective conflicts, cognitive-affective conflicts). So, for example, a direct ambivalence measure can refer to mixed cognitions or thoughts (e.g., "I have conflicting thoughts about X", strongly agree-strongly disagree), mixed affect or feelings [e.g., "I have mixed (both positive and negative) feelings about X", strongly agree-strongly disagree) or a conflict between thoughts and feelings (e.g., "I have positive thoughts but negative feelings about X", strongly agree-strongly disagree). As Thompson et a/. (1995) make clear, this latter form of ambivalence measure (i.e., the heart vs. the mind) can take two distinct forms: pro-cognition and con-affect versus con-cognition and pro affect. For example, an individual may like the taste of one particular food, but dislike the high number of calories that the food contains (pro-affect, con cognition) or dislike the taste of another food, but like the low number of calories the food contains (con-affect, pro-cognition) (Grogan, Bell, & Con ner, 1997). These different contents of ambivalence measures may be dif ferentially important in different areas (see also MacDonald & Zanna, 1998). For example, while thinking about an event such as the introduction of a new social policy may arouse principally cognitive ambivalence, thinking about a particular politician (an object) may arouse principally affective ambivalence. Similarly, thinking about an action or behavior (e.g., using a condom with a new sexual partner) may arouse conflicting thoughts and feelings. Ortony, Clore, and Collins (1988) similarly propose three aspects of the world that we can appraise emotionally: events, actions, and objects. However, they further suggest that, within these categories, it is only appraisals of events and actions that are likely to produce conflicting emotions (and ambivalence) because these appraisals can focus on consequences for self and other or on the immediate future and the more distant future (pp. 51-52). In this scheme, objects only produce positive or negative reactions for the self in the immedi-
AMBIVALENCE AND A TIITUDES
45
ate future. However, appraisal of objects and events/actions could produce between-category ambivalence. For example, a disliked person (object) per forming a kindness (action) might produce such conflicting emotions. The best way to combine separately obtained positive and negative judg ments of an attitude object into an overall measure of ambivalence has re ceived attention in a number of studies (Breckler, 1994; Jonas et al., 2000; Priester & Petty, 1996; Thompson et al., 1995). Kaplan (1972) suggested that in a measure of ambivalence, scores should increase as the positive and nega tive judgments become more polarized (both larger in value) and the more equal they are in absolute value. A variety of measures of ambivalence have been proposed to capture these conditions in a measure of ambivalence (see Jonas et al., 2000, for a recent review). Perhaps the most widely employed such equation is that devised by Griffin and presented in Thompson et al. (1995): ambivalence is calculated as half the polarization of the positive (P) and negative (N) judgments, minus the absolute difference between the two. That is, ambivalence is denoted by the equation: Ambivalence = (P +N)/2 - IP - Ni where P and N are measured on unipolar scales (in absolute values) in two separate questions. So, for example, an individual who rates an attitude object as both moderately positive (2) and moderately negative (2) would be as signed an ambivalence score of [(2 + 2)/2 - 12 - 21 = 2], while an individual who rates the same attitude object as extremely positive (3) and only mildly nega tive (1) would be assigned an ambivalence score of [(3 + 1)/2 - 13 - 1 I = 0]. This equation is the one employed in all the analyses reported in the present chapter where separate positive and negative ratings are combined into a single index of overall ambivalence. Table 2.2 presents the different dimensions of ambivalence and provides examples of items used to measure ambivalence. In general, very few studies have reported comparison amongst these different measures of ambivalence. Thompson et al. (1995) report a significant correlation of 0.40 between a direct measure of ambivalence and a multi-item split semantic differential measure (with ambivalence calculated using the Griffin formula; n = 146). Lipkus, et al. (in press) reported a significant correlation of just 0.19 between the same measures in a study of smoking (n = 1 57). In our own research we have compared levels of ambivalence based on open-ended belief-based measures of ambivalence and split semantic differential-based measures of ambivalence (Conner et al., 1999c) and employed the Griffin equation to compute a mea sure of overall ambivalence. For both behaviors examined (eating a low fat diet, n = 140; eating five portions of fruit and vegetables per day, n = 142), the degree of correspondence was only modest (r = 0.18 and r = 0.27 respectively, both significant). Hence, across the studies that have reported the relevant
46
MARK CONNER AND PAUL SPARKS
data, there appears to be evidence that the different measures of ambivalence do not show strong convergent validity. We believe that an important area for further research with the am bivalence construct is a systematic examination of the convergent and dis criminant validity of the various ambivalence measures employed across studies (Table 2.2). Without such data it is difficult to offer good advice about the most appropriate means to measure ambivalence. Each of the different measures has potential problems. For example, we have reservations about direct measures of ambivalence because it is not clear to what extent individ uals have access to the relevant information on which to base such judgments. In addition, as noted earlier, there may be individual differences in the way ambivalence is interpreted, posing further problems for the potential useful ness of direct measures of ambivalence. For example, Priester and Petty (2001) have recently reported data to indicate that direct measures of am bivalence tap both intrapersonal ambivalence and discrepancy between one's own attitude and that of valued others (i.e., interpersonal ambivalence). We also have some concerns about split semantic differential measures of ambivalence because it is not clear whether respondents are able to comply with instructions to ignore judgments of the opposite valence (e.g., ignore negative evaluations when making a positive evaluation) when making a judg ment. In addition, there is as yet only limited evidence to support the view that the positive and negative evaluations supposedly assessed by such mea sures are both available for retrieval from memory (Cacioppo, Gardner, & Bertson, 1997). However, we should note that much of our own research employing measures based on obtaining separate positive and negative judg ments has produced findings consistent with theoretical predictions. Hence, such measures may have considerable validity. Nevertheless, we also see the value of belief-based measures of am bivalence (see Conner et al., 1999c) as have other authors (e.g., Haddock & Zanna, 1998; van der Pligt et al., 2000). In fact, we have found both open ended and closed-ended belief measures of ambivalence to be useful (see Haddock & Zanna, 1998; Esses & Maio, this volume, for useful discussions of open-ended measures of attitudes). Belief-based measures of attitude are consistent with Erber et al.'s (1995) attitudes-as-constructions model and al low one to examine cognitive, affective, and cognitive/affective ambivalence by classifying the different beliefs. However, such measures are also not with out problems. For example, it is not clear that individuals can easily report all the information upon which their overall attitude judgments are based (Fish bein & Ajzen, 1975; Sparks, 1994). Respondents may also find it easier to generate cognitive correlates of their attitudes compared to other influences such as affective factors (Conner et al., 1999c; Sparks, 1994). This appears to be in stark contrast with evidence that affect-based evaluations are more accessible in memory than cognitive-based evaluations (Verplanken, Hofstee,
AMBIVALENCE AND ATIITUDES
47
& Janssen, 1998 ) . Hence, belief-based measures of ambivalence and split semantic differential measures may be based upon different information, thus accounting for their lack of convergent validity. Nevertheless, our own re search (Conner et a/., 1999c) demonstrates that despite this lack of convergent validity, belief-based and split semantic differential measures of ambivalence are equally well able to moderate the attitude-behavior relationship (a key prediction for an ambivalence construct ) . ELICITORS OF AM BIVALENCE
Comparatively little research has examined the possible elicitors of am bivalence. This section reports findings from two approaches to understanding the bases of ambivalence. The first approach examines what things commonly produce higher and lower levels of ambivalence across individuals. The sec ond approach examines individual difference variables assumed to be import ant in the genesis of ambivalent attitudes. Few studies have investigated what it is that tends to produce considerable degrees of ambivalence. Theoretically we might expect anything that tends to generate both strong positive and negative evaluations to be more likely to produce higher levels of ambivalence. One consequence of the work of Ortony et a/. ( 1988 ) , referred to earlier, is that actions/events likely to produce different emotions when focusing on the immediate future compared to the more distant future should produce greater ambivalence. Our previous re search had indicated that this conflict was particularly common for health related behaviors, where the conflict was between the immediate pleasantness/unpleasantness of the behavior and the longer-term positive/ negative health outcome of the behavior. Two types of health-related be havior can be distinguished: health protective behaviors, which can be un pleasant or onerous ( e.g., exercising compared to non-exercising ) , and health risking behaviors, which are pleasant ( e.g., drinking alcohol compared to not drinking alcohol). We did not expect clear differences in ambivalence be tween health-protective and health-risking behaviors. Conner, Povey, Sparks, James, and Shepherd ( 1998a) identified 12 such health behaviors relevant to students. These behaviors varied in overall evaluation and also in whether engaging in the behavior was health-protective or health-risking. Split seman tic differential measures were obtained in relation to these 12 different be haviors from a group of 143 students. The positive and negative evaluations were combined into measures of ambivalence using the equation suggested by Griffin (Thompson et a/., 1995 ) and overall evaluation (by summing the two evaluations ) . The results are shown in Table 2.3. There were clearly consider able differences in the extent to which these different behaviors produced feelings of ambivalence. Drinking alcohol produced the highest degree of
48
MARK CONNER AND PAUL SPARKS
ambivalence, while eating a low-fat diet produced the second highest level of ambivalence. Taking the drug Ecstasy and regularly eating breakfast pro duced the lowest levels of ambivalence. The reasonably large standard devia tions for several behaviors indicate that people do differ in their reported ambivalence for a number of behaviors. While health-protective behaviors did tend to be evaluated positively and health-risking behaviors negatively, there did not appear to be a consistent relationship to levels of ambivalence (fable 2.3). In addition, there was no apparent relationship between overall evaluation and ambivalence. Tllble l.3
Ambivalence and evaluation measures foreacb of 12 behaviors (Conner et
a/., 1998a) Bebaviork
Drinking alcohol (risk) Reducing fat intake (protect) Using illicit drugs (risk) Avoiding stressful situations (risk) Exercising (protect) Sleeping 7-8 hours per night (protect) Healthy eating (protect) Smoking (risk) Using condoms (protect) Increasing fruit and/or vegetable consumption (protect) Regularly eating breakfast (protect) Taking Ecstasy (risk)
Ambivalence'
Evaluation-
Mean
SO
Mean
0.490.34b 0.31"" O.JOk 0.27cde O.z5de 024e 024e 024e 02Je 02Je 0.22e
0.16 025 024 023 021 024 023 0.25 0.21 0.21 0.21 023
O.tSe
2.SJcd -2.33f
2.6SC 3.51• 3.32-b 3.66" 3.591
3.71• 3.4Sob 3.07"" 3.S5s
SO 1.88 2.25 2.82 2.36
1.83 2.14 1.96 221 2.17 1.96 2.42 2.58
t Means in the same column not sharing the same letter are significantly different from each other: risk = health-risking behaviors; protect = health-protecting behaviors. 1 Ambivalance is calculated from the positive (scored 0 to +6) and negative (0 10 -0) evaluations. Higher scores indicate greater ambivalence (measures all scaled on the range �1). m Evaluation isthesumo{the positive and negative evaluations (possible range -0to +6). Higher scoresindicate more positive attitudes.
In a second study, we asked a sample of 102 students in a more open-ended manner to name the things that either made them feel neither positive nor negative, just positive and not at all negative, just negative and not at all positive, or both positive and negative (Waterman & Conner, 1999). This latter category should contain those things that produced high degrees of ambivalence. The responses were independently coded into a number of cate gories. Among this sample the things that most commonly produced both positive and negative reactions were eating, drinking alcohoL and personal relationships. Eating chocolate and foods rich in calories and binge drinking were particularly frequently mentioned In both these cases the conflict appears to be between a more immediate pleasant outcome and a more distant negative outcome. The fact that eating (and eating these foods in
AMBIVALENCE AND A1TI'IUDES
49
particular) arouses high levels of ambivalence was an important factor in our choice to examine these behaviors when examining the consequences of am bivalence (see Sparks et a/., 2001; Armitage & Conner, 2000) (see below). Amongst the relationship category, the relationship with sexual partner and family were particularly frequently mentioned Common here was a conflict between a liked person performing an action that was not approved of. Exam ination of the other (non-ambivalent) categories revealed considerably more variation in the types of attitude objects reported Across these two studies it is interesting to note that ingestive behaviors (drinking alcohol, eating) are the most frequently reported sources of am bivalence. These are behaviors commonly engaged in by the vast majority of respondents and ones for which both positive and negative outcomes are common. Interestingly, they are also both behaviors where the ambivalence is often between appraising immediate outcomes and those some time in the future or between appraising an object (e.g., family member) and appraising an event (e.g., performance of a disapproved behavior). The mapping on to the predictions of Ortony et al. (1988) is noteworthy. A second approach to understanding the elicitors of ambivalence examines individual difference variables (Thompson et al., 1995). 1t is suggested that the experience of ambivalence s i not merely associated with a particular attitude but may characterize an attitude domain. Thompson and Zanna (1995) dem onstrated some convergence in individual levels of ambivalence acra>s five different social policy issues. Such individual differences in ambivalence across attitude topics might be attributable to the operation of other individ ual difference variables. For example, individuals with particUlar personality traits might be more or less likely to resolve conflicts between positive and negative evaluations towards various attitude topics, and so exhibit lower or higher levels of ambivalence across topics. Several different personality di mensions have been examined in this regard. These include more specific personality dimensions, such as need for cognition, personal fear of invalidity (Thompson & Zanna, 1995), need for closure, and self-monitoring (Sparks, Conner, James, Shepherd, & Povey, 1995). As well as these personality di mensions, research has also investigated issue involvement as a potential moderator of this relationship (Sparks et al., 1995; Thompson & Zanna, 1995). Thompson and Zanna (1995) report the relationship of a split semantic differential measure of ambivalence to the personality dimensions of need for cognition (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982), personal fear of invalidity (Thompson, Naccarato, & Parker, 1989), and level of involvement with the attitude object. Across five social policy issues, degree of ambivalence was significantly nega tively related to need for cognition and positively related to personal fear of invalidity. Whilst involvement did not show consistent direct relationships with ambivalence, there was evidence of moderation. In particular, the above relationships of need for cognition being negatively related to ambivalence
50
MARK CONNER AND PAUL SPARKS
and personal fear of invalidity being positively related were only apparent when respondents were highly involved with an issue. Hence, the mechanism by which these personality variables influence ambivalence (i.e., through in fluencing propensity to engaging in resolving evaluatively inconsistent reac tions) may only operate when individuals are highly involved with an issue. However, this effect may be relatively weak and only be detectable when considering the average ambivalence across several attitude topics. For ex ample, Sparks et al. (1995) found no evidence that a split semantic differential measure of ambivalence about eating chocolate or meat was significantly related to need for cognition, need for closure (Kruglanski, Webster, & Klem, 1993), or self-monitoring (Snyder & Gangestad, 1986). In addition, there was no evidence for a moderating effect of involvement with the behavior. Hence, we believe the current evidence that individual difference variables elicit ambivalence is weak. We suspect that more specific research hypotheses are required in this area. One interesting hypothesis is that the consequences of ambivalence may be different for different personality types (e.g., am bivalence may be more unpleasant or anxiety-provoking for those intolerant of ambiguity). As the above review makes clear, we still know comparatively little about the elicitors of ambivalence or about how ambivalence might best be manip ulated. These are important areas for further research (see below). CONSEQUENCES OF AMBIVALENCE
If we consider attitudinal ambivalence as a dimension of attitude strength, then we might anticipate four consequences of holding an ambivalent attitude (Converse, 1995, p. xi; Krosnick & Petty, 1995): (a) impacts on the temporal stability of attitudes; (b) impacts on the relationship of attitudes to intentions and behavior; (c) impacts on the pliability of attitudes; and (d) impacts on information processing. A number of authors have investigated the effects of attitudinal ambivalence in relation to each of these consequences, although the evidence in support of each effect varies considerably. In the following sections we review the research in relation to each of these four consequences of having an ambivalent attitude, focusing on the findings from our own research. Tempond Stability
A variety of studies have demonstrated that strong attitudes are more stable over time. Indeed, a number of authors have argued that attitude stability is the factor that all attitude strength measures hold in common (Ajzen, 1 996; Doll & Ajzen, 1992; Erber et al., 1995). Other research with intentions (e.g.,
AMBIVALENCE AND AlTITUDES
51
Conner, Sheeran, Norman, & Armitage, 2000; Sheeran, Orbell, & Trafimow, 1999) and personality constructs (e.g., Biesanz, West, & Graziano, 1998) has noted the importance of temporal stability as a measure of the strength of a psychological construct On this view, attitudes high in ambivalence would represent "weak" attitudes and be predicted to show lower temporal stability compared to attitudes low in ambivalence. Wilson and Hodge's (1992) aniJudes-as-constructions model provides one framework for understanding this proposed relationship between ambivalence and attitude stability (see also Erber et a/., 1995; Zaller & Feldman, 1992). Central to the model is the idea that when attitudes are required (e.g., for decision-making), they may be constructed from available information (e.g., via contextually-cued beliefs about the attitude object� rather than being stored in long-term memory. Ambivalence is therefore a function of the extent to which the underlying information (e.g., beliefs, feelings) on which the attitude is based is inconsistent. That is, when a person constructs an attitude at different time points, the degree of attitude (in)stability between time points should vary as a function of the level of evaluative incongruity between positive and negative evaluations of the object or behavior at each time point From this perspective, inconsistency in the determinants of attitudes provides a structural basis for ambivalence, which in turn regulates stability. It also implies that levels of ambivalence and attitude stability are inextricably linked. Hence, less am bivalent attitudes should be more stable over time. Two types of research have tackled this predicted consequence of am bivalence. In one approach, ambivalence measures have been correlated with seH-report measures of attitude variability and stability (i.e., meta�ttitudinal measures). In our own data using this approach, ambivalence is found to be positively related to self-reports of attitude variability and negatively to atti tude stability. For example, in a study of the use of the drug Ecstasy by clubbers (Conner, Sherlock, & Orbell, 1998b ), we obtained multi-item self report measures of ambivalence (using a split semantic differential measure). Although not in the journal report of this research, we also measured (see Conner & Sherlock, 1997) attitude variability (e.g., "Sometimes my attitude towards Ecstasy varies, sometimes it is positive and sometimes it is negative", strongly disagree-strongly agree). Ambivalence and attitude variability were found to be significantly positively related (r = 0.43). We found a similar level of correlation between a two-item measure of felt ambivalence (e.g., "I have confticting feelings about having casual sex", strongly disagree-strongly agree) and attitude variability ("My attitudes about casual sex", do not vary at all-vary greatly) in a study of intentions to engage in casual sex amongst students (i.e., a "one-night stand"), r = 0.61, significant (Conner & Flesch, 1998; see Conner & Flesch, 2001, for further details of this research). Such data is not wholly convincing because it is not clear that respondents are clearly able to differentiate the two constructs when making their responses.
52
MARK CONNER AND PAUL SPARKS
In a second and more defensible approach, ambivalence has been related to more indirect measures of attitude stability (i.e., operative measures). For example, Bargh, Chaiken, Govender, and Pratto (1992) showed that respond ents who gave the same evaluation to an attitude object at two time points tended to have less ambivalent attitudes than those who did not give the same evaluation, (r = 0.27, significant). Bassili (1996) reported contrasting results; ambivalence was unrelated to stability for attitudes towards introducing quotas, r = 0.00, or towards pornography, r = 0.03. In our own research we have examined the stability predictions in one study (Armitage & Conner, 2000) . These authors (study 1) examined the impact of ambivalence on the stability of attitudes towards eating a low-fat diet over three time points in a sample of 346 hospital workers. Am bivalence was assessed using a split semantic differential measure, while attitudes were assessed using a reliable multi-item bipolar semantic differen tial measure. As attitudes were measured at three time points, a total of three comparisons were possible, representing time intervals of 3 months, 5 months and 8 months between measurement of attitudes. The extent to which ambivalence moderated the degree of attitude stability was investi gated in two ways. First, we computed a within-subjects correlation measure of attitude stability. Across respondents, this measure of the stability of attitudes was unrelated to our measure of ambivalence (over 3 months, r = -0.02; over 5 months r = -0.01; over 8 months, r = -0.01). Second, we attempted to discount any problems attributable to error variance by com puting measures of attitude stability based on between-subject correlations disattenuated for measurement error (using LISREL 8; Joreskog & Sorbom, 1993). In this analysis correlations were computed separately for the higher and lower ambivalence groups (based on a median split). In general, the degree of attitude stability was high (mean disattenuated r = 0. 71 ), although, as might have been expected, stability was inversely related to the time interval between measurements. In no case did the differences in disattenu ated correlations reach significance (over 3 months, Zr = 0.00; over 5 months, Zr = 1 .59; over 8 months, Zr = 1.24 ), although the difference was in the predicted direction (i.e., less stability in the high ambivalence group) for comparisons over the longer time intervals. Thus, research provides only limited support for the predicted impact of ambivalence on attitude stability. Whilst self-reported stability of attitudes appears to be relatively consistently related to ambivalence, designs employ ing prospective measures of stability do not tend to observe this relationship of ambivalence to attitude stability. The studies based on self-report measures of stability are particularly open to consistency biases. The one study report ing a significant effect using a more defensible measure of attitude stability (Bargh et a/., 1992) employed a relatively small sample (but see Jonas et a/., 2000, for report of a further study producing supportive results).
AMBIVALENCE AND A TIITUDES
53
Attitude-Intention and Attitude-Behavior Relationships
A key prediction for a measure of attitude strength is that strong attitudes should be more likely to guide behavior than weak attitudes (Converse, 1995, p. xi; Krosnick & Petty, 1995, p. 3). As Schwartz (1978) noted, an attitude assessed at one time is unlikely to predict behavior at a later time if the attitude does not persist over the intervening time interval. Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) make a similar observation in relation to the impact of inten tions on behavior (see Conner et at., 2000). Some researchers (e.g., Erber. et at., 1995) have argued that the greater impact of strong attitudes on behavior is solely attributable to strong attitudes being more likely to persist over time. However, other mechanisms may also influence the ability of strong attitudes to influence behavior. For example, Fazio (1986, 1995) has argued that atti tudes influence our behavior in part by shaping our perceptions of the world (the automatic activation effect). That is, the capacity of an attitude to predict behavior is partly dependent on the attitudes' ability to bias perceptions of the attitude object and the context in which the behavior is performed. Strong attitudes are assumed to be more readily accessible and so more likely to produce these biasing effects. Thus, one might therefore expect low ambivalent attitudes to be more capable of automatic activation and so more predictive of behavior than high-ambivalent attitudes. For many attitude objects that elicit high levels of ambivalence, it is useful to consider consistency of expressed attitudes over context as well as consis tency over time. Ambivalence towards a behavior may be associated with a temporal and/or contextual instability in dominant motives (or evaluations) that arises as a consequence of fluctuations in the salience and/or strength of different motives. Ambivalence may not only reflect "mixed feelings" to wards an attitude object at a particular moment in time but also changes in the dominance of competing motives at different points in time as a result of variations in internal and external contextual cues (cf. Ainslie, 1992). While measured attitudes may show a consistency over time if elicited in the same context, this consistency may not be achieved if variations in context are introduced into the measurement procedure: for example, many people's expressed attitude towards eating fruit as dessert may be stable over time if measured in similar laboratory conditions and may only show variation when measured after dinner in full sight of the chocolate cake alternative ! The strength of the relationship between attitudes, intentions, and behavior may be expected to be influenced by whether or not the same evaluations or motives are dominant when attitudes, intentions, and behavior are measured (cf. Ajzen, 1996; Tesser, 1978). Since ambivalence is associated with mixed or conflicting motives, the strength of measured attitude-intention-behavior linkages may be consequently attenuated at higher levels of ambivalence (compared to lower levels of ambivalence).
54
MARK CONNER AND PAUL SPARKS
In addition, much research in the attitude domain has considered be havioral intentions as mediators of attitude-behavior relations (e.g., Ajzen, 1991; Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975) and a considerable body of research supports this relationship (see Armitage & Conner, in press a; Conner & Armitage, 1998; Conner & Sparks, 1996; Eagly & Chaiken, 1993; Godin & Kok, 1996; Sheppard, Hartwick, & Warshaw, 1988; Van den Putte, 1991). Indeed, in researching the attitude-behavior relationship, many studies have employed measures of behavioral intention as a proxy for actual behavior. Previous work on attitudinal ambivalence has examined the moderation of either attitude-intention relations (e.g., Jonas, Diehl, & Bramer, 1997) or attitude behavior relationships (e.g., Lavine et a/., 1998). The earliest examination of the moderation effect was by Moore ( 1973, 1980). His research demonstrated a moderating effect of attitudinal am bivalence on the relationship between attitudes and behavior, such that there was lower consistency between attitudes and behavior for those high in at titudinal ambivalence. However, measures of attitude and behavior were weak and taken in a cross-sectional manner. Thus, this moderation effect is more accurately described as influencing attitude-past behavior relationships. Sparks et a/. (1992) examined the moderating role of a mixed measure of attitude ambivalence and attitude variability on attitude-intention relation ships in relation to food choices. Higher levels of ambivalence were associated with an attenuation of the attitude-intention correlation. Norman and Smith (1995) also used a mixed measure of attitude ambivalence and attitude vari ability, but found no moderating effects on belief-attitude or attitude intention relationships for exercise behavior. However, in comparing dif ferences in zero-order correlations they failed to take account of potential differences in variance in the higher and lower ambivalence groups (Aiken & West, 1991; Baron & Kenny, 1986). This problem can be addressed through the use of moderated regression analysis or structural equation modeling. Jonas et a/. (1997), in a laboratory study, found evidence of stronger attitude-behavioral intention relations for more ambivalent attitudes. Finally, research by Lavine et a/. (1998) reported that attitude-behavior rela tions were attenuated by high levels of affective-cognitive inconsistency. Hence, previous studies have produced mixed findings on the moderating impact of ambivalence on attitude-intention and attitude-behavior relation ships. However, each of the above studies can be criticized in relation to the design (Moore, 1973, 1980), the mixed measure of ambivalence employed (Lavine et a/., 1998; Norman & Smith, 1995; Sparks et a/., 1992), the analysis method employed (Norman & Smith, 1995), or the focus on laboratory generated attitudes (Jonas et a/., 1997). Our own research has attempted to address this issue through five cross-sectional studies on attitude-intention relationships (Conner & Flesch, 1998; Conner, Povey, & Sparks, 1995; Conner et a/., 1998b; Conner, Povey, Sparks, James, & Shepherd, in press; Sparks et
AMBIVALENCE AND AlTITUDES
55
a/., 2001) containing seven independent tests, two prospective studies of the attitude-behavior relationship (Conner eta/., 1999c, in press) containing four independent tests, and one study that examined these relationships simultaneously in a prospective design (Armitage & Conner, 2000, study 1). In each case we employed a measure of ambivalence that was consistent with our definition of ambivalence (although the precise measure varied between studies) and used appropriate statistical tests (see Conner, Sparks, & Armi tage, 1999b; Conner eta/., 1998b; Sparks, Conner, James, Povey, & Shepherd, 1997a; Sparks, James, Conner, Shepherd, & Povey, 1997b, for earlier reports of this work). Attitude-/mention Relationships One of our studies examined the moderating role of ambivalence on attitude intention relationships in relation to students engaging in casual sex (Conner & Flesch, 1998). The study employed a hypothetical scenario about meeting a new sexual partner, and involved the respondents producing ratings of atti tude, intentions, and ambivalence in relation to having sex with this new partner. Attitude was assessed by a series of bipolar semantic differentials, which factor analysis revealed to fall into components assessing cognitive (three items) and affective (two items) factors. Intentions were assessed by six items. Ambivalence was assessed by two items intended to tap direct mea sures of affective ambivalence (e.g., "I have conflicting feelings about casual sex", strongly agree-strongly disagree). Moderated regression analysis (Baron & Kenny, 1986) demonstrated that both attitude measures signifi cantly predicted intentions. Ambivalence also explained significant additional variance in intentions (higher levels of ambivalence were associated with stronger intentions to engage in sex). However, ma;t importantly, am bivalence significantly moderated the impact of affective attitudes, but not cognitive attitudes on intentions. This effect was also in the hypothesized direction, with lower ambivalence being associated with stronger affective attitude-intention relationships. In a series of six related studies, we have examined the impact of ambivalence in moderating the relationship between attitudes and intentions in relation to a series of food choices (Conner, Sparks, Povey, James, & Shepherd, 1996). Food choices were selected for study because this is a domain where ambivalence is commonly reported (e.g., conflict between pleasure and health; see Beardsworth, 1995; Conner eta/., 1998a). The design of the studies was similar. In each case, reliable multi-item self-report measures of attitude (semantic differential measure) and intention (e.g., "I intend to eat a low-fat diet", strongly agree-strongly disagree) were taken. In addition, a split semantic dif ferential measure of ambivalence was taken in each case. The studies examined healthy eating (n = 239; Conner et al., in press), eating a low-fat diet (n = 158;
56
MARK CONNER AND PAUL SPARKS
Conner eta/., 1995; Sparks
et a/.,
n=
145; Conner eta/., 1999c), eating chocolate
2001), eating meat
portions of fruit and vegetables results from
(n = 155; (n = 165; Sparks et a/., 2001), or eating five per day (n = 149; Conner et a/., 1999c). The
these studies are summarized in Table 2.4.
Summary of moderating effects of attitudinal ambivalence on attitude intention and attitude-behavior relationships across studies
Tllble 2.4
Numbers of supporting results Significant moderating effect
Nonsignificant effect (low > high)
2 3
Attitude intention Attitude-behavior
Frequency-weighted corrdation
Nonsignificant effect (high >low)
3 1
1 0
Lower ambivalence
Higher ambivalence
0.67"• 0.53"1>
0.60" 0.40"
OiHerences of rfromzero: p < 0.001; differences between r. p
Moderating effects of ambivalence were assessed by moderated regression
analysis (Baron & Kenny, 1986). However, for presentational purposes, we split the sample at the median on the ambivalence measure in order to create higher ambivalence and lower ambivalence groups. Correlations between atti tude and intention measures were then computed separately for these two groups and then compared.
mixed, with some
As can be seen in Table 24, the results were
studies demonstrating the predicted direction of modera
tion effect and others failing to show such an effect. However, in summarizing across studies (Table
24)
and comparing the frequency-weighted correla
tions, it becomes clear that across studies there is evidence for the moderating
impact of ambivalence on the attitude-intention relationship (lower am
r = 0.67;
bivalence group mean,
higher ambivalence group mean, r=
0.60),
although the difference is modest. We suspect that the failure to find a moder ation effect in
some
studies is attributable to one of two factors. The first
factor is degree of ambivalence. Where the behavior that is the focus of the intention does not produce a considerable degree of ambivalence in at least
some
respondents, the moderation effect is unlikely to be observed (i.e., the
lower and higher ambivalence groups are too similar� To test this effect we examined the mean degree of reported ambivalence in each of the six studies reported in Table
24.
Consistent with these predictions, the highest mean
levels d ambivalence were found in the two studies reporting significant effects in the prediction direction (Conner
et a/.,
1999c; Sparks et
a/.,
2001).
However, this does not represent a sufficient explanation because one study where we failed to find an effect also showed high mean levels of ambivalence (Conner eta/., in press).
AMBIVALENCE AND ATIITUDES
57
A second factor which might explain the failure to find consistent effects is the reliability of the ambivalence measure. A common psychometricprinciple to increase reliability is to obtain multiple measures of a construct and then average or sum across measures where they show high intercorrelations. In relation to the studies reported in Table 2.4, which reported high mean levels of ambivalence, the one study not showing a significant effect (Conner eta/., in press) only employed a single-item measure of ambivalence. We suspect this may have compromised our comparison of higher and lower ambivalence individuals and masked any moderation of the attitude-intention relationship. Hence, across studies of food choices that produce considerable levels of ambivalence (when reliably assessed), we find consistent evidence for am bivalence attenuating the attitude-intention relationship, as assessed in between-subject correlations. Perhaps because the measures tended to be taken at the same time point, and so perhaps be masked by consistency biases, the differences were modest. One problem with between-subject analyses such as these is that they as sume that, for a given relationship, the person with the strongest attitude will form the strongest intention. However, a more psychologically realistic view would suggest that the behavioral intention selected by an individual reflects the behavior towards which they have the most positive attitude. Within person correlations more accurately reflect this process. A final study exam ined the moderating role of ambivalence on attitude-intention relationships using a within-subjects design (Conner eta/., in press); 239 members of the public completed a questionnaire measuring attitudes and intentions in rela tion to 20 healthy eating behaviors (e.g., avoiding high-fat foods, eating fruit and vegetables, etc.). Ambivalence was assessed by a split semantic differen tial measure concerning eating a healthy diet. As before, we created two groups based on a median split of the ambivalence measure. The analysis then compared the mean within-subjects correlation between attitudes and inten tions in the lower ambivalence group (M = 0.86; SO = 0.54) and the higher ambivalence group (M = 0.79; SO = 0.57). This difference was found to be significant. Such analyses avoid some of the problems with the other datasets and provide good evidence that ambivalence moderates the attitude intention relationship, such that higher levels of ambivalence are associated with weaker attitude-intention relationships (see also MacDonald & Zanna, 1998, for consonant results). Attitude-Behavior Relationships In a series of four independent prospective datasets, we examined the impact of ambivalence on moderating the relationship between attitudes and self reported behavior in relation to a series of food choices (Conner et al., 1996). Again, the design of these studies were similar. In each case, self-report
58
MARK CONNER AND PAUL SPARKS
measures of attitude (semantic differential measure) and ambivalence (split semantic differential measures) were taken in an initial questionnaire; while self-report measures of behavior (e.g., "I have eaten a low-fat diet in the past month", strongly agree-strongly disagree) were taken in a later question naire. The studies examined healthy eating (Conner et a/., in press), eating a low-fat diet (Conner et a/., 1999c; Conner et a/., 1995), or eating five portions of fruit and vegetables per day (Conner et a/., 1999c). The results from these studies are summarized in Table 2.4. For presentational purposes we again split the sample at the median on the ambivalence measure in order to create a higher and a lower ambivalence group. Correlations between attitude and behavior measures were computed separately for these two groups and then compared. As can be seen in Table 2.4 the results were fairly consistent in showing the predicted moderation effect. The one study failing to show a significant effect (Conner et a/., in press) employed a single-item measure of ambivalence, which may have compromised its reliability. Across studies the frequency-weighted correlation shows this effect to be substantial, with more ambivalent attitudes being less strongly correlated with behavior assessed prospectively, r = 0.40 vs. r = 0.53 (Table 2.4). In addition, this effect was also apparent in within-subjects correlations for healthy eating in a prospective design (Conner et a/., in press). The lower ambivalence group (M = 0.57; SD = 0.37) and the higher ambivalence group (M = 0.47; SD = 0.35) differed signifi cantly on attitude-behavior correlations in the predicted direction (i.e., weaker correlations for the higher ambivalence group). One problem with the above studies is the failure to take account of the effect of ambivalence on attitude-intention and attitude-behavior relation ships simultaneously. Armitage and Conner (2000, Study 1) attempted to rectify this problem by taking measures of attitude, intention, and behavior at three different time points. In addition, this study used structural equation modeling in order to remove any effects due to measurement error. Data were collected from a sample of 350 hospital workers in relation to eating a low-fat diet. The measure of ambivalence was a split semantic differential measure that was used to split the group into a higher and lower ambivalence group (based on a median split). We then fitted a model to the two groups with structural paths from attitude to intentions, from attitude to behavior, and from intentions to behavior. As the interest was in the relationship be tween the latent constructs (attitude, intentions, and behavior), we con strained the model such that the factor loadings for each construct were equal in the two groups (the factor loading constraint model). This allows us to make direct comparisons between the regression paths for the higher and lower ambivalence groups. As predicted, the path from attitude to intention was stronger in the lower compared to the higher ambivalence group. Also as predicted, the path from attitude to behavior was stronger in the lower com pared to the higher ambivalence group. Formal tests of these differences
AMBIVALENCE AND A TIITUDES
59
revealed them both to be significant. These effects were present despite any evidence that ambivalence influenced attitude stability in the same data. Thus, there appears to be growing evidence that ambivalence moderates the attitude-intention relationship and, particularly, the attitude-behavior relation ship, such that higher levels of ambivalence are related to weaker relationships. It would also appear that such effects are not purely attributable to attitude stability effects. It has been suggested that this moderation effect may be due to ambivalence being confounded with attitude extremity. For example, Thompson et at. (1995) noted that attitudinal ambivalence is necessarily nega tively correlated with attitude extremity (p. 382), that is, univalent attitudes should be more extreme than ambivalent attitudes and therefore more predict ive of behavior. This hypothesis is directly supported by Lavine et at. (1998; but see Jonas et at., 1997) and indirectly supported by Kallgren and Wood (1986). The latter compared experimental participants, whose attitude extremity had been manipulated, with a no-treatment control group, and reported attitude behavior correlations of 0.85 and 0.19 for the experimental and control condi tions, respectively. One might therefore expect less ambivalent attitudes to be more predictive of behavior than ambivalent attitudes, just because of greater attitude extremity. Nevertheless, there is evidence that the moderation effects observed for ambivalence are not merely attributable to differences in attitude extremity. For example, Conner et at. (in press) while reporting the predicted attitude-intention and attitude-behavior moderation effects for ambivalence, found these relationships remained even when ambivalence was unconfounded from extremity. Most convincing, however, is the data reported by Priester and Petty (2000). In a study of safer sex behaviors, they compared a lower and a higher ambivalence group. Ambivalence was found to moderate the attitude behavior relationship. They then examined only those respondents checking the most positive (extreme) attitude category. In this case, lower-ambivalent respondents were significantly more likely to report performing the behavior than higher-ambivalence respondents, despite being identical on attitude ex tremity. In examining the moderation effects of ambivalence on attitude intention and attitude-behavior relationships, it is clearly important to ensure that these effects are not simply attributable to attitude extremity effects. In addition, these reported moderation effects need to be confirmed with objective measures of behavior and in experimental studies. Pliability of Attitudes
More ambivalent attitudes are expected to be more susceptible to the influ ence of a persuasive communication (i.e., more pliable). For example, Eagly and Chaiken (1995) argue that, "attitudes are strong to the extent that they are well embedded in an existing attitudinal structure" (p. 414 ). Thus strong attitudes are held to be more securely "anchored" in knowledge structures.
60
MARK CONNER AND PAUL SPARKS
Given that ambivalent attitudes are based on conflicting evaluations and in consistent information, they should be more weakly anchored and hence more pliable than univalent attitudes. Only a few studies have investigated this prediction for ambivalence. Bassili (1996) tested the pliability of attitudes towards three attitude objects in the face of persuasive messages. Pliability was found to be significantly related to ambivalence for two attitude objects (r = 0.15 in both cases), but not for a third (two tests: r = 0.06 and r = 0.03) (see also Pomerantz, Chaiken, & Tordesillas, 1995). MacDonald and Zanna (1998) showed individuals high in (cross-dimensional) ambivalence about a particular social group to be more susceptible to a priming manipulation in terms of their judgment about that group. Finally, Maio, Esses, and Bell (2000) found an interaction between strength of message and ambivalence on attitudes towards residents of Hong Kong, such that only in the high ambivalence group did message strength produce differential effects on attitude change. In our own research we have investigated the impact of ambivalence on the pliability of attitudes in one study (Armitage & Conner, 2000, Study 2). The study was a simple pre-post quasi-experimental design. Attitudes and levels of ambivalence towards eating a low-fat diet were assessed at baseline in a sample of 344 hospital workers. Attitude measures were based on a multi item semantic differential measure, while ambivalence was assessed using a split semantic differential measure. Five months later, participants were ran domly assigned to either an attitude change or control condition and received experimental materials designed either to change attitudes or provide infor mation only. Both sets of intervention materials included UK Government recommendations on dietary fat intake, epidemiological data on population levels of fat intake, and a description of sources of fat in the diet. The experi mental intervention also included a section designed to change individual attitudes (see Armitage & Conner, in press b). Based on Fishbein and Ajzen's (1975) model of belief-attitude relations, we provided persuasive information that targeted five beliefs about eating a low-fat diet, which had previously shown to distinguish who did and did not intend to eat a low-fat diet (Armi tage & Conner, 1999). Analysis of variance revealed that the experimental and control groups did not differ at baseline on the attitude measures. In order to test the prediction that less ambivalent attitudes are more resistant to change, we split the group into higher and lower levels of ambivalence, based on a median split of this measure. Across both our intervention conditions, attitudes became more positive, although the change was greater in the experimental group. Of par ticular interest was the three-way interaction between condition, am bivalence, and time. This only approached significance. Nevertheless examination of the effects of the intervention demonstrated that it had dif ferential effects in the two ambivalence groups. For the lower ambivalence
AMBIVALENCE AND ATIITUDES
61
group, there was no difference between the control and experimental condi tions; while for the higher ambivalence group, attitudes becam� significantly more positive following the experimental intervention. Hence, the attitude intervention (experimental) group had significantly more impact on more ambivalent attitudes supporting the pliability prediction. Hence, the evidence to date generally supports the idea that ambivalent attitudes tend to be more pliable in the face of persuasive messages. Nev ertheless, further studies across a more diverse range of attitude objects are required. Infonnation Processing Impacts of Ambivalence
A further predicted consequence of attitudinal ambivalence is an impact on the processing of attitude-relevant information. Attitudes characterized by higher levels of ambivalence are assumed to be less likely to guide process ing of information about the attitude object, because of their lower accessib ility. Several studies have found evidence to support the relationship of higher levels of ambivalence to lower attitude accessibility (Bargh et al., 1992; Bassili, 1996; Bromer, 1998; see Jonas et al., 2000, for a review). For example, Van der Pligt et al. (2000) hypothesized that those individuals with ambivalent attitudes would take longer to integrate information into an overall attitude judgment compared to non-ambivalent individuals, and hence ambivalent attitudes would show longer response latencies when compared to non-ambivalent attitudes. Across three different attitude ob jects support was found for this effect. In each case the response latency for an overall attitude judgment was longer for ambivalent compared to non ambivalent individuals. In our own research we have investigated this effect in one study (Conner, Bainbridge, & Halton, 1999a ). This study used a response latency paradigm to examine the time taken to respond to different attitude objects. Consistent with previous research, we expected bipolar attitude judgments to show longer latencies when the respondents reported higher degrees of am bivalence. Ambivalence was assessed using split semantic differential mea sures to separately assess positive and negative reactions to the attitude object. However, we further hypothesized that ambivalence would only influ ence the response latency to the bipolar attitude measure when the two unipolar judgments had similar short latencies. Consistent with Erber et at. 's (1995) attitudes-as-constructions model, this prediction was based on the view that, in arriving at an overall judgment about an attitude object (i.e., as tapped by the bipolar rating), respondents can take account of both negative and positive evaluations (i.e., as tapped by the unipolar ratings) , but will only do so if they are salient (i.e., have a shorter latency). Thus, only when both unipolar judgments are salient and in conflict (i.e., ambivalent) will response
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latencies for the overall attitude judgment be longer. Within-subject analyses supported this view, with latencies for bipolar attitude judgments being sig nificantly longer when the respondent was ambivalent about the same attitude object and both unipolar evaluations had similar and short response latencies (see McGregor, Newby-Clark, & Zanna, 1999, for a similar finding). Thus, there appears to be reasonably good evidence that ambivalence leads to lower accessibility. However, the evidence that this reduced accessibility has significant impacts on the processing of information about the attitude object has been addressed in fewer studies. Several studies appear to support the idea that higher levels of ambivalence lead to a more systematic process ing of attitude-relevant information. The assumption is that an ambivalent attitude is weaker than a non-ambivalent attitude and so is less likely to produce a biased processing of attitude-relevant information (e.g., informa tion consistent with one's initial attitude receives more favorable processing than information that is inconsistent). For example, Maio, Bell, and Esses (1996) showed that higher levels of ambivalence about a minority group resulted in more systematic processing of information about that group. Similarly, Bramer (1998) showed that only individuals lower in ambivalence showed a preference for attitude-congruent information in processing mes sages about European Monetary Union. Jonas et a/. (1997) suggest that the mediating mechanism is confidence in one's attitude: high ambivalence pro duces a reduction in confidence in one's attitude and reduced confidence leads to more systematic processing of information. Summary of Research Findings on the Consequences of Ambivalence
As the above review demonstrates, there is a growing body of research on the differing consequences of ambivalence. The findings support the view that ambivalence is an important issue for those involved in attitude research (Breckler, 1994; Thompson et a/., 1995; Priester & Petty, 1996), and that ambivalence produces many of the effects one might expect of a measure of attitude strength. Perhaps the strongest evidence concerns the moderating effects of ambivalence on attitude-intention and attitude-behavior relation ships. Those with ambivalent attitudes show significantly weaker relationships between their attitudes and intentions or attitudes and behavior. We would anticipate that a range of behaviors that show conflict between cognitive and affective influences (e.g., safer sex practices, exercise, food choices) might be characterized by high levels of ambivalence and so show attenuated attitude behavior relationships. However, the generality of the moderation effect across different behaviors still needs to be established and demonstrated experimentally. For example, Jonas et a/. (1997) and Maio et a/. (1996) suggest that ambivalence can, under certain circumstances, lead to stronger attitude behavior relationships.
AMBIVALENCE AND A TIITUDES
63
The predicted effects of ambivalence on the stability and pliability of attitudes were less consistent. The prediction that less ambivalent attitudes will be more stable over time has only been confirmed with meta-attitudinal measures of stability and has been refuted in two studies using more appropriate measures of attitude stability (Bassili, 1996; Armitage & Conner, 2000, Study 1; but see Bargh et al., 1992). Similarly, the prediction that ambivalent attitudes will be more pliable has only received limited support to date (Armitage & Conner, 2000, Study 2; Bassili, 1996). In relation to information-processing effects, several stud ies demonstrate that ambivalent attitudes are less accessible. However, only two studies (Bromer, 1998; Maio et at., 1996) have shown impacts of ambivalence on information processing; greater ambivalence appears to be associated with more systematic processing of attitude-relevant information. Given that ambivalence measures show some evidence of producing all the effects one might expect of a measure of attitude strength, one might ask what is the relationship of ambivalence to other measures of attitude strength. Although there have been several empirical studies of the relationships amongst attitude strength measures (e.g., Bassili, 1996; Eagly & Chaiken, 1995; Jonas et al., 2000; Krosnick, Boninger, Chuang, Berent, & Carnot, 1993; Pomerantz et al., 1995) the relationship of ambivalence to the full range of attitude strength measures remains under-researched. Ambivalence does tend to be associated with low accessibility of the attitude (Bargh et al., 1992; Bromer, 1998), lower attitude extremity (Maio et at., 1996), and lower attitude certainty (Bassili, 1996; Jonas et al., 1997), and unrelated to evaluative cognitive or evaluative-affective consistency (Maio et al., 1996, 2000). However, the relationship of ambivalence to other attitude strength dimen sions, such as attitude importance, knowledge, interest, and intensity remains an issue for future research. F UTURE DIR ECT IONS F OR RES EAR CH WITH THE AM BIVALENCE CONS TRUCT
Whilst our review has demonstrated that we now have a greater understand ing of the ambivalence construct, particularly in relation to some of the con sequences of ambivalence, we believe that a number of areas are worthy of further research attention. We would highlight three such key areas for re search. The first is the need to further explore the interrelationship of am bivalence measures. As the above review makes clear, there is evidence for the divergent validity of various different ambivalence measures. However, there is also a need for researchers working with the ambivalence concept to be clear about their interpretation of the concept, in order that the area is not dogged by differences of interpretation that are not made explicit. Further research is necessary to identify the relationships amongst ambivalence
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MARK CONNER AND PAUL SPARKS
measures across different attitude objects. A multi-trait multi-method matrix study (see Campbell & Fiske, 1959) might be particularly informative in this regard in isolating the degree to which variations were due to differing types of ambivalence measurement method (e.g., open-ended vs. closed-ended measures; direct ambivalence vs. split semantic differential measures; split semantic differential vs. belief-based measures) or attributable to different attitude objects (e.g., events, objects or actions). A second key issue for future research is the factors that elicit ambivalence. We still know relatively little about which attitude objects produce consider able levels of ambivalence or the factors promoting the formation of am bivalence. Future studies might usefully employ experimental methods to study such effects (e.g., see Jonas et a/., 1997), although it is not clear what might represent the best means for manipulating ambivalence (Wegener et a/., 1995). A third key area is the consequence of holding an ambivalent attitude, and in particular the implications for information processing. Whilst a number of studies have examined other consequences of holding an ambivalent atti tude, only a few studies have considered the implications for information processing (but see Bramer, 1998). An investigation of these effects may throw light on a number of the other consequences of ambivalence. Other information-processing implications of holding an ambivalent attitude also deserve further attention. CONCLUSIONS
In the present chapter, we have reviewed the various definitions of am bivalence that have been suggested in the literature and indicated a number of different forms of ambivalence. We have presented methods for measuring different forms of ambivalence and some preliminary findings about their degree of interrelationship. We have also described findings relating to the elicitors of ambivalence. In the major section of the chapter, we then reviewed findings for the ambivalence construct in relation to four major predictions based on considering ambivalence a measure of attitude strength: temporal stability of attitudes, impact of attitudes on intentions and behavior, pliability of attitudes, and impacts on information processing. There is evidence for each consequence, although the strongest evidence supports the moderating role of ambivalence on attitude-intention and attitude-behavior relation ships. Finally, we outlined a number of suggestions for further research: in particular, the need to further explore the interrelationship of ambivalence measures, the key determinants of ambivalence, and the information processing implications of holding ambivalent attitudes. Further exploration of the concept of ambivalence promises to provide us with further insights into broader questions about the structure of attitudes.
AMBIVALENCE AND AITITUDES
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Krosnick, J. A., Boninger, D. S., Chuang, Y. C., Berent, M. K., & Camot, C. G. ( 1993). Attitude strength: One construct or many related constructs? Jour7UJL of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 1 132-51. Krosnick, J. A., & Petty, R . E. (1995). Attitude strength: An overview. In R. E. Petty & J. A. Krosnick (Eds), Attitude Strength· Antecedents and Consequences (pp. 1-24). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Kruglanski, A. W., Webster, D. M., & Klem, A. (1993). Motivated resistance and openness to persuasion in the presence or absence of prior information. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 861-76. Lavine, H., Thomsen, C. J., Zanna, M. P., & Borgida, E. (1998). On the primacy of affect in the determination of attitudes and behavior: The moderating role of affective-cognitive ambivalence. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 34, 398-421. Lipkus, l. M., Green, J . D., Feaganes, J . R., & Sedikides, C. (in press). The relationship between attitudinal ambivalence and desire to quit smoking among college smokers. Journal of Applied Social Psychology. MacDonald, T. K., & Zanna, M. P. (1998). Cross-dimension ambivalence toward social groups: Can ambivalence affect intentions to hire feminists? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24, 427-41. Maio, G. R., Bell, D. W., & Esses, V. M. (1996). Ambivalence and persuasion: The processing of messages about immigrant groups. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 32, 513-36. Maio, G. R., Esses, V. M., & Bell, D. W. (2000). Examining the conflict between components of attitudes: Ambivalence and inconsistency are distinct concepts. Ca nadian Journal ofBehavioral Science, 32, 71-83. McGregor, I., Newby-Clark, l. R., & Zanna, M. P. (1999) . "Remembering" dissonance: Simultaneous accessibility of inconsistent cognitive elements moderates epistemic discomfort. In E. Harmon-Jones & J. Mills (Eds), Cognitive Dissonance: Progress on a Pivotal Theory in Social Psychology (pp. 325-53). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Merton, R. (1976). Sociological Ambivalence and Other Essays. New York: Free Press. Moore, M. (1973). Ambivalence in attitude measurement. Educational and Psycholog ical Measurement, 33, 481-3. Moore, M. (1980). Validation of attitude toward any practice scale through use of am bivalence as a moderator. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 40, 205-8. Norman, P., & Smith, L. (1995). The theory of planned behaviour and exercise: An investigation into the role of prior behaviour, behavioural intentions and attitude variability. European Journal of Social Psychology, 25, 403-15. Ortony, A., Clore, G. L., & Collins, A. (1988). The Cognitive Structure of Emotions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Otnes, C., Lowrey, T. M., & Shrum, L. J. (1997). Toward an understanding of attitudi nal ambivalence. Journal of Consumer Research, 24, 80--93. Petty, R. E., & Krosnick, J. A. (Eds) (1995). Attitude Strength· Antecedents and Con sequences. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Pomerantz, E. V., Chaiken, S., & Tordesillas, R. S. (1995). Attitude strength and resistance processes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 408-19. Pratkanis, A. R., Breckler, S. J., & Greenwald, A. G. (1989). Attitude Structure and Function. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Priester, J. R., & Petty, R. E. (1996). The gradual threshold model of ambivalence: Relating the positive and negative bases of attitudes to subjective ambivalence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 431-49. Priester, J. R., & Petty, R. E. (2000) . The relationship of ambivalence to behavior: A reconceptualization of the antecedents and consequences of evaluative tension.
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Paper presented at the European Association of Experimental Social Psychology Small Group Meeting on the Psychology of Attitudes, Newtown, Wales, 26-28 July 2000. Priester, J. R., & Petty, R. E. (2001). Extending the bases of subjective attitudinal ambivalence: Interpersonal and intrapersonal antecedents of evaluative tension. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 19-34. Schwartz, S. H. (1978). Temporal instability as a moderator of the attitude-behavior relationship. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36, 715-24. Scott, W. A. (1966). Measures of cognitive structure. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 1, 391-5. Scott, W. A. (1968). Attitude measurement. In G. Lindzey & E. Aronson (Eds), The Handbook of Social Psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 204-73). Reading, MA: Addison Wesley. Scott, W. A. (1969). Structure of natural cognitions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 4, 261-78. Sheeran, P., Orbell, S., & Trafimow, D. (1999). Does the temporal stability of be havioral intentions moderate intention-behavior and past behavior-future behavior relations? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 721-30. Sheppard, B. H., Hartwick, J., & Warshaw, P. R. (1988). The theory of reasoned action: A meta-analysis of past research with recommendations for modifications and future research. Journal of Consumer Research, 15, 325-43. Snyder, M., & Gangestad, S. (1986). On the nature of self-monitoring: Matters of assessment, matters of validity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 125-39. Sparks, P. (1994). Attitudes towards food: Applying, assessing and extending the "theory of planned behaviour". In D. R. Rutter & L. Quine (Eds) Social Psychology and Health: European Perspectives (pp. 25-46). Aldershot: Avebury. Sparks, P., Conner, M., James, R., Povey, R., & Shepherd, R. (1997a). Taking am bivalence seriously in attitude research. Proceedings of the British Psychological Society, 5(1), 47. Sparks, P., Conner, M., James, R., Shepherd, R., & Povey, R. (1995). Ambivalence about health-related behaviours: Relationships to personality measures (un published raw data). Institute of Food Research, Reading, UK. Sparks, P., Conner, M., James, R., Shepherd, R., & Povey, R. (2001). Ambivalence about health-related behaviours: An exploration in the domain of food choice. British Journal of Health Psychology, 6, 53-68. Sparks, P., Hedderley, D., & Shepherd, R. (1992). An investigation into the relation ship between perceived control, attitude variability and the consumption of two common foods. European Journal ofSocial Psychology, 22, 55-71. Sparks, P., James, R., Conner, M., Shepherd, R., & Povey, R. (1997b). Ambivalence about food: Implications for attitude theory and research. Appetite, 29, 259. Stocker, M. (1990). Plural and Conflicting Values. Oxford: Clarendon Press. " Tesser, A. (1978). Self-generated attitude change. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology , 11, 289-338. Thompson, M. M., Naccarato, M. E., & Parker, K. (1989). Measuring cognitive needs: The development and validation of the personal need for structure (PNS) and personal fear of invalidity (PFI) measures. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Canadian Psychological Association, Halifax, NS. Thompson, M. M., & Zanna, M. P. (1995). The conflicted individual: Personality-based and domain specific antecedents of ambivalent social attitudes. Journal of Person ality, 63, 259-88. Thompson, M. M., Zanna, M. P., & Griffin, D. W. (1995). Let's not be indifferent about (attitudinal) ambivalence. In R. E. Petty & J. A. Krosnick (Eds), Attitude Strength: Antecedents and Consequences (pp. 361-86). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
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Chapter 3
Expanding the Assessment of Attitude Components and Structure: The Benefits of Open-ended Measures Victoria M. Esses
University of Western Ontario Gregory R. Maio
Cardiff University, UK
ABSTRACT In this chapter, we describe open-ended measures for assessing the cognitive, affective, and behavioral components of attitudes, and the use of these measures to assess a variety of properties relating to attitude structure. In describing the utility of these measures to assess both intergroup and more general attitudes, we highlight situations in which open-ended measures may have advantages over closed-ended measures, as well as identifying situations in which closed-ended measures may be preferable. We conclude by suggesting that researchers inter ested in fully assessing attitudes would do well to include both open-ended and closed-ended measures in pursuit of this endeavor.
An advance in the study of attitudes in the last 1(}-15 years is the recognition that attitudes (i.e., overall evaluations of attitude objects) are based on several components, or sources of information (e.g., Eagly & Chaiken, 1993, 1998; Zanna & Rempel, 1988). This has benefits over previous, less delineated Correspondence regarding this chapter should be sent to Victoria M. Esses, Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5C2. E mail:
[email protected]. European Review ofSocia/ Psychology, Volume 12. Edited by Wolfgang Stroebe and Miles Hewstone. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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VIcrORIA M. ESSES AND GREGORY R. MAIO
definitions of attitudes, in that it separates the general evaluative aspect of attitudes from the specific components on which attitudes are based. Two important components of attitudes are cognitions, specific beliefs about an attitude object, and affect, specific emotions and feelings about the attitude object (see, e.g., Eagly & Chaiken, 1993, 1998; Zanna & Rempel, 1988). Abundant research has shown that it is important to assess these components in addition to the overall evaluation of an attitude object, because the compo nents may affect such processes as attitude-relevant message-processing, attitude-behavior consistency, and attitude change (e.g., Edwards, 1 990; Edwards & von Hippel, 1995; Millar & Millar, 1990). Given the importance of these attitude components, measuring them accu rately is a valuable goal. The basic knowledge gained by assessing the compo nents is inextricably linked to the manner in which they are assessed. Consequently, researchers have been developing measures for the assessment of specific attitude components (e.g., Breckler & Wiggins, 1989; Eagly, Mladinic, & Otto, 1994; Esses, Haddock, & Zanna, 1993). In this context, we describe our open-ended measures for assessing the cognitive and affective components of attitudes, and the many benefits that recommend their use. We focus here predominantly on the affective and cognitive components of atti tudes because other research (e.g., Edwards, 1990; Millar & Millar, 1 990) has highlighted the importance of these components, and they have been the primary focus of our research as well. Nevertheless, as we will discuss in a later section of this chapter, the open-ended procedure can easily be adapted to assess the behavioral component of attitudes as well. Our emphasis on open-ended measures is in contrast to the traditional predominant use of closed-ended measures in attitude research. Open-ended measures have generally been neglected in this domain (although some ex ceptions will be noted shortly), perhaps because of a perception that they are too complex or subjective. However, as in other domains (e.g., self discrepancy, Higgins, 1987; discourse analysis, Potter, 1998; Reicher & Hopkins, 1996), we believe that it is now time for attitude researchers to take advantage more frequently of the many benefits of open-ended measures. These benefits include not only their wide applicability, but also their poten tial for assessing a number of attitude properties related to attitude structure. On the basis of these benefits, and the complementary role that open-ended and closed-ended measures may play in assessing attitudes, we suggest that researchers consider utilizing open-ended measures of attitudes, in addition to the traditional use of closed-ended measures. We will begin by providing an overview of our conceptual framework for measuring attitude components and by providing a description of the open-ended measures for assessing the cognitive and affective components of attitudes. We will then discuss some of the benefits of these measures as compared to closed ended measures. This will be followed by a description of a more complex benefit
EXPANDING ASSESSMENT OF ATJ'JTUDE COMPONENTS AND STRUCTURE of the open-ended measures, which is their
use
73
to assess a variety of attitude
properties relating to attitude structure. By describing this novel and important
use, we go beyond past discussions of open-ended
measures,
which focused on
their usefulness for assessing only a few specific attitude attributes (e.g.,
al.,
Esses et
1993; Haddock & Zanna, 1998b� Many of the examples we provide will be
from the intergroup context, where we first began to use these measures.
However, as we will describe shortly, one of the benefits of open-ended measures is that they can be applied easily to any attitude object. In the final section of this chapter, we will describe recent research that utilizes the open-ended assess attitudes toward a variety
of objects and people.
measures to
In presenting the advantages of open-ended measures, we do not intend to imply that they should replace the use of closed-ended attitude measures. Rather, as we describe the advantages of open-ended measures, we will also note occasions on which closed-ended measures may be more appropriate for the purpose at hand. Thus, we suggest that open- and closed-ended measures have complementary roles to play in the assessment of attitudes.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK Our perspective on attitudes is based on the current conceptualization of attitudes as overall evaluations of attitude objects that are based on different
sources, or classes, of information, including affect, cognition, and behavior (e.g., Eagly & Chaiken, 1993, 1998; Zanna & Rempel, 1988). Within this multicomponent perspective, it is important to assess the separate compo nents of attitudes, as well as the summary attitude itself. The open-ended measures that
we
have developed to assess the attitude
components, and the information derived from them for analysis, are to some extent based on expectancy-value models of attitudes and behavior (e.g.,
Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980; Fishbein, 1980) that focus on salient beliefs about the
attitude object (see also Lord & Lepper, 1999). To assess salient beliefs within these models, researchers first use free-response measures to determine the modal salient beliefs associated with an attitude object They then use seman tic differential scales to assess subsequent participants' endorsement of these beliefs. Specifically, participants are asked to rate both the subjective prob ability that the attitude object has the attribute and the subjective evaluation attached to the attribute. Similarly, our open-ended measures use a free response format to assess salient attributes
of the attitude object and a scale
for rating subjective evaluations of the attributes. Importantly, however, the open-ended measures elicit evaluations of the attributes that are listed by participants themselves, and not of attributes listed by another sample of individuals. Moreover, the open-ended measures rarely ask participants to rate the subjective probability that the attitude object has the attributes,
74
VIcrORIA M. ESSES AND GREGORY R. MAIO
because participants rather uniformly attach high subjective probabilities to the responses they spontaneously provide. Thus, our open-ended measures are related to the expectancy-value approach, but have some unique features, and the importance of these features will be discussed further in this chapter. The open-ended measures are also similar to more specialized thought-listing measures designed to assess cognitive responses to persuasion (e.g., Cacioppo & Petty, 1981; Greenwald, 1968; Petty & Cacioppo, 1984) and attitude-relevant information (e.g., Cronen & Conville, 1975a,b; Hackman & Anderson, 1968; Wood, 1982; see also Petty, Ostrom, & Brock, 1981, for a review of the histor ical foundations of cognitive response measures). Recent versions of these cognitive response measures include both a listing of thoughts, and a rating by participants of the valence of the thoughts they have listed (e.g., Breckler & Wiggins, 1991; Maio & Olson, 1998; Romero, Agnew, & Insko, 1996). In addition, the open-ended measures are related to open-ended techniques that have been used to examine attitude functions (e.g., Boninger, Krosnick, & Berent, 1995; Maio & Olson, 1994; Shavitt, 1990), the clustering of stereotypes (Niemann, Jennings, Rozelle, Baxter, & Sullivan, 1994), and the content of intergroup attitudes more generally (Herek, 1987; Monteith & Spicer, 2000) . They are also related to open-ended techniques for examining stereotyping and attributions. For example, Maass (1999) has conducted extensive research iden tifying variation in the categorization of ingroup and outgroup traits and be haviors. In one study (Maass, Montalcini, & Biciotti, 1998), participants were asked to provide open-ended descriptions of their ingroup and two outgroups. The results indicated that the descriptions of the ingroup included equally abstract positive and negative stereotypes, whereas the descriptions of the out groups included negative stereotypes that were more abstract than the positive stereotypes. This phenomenon is closely linked to the general tendency of people to make stable, dispositional attributions for negative behaviors from other people and outgroups, and such attributional tendencies have also been revealed using open-ended measures of causal attributions (e.g., Islam & Hewstone, 1993). In contrast to our approach, however, these studies have focused predominantly on coding non-evaluative aspects of participants' re sponses, rather than focusing on assessing properties of attitudes. DESCRIPTION OF THE OPEN-ENDED MEASURES FOR ASSESSING THE AFFECfiVE AND COGNITIVE COMPONENTS OF ATTITUDES
Based on the multicomponent perspective on attitudes (e.g., Eagly & Chaiken, 1993, 1998; Zanna & Rempel, 1988), our open-ended measures have focused on assessing two important components of attitudes: affect and cogni tion. To assess the affective component of attitudes, participants are asked to
EXPANDING ASSESSMENT OF ATITnlDE COMPONENTS AND STRUCI1.JRE
75
list the emotions and feelings that they experience in response to the attitude object, using single words or short phrases. They are instructed to provide as many emotions and feelings as are necessary to convey their reactions to the attitude object and to describe their reactions adequately. Typically, 12 spaces are provided for responses, although participants are free to list as many responses as they choose. Once these responses are provided, participants are asked to go back and assign a valence (i.e., favorability rating) to each emo tion or feeling listed Valences can range from -3 (extremely negative) to +3 (extremely positive). To assess the cognitive component of attitudes, participants are asked to provide a list of their beliefs and thoughts about the attitude object, using single words or short phrases. They are instructed to provide as many beliefs as are necessary to convey their impression of the attitude object and to describe the object adequately. Once again, participants are then asked to go back and assign a valence (i.e., favorabi.lity rating) to each belief listed, using the seven-point scale. A useful feature of open-ended measures is that they can elicit more spe cificcategories of cognitions through the use of the instructions provided For example, in our research on intergroup attitudes, we have typically assessed two different types of cognitions about social groups: stereotypes (beliefs about the specific characteristics of a group) and symbolic beliefs (beliefs about the values, customs, and traditions of a group). To assess stereotypes, the instructions indicate that participants should describe the characteristics of typical members of the group, using adjectives or short descriptive phrases (e.g., Esses, Haddock, & Zanna, 1993, 1994; Esses & Zanna, 1995; see also Eagly et al., 1994; Stangor, Sullivan, & Ford, 1991). To assess symbolic beliefs, an early version of our instructions indicated that participants should list the values, customs, and traditions that are promoted or threatened by members of a group. Our more recent instructions indicate that participants should list the values, customs, and traditions that they believe are held or practiced by typical members ofthe target group (e.g., Esses & Beaufoy, 1994; Esses eta/., 1993; Haddock, Zanna, & Esses, 1993, 1994a). Although both sets of symbolic belief instructions tend to elicit similar content, we found that the former sometimes led to difficulty in scoring because participants indicated that members of a group promoted a seemingly negative value (e.g., promote violence). Thus, we now recommend the use of the latter instructions. In the intergroup context, the relatively low correlations between the stereotype and symbolic belief measures, and their differential relations to attitudes, provide evidence that it is worthwhile to assess symbolic beliefs separately from stereotypes (see Akst & Esses, 1999; Esses & Beaufoy, 1994; Esses eta/., 1993; Haddock et al., 1993, 1994a; Haddock & Zanna, 1998b). For example, we have found that symbolic beliefs are often highly predictive of unfavorable attitudes toward certain groups (e.g., homosexuals, Pakistanis),
76
VICTORIA M. ESSES AND GREGORY R. MAIO
with stereotypes having less of a unique role to play (e.g., Esses et a/., 1993; Haddock et a/., 1993). Similarly, symbolic beliefs have been found to predict discrimination toward homosexuals in simulated jury settings, whereas stereo types are not predictive of these effects (Akst & Esses, 1999). Psychometric examination of the open-ended measures indicates that they are reliable and valid. For example, Haddock and Zanna (1998b) found split-half reliabilities on the cognitive and affective open-ended measures averaging 0.75, and Eagly et a/. (1994) reported coefficient alphas in a satis factory range, ranging from 0.61 for affect toward women to 0.94 for affect toward Republicans. In both cases, these internal consistency indices did not differ between the cognitive and affective measures, and the coefficient alphas reported for the open-ended measures by Eagly et a/. (1994) did not differ from those for semantic differential scales also utilized. In addition, using a multi-trait, multi-method analysis involving both the open-ended measures and some semantic differential scales developed on the basis of pretesting, Haddock and Zanna (1998b) found evidence of convergent and discriminant validity of the cognitive and affective open-ended measures. Scores on the open-ended and semantic differential measures of the same construct were highly correlated, demonstrating convergent validity (e.g., cognitions: 0.86). In addition, cognition-affect correlations for the open ended measures were significantly lower (0.58), demonstrating discriminant validity, and were significantly lower than those for the closed-ended mea sures (0.73). BASIC BENEFITS OF THE OPEN-ENDED MEASURES
Data for Quantitative and Content Analyses
Unlike most measures of attitudes, the open-ended measures provide data that can be subjected to both direct quantitative analyses and content analyses. In many cases, both types of analyses are of potential interest. A direct quantitative analysis of the responses involves calculating a score for each participant for each attitude component-either the average valence (i.e. l:V/n, where V = valence of each belief or emotion and n = the number of beliefs or emotions listed) or the sum of valences (i.e., l:V), depending on the context. For example, to examine whether mood influences the valence of beliefs that people ascribe to groups, we utilized average valence as an indica tion of the typical response provided (Esses et a/., 1994; Esses & Zanna, 1995). In contrast, in using responses from the open-ended measures to calculate individuals' degree of ambivalence toward a group, we use the sum of positive valences and the sum of negative valences, as described below (Bell & Esses, 1997; Bell, Esses, & Maio, 1996; Maio, Bell, & Esses, 1996). Thus, whether average valence or summed valences are utilized depends on the conceptual
EXPANDING ASSESSMENT OF ATIITUDE COMPONENTS AND STRUCTURE
77
variable of interest, although it should be noted that average valence and summed valences are very highly correlated ( e.g., Esses et at., 1993, 1994; Esses & Zanna, 1995 ) . In addition, a content analysis of the responses pro vided can be conducted, with the goal of examining whether similar or dif ferent content is provided for different targets under different conditions ( e.g., Donakowski & Esses, 1996; Esses & Beaufoy, 1994; Haddock et at., 1993, 1994a) . In a study examining whether the label used to describe Native Peoples in Canada influences attitudes toward the group, Donakowski and Esses ( 1996) used the open-ended measures to elicit responses to different labels used to describe Native Peoples in Canada. They then conducted both a quantitative analysis of attitude component scores and a content analysis of the specific responses provided. The analysis of attitude component scores indicated that the label used to describe Native Peoples affected the positivity of symbolic beliefs expressed toward the group. The content anal ysis of symbolic beliefs then revealed that the specific symbolic beliefs listed differed as a function of the group label. Of particular interest were responses to the label "First Nations". In addition to being the label that Native Peoples in Canada often use to describe themselves, this label has further connotations because of its association with a Native political organ ization in Canada. The Assembly of First Nations is a national organization made up of chiefs of First Nations, whose stated goal is the preservation of the right of self-determination for each First Nation. This organization is actively involved in promoting Native land claim settlements and Native access to resources, such as fishing rights. Results indicated that the First Nations label indeed elicited very different responses than the other labels ( e.g., Native Peoples, Native Indians ) . In particular, when the label First Nations was presented, symbolic belief scores were less positive and the content of the symbolic beliefs was more likely to refer to threats to national well-being and unity than when other labels for the group were utilized. Thus, both analyses were of value in elucidating the specific mechanism through which labels influence attitudes toward the group. It should be noted that because the open-ended measures allow particip ants to provide their own content, these measures are not well suited for use in studies in which researchers wish to make direct comparisons between participants on the same content. In such cases, closed-ended measures would seem to be more appropriate for use. For example, in a study examining the effect of a manipulation on the extent of endorsement of specific stereotypes, direct assessment of these specific stereotypes through closed-ended measures would be of greatest value. Of course, if a researcher was interested in deter mining whether a manipulation influenced the likelihood of these stereotypes being spontaneously generated, open-ended measures would be of greater value.
78
VICTORIA M. ESSES AND GREGORY R. MAIO
Idiosyncratic Responses and Ease of Completion
Two related benefits of the open-ended measures are that they elicit idiosyncratic responses to an attitude object and that respondents find them relatively simple and easy to complete. Respondents are asked to list the beliefs and emotions that come to mind in response to an attitude object and to indicate the valence of each belief or emotion listed. Thus, individuals are asked to provide responses in their own words and, in comparison to closed-ended measures, are not constrained by predeter mined terms provided by the researcher. This procedure avoids the poten tial problem of participants being unsure of the meaning of a term or being asked to rate a term that is actually irrelevant to their attitude (see also Eagly et a/., 1994). Participants are also given the opportunity to indicate further their interpretation of each term through the use of valence ra tings. By assessing idiosyncratic beliefs and emotions, then, we are likely to gain a clearer understanding of the bases of attitudes. We should note, however, that the elicitation of idiosyncratic responses means that it is not simple to perform the item analyses that are often performed with closed ended measures. In terms of ease of responding, in general, individuals appear to have little difficulty in providing responses to the open-ended measures because of the clear-cut nature of the task. Indeed, Haddock and Zanna (1998b) reported that only 3-5% of university students fail to provide at least one response for a single attitude object, and Geer (1988) similarly indicated that only 5% of the public is unable to respond to open-ended questions. In our own research, participants readily provide lists of beliefs and emo tions, and when they do not, they often indicate that they have no basis on which to provide a response, which may, in fact, provide an accurate reflec tion of their attitude. For the most part, participants provide a number of responses to each measure. For example, in a study examining the effect of mood on the expression of ethnic stereotypes, we found that participants listed an average of five to eight stereotype-relevant characteristics for ethnic groups with which they were likely to be familiar (Esses et a/., 1994; Esses & Zanna, 1995). Similarly, in a study examining the bases of atti tudes toward people with disabilities (people who are amputees, have AIDS, are chronically depressed), participants listed an average of ap proximately four emotions, four symbolic beliefs, and five stereotype relevant characteristics per group (Esses & Beaufoy, 1994). Eagly et a/. (1994) also noted that approximately seven characteristics and six emo tions were listed per group in a study examining attitudes toward men, women, Democrats, and Republicans. Together, these results suggest that participants find it relatively easy to provide responses to the open-ended measures.
EXPANDING ASSESSMENT OF ATOTUDE COMPONENTS AND STRUCTURE
79
Breadth of Use The open-ended measures are not target-specific. They can be used with any target attitude object because, unlike closed-ended measures, participants themselves provide their own lists of relevant dimensions for evaluation. Thus, the open�nded measures are easy for researchers to use in any context, because they do not require extensive pretesting with specific targets to deter mine the relevant dimensions for consideration. That is, researchers
have to come up with lists of relevant beliefs and emotions In
the
intergroup
context,
open�nded
measures
do
not
a priori. have
been
used
successfully to assess beliefs and emotions toward ethnic groups (e.g., Donakowski & Esses,
al., 1993, 1994; Esses & Zanna, 1995; 1994a, 1994b), men and women (Eagly & Mladinic, 1989; Eagly, Mladinic, & Otto, 1991, 1994; Haddock & Zanna, 1994), political groups (i.e., Democrats and Republicans; Eagly et al., 1994), people with disabilities (Esses & Beaufoy, 1994; Kiger, 1997), and other social groups (e.g., homosexuals, single mothers, students; Esses et al., 1993; Had dock et al., 1993; Jackson & Esses, 1997). No adjustments to the measures 1996;
Haddock, Zanna, & Esses,
Esses et
were necessary for use with these very different target groups. In addition, the open-ended measures are not sample- or culture-specific. Again, because participants themselves provide their own lists of relevant dimensions for evaluation, adjustments to the measures are not necessary to make the measures appropriate for use with any sample, including samples in
different countries and cultures. In fact, open-ended measures have been used
successfully to assess the components of intergroup attitudes in Canada (e.g., Esses et al., 1993,
1994), the USA (e.g., Eagly et al., 1994; Stangor et al., 1991, 2001). In addition,
Study 2), and the UK (Maio, Hewstone, Esses, & Willis,
they have recently been used to assess the intergroup attitudes held by Native Peoples (Esses & Armstrong,
2000)
and by Chinese individuals, both those
born in Canada and those born in Hong Kong (Bell, Ko Man Fung, & Esses,
1996).
This last advantage is important, given the growth of cross-cultural
research. In contrast, many closed�nded measures are culture-specific. For
1986) and the Racial Am 1988) contain items that are relatively exclusive
example, the Modern Racism Scale (McConahay, bivalence Scale (Katz & Hass,
to White-Black relations in the USA, and thus may be inappropriate for use in other countries, even assuming the same target group, Blacks. For example,
the Pro-Black dimension of the Racial Ambivalence Scale (Katz & Hass,
1988)
contains an item dealing with urban ghetto public schools, which are
less evident, and certainly less specifically relevant to attitudes toward Blacks in other countries (e.g., Canada). Nonetheless, there may be some individual differences influencing particip ants' ability and willingness to respond to the open-ended measures that
EXPANDING ASSESSMENT OF AT11TUDE COMPONENTS AND STRUCI"URE
81
emotions they associate with the attitude object, and can provide as many (or as few) beliefs and emotions as are necessary to describe adequately their reactions to or impressions of the attitude object. As a result, it seems likely that respondents use the straightforward strategy of reporting the beliefs and emotions that come to mind in response to the attitude object. It seems unlikely that they would find it necessary to retrieve their overall attitudes and then construct new beliefs and emotions that are attitude-ronsistent (see also Eagly et al., 1994). Thus, open-ended measures should be especially effective in separately assessing the cognitive and affective components of attitudes. Of importance, however, is that cognition and affect are assessed using similar response formats, so that the assessment of cognition and affect is not confounded with characteristics of the measures used to assess them (see Crites, Fabrigar, & Petty, 1994, for a discussion of this confounding). The use of similar response formats, however, does increase the likelihood of shared method variance. This would lead to more overlap between cognition and affect than would otherwise occur. Nonetheless, research using open-ended measures has provided evidence to support the distinction between the cognitive and affective components of attitudes. First, as described earlier, quantitative analyses have demonstrated that beliefs and emotions elicited through these measures are only moderately correlated in valence, indicating that it is worthwhile to distinguish between them (see also Eagly et al., 1994; Esses & Beaufoy, 1994; Esses et al., 1993; Haddock et al., 1993, 1994a). Similarly, content analyses have found that the content of responses differs considerably between the measures (e.g., Eagly et al., 1994; Esses & Beaufoy, 1994; Esses et al., 1993; Haddock et al., 1993, 1994a). Of perhaps greatest significance, we have found that cognition and affect assessed using open-ended measures show distinct relations to overall attitudes toward groups (e.g., Eagly et al., 1994; Esses & Beaufoy, 1994; Esses et al., 1993; Haddock & Zanna, 1994; Haddock et al., 1993, 1994a). For example, Esses eta/. (1993) used simultaneous regression analyses to examine the extent to which stereotypes, symbolic beliefs, and emotions predicted attitudes toward five social groups. Results indicated that, in genera� emo tions played the greatest unique role in predicting attitudes toward two groups (French-Canadian and Native People), and symbolic beliefs played the greatest unique role in predicting attitudes toward two other groups (Pakistani and Homosexual people). In addition, an individual-difference variable, right-wing authoritarianism, moderated whether emotions or sym bolic beliefs played a greater role; emotions played the greatest unique role in predicting the relatively favorable attitudes of low right-wing authoritarians, whereas symbolic beliefs played the greatest unique role in predicting the relatively unfavorable attitudes of high right-wing authoritarians. Finally, a noteworthy national event seemed to influence the attitudinal component on
82
VIcrORIA M. ESSES AND GREGORY R. MAIO
which participants were most likely to base their attitudes toward Native Peoples. Specifically, prior to a crisis at Oka, Quebec, involving Native Indian People, emotions were the strongest unique predictor of attitudes toward Native Peoples, whereas during the Oka crisis, symbolic beliefs became the strongest unique predictor of attitudes, with emotions showing reduced pre dictive power. In sum, open-ended measures provide evidence that affect and cognition are distinguishable components of attitudes that are important to assess separately. Indeed, in support of this contention and of the ability of open-ended measures to assess stereotypes more distinctly from intergroup affect, Stangor et a/. (1991) found that open-ended stereotype measures pre dicted attitudes toward a number of social groups above and beyond the effects of affect, whereas closed-ended stereotype measures, for the most part, did not. Assessment of Salient Affect and Cognitions
In assessing the cognitive and affective components of attitudes, researchers attempt to assess beliefs and emotions that are most important and relevant to the attitude object at hand. Indeed, the usefulness of this exercise is supported by theory (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980; Maio & Olson, 2000) and research (van der Pligt & de Vries, 1998). In contrast, in utilizing closed-ended measures to assess beliefs and emotions, researchers must conduct pretests to determine beliefs and emotions relevant to the particular context and then attempt to provide those that are likely to be held in common by respondents in a study. In addition to the necessity of pretesting to build such a list of consensual items (which may change over time), basing measures on beliefs and emotions that are thought to be held in common by participants may result in the selection of items that are not the most relevant and important bases of particular individuals' attitudes (Eagly et a/., 1994; Esses et a/., 1993, 1994; Niemann et a/., 1994; Stangor & Lange, 1994; see also Devine & Elliot, 1995). As a result, when participants are asked to respond to closed-ended measures of attitude components, they may at times merely retrieve their overall atti tudes and then respond to items in an attitude-consistent fashion (Eagly et a/., 1994). Alternatively, they may consider the items at hand and try to deter mine whether they fit with their thoughts and emotions toward the attitude object (Niemann et a/., 1994). In either case, responses are less likely to reflect respondents' spontaneous reactions to an attitude object than to reflect whether, upon consideration, the reactions make sense to them. In contrast, open-ended measures that ask participants to list their own beliefs and emotions toward an attitude object are more likely to elicit respondents' personal reactions to the object. That is, participants respond to these measures by indicating what comes to mind-the reactions that are most accessible and highly linked to the attitude object in memory (Eagly et
EXPANDING ASSESSMENT OF AlTITUDE COMPONENTS AND STRUCTURE
83
a/., 1994; Esses et a/., 1993 Niemann et a/., 1994; Stangor & Lange, 1994). For example, Stangor and Lange have proposed that, in assessing stereotypes of groups, a key advantage of open-ended measures is their better reflection of the associative strength between a group and a characteristic in memory. Stangor and Lange have suggested that traditional, closed-ended stereotype measures assess the availability of a trait within a representation of a group, whereas open-ended measures are likely to assess the accessibility of a trait upon exposure to a group. In support of these contentions, our early research found that participants' responses to open-ended measures primarily included beliefs and emotions that participants associated with a high percentage of group members (e.g., Esses et a/., 1993, 1994; Esses & Beaufoy, 1994; Esses & Zanna, 1995; see also Eagly et a/., 1994). In these early studies, participants were asked to indicate the percentage of a group to which each listed belief or emotion applied, as advocated by the Expectancy X Value approach (e.g., Fishbein, 1980). These percentage estimates were sufficiently and uniformly high (e.g., attribution of stereotypes on average to 74% of group members; Esses et a/., 1994) that it never proved useful to utilize these estimates to weight the valences assigned to particular beliefs and emotions in computing attitude component scores (Esses et a/., 1993, 1994; Esses & Zanna, 1995; Haddock et a/., 1993, 1994a). In contrast, when using closed-ended measures to examine attitude components, it is necessary to weight the evaluation of each belief or emotion by a respondent's estimate of the probability that the belief or emo tion is associated with the attitude object. These multiplicative composite scores have been criticized on statistical grounds (e.g., Evans, 1991). However, as Eagly et a/. (1994) have suggested, in using open-ended measures to elicit participants' idiosyncratic beliefs or emotions toward an attitude object, "it is unnecessary to allow them to deny these attributes or affects by assigning them low probabilities" (p. 1 1 9). Similarly, in examining the use of open ended measures to assess the basis of political attitudes, Geer (1991) found that participants were more likely to report important, salient issues relevant to their attitudes than unimportant or superficial issues, so that probability estimates were again unnecessary. Because probability estimates are not required in open-ended measures, multiplicative composites do not need to be utilized. A study reported in Stangor and Lange (1994) further supports the sugges tion that open-ended measures assess reactions that come to mind in response to an attitude object. This study demonstrated that responses to open-ended measures and to reaction-time measures of stereotypes were highly corre lated, forming a separate factor from responses to traditional, closed-ended measures of stereotypes. Thus, Stangor and Lange concluded that open ended measures are useful for assessing stereotypes that are highly associated with a category label in memory. Similarly, in a recent set of studies, Clow and
84
VIcrORIA M. ESSES AND GREGORY R. MAIO
Esses (2000) found that characteristics that were attributed to specific groups in the open-ended stereotype measure were judged to be more descriptive of the specific groups and were responded to faster in a separate feature verifica tion task. These associations with less controlled measures also suggest that responses to open-ended measures are not driven merely by social desirability considerations. Assessment of Respondents' Evaluative Interpretation of 'Their Affect and Cognitions
In assessing the cognitive and affective components of attitudes, a key issue is the valence of these thoughts and feelings. That is, researchers are almost always interested in determining whether thoughts and feelings about an attitude object are favorable or unfavorable. When researchers use closed-ended measures to assess attitude compo nents, they generally determine the evaluative implications of responses on the basis of intuition, or by comparing the terms they have used in their rating scales to normative data on the consensual meaning of the terms (e.g., Ander son's likeableness ratings of 555 personality-trait words; Anderson, 1968). For example, in assessing cognitive and affective responses to social groups, Stangor et a/. (1991; Study 1 ) determined the evaluative implications of traits used in closed-ended scales on the basis of pretesting with an independent sample and using the likeableness ratings of the terms on Anderson's (1968) list. The evaluative implications of emotions seemed to be based on the re searchers' own views of these emotions. Similarly, in assessing racial stereo types, Devine and Elliot (1995) determined the favorability ratings of stereotypes on the basis of pretesting and using Rothbart and Park's (1986) summary of the favorability of trait adjectives. In all of these cases, the as sumption is made that the evaluative implications of terms is invariant across individuals, situations, time, and attitude objects (see also Crites et a/., 1994). Logic and empirical data suggest otherwise. First, in the context of inter group attitudes, terms such as "religious", "conforming", and "sympathy" may well take on different meanings, depending on the target (e.g., "religious" Americans vs. "religious" immigrants), the year (e.g., "confor ming" in the 1960s vs. 1990s), and the perceiver (e.g., high prejudice vs. low prejudice individuals' "sympathy" toward Native Peoples). Indeed, earlier research suggested that stereotypes may assume a different meaning, or tone, depending on the context (Campbell, 1967; Peabody, 1968; Saenger & Flowerman, 1954; Smedley & Bayton, 1978). Our recent research has also demonstrated that the perceived favorability of stereotypes may vary depending on factors such as the target group, the perceiver's level of prejudice, and the situation. That is, terms such as "femi nine" and "sexual" were considered to be more favorable when used to
EXPANDING ASSESSMENT OF ATITfUDE COMPONENTS AND STRUCTURE
85
describe women than when used to describe gay men (Esses, Jackson, & Nolan, 1996). Low-prejudice individuals considered stereotypes of gay men, such as "sensitive" and "open", to be more favorable than did high-prejudice individuals (Esses et at., 1996). Also, stereotypes of a new immigrant group, such as "hard-working" and "ambitious", were considered to be less favor able when the group was perceived to be potentially competing for resources with non-immigrants than when it was not (Esses, Dovidio, Jackson, & Armstrong, 2001; Esses, Jackson, & Armstrong, 1998). Finally, even one's current mood state may influence the evaluative inter pretation of responses provided (Esses et at., 1994; Esses & Zanna, 1995; see also Haddock et at., 1994b; Schiff, Esses, & Lamon, 1992). We have found that mood has a strong influence on the evaluative interpretation of stereotypes typically attributed to certain groups, with a weaker effect on the actual stereotypes utilized. In particular, negative mood caused individuals to inter pret characteristics they attributed to particular groups in a less positive light. Overall, then, these results demonstrate that it is essential to determine the valence of responses from the specific participants at hand for the specific attitude object under consideration and in the context in which they are assessed. Of course, closed-ended measures could include this assessment of valence, although they have not generally done so. ABILITY TO ASSESS A V ARIETY OF ATT ITUDE PROPERTIES RELATED TO ATT ITUDE STRUCT URE
The above discussion has focused on the ability of the open-ended measures to assess the content and valence of participants' beliefs and feelings about an attitude object. In this manner, open-ended measures provide important information about the underlying basis of an attitude. This section describes how the measures can also be used to collect information about three import ant dimensions of attitude structure: ambivalence, inconsistency, and embeddedness. Attitude Ambivalence
People are said to have ambivalent attitudes when they are simultaneously favorable and unfavorable toward an attitude object. That is, people are ambivalent when their attitudes contain conflicting positive and negative elements (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993; Kaplan, 1972; Katz & Hass, 1988; Olson & Zanna, 1993). This ambivalence can exist within the components of an attitude or between them. For example, people might simultaneously possess positive and negative feelings about a particular ethnic group (intracompo nent ambivalence). Alternatively, people might simultaneously possess
86
VIcrORIA M. ESSES AND GREGORY R. MAIO
positive beliefs about the group and negative feelings toward it (intercompo nent ambivalence). Intracomponent Ambivalence Intracomponent ambivalence (i.e., ambivalence within attitude components) has been examined extensively in research on prejudice (Dovidio & Mullen, 2001 ; Katz, 1981). Similarly, we have primarily measured intracomponent ambivalence using the open-ended measures of emotions, stereotypes, and symbolic beliefs (Bell & Esses, 1997; Bell et a/., 1996; Maio et a/., 1996). To assess ambivalence within a component (e.g., emotions), the first step involves obtaining positive dimension scores by summing the positive val ences across the items listed, and obtaining negative dimension scores by summing the negative valences across the items listed. We use summed dimension scores rather than averages because the use of averages to calcu late a dimension score would result in the dilution of the positivity or nega tivity of the score. For example, using averages, a person who listed one +3 characteristic would have the same score on the positive dimension as a person who listed 1 1 +3 characteristics. As discussed earlier, the open-ended procedure is likely to elicit accessible and salient information. Therefore, the person who provides 1 1 +3 characteristics likely has more positive informa tion accessible than the person who only provides one +3 characteristic. To take this into account, summed scores are used in calculating dimension scores for the purpose of assessing attitude properties. Participants' positive and negative dimension scores are then entered into a formula that is used to calculate intracomponent ambivalence. The formula for calculating ambivalence is based on two important characteristics of ambivalence. First, ambivalence is a positive function of the extent to which the positive and negative attitude dimensions are opposed (Bell et a/., 1996; Priester & Petty, 1996). As a hypothetical example, a positive dimension score of +2 and a negative dimension score of -8 would imply that there are two positive valences opposed by two negative valences; six negative valences would remain unopposed. These positive and negative dimension scores should reflect more ambivalence than, for example, scores of 0 and -8, which would have no opposing valences. Second, ambivalence is also a negative function of the amount of non-opposed valence (Bell et a/., 1996; Priester & Petty, 1996). For example, although scores of +2 and -8 reflect identical amounts of opposing valence as do scores of +2 and -2 (four opposing val ences), the +2 and -8 scores have six unopposed valences, whereas the +2 and -2 scores have no unopposed valences. Therefore, the +2 and -8 scores reflect less ambivalence than the +2 and -2 scores. Thus, ambivalence is calculated as the number of opposed valences minus the number of non-opposed valences (plus a constant to preclude negative
EXPANDING ASSESSMENT OF ATTITUDE COMPONENTS AND STRUCTURE
87
ambivalence scores; see also Bell et al., 1996; Maio et al., 1996). Mathe matically, the formula becomes P + INI - 2 1P + Ni + 36, where P net positive valence, N net negative valence, and 36 is a constant that is added to preclude negative scores (when 12 responses, each ranging from -3 to +3, are permitted). The ambivalence scores calculated using this formula possess three desirable measurement properties of an ambivalence index: (a) am bivalence scores decrease when the smaller dimension is held constant and the larger dimension becomes increasingly polarized; (b) ambivalence scores increase when the value of the larger dimension is constant and the value of the smaller dimension increases; and (c) when dimension scores are equivalent, ambivalence increases as the dimension scores increase (see Breckler, 1994; Thompson, Zanna, & Griffin, 1995). After calculating an ambivalence score for each attitude component (e.g., stereotypes), the component ambivalence scores are then averaged to form scores that represent the average amount of intracomponent ambivalence. Supporting this aggregation of scores, mean intracomponent ambivalence strongly correlates with each subtype of intracomponent ambivalence (e.g., intra-emotion ambivalence), and the subtypes of intracomponent am bivalence significantly correlate with each other (see, e.g., Bell et al., 1996; Maio et al., 1996). =
=
Intercomponent Ambivalence In past research, the calculation of ambivalence between attitude components appeared to be a complex challenge. Several studies have attempted to mea sure intercomponent ambivalence (Lavine, Thomson, Zanna, & Borgida, 1 998; MacDonald & Zanna, 1998; Thompson et al. , 1995), but the measure ment approach used in those studies did not enable the calculation of degree of intercomponent ambivalence for all participants. However, we have recently developed a technique that uses the open-ended measures to assess intercomponent ambivalence for all respondents (see Maio, Esses, & Bell, 2000 ) , as in the assessment of intracomponent ambivalence (e.g., Bell et al., 1996; Katz & Hass, 1988). For example, the ambivalence between people's feelings and their stereotypes can be determined. High emotion-stereotype ambivalence would exist if the feelings are positive and the stereotypes are negative, or if the feelings are negative and the stereotypes are positive. To calculate intercomponent ambivalence, participants' valence ratings are first used to calculate the net favorability of each component of their attitudes. For each component, net favorability scores are obtained by summing the positive and negative valences (e.g., -2 + 3 + 3 +4). Each type of intercom ponent ambivalence (e.g., emotions-stereotypes) is then calculated using a formula that is similar to the formula for calculating intracomponent am bivalence: IAI + IBI - 2 lA + Bi + 72, where A the net favorability score for =
=
88
VIcrORIA M. ESSES AND GREGORY R. MAIO
one component (e.g., emotions), B = the net favorability score for the other component (e.g., stereotypes), and 72 is a constant that is added to preclude negative ambivalence scores (when 12 responses, each ranging from -3 to +3, are permitted for each of the components). Importantly, once again, this calculation possesses the three desirable properties of an ambivalence for mula (see Breckler, 1994; Thompson et a/., 1995). After calculating an ambivalence score for each pair of components (e.g., emotions-stereotypes), the intercomponent ambivalence scores are then averaged to form an overall index of intercomponent ambivalence. Support ing this aggregation of scores, mean intercomponent ambivalence strongly correlates with each subtype of intercomponent ambivalence (e.g., emotion stereotype ambivalence), and the subtypes of intercomponent ambivalence strongly correlate with each other (Maio, Esses, & Bell, 2000) . Inconsistency
Attitude inconsistency exists when an attitude component is inconsistent with the overall attitude or with other attitude components. For example, one type of inconsistency is evaluative-cognitive inconsistency, which is oper ationalized as the magnitude (absolute value) of the difference between the favorability implied by one's overall attitude and the favorability implied by one's beliefs about the attitude object (Chaiken, Pomerantz, & Giner-Sorolla, 1995; Rosenberg, 1968). Another type of evaluative inconsistency is evaluative-affective inconsistency, which can be operationalized as the mag nitude (absolute value) of the difference between the favorability implied by one's overall attitude and the favorability implied by one's emotions about the attitude object (Chaiken et a/., 1995). Most past research has examined evaluative-cognitive consistency in atti tudes. This research has found that high evaluative-cognitive inconsistency is associated with: (a) low accessibility of attitudes from memory; (b) low atti tude stability; and (c) weak effects of attitudes on information processing (Chaiken et a/., 1995). Given these findings, it is provocative to regard evaluative-cognitive inconsistency as a feature of attitude structure that pre dicts attitude strength. Nevertheless, attitudes that possess low evaluative cognitive inconsistency may sometimes exhibit high evaluative-affective inconsistency (Chaiken et a/., 1995). In such cases, attitudes containing high evaluative-cognitive inconsistency may not be weak, because they are sup ported by consistent affect. Thus, it is important to simultaneously measure both evaluative-cognitive and evaluative-affective inconsistency. This goal is easily achieved using open-ended measures of attitude compo nents and a general measure of overall attitudes. Open-ended measures are used to calculate the net favorability of participants' cognitions and the net favorability of participants' emotions. The net favorability of the cognitions is
EXPANDING ASSESSMENT OF ATTITUDE COMPONENTS AND STRUCTURE
89
computed by summing the valence ratings across the stereotypes and sym bolic beliefs, and the net favorability of the emotions is computed by summing the valence ratings across the emotions. Next, the net cognition scores, net emotion scores, and attitude ratings are converted to Z-scores (Z-scores are used to re-scale the cognitions, emotions, and attitude scores to a common metric). Finally, the absolute values of the differences between participants' attitude Z-scores and (a) their cognition Z-scores (evaluative--<:ognitive inconsistency) and (b) their emotion Z-scores (evaluative-affective inconsis tency) are calculated. The inconsistency between components can also be calculated using open ended measures. To calculate intercomponent inconsistency, participants' val ence ratings are used to calculate the net favorability of each component of their attitudes, and each type of intercomponent inconsistency (e.g., emotions stereotypes) is determined as the absolute value of the difference in net favorability implied by the components. In the assessment of intergroup attitudes, the three intercomponent inconsistency scores (i.e., emotions-stereotypes, emotions-symbolic beliefs, stereotypes-symbolic beliefs) are then averaged to form an overall intercomponent inconsistency score for each participant. Attitude Embeddedness
Attitude embeddedness signifies the extent to which an attitude is embedded in or linked to a lot of attitude-relevant information (e.g., beliefs about the attitude object). This concept is similar to the concept of working knowledge, which refers to the attitude-relevant beliefs and experiences that spon taneously come to mind when one encounters an attitude object (Wood, 1 982; Wood, Rhodes, & Biek, 1995). Using an open-ended measure, Wood and her colleagues have found that attitudes are more resistant to change and more predictive of future behavior when people possess many attitude-relevant beliefs and experiences than when people possess few attitude-relevant beliefs and experiences (e.g., Kallgren & Wood, 1986; Wood et al., 1 995). In short, attitudes that are embedded in many attitude-relevant beliefs and expe riences appear to be stronger than attitudes that are embedded in few attitude-relevant beliefs and experiences. Theoretically, however, one can also assess the extent to which an attitude is embedded in many attitude-relevant emotions, and it is possible that such embeddedness also confers attitude strength. In fact, it is easy to examine this issue using the open-ended measure of the affective component of attitudes because this measure can be used to calculate the number of emotions that participants associate with the attitude object. Thus, open-ended measures can be used to assess the extent to which an attitude is embedded in many cognitions (e.g., stereotypes, symbolic beliefs) and emotions by simply deter mining the number of responses indicated for each component.
90
VIcrORIA M. ESSES AND GREGORY R. MAIO
DOMAINS OF APPLICATIONS OF OPEN-ENDED MEASURES
In addition to the studies that we have briefly described earlier, our recent use of the open-ended measures within and beyond the intergroup context sug gests that they can easily be utilized in many contexts. Applications within the Intergroup Context
The ability of open-ended measures to simultaneously assess ambivalence, inconsistency, and embeddedness is important because this simultaneous assessment enables an unconfounded examination of the correlations be tween these characteristics and other psychological variables. Unlike many closed-ended procedures, open-ended procedures do not require the use of different questionnaires and varying question phrasing. Indeed, the same data are used in the calculation of all three attitude characteristics. Although the use of the same data to calculate all three attitude characteris tics helps to remove potential confounds when comparing effects of these characteristics, a potential disadvantage is that any similar effects of all three characteristics might be driven partly by shared method variance. For this reason, evidence of discriminant validity among the characteristics may be more compelling than evidence of convergent validity. This observation is relevant to several recent studies that have used open ended measures to assess attitude ambivalence, attitude inconsistency, and attitude embeddedness in intergroup attitudes (e.g., Maio et a/., 1996; Maio, Esses, & Bell, 2000) . As shown in Table 3.1, we have predicted and found moderate correlations between the attitude properties within a category (e.g., intracomponent ambivalence and intercomponent ambivalence), but mainly weak or non-significant correlations between the attitude properties in dif ferent categories (e.g., ambivalence and inconsistency). The one exception seems to be intercomponent inconsistency, which is not highly related to the other types of inconsistency. Nonetheless, this confirms our expectation that ambivalence and inconsistency are distinct attitude properties, because am bivalence is calculated using a formula that considers the amount of conflict and non-conflict between components, whereas inconsistency is simply a func tion of the absolute magnitude of the difference between evaluations (see also Maio, Esses, & Bell, 2000) . In general, then, our results demonstrate that the three categories of attitude properties appear to be distinct aspects of inter group attitudes. In addition, in the intergroup context, attitude ambivalence meaningfully predicts several variables that attitude inconsistency and attitude embedded ness do not predict (Bell & Esses, 1997; Maio et a/., 1996; Maio, Esses, & Bell, 2000) . For example, we have predicted and found that high amounts of intra-
EXPANDING ASSESSMENT OF ATIITUDE COMPONENTS AND STRUCTURE
91
Table 3.1 Intercorrelations between ambivalence, inconsistency, and embeddedness assessed using the open-ended measures Attitude property Types of ambivalence 1 Mean intracomponent 2 Mean intercomponent
2
3
0.71""
0.03
0.04
Types of inconsistency 3. Evaluative cognitive 4. Evaluative affective 5. Mean intercomponent
4
5
0.03 0.02
-{)25. 0.06
0.42""
0.06 0.17
6
7 O.Ql
0.06 0.29••
0.14
-{).04 022. · 0.45·
0.04 026" 0.41 ..
Types of embeddedness 6. Cognitive 7. Affective
0.56.
.
112 113; • p < 0.05, p < 0.001 (one tailed). From Maio, Esses, & Bell, 2000. Copyright © 2000, Canadian Psychological Association. Reprinted with permission.
Note: n
=
-
component ambivalence are associated with response polarization toward ethnic groups (e.g., Bell
& Esses, 1997).
In addition, using open-ended mea
sures, we have predicted and found that people who are ambivalent toward a group (i.e., high on either intracomponent ambivalence or intercomponent ambivalence) more carefully process persuasive messages pertaining to the group than do people who are not ambivalent toward the group (Maio eta/..,
1996; Maio,Esses, & Bell, 2000). Importantly, however, open-ended measures enabled us to verify that attitude inconsistency and embeddedness did not predict these effects. Thus, these effects are unique to intergroup ambivalence. In a slightly different vein, in a recent study, Esses and Dovidio
(2000)
utilized inconsistency scores derived from open-ended measures to determine whether the affective and cognitive bases of attitudes influence their ability to predict relevant behavior. Inconsistency scores were used to classify individ uals as having attitudes toward Blacks and Asians that were based more on their emotions or attitudes toward Blacks and Asians that were based more
on their beliefs. We hypothesized that attitudes that were based more on emotions
(i.e.,
lower in evaluative-affective
inconsistency)
would
be
especially likely to predict willingness to engage in future contact with group members, a rather affective behavior, whereas attitudes that were based more on beliefs (i.e., lower in evaluative-cognitive inconsistency) would be especially likely to predict social policy endorsement, a more cognitive behavior. Our results supported these hypotheses. One particular study provides a good example of the utility of open-ended measures to assess a number of attitude properties (Maio, Hewstone, Esses, & Willis, 2001). During the
1997 Welsh referendum on the devolution of powers
92
VIcrORIA M. ESSES AND GREGORY R. MAIO
from England to Wales, we found that Welsh people who possessed positive attitudes toward English people were more opposed to devolution than were Welsh people who possessed negative attitudes toward English people. In contrast, English people who possessed positive attitudes toward Welsh people were more in favor of devolution than were English people who possessed negative attitudes toward Welsh people. Importantly, these effects occurred even when ambivalence, inconsistency, and embeddedness of parti cipants' intergroup attitudes were statistically controlled. Thus, the use of open-ended measures in this study enabled us to verify that the relations between intergroup attitudes and attitudes toward devolution were not medi ated by other attitude properties. Across a number of studies, then, open ended measures have facilitated our ability to investigate simultaneously the consequences of important attitude properties. Applications Outside of the Intergroup Context
Given the success of open-ended measures in the intergroup context, we more recently became interested in applying these measures in other contexts. By doing so, we were able to test the usefulness of these measures to assess more general attitudes. Indeed, several previous studies had utilized the open ended measures to assess the affective and cognitive components of attitudes toward social issues (e.g., Eagly et a/., 1994; Haddock & Zanna, 1997, 1998a). Thus, in several recent studies, we have utilized open-ended measures to assess attitudes toward a variety of people and topics. For example, in two recent studies, we successfully used open-ended measures to study the rela tion between children's (aged 12-14 years) ambivalence toward their parents and their attachment styles in relationships (Maio, Fincham, & Lycett, 2000) . In a related study, we used open-ended measures to assess Italian adults' ambivalence and attitude valence toward their romantic partners, and the relations between these variables and the adults' attachment to their partners (Maio, Fincham, Regalia, & Paleari, 2001 ). In another study, we used open ended measures to examine the extent to which consensus information about a political debate influences people's evaluations of the issue at hand (Hod son, Maio, & Esses, 2001 ). In this case, open-ended measures were used to assess initial ambivalence toward the issue, which was social welfare (i.e., social assistance payments to the poor). In all cases, open-ended measures were easily utilized in a new context without extensive revision. Empirical Relations Among Attitude Properties In a particularly relevant set of studies (Maio, Esses, & Bell, 1997), we were interested in evaluating a new collection of open-ended measures. This included an open-ended assessment of past behaviors toward the attitude
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objects, in addition to open-ended measures of cognitions and emotions regarding the attitude objects. In particular, participants were asked to list their behaviors relevant to the attitude objects, as well as their emotions toward and beliefs about them. They were asked to assign valence ratings to each response listed, as in our previous research. We included an open-ended measure of past behaviors because it has been suggested that attitudes are partly supported by mental representations of past behaviors toward an attitude object (Zanna & Rempel, 1988). Specifi cally, the tri-component model of attitudes (see Zanna & Rempe� 1988) proposes that people base their attitudes on affective, cognitive, and behavioral information about an attitude object. Indeed, abundant research indicates that people at times infer their attitudes from observations of their own past behavior toward the attitude object (Bern, 1972; Olson, 1990, 1992). Some previous research has attempted to measure past behaviors using an open-ended procedure (e.g., Haddock et a/., 1994a; see also Haddock & Zanna, 1998b� However, in that research, participants were asked to list recent experiences that they had with the attitude object, rather than their own past behaviors toward the attitude object Thus, our open-ended measure of past behavior seems to more closely capture past behavior per se. In our studies, we asked participants to complete open-ended measures of their attitudes toward a variety of food items (e.g., apples, coffee) or toward exercise. Participants were also asked to complete a number of closed-ended measures of attitude properties. We think it is unlikely that open-ended mea sures could have been used to adequately assess some of the properties that were assessed using the closed-ended, self-report measures. By their nature, open-ended measures ask participants to free associate the features of their attitudes. In such associations, many abstract properties (e.g., certainty, im portance) are not cited, even when the measures ask participants to directly describe the functions of their attitudes (e.g., Maio & Olson, 1994). Previous research has frequently used closed-ended measures to assess attitude proper ties such as certainty, importance, ambivalence, inconsistency, and latitudes of rejection. Therefore, we used closed-ended measures to assess a number of these properties, and used open-ended measures to assess a subset of proper ties: ambivalence, inconsistency, and embeddedness. It has been suggested that responses to most closed-ended measures require considerable amounts of self-inference or meta-judgments (Bassili, 1996), because responses to the measures require that participants estimate their own attitude properties (e.g., certainty, importance). Some closed-ended measures do not require as much self-inference, however, and may be con sidered operative. For example, latitudes of rejection (Sherif & Sherif, 1967) are calculated on the basis of the range of attitude statements that individuals do not endorse. Importantly, open-ended measures of ambivalence, inconsis tency, and embeddedness are also operative because these measures require
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that participants infer only their specific reactions (e.g., emotions, behaviors) to an attitude object. Using these reactions, the properties of ambivalence, inconsistency, and embeddedness are calculated without requiring that parti cipants infer these properties. Given the distinction between meta-judgmental versus operative indices, we expected responses to the meta-judgmental closed-ended measures of attitude properties to be distinct from responses to the operative closed ended measures of attitude properties and from responses to the operative open-ended measures of ambivalence, inconsistency, and embeddedness. Consistent with these predictions, factor analyses for each attitude object revealed a consistent five-factor solution. Three of these factors were the dimensions of attitude structure that were assessed using open-ended mea sures: intracomponent and intercomponent ambivalence loaded on a factor that we labeled ambivalence; evaluative-affective, evaluative�ognitive, evaluative-behavioral, and intercomponent inconsistency loaded on a factor that we labeled "inconsistency"; and the number of emotions, number of beliefs, and number of behaviors loaded on a factor that we labeled embed dedness. In addition, consistent with the previously mentioned distinction between meta-judgmental and operative indices (Bassili, 1996), the meta judgmental closed-ended measures possessed unique loadings on a fourth factor. Finally, the operative, closed-ended measures always loaded uniquely on their own factor. Thus, we consistently found that the attitude properties assessed using open-ended and closed-ended measures loaded on different factors. These results demonstrate: (a) the ability of open-ended measures to tap many attitude properties that are distinct from each other and from the properties assessed using closed-ended scales; (b) the ability of open-ended measures to incorporate measures of past behavior; and (c) the ease with which the mea sures can be applied to attitude objects other than social groups. CONCLUSIONS: OPEN-ENDED VERSUS CLOSED ENDED ATIITUDE MEASURES
As we have described, our open-ended measures of attitude components have a number of benefits that recommend their use. Thus, for certain purposes, open-ended measures may be preferable to the use of traditional closed ended measures. For example, open-ended measures are more likely to assess specific affect and cognitions strongly associated with an attitude object, rather than just picking up the general evaluation of the object. Open-ended measures may also be more easily utilized across numerous participant groups and targets, and for examining attitudes over time. However, the idiosyncratic nature of participants' responses to open-ended measures, which makes them
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so easily adaptable, is also a potential disadvantage in certain situations. For example, closed-ended measures can more easily be used for comparing parti cipants on identical content, and for conducting specific item analyses. In terms of assessing attitude properties, our factor analyses suggest that operative attitude properties, such as ambivalence, inconsistency, and embed dedness, may be independently assessed using open-ended measures. In con trast, meta-judgmental attitude properties, such as perceived attitude strength and importance, may be most easily assessed using closed-ended measures. There is ample evidence to suggest that both sets of properties contribute to our understanding of important attitude-relevant outcomes, including attitude change and attitude-behavior relations (e.g., Eagly & Chaiken, 1998; Petty & Krosnick, 1995). Where does this leave us in terms of making a recommendation regarding the assessment of attitudes? It is not the case that we are proposing the use of open-ended measures to the exclusion of closed-ended measures. However, we do argue that attitude research should no longer be dominated by closed ended measures. As we hope we have argued convincingly, closed-ended and open-ended measures have complementary roles to play in the assessment of attitudes. Thus, including both types of measures optimizes our ability to more fully understand attitudes.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The research described in this chapter was supported by grants from the
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to Victoria Esses. We thank Wolfgang Stroebe, Miles Hewstone, and three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on a previous version of this chapter.
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Chapter 4
Shifting Standards and Contextual Variation in Stereotyping Monies Biernat Elizabeth R. Thompson
University of Kansas, USA
ABSTRACT This chapter provides an overview of some 10 years of research on the "Shifting Standards Model" (Biernat, Manis, & Nelson, 1991). This model suggests that stereotypes lead perceivers to evaluate individual group members relative to within-category standards. One result of this process is that subjective evalua tions (e.g., judgments on semantic-differential scales) may "mask" the operation of stereotypes. For example, a man and a woman may both be described as equally "competent", even when more "objective" evaluations reveal substan tial stereotyping effects (e.g., the man is assumed to score higher on standardized tests of competency). This review focuses on the role of context in moderating the tendency to shift judgment standards, and provides a critical comparison of the shifting standards model with two other theories emphasizing contextual variation in stereotyping, Social Identity/Self-Categorization Theory (Tajfel, 1972; Turner, 1982; Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher, & Wetherell, 1987), and the Parallel Constraint Satisfaction Model of impression formation (Kunda & Thagard, 1996).
In contrast to early views of stereotypes as rigid cognitive structures, more recent research and theory suggests that stereotypes are subject to contextual Correspondence regarding this chapter should be addressed to Monica Biernat, Department of Psychology, 1415 Jayhawk Blvd, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045 7556, USA. European Review of Social Psychology, Volume 12. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Edited by Wolfgang Stroebe an d Miles Hewstone.
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variation and change (Coats & Smith, 1999; Doosje, Haslam, Spears, Oakes, & Koomen, 1998; Ellemers & van Knippenberg, 1997; Oakes, Haslam, & Turner, 1994; Spears & Manstead, 1989). Whether stereotypes even develop in the first place may depend on the extent to which a trait dimension dif ferentiates between groups (Ford & Stangor, 1992), and whether a group attribute is the subject of conversation (Stangor & Schaller, 1996; Schaller & Conway, 1999). There is also evidence that stereotypes incorporate not just person attributes, but rather contextualized descriptions of persons in situa tions (Cantor & Mischel, 1977; Cantor, Mischel, & Schwartz, 1982; Niemann, Pollak, Rogers, & O'Connor, 1998; Shoda & Mischel, 1993; Trope, 1998). Similarly, the application of stereotypes is subject to contextual variation. The strength of stereotyping effects may vary, depending on the availability of other information about the person (Locksley, Borgida, Brekke, & Hepburn, 1980; Jussim, Coleman, & Lerch, 1987; Kunda & Thagard, 1996), the relative salience of the stereotyped category (Macrae, Bodenhausen, & Milne, 1995), and motivational concerns of the perceiver (Fein & Spencer, 1997; Green berg, Pyszczynski, Solomon, Rosenblatt, Veeder, Kirkland, & Lyon, 1 990; Sinclair & Kunda, 1999). Some situational contexts-for example, the pres ence of a solo or token member of a group-may also increase the extent to which stereotypes are applied (Biernat & Vescio, 1993; Taylor, Fiske, Etcoff, & Ruderman, 1978). In other words, group stereotypes may differ, and the application of those stereotypes to individuals may differ, depending on context. We define "con text" very broadly, in terms of the setting, surrounding or environment in which a stereotype might be generated or applied. A definition from Webs ter's dictionary is appropriate to what we have in mind--context refers to "the interrelated conditions in which something exists or occurs". Our first goal in this chapter is to review a body of research from our laboratory that is consistent with this contextual view of stereotyping. This research is derived from the "shifting standards model" (SSM; Biernat & Manis, 1994; Biernat, Manis, & Nelson, 1991), which suggests that stereotypes activate differing standards against which individual group members are judged. Our second goal is to relate this work to the broader literature on "stereotypes in context". Although there are many findings in the field that suggest the importance of context, we will focus specifically on the two extant models that we see as offering the strongest theoretical statements about the importance of context. These two important perspectives are self-categorization theory (Turner, 1982; 1 984; Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher, & Wetherell, 1987), and the parallel-constraint satisfaction model of impression formation (PCSM; Kunda & Thagard, 1996). Both of these theories are broader in scope than the shifting standards model (and quite different from each other), but nonethe less we hope to highlight the similar themes on context that all three perspec-
SHIFTING STANDARDS IN STEREOTYPING
105
tives offer. After providing brief overviews of each of these perspectives and the manner in which they incorporate context, we will discuss connections between these models and our own. In short, we hope to highlight findings that have emerged in our laboratory, to integrate our perspective with other relevant models, and to discuss future directions in which research on stereo types in context may profitably move. THE SHIFT ING STANDARDS M ODEL
The basic premise of the SSM is that when we judge individual members of stereotyped groups on stereotype-relevant dimensions, we use within-category reference points or standards. For example, given stereotypes that men are better leaders than women, we are likely to judge the leadership competence of a particular woman relative to (lower) standards of competence for women, and the leadership competence of a particular man relative to (higher) stand ards of competence for men. The result is that evaluations of men and women on leadership competence may not be directly comparable, as their meaning is tied to different contexts: "good'' for a woman does not mean the same thing as "good" for a man. A standard incorporates the average and range that is expected from members of a group on a particular dimension, and aids the judge in anchoring the endpoints of a subjective rating scale (e.g., "high" to "low" competence). Rating points are defined to reflect the expected distribu tion of category members on the dimension, with high numbers reserved for targets with the highest expected level of the attribute among members of the category. When groups are expected to differ (i.e., when a stereotype is held), endpoints are anchored differently for the contrasting groups (for related themes in other judgment models, see Parducci, 1963; Postman & Miller, 1945, Upshaw, 1962; Volkmann, 195 1). Evidence supporting the operation of stereotype-based standard shifts can be gleaned from comparisons between judgments that are made on subjective rating scales to those made on objective rating scales. The terms "subjective" and "objective" require some clarification. A "subjective scale" refers to any rating system in which the units of judgment have no ties to external reality. For example, Likert-type scales, semantic differentials, and many instruments that display trait judgments as continua (e.g., "very unathletic" to "very ath letic") are subjective in the sense that their rating points can be differentially defined and adjusted (e.g., across time, across perceivers, and across targets). Subjective judgments are "slippery" in that they do not connote a fixed mean ing. On the other hand, an "objective scale" refers to an externally anchored, "common rule" scale, consisting of judgment units that maintain a constant meaning across contexts and/or types of targets. For example, judging the heaviness of an object in pounds or kilograms would be an objective
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MONICA BIERNAT AND ELIZABETH R. THOMPSON
judgment, whereas rating the object on a "light" to "heavy" scale would be a subjective judgment. In evaluating people, objective scales may include such judgments as estimated standardized test scores or grades (to assess compet ence stereotypes), monetary or time judgments (to assess salary, effort, or worth), and rank orderings (which fit our conception of objectivity in that the meaning of a ranking unit is clear-it places a target individual in a readily interpretable position relative to a given frame of reference; see Biernat & Manis, 1994; Biernat, Crandall, Young, Kobrynowicz, & Halpin, 1998). Objec tivity does not, then, refer to an accurate or unchanging judgment, but rather to one whose meaning can be readily interpreted because of the external frame of reference. The key prediction of the SSM is that objective or externally anchored judgments are more likely than subjective judgments to reveal the influence of stereotypes. That is, judgments of individual group members will generally be assimilated to group stereotypes when objective response scales are used, but will show less strong, null, or contrastive influences of stereotypes when sub jective scales are used. This occurs because objective scales call forth an external frame of reference, which then reveals or captures the available stereotype, whereas subjective scales can be differentially adjusted for dif ferent target categories (within-category frames of reference). In short, sub jective scales may mask the operation of stereotypes because the response language can be defined in category-specific terms.1 Evidence of Shifting Judgment Standards
We have now accumulated considerable evidence supporting the basic predic tion that stereotyping effects will be stronger in objective (externally
10ther researchers who have compared "objective" and "subjective" response scales have also noted that objective scales are less sensitive than subjective scales to context effects (e.g., judg mental contrast), precisely because they do not allow for semantic changes of meaning of the sort described here (e.g, Campbell, Hunt, & Lewis, 1958; Krantz & Campbell, 1961; Manis, 1967, 1 97 1 ). However, recent research on social comparison and anchoring does suggest that both objective and subjective judgments are affected by changes in anchors or comparative standards (Mussweiler & Strack, 1 999, 2000; Strack & Mussweiler, 1997). Nonetheless, a closer look at this latter work actually reveals results quite consistent with our own theorizing. For example, in studies on self-evaluative comparison, "objective" self-judgments revealed assimilation to com parative standards (akin to the stereotype-assimilative effects we anticipate on objective scales). whereas subjective judgments revealed contrast from those standards (akin to the use of within category or shifting frames of reference; Mussweiler & Strack, 2000 ). In language similar to our own, these authors suggest that, "because [objective) judgments are externally anchored by consensual standards, the underlying scale cannot be shifted to include or exclude a specific reference point" (Mussweiler & Strack, 2000, p. 25). Instead, these judgments simply reflect accessible knowledge. On the other hand, subjective scales require judges to "interpret the given scale labels" (p. 25) according to a given (but shifting) frame of reference, thereby leading to contrast from those (category specific) standards.
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SHIFTING STANDARDS IN STEREOTYPING
anchored) than subjective response language. In initial research, we examined
the judgmental influences of accurate gender stereotypes-that men are taller, weigh more, and earn more money than women (Biernat
et al., 1991).
In this work, participants judged the heights, weights, and incomes of a series
of
photographed women and men. The results clearly indicated that when
judgments were made in "objective" or externally-anchored units (feet and inches, pounds, dollars earned), they were consistent with gender stereotypes,
but when judgments were made in "subjective" units (short-tall, light-heavy,
financially unsuccessful-successful), stereotyping effects were significantly re
duced or reversed. Such a pattern is consistent with the notion that subjective judgments of men's and women's heights, weights, and incomes were based on within-category comparisons. Men and women might each be judged, subjectively, as equally "heavy" when objectively, the man might be perceived
to weigh about 40 pounds more; the same women who were judged as earn ing, on average, $9000 less per year than target men were subjectively seen as more financially successful than these men. More recently, Nario-Redmond (1996) examined gender-based judgments of strength. Similar to the results described above, objective estimates indicated significant gender stereotyping effects (men, on average, were judged capable of lifting more weight than women), but subjective strength estimates significantly reduced this pattem The "signature" shifting standards effect (in this case, a Target Sex x Re sponse Scale interaction) was reliable for judgments of both White and Black targets.
These studies have all examined the effects of accurate stereotypes on
judgment. However, we also have evidence that shifting standards effects operate with regard to stereotypes of unknown, debated, or refuted accuracy as well.
In one study, the stereotype that women are more verbally able than
men led perceivers to judge individual women and men relative to within-sex judgment standards on this dimension (Biernat & Manis,
1994,
Study 2).
Participants viewed photos of high school-aged men and women paired with vocabulary definitions that had ostensibly been provided in an oral vocabul ary test These definitions had been pre-tested to indicate varying levels of verbal ability. Half of the participants were asked to make verbal ability estimates in letter grades
(A-E),
an externally anchored judgment, and half
made estimates on subjective scales ranging from very low to very high verbal ability.
As can be seen in Figure 4.1, judgments in letter grades provided
evidence of stereotyping-women were judged more verbally able than men.
In subjective units, however, men were perceived as slightly, although not significantly, more verbally able than women (a null effect of stereotypes). That is, very different evaluations on the externally-anchored scale (an esti mated grade of A if a woman, B if a man) "translated" into the same subjec tive assessment
of
verbal competence for the male and female targets.
Furthermore, participants in this study were asked to provide base rate
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MONICA BIERNAT AND ELIZABETH R. THOMPSON !US
�� L-----
Ji"ipre .&.1 Verbal ability judgments of male and female targets on externally anchored versus subjective response scales (adapted from Biernat � Manis, 1994, Study 2, p. 11, copyright e by the American Psychological Association, adapted with permission).
estimates of the percentage of women and men who had high verbal ability. It was only among the 46% of the sample who clearly end01sed the verbal ability stereotype that the signature shifting standards pattern was reliable. This lends further credence to the model's suggestion that stereotypes are responSible for the use of within-gender judgment standards. A study of gender stereotypes regarding competence also provided evi dence of gender-based standard shifts (Biernat & Manis, 1994, Study 1). In addition, this study suggested that, rather than holding global stereotypes that women are less competent than men, perceivers are more likely to view competence as cootext-speCI·fic: men are more competent than women at "masculine" tasks; women are more competent than men at "feminine" tasks. This study was based on the weD-known Goldberg (1968) "Joan McKay-John McKay" study, in which female participants judged wtitten wotlc to be higher in quality when it was atttibuted to a male rather than a female author. A meta-analysis on other "Joan-John" researda (Swim, Borgida, Maruyama, & Myers, 1989) indicated that in fact, the male-female evaluative bias was negli gible (effect size [d] = -�>.o7). The shifing t standards model suggests that one reason for this nuH effect of gender stereotypes may be that researdaers have typically provided their respondents with subjective scales oo which to make
SHIFTING STANDARDS IN STEREOTYPING
109
their evaluations. If competence is assessed in a within-sex fashion, subjective judgments may mask the influence of gender stereotypes. In our study, parti cipants read an excerpt of a magazine article that was either attributed to Joan or John McKay, and that concerned either a masculine (e.g., bass fishing), feminine (e.g., trends in make-up), or gender-neutral (e.g., the mind-body problem) topic. Participants were asked to evaluate the quality, monetary worth, and interest level of the article, either using objective (e.g., dollar estimates of worth) or subjective (terrible--excellent) response scales. As the top panel of Figure 4.2 indicates, when judgments were made in objective units, evidence of gender stereotyping was clear: feminine articles were judged better when written by Joan than by John, masculine articles were better when written by John than by Joan, and neutral articles were judged equivalently regardless of the author sex. Subjective judgments, depicted in the bottom panel of Figure 4.2, produced results consistent with the meta analytic findings: author sex had no impact on evaluations. This suggests, then, that participants judged article quality using an Author Sex x Context evaluative framework. Despite a greater view of worth when an author's sex "matched" the article topic (John deserves more than Joan for his article on bass fishing), this translated into equivalent subjective evaluations for the two authors. In an additional study on gender stereotypes and competence, participants evaluated the resume of "Katherine Anderson" or "Kenneth Anderson", who had applied for either a masculine (executive chief of staff) or feminine (executive secretary) position (Biernat & Kobrynowicz, 1 997). The job de scription in the two conditions was identical--only the label was changed, with the result that the "chief of staff" position was viewed as more mas culine, higher in status, and worthy of a higher salary than when the same position was labeled "executive secretary". Results in this study were compar able to those in the Joan-John study described above (Biernat & Manis, 1 994, Study 1). Using externally-anchored rating scales (e.g., assigned letter grades, rank order relative to other candidates), Kenneth was judged better than Katherine for the chief of staff position, whereas Katherine was judged better than Kenneth for the secretarial position (see top panel of Figure 4.3). Again, participants rated candidates most favorably when their sex "matched" the job for which they applied. However, subjective judgments revealed reversals of these patterns (bottom panel of Figure 4.3). The SSM suggests that parti cipants may have subjectively perceived the male applicant for the feminine job as "very good, for a male", and the female applicant for the masculine job as "very good, for a female".2 2The issue of when subjective judgments will produce null effects of stereotypes versus contrast effects is beyond the scope of this chapter. For a discussion, see Biernat, Vescio, and Manis
(1 998 ).
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MONICA BIERNAT AND ELIZABETii R. TiiOMPSON
0.4
0.2
l'lpn 4.2 Ewluations of the quality of magazine atticles by target scl!: (John or Joan McKay}, sex-typidg of article, aod tespol\se scale (top panel = objective, bottom panel = subjective judgments; adapted from Biernat &. Manis. 1994, Study 1. p. 9. copyright e by the American Psychological Association. adapted with permission).
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S.HIF1'JNG STANDARDS IN STEREOTYPING
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o.•
0.3 c
.!1 1\
02
:0 S! .. 0.1
Job title Fflare 4.3 Evaluations of male and female job applicants for masculine aod feminine
jobs, by response scale (top panel = objective, bottompanel = subjective; adapted from Kobrynowicz, 1997. p. 551. Association. adapted with permission). Biernat &
copyright e
� the American Psychological
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MONICA BJERNAT AND ELIZABETII R. THOMPSON
Other research has documented comparable dfects with regard to racial stereotypes. Judgment standards for Black versus White Americans shift in the domains of verbal and mathematical ability, athleticism, and job-rdated competence (Biernat & Manis, 1994; Biernat & Kobrynowicz, 1997; Kobrynowicz & Biernat, 1W7). Furthermore, we have demonstrated that if no group-relevant stereotype exists, judgment standards do not shift for mem bers of different groups. For example, judgments of age and movie.viewing frequency showed no evidence of shifting standards dfects, as perceivers do not hold stereotypes that men and women differ on these attributes (Biernat
er al.,
1991: Biernat & Man'lS, 1994).
Additionally, data suggesting that the model has relevance for real·world judgments of live targets was obtained in a field study of US Afmy captains (Biernat, Crandall et al 1998: Study 1). In this study, captains attending a 9-week leadership training course worked together in 12-13 person mixed-sex groups. At three points in time during the course, group members were asked to both rate (subjective judgment) and rank (externally anchored judgment) their groupmates in terms of "their overall competence as leaders/ ..
commanders". Figure 4.4 depicts the male-female difference in evaluation across the three time points on each of the judgment scales, controHing for captains' past achievements (i.e., earned medals and badges). Jn general,
1:! o.s
..!
j4 E 1l
i
� c:
o.•
0.2
a
J1ipre 4A Male-female judgment cifferences in pcn:eived leadership competence. by time and resporse scale (from Biernat. CrandaO ef a/., 1998, p. 306. copyright e by the American Psychological Association, reprinted with permission).
SHIFTING STANDARDS IN STEREOTYPING
113
gender stereotyping increased over time and, consistent with the SSM, rank ings were more likely than ratings to reveal evidence of gender stereotyping. Contextual Variations in the Tendency to Shift Standards
As noted above, some of our research has indicated that gender stereotypes do not operate in an all-or-none fashion. Women are not uniformly judged as less competent writers or employees than men; rather, women are judged better than men when writing on "feminine" topics or applying for "femi nine" jobs, but worse than men in "masculine" domains (Biernat & Kobrynowicz, 1 997; Biernat & Manis, 1 994). In this sense, context affects the application of stereotypes and, by extension, the tendency to use within category judgment standards. Norms Other research from our laboratory also indicates that the tendency to shift judgment standards is moderated by contextual factors. For example, in the study of US Army captains described above, standards to judge leadership competence varied depending on officers' sex but not their race (Biernat, Crandall et al., 1 998). We attribute this to the Army's explicit norms against the use of within-race judgment standards (e.g., ". . . the Army does not patronize or infantilize Blacks by implying that they need special standards in order to succeed" [Moskos & Butler, 1 996, p. 72]; " . . . the military has no hint of two promotion lists in which Whites are compared only with Whites, Blacks only with Blacks" [p. 70]). This stands in contrast with recommendations for military policy on the issue of sex set by the Presidential Commission on the Assignment of Women in the Armed Forces (1992): "Entry level training may be gender-specific as necessary" (p. 9), "Military pre-commissioning training may be gender-normed" (p. 1 1 ), and ". . . women should be excluded from direct land combat units and positions" (p. 24; see also Francke, 1 997). These norms provide strong contextual cues about the appropriateness of within-category comparisons-cues that our participants heeded. Interestingly, the lack of race-based judgment scale differences did not mean that all signs of bias based on race were absent. In two studies, officers who were racial minor ities were generally judged as less competent leaders than White officers, particularly by White judges, but this effect emerged regardless of the judg ment format (objective rankings vs. subjective ratings). This finding delimits the SSM by indicating that stereotyping need not always prompt standard shifts; contextual factors that discourage differential standard use may over ride this tendency.
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MONICA BIERNAT AND ELIZABETH R. THOMPSON
Category Combinations The Army data set allowed for the examination of the joint influence of gender and racial category membership on judgments of leadership compet ence. In this context, an additional reason why judgment standards shifted based on sex but not race may have been that gender stereotypes regarding leadership competence were stronger than corresponding racial stereotypes. Indeed, when targets come from multiple categories (as all social targets do), we suggest that evidence of standard shifts will only occur along the category lines that are implicated in the stereotyped judgment dimension (i.e., the "focal dimension"; see Eiser & Stroebe, 1972; Tajfel, 1969; McGarty, 1999). For example, on the trait dimension of "intelligence", perceivers hold a race stereotype (Whites are more intelligent than Blacks) but not a gender stereotype (males and females are judged equally intelligent). When asked to judge how intelligent a series of male and female, Black and White targets may be, participants should shift standards based on target race (as evidenced in a Race x Response Scale interaction), but not based on sex (no Sex x Response Scale interaction). A recent study in which rankings were used to simulate "objective" judgments supported this pattern (Biernat & Thompson, 2000) . Similarly, we found that undergraduate judges viewed "caring" (or nurturance) as relevant to gender but not racial stereotypes, "athleticism" as relevant to both gender and racial stereotypes, and "outgoing" as an attribute irrelevant to both gender and race. In studies in which individual targets (represented in photographs) were judged along these trait dimensions, we generally supported predictions regarding specificity in shifting standards effects. For example, "caring" judgments produced a Sex x Response Scale interaction, "athleticism" judgments produced both Sex x Response Scale and Race x Response Scale interactions, and "outgoing" judgments were un affected by these factors (Biernat & Thompson, 2000) . In addition, however, there was a tendency for judges to evaluate members of certain category combinations most extremely on certain dimensions. For example, Black males were judged the most extremely athletic, and White females were judged the most extremely caring of all targets. These individ uals may represent the "prototypical" carriers of the stereotyped attributes we studied (indicating Race x Sex subtypes; see also Stangor, Lynch, Duan, & Glass, 1992). This finding also suggests the interesting possibility that not only are people likely to be described with traits that typify their groups, but that traits are interpreted with reference to particular types of people-athleticism calls to mind Black men; caring or nurturance calls to mind White women. When these traits are applied to other targets (e.g., athletic White females, caring Black men), their meaning may be substantially different. We return to the issue of context and trait construal later in this chapter.
SHJITING STANDARDS IN STEREOTYPING
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lngroup!Outgroup Status Research on the SSM has rarely considered the role of ingroup/outgroup status on target judgments. Only in our gender stereotyping studies have we incorporated a full ingroup/outgroup design, in which participants from op posing social categories make judgments about both ingroup and outgroup targets. In these studies, participant sex has never moderated the findings (e.g., Biernat & Kobrynowicz, 1997; Biernat & Manis, 1994; Biernat et al., 1991). This suggests that the gender stereotypes we have studied may be held in common by both males and females, and that they guide judgments in similar ways.3 However, a recent study from our laboratory provided some evidence that gender may affect the tendency to shift gender-based judgment standards in interesting ways (Fuegen & Biernat, 2001). In this study, undergraduate parti cipants worked together on a problem-solving task in six-person mixed-sex groups, and then made judgments of each other on two dimensions relevant to gender stereotypes: competence (a masculine attribute) and warmth (a femi nine attribute). Groupmates both rated and ranked each other on a set of attributes relevant to these dimensions, with ranking serving as the externally anchored ("objective") judgment estimates and ratings as subjective estimates. Analyses of judgments made by males indicated a reliable Target Sex x Response Scale interaction on warmth judgments but not on competence judgments: male judges evaluated their female groupmates more warmly than their male groupmates in rankings, but reversed this pattern in subjective ratings. This shifting standards effect (greater evidence of gender stereotyping on rankings than on ratings of warmth) was not found among female judges. Instead, female judges showed evidence of standard shifts in judgments of competence, not warmth: theyjudged their male groupmates more competent than their female groupmates in rankings, but reversed this pattern in ratings. In short, males showed evidence of gender-based standard shifts in judgments of warmth (the feminine attribute), whereas females shifted judgment stand ards when evaluating competence (the masculine attribute). This pattern of results is consistent with the notion that stereotypes are relied upon more strongly under conditions of uncertainty (e.g., see Hamilton & Sherman, 1994). To the extent that men have less certainty about judging social skill and women have less certainty about judging task competence, stereotyping (and the resultant tendency to shift standards) should be pronounced in these 3Jn most of our work, however, we have not explicitly measured the strength of perceivers' stereotypes. Furthermore, it is possible that even if central tendency estimates regarding stereo typic traits are similar for male and female judges, this may not be true of variability estimates (see Lorenzi-Cioldi, 1998). Future research will be needd e to examine the impact of both features of stereotypes on the tendency to shift udgment j standards.
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MONICA BIERNAT AND ELIZABETH R. THOMPSON
conditions. It is also possible that perceived importance of the judgment di mensions moderated these effects, with standard shifting occurring on dimen sions less important to one's gender identity. Further research will be needed to address this possibility. Translating Subjective Language Implicit in research on the SSM is the notion that subjective evaluations are differentially translated or interpreted by perceivers, depending on a target's social category membership. That is, evaluative labels such as "tall" or "good" or "very smart" have no absolute meaning, but rather are interpreted in light of the group membership (and relevant stereotypes) of the person to whom the label is applied. For example, what does it mean to say that someone is a "good parent?" In one study, we asked participants to "decode" this evaluation into objective estimates of the frequency of parenting behavior (e.g., how many hours per week does the parent play interactively with her/his children?; How many days a week does the parent make lunch for the children?; How many school functions does the parent attend? etc). Of course, the gender of the parent described as "good" was manipulated. Consistent with the stereotype or ex pectation of women as more involved parents than men, mothers were judged to engage in parenting behaviors with greater frequency than fathers in each of the broad categories of activities, emotional needs, physical needs, and centrality of the children in the parent's life (Kobrynowicz & Biernat, 1997, Study 2). In another study, being "good at mathematics" was translated into lower objective grades and mathematics involvement for Black than for Asian targets (Kobrynowicz & Biernat, 1997, Study 3). These translation studies demonstrate a fairly direct contextual influence-language is understood dif ferentially, depending on the target to whom it is applied. Setting Judgment Standards The research described thus far has examined the judgment consequences of using differential group standards, but one can also examine a preceding step in this process, namely, the setting or instantiating of judgment standards. The SSM suggests that when a stereotype is called to mind, a lower standard is set for documenting the relevant trait in members of the group stereotyped as deficient on the attribute. For example, in two studies on judgments of work related competence, women were held to lower minimum standards than men, and Black men were held to lower minimum standards than White men. That is, the bar was set lower-women and Black men needed to provide less evidence of competence-to meet perceivers' low-competence expectations (Biernat & Kobrynowicz, 1997).
SHIFTING STANDARDS IN STEREOTYPING
117
However, the setting of judgment standards was also subject to contextual variation. When judges were asked to focus not on minimum standards but on "confirmatory" standards (e.g., how much behavioral evidence would you need to be certain that this target is competent?), the opposite pattern emer ged Women and Black men were required to obtain higher test scores and to provide more evidence of job-related skills (relative to White men) forjudges to feel confident that they were truly competent. Thus, minimum standards were lower, but confirmatory standards were higher for members of groups judged to be deficient on the attribute of competence. This research follows in the tradition of other work on the differential confirmability of trait concepts (e.g., Gidron, Koehler, & Tversky, 1993; Reeder & Brewer, 1979; Reeder, Pryor, & Wojciszke, 1992; Rothbart & Park, 1986). However, whereas most discussions of trait diagnosticity typ ically focus on how traits are confirmed in the "generic person", our own research indicates that when an individual belongs to a group that is stereo typed along some trait dimension, evidentiary standards to diagnose that trait may shift This shift can occur in the direction of either stringency or leniency, depending on the type of standard called to mind (minimum or confirmatory). This pattern is not unique to the diagnosis of competence. Biernat, Nario-Redmond and Ma (2001) found that, when using behavioral evidence to infer aggressiveness, judges set lower minimum standards but higher confirmatory standards for women than men-women had to engage in fewer aggressive behaviors before judges suspected that they might be aggressive (minimum standard), but more aggressive behaviors before judges confirmed that they were aggressive. Similarly, when judging emo tionality (a gender stereotype according to which men are the "deficient" group), minimum standards were lower but confirmatory standards were higher for men than women. Only a few emotional behaviors led judges to suspect emotionality in a man, but many were required before dispositional emotionality was inferred These patterns of standard-setting suggest that when judges are focused on minimum standards, stereotypes are directly used as expectations-less com petence and aggressiveness are expected from women; less emotionality is expected from men. However, precisely because of these low expectations and presumably to overcome them-judges require more behavioral evidence to confirm or diagnose stereotyped attributes. This latter pattern is consistent with a large literature on expectation states theory, which suggests that a stricter inference standard is introduced for those about whom low expecta tions exist (see Foddy & Smithson, 1989). It is also consistent with the notion that expected behaviors are readily described in abstract, (e.g., dispositional) terms, whereas expectancy-inconsistent behaviors are described more con cretely (e.g., behaviorally; Maass, Milesi, Zabbini, & Stahlberg, 1995; Wig boldus, Spears, & Semin, 1999). That is, an expected behavior readily
1 18
MONICA BIERNAT AND ELIZABETH R. THOMPSON
confirms a trait, whereas an unexpected behavior's implications for trait diag nosis is uncertain. In keeping with the theme of contextual variation, these findings indicate that whether judges perceive that a target possesses an attribute will depend not only on the target's group membership, but also on the standard that is called to mind at the moment a judgment is rendered. A woman can be perceived as both aggressive (because her actions readily surpass low standards of aggression for women) and unaggressive (because a few aggressive behaviors cannot overcome stereotype-assimilative tendencies). Worth exploring is whether the attributions made for unexpected behaviors (relative to group-based standards) underlie this phenomenon. For ex ample, much research on reactions to counterstereotypical (or expectancy violating) information suggests that perceivers may deeply process this in formation in an attempt to reconstrue or assimilate it to expectations (e.g., Olson, Roese, & Zanna, 1 996; Stangor & McMillan, 1992). To confirm ag gression in a woman or emotionality in a man, perceivers may feel that many examples are needed before overcoming the tendency to dismiss such be haviors as flukes.
Summary
A number of lines of research in our laboratory have demonstrated that the tendency to judge individual group members relative to within-group com parison standards is subject to contextual variation. Group stereotypes are themselves context-specific (e.g., gender stereotypes regarding competence vary depending on the masculinity or femininity of the judgment setting), norms may indicate when differential standard use is appropriate, ingroup/ outgroup status may determine which dimensions of judgment recruit within category comparison standards, and the translation and meaning of trait terms may shift depending not only on social category membership but the type of standard that is instantiated in a given situation (e.g., minimum vs. confirmatory). However, this work represents only an initial foray into the ways that context may affect judgments of individual members of stereotyped groups. Notably missing in our work thus far are considerations of how a variety of perceiver motivations may affect the tendency to shift judgment standards, and how group status relations and group-level identification may moderate shifting standards effects. As a model for the directions in which con textualized research on shifting standards should move, we turn next to a discussion of social identity and self-categorization theories, which have of fered much insight into the importance of context in intergroup judgment and relations.
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SOCIAL IDENTITY AND SELF- CATEGORIZ ATION THEORIES Overview
"Social identity" refers to a person's self-concept in terms of group member ships, and social identity theory (SIT) generally posits a need for positive social identity, "expressed through a desire to create, maintain, or enhance the positively valued distinctiveness of ingroups compared to outgroups on relevant dimensions" (Turner, 1999, p. 8). As Tajfel (1979) noted, categoriza tion as a member of a group arouses social identity concerns, which leads to social comparison between groups in the quest for positive ingroup dis tinctiveness (see also Tajfel, 1 972; Turner 1975, 1 978). Self-categorization theory (SCT), an outgrowth of SIT, is also built on the distinction between social and personal identity, and suggests that when the self is categorized in social terms, this leads to "an enhanced perceptual identity between self and ingroup members and an enhanced perceptual contrast between ingroup and outgroup members" (Turner, 1 999, p. 1 1). Self-categorization leads to self stereotyping and the perception of relative interchangeability with other in group members, and this depersonalization "transforms individual into collec tive behavior" (Turner, 1 999, p. 1 1 ; see also Turner, 1984; Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher, & Wetherell, 1987). A consideration of context is central to both SIT and SCT. This is perhaps most clearly seen in the statement that stereotypes themselves are not fixed mental images, but rather vary across situations: A stereotype of the same people may vary in categorical level, kind, content, and prototypical meaning as a function of the relationship between self and others, the frame of reference, the dimensions of comparison, and the background knowledge, expectations, needs, values, and goals of the perceiver (Turner, 1999, p. 26).
In a recent chapter, Ellemers and van Knippenberg (1997) outlined four specific ways in which self-categorization theory suggests that stereotyping and other intergroup phenomena are affected by context. The first is that context determines the salience of particular social categorizations; that is, the same group might be perceived differently depending on which other groups are present in the judgment environment. For example, during the Persian Gulf war, Australians viewed Americans as aggressive when Soviets were included in the frame of reference, but as less so when Iraqis (a common enemy for Australians) were also included (Haslam, Turner, Oakes, McGarty, & Hayes, 1992; see also Diab, 1962). Second, the "degree of involvement or the perspective of the perceiver" may affect the way social groups are perceived (Ellemers & van Knippenberg, 1997, p. 211). For example, stereotypes are less likely to form via illusory
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MONICA BIERNAT AND ELIZABETH R. THOMPSON
correlation principles when judges are members of one of the groups being considered (Maass & Schaller, 1991), and perceivers may "selectively" gener alize from sample information to judgments of their group as a whole, or self stereotype to maintain a positive group image (Biernat, Vescio, & Green, 1996; Doosje, Spears, & Koomen, 1995). A third manner in which context affects stereotyping is that status relations between groups may constrain group perceptions. Rather than uniformly striving for a positive identity, group level judgments may reflect or be con strained by social reality (e.g., individual members of low-status groups may negatively self-stereotype), so long as a distinctive identity can be established (see Mlicki & Ellemers, 1996). Finally, Ellemers and van Knippenberg (1997) suggest that group-level perceptions may differ depending on the kinds of between-group comparisons being made and the specificity or globality of the judgment dimensions. For example, members of a low-status group may ac cept the global superiority of a high-status group but view the ingroup as better on some more specific feature (Ellemers, van Rijswijk, Roefs, & Simons, in press), or members of different groups may mutually acknowledge each other's superiority on different dimensions (Spears & Manstead, 1989; van Knippenberg, 1984; van Knippenberg & Ellemers, 1990). Comparisons with the Shifting Standards Modei--Simla l rities and Differences
In the social identity and self -categorization theory traditions, each of these effects of context has most frequently been examined with respect to group level perceptions. That is, frames of reference, ingroup/outgroup status, re ality constraints, and judgment dimensions have all been shown to influence how groups as a whole are perceived. The SSM has focused instead on a different contextual theme-that judgments of individual members of stereo typed groups are made relative to expectations regarding the group as a whole. Furthermore, only the SSM has distinguished between subjective versus objective response language and its differential susceptibility to stereo typing effects, and only self-categorization theory has emphasized the process of categorization itself. Despite these differences in level and type of the typical dependent variable, there are some similar themes in these approaches. Frames of Reference The key common theme in the shifting standards and social identity/self categorization theory perspectives is the importance of one's frame of refer ence for making social judgments. Both theoretical approaches build on clas sic judgment models in articulating this theme. In the shifting standards
SHIFTING STANDARDS IN STEREOTYPING
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approach, the notion that perceivers might shift or adjust the end-anchors of their rating scales to accommodate the expected range of targets on a judg ment attribute Upshaw's
can be traced to Volkmann's (1951) "rubber band" model,
(1965, 1969)
variable perspective theory, and Parducci's
(1965)
range-frequency modeL Furthermore, the prediction that targets who are
discrepant from expectations might be contrasted from comparative stand ards is consistent with the social judgment perspective of Sherif and Hovland
(1961;
Manis,
1960, 1961).
Social identity and self
(1971, 1973),
1961).
Mo;t not
whose "accentuation
theory" was inspired by some of Tajfel's early research. Tajfel and Wilkes
(1963) demonstrated that differences between groups of stimuli (e.g., long and short lines) are accentuated when the central judgment dimension (line length) is correlated with another peripheral dimension of classification (e.g., the labels
"A"
and "B"). Thus, the perceived difference in length between
long and short lines was accentuated when labels were applied Building on this finding, Eiser's
( 1971)
model suggests that on judgment
tasks, one's own standing on a dimension (e.g., level of agreement with an attitudinal stimulus) functions as a peripheral classification that provides the basis for differentiation between stimuli. Self
(Haslam & Turner, 1992, p. 254). The meta-contrast principle, which is central
to self-categorization theory, predicts more generally that a set of stimuli is likely to be categorized as a single entity, to the extent that the perceived within-set differences are smaller than the differences between that set and others in the comparative context (Turner,
1985).
Thus, both SCT and the SSM are concerned with basic judgment processes, and more specifically with patterns of assimilation versus contrast that may arise from the use of different frames of reference. Furthermore, research on the shifting standards model may be viewed through the lens of Tajfel's and Eiser's "accentuation theory" (Eiser,
1971;
Tajfel & Wilkes,
1963):
social
category membership serves as a peripheral classification that is superim posed on the stereotyped judgment dimension with which it is correlated The result is between-category accentuation (i.e., a stereotyping effect), and, theoretically, within
As noted above, a target's cate
gory membership s i the main determinant of frame of reference in the SSM,
and typically that target has little, if any, relevance for the self. In SCT, as the
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MONICA BIERNAT AND ELIZABETH R. THOMPSON
theory's name implies, it is the selfs categorization as a member of one group versus another that sets in motion important judgmental and behavioral out comes. An interesting question is whether judgments of targets might be jointly influenced by that target's group membership as well as judges' self standing (e.g., in terms of own group membership or standing on the dimen sion of evaluation). For example, to what extent is the judgment of a woman's aggressiveness influenced not only by standards of aggression for women but by the judges' level of aggression and his/her self-categorization as a man/ woman? To date, we have not considered such issues in our own research. Distortions of Reality Both the shifting standards model and SCI' highlight the distinction between frames of reference that focus on within-group versus across- or between group comparisons. Within-group comparisons are prompted by the use of subjective judgment scales in the SSM and by other contextual cues (such as the presence of only ingroup members) in SCI'. Similarly, across-group com parisons are prompted by the use of objective judgment scales in the SSM and by the broader context (presence of both ingroup and outgroup members; between-group competition) in SCI'. This within- versus across-group distinction is important, as it produces dramatically different judgments of social stimuli. In the shifting standards model, for example, a woman can be simultaneously perceived as both an "excellent" softball player (relative to other women), and as someone who is not worth being selected for the team (when the field of choice includes men as well as women; Biernat & Vescio, in press). In self-categorization theory, an ingroup member may be perceived as both a distinct individual with idio syncratic traits (when within-group comparisons are made), or as relatively interchangeable with the self (when a salient outgroup is present; Hogg & Turner, 1987; Lorenzi-Cioldi, 1991). In work on the SSM, we have highlighted that this situation may produce a confusing state of affairs for the target of judgment, in that evaluations re ceived from others may be contradictory. Furthermore, we have typically treated the judgment effects that emerge on subjective responsive scales as distortions that mask underlying stereotyping effects. Thus, the fact that the female is not chosen for the team reflects the perceiver's "true" underlying (negative) representation, a representation that is masked when subjective, within-category evaluations are offered. However, from a self-categorization perspective, both judgments are equally true or real; the theory suggests that context-sensitive judgments reflect reality, or the "rational selectivity of per ception" (Oakes, Haslam, & Turner, 1994, p. 212). In short, SCI and the SSM differ on whether contrast and assimilation effects represent response distortions or "true" reflections of the perceived
SHIFTING STANDARDS IN STEREOTYPING
123
social world This difference in perspective echoes back to the classic debate on whether judgment shifts are perceptual or semantic in nature (e.g., see Eiser,
1990, for a
review). Although we cannot resolve this important issue
here, we think there is a key point of agreement between the perspectives:
people mean what they say in any given context. Thus, managers who label a female softball player "excellent" are not being deceptive-they mean that
they view the player as excellent, for a woman.4 In this sense, the judgment reflects reality. However, under most circumstances, if confronted with both their "objec
tive" and "subjective" evaluation of this female player, we suggest that the objective is likely to be seen as the truer of the two-the one that best reflects reality. At the same time, we acknowledge that there may be instances when the "subjective" judgment seems more appropriate or "true". For example, the evaluation of a pre-schooler's art work as "beautiful" is unlikely to be thrown aside for a more "objective" assessment of its quality relative to that of all people (including professional artists). Although most people would rather hang a Cbagall on their wall than a coloring attempt by the first au thor's daughter, Charlotte, the "beautiful" description of Charlotte's art work is a true, and perhaps more realistic, judgment than her standing relative to Cbagall. Thus, ideology, loyalty, norms, etc. may all contribute to which as sessment is perceived to better reflect reality.
Motivation and Cognition A final point of difference between SCT and the SSM bas already been touched on. Namely, the involvement of the self, central to self-categorization theory but absent in the shifting standards model, makes SCT a broader perspective that bridges the cognition-motivation divide. The shifting stand
ards perspective, on the other band, is largely cognitive in emphasis. Although
studies in our laboratory often include ingroup and outgroup targets, we have not made salient the category distinction or the self's role in the judgment
setting. In one study, we found that self-judgments may mimic the shifting standards effect found for other-judgments, at least in some contexts (Biernat,
Crandall et al., 1998), but the role of self and identity concerns have generally not been carefully considered. One lesson from self-categorization theory is that this should be rectified. In planned future research, identity concerns, self-standing on relevant judgment dimensions, group-based motivations and
intergroup status relations more generally are being considered as potential
4We are also examining the possibility that judges' use ofsubjective language is strategic. Tbat is, one may intentionally use a within group standard to be able to "say something nice" about a member of a devalued group (see Nichols, 1999). In this sense, some evaluative language may, in fact, provide intentional distortion ofjudges' "true" perceptions.
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MONICA BIERNAT AND ELIZABETH R. THOMPSON
moderators of shifting standards effects. For example, members of lower status groups may be more likely to shift judgment standards (such that ingroup targets might be more favorably judged) than members of high-status groups, particularly when evaluations are being made on central, group defining dimensions. Summary Social identity and self-categorization theories are broad, important, and far reaching theories that have implications for a wide range of psychological phenomena and processes (e.g., group structure and function, intergroup rela tions, prejudice, social influence, the self, etc.). We have focused solely on the theories' perspective on stereotyping in this chapter, highlighting the central role of context and contextual variation. Although more limited in scope, the shifting standards model shares with scr an emphasis on the importance of frames of reference for social judgment, and a concern with the shifting nature of judgment and perception across different contexts. scr·s emphases on group-level judgments and the key role of self-categorization and motivation differentiate it from the SSM. Nonetheless, we think the perspectives can mutually inform each other, and jointly add to the growing body of literature on stereotyping in context. THE PARALLEL-CONSTRAINT SATISFACTION MODEL (PCSM) AND STEREOTYPE CONSTRUAL
Overview
Social identity and self-categorization theories offer a broad perspective on the nature of intergroup judgment and behavior. Closer in scope to the shift ing standards model is a recent theoretical account of impression formation based on parallel constraint satisfaction principles (Kunda & Thagard, 1996). The PCSM describes a network of constructs including cognitive, affective, and behavioral units (Kunda & Thagard, 1996). The model assumes that judgments of a target's traits arise from the network of connections or associ ates that are activated or inhibited at the time of use. This process of activa tion and inhibition occurs simultaneously or in parallel, such that pieces of information mutually constrain each others' meaning and the system ul timately "settles" on a judgment. Furthermore, the PCSM suggests that, while any given trait may have a broad and diverse network of associates, only a subset of these will be activated on any given occasion. These changing pat terns of activation for a particular trait result in changes of meaning for that trait from one occasion or context to another. For example, learning that James is aggressive may activate both the potential behaviors "punch" and
SHIFTING STANDARDS IN STEREOTYPING
125
"argue". If James is in a courtroom, then "argue" may be activated, while "punch" may be deactivated or inhibited (Kunda, Sinclair, & Griffin, 1997). In this case, "aggressive" would mean argumentative rather than violent. The context in which a trait is used may also include other traits known about a person. According to the parallel-<:onstraint satisfaction model, these multiple traits will mutually constrain each other's meaning. In other words, traits will be understood differently, depending on the meaning and valence of other activated traits. Learning that a person is "intelligent, ambitious, and warm" may activate associates of "ambitious" such as hard-working, and reliable, whereas learning that a person is "intelligent, ambitious, and cold" may activate associates of "ambitious" such as ruthless, and unfeeling (Asch, 1946; Kunda, Sinclair, & Griffin, 1997). Again, the meaning of a trait is not static, but rather changes depending upon the context, and in this case "con text" refers to other traits with which it is associated. Since stereotypes about a group typically imply multiple traits and/or be havioral expectations, the PCSM suggests that the same trait or behavior may have different meanings when applied to different groups (Kunda et al., 1 'Y}7). In one study, learning that a person "hit someone who annoyed him/her" was construed quite differently when this behavior was ostensibly performed by a construction worker versus a housewife (Kunda & Sherman-Williams, 1'Y}3). Specifically, participants believed the construction worker had "punched someone" while the housewife had "spanked a child". In other research, the trait description "very extraverted" was construed in unpleasant and pushy behavioral terms when applied to a car salesman (e.g., "talks too much"), but in pleasant and skilled behavioral terms when applied to an actor (e.g., "makes others feel comfortable"; Kunda et al., 1997, Study 1a). In the parallel-constraint satisfaction model, stereotypes have no special status group membership is simply one piece of information known about a person-but because of its associates, stereotypes, like other pieces of infor mation, constrain the meaning of trait terms. In this sense, the model is highly attuned to contextual variation in the meaning of trait-like judgments. Com.-mons with the Shifting Standards Model Similarties i The obvious connection between the PCSM and the SSM is the prediction that trait terms will mean different things when applied to members of dif ferent groups. As Kunda eta/. ( 1997) note, their model may be "more far reaching than earlier suggestions that stereotypes may affect the meaning of trait ratings" (p. 732), in that they describe the mutual manner in which stereotypes, traits, and behaviors influence each other. Furthermore, whereas the SSM has typically focused on quantitative differences between stereotyped
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MONICA BIERNAT AND ELIZABETH R. THOMPSON
groups, the PCSM emphasizes qualitative differences. As Kunda et a/. (1997) note, "an aggressive man be not only more aggressive than an aggressive woman, but also aggressive in different ways" (p. 732). Still, these views are quite consistent with each other, and in a recent paper we considered the likely impact of perceived qualitative differences in judgment standards across groups (Biernat et a/., 1998). For example, on the dimension of athleticism, a woman might be judged to be "athletic" if she does aerobics several times a week (a stereotype consistent behavior for women), and a man may also receive the same "ath letic" label if he plays several competitive sports (stereotype-consistent be havior for men). In this case, the key difference between the male and female is not in quantity but in quality or kind of athleticism. Furthermore, we suspect that because of such qualitative differences in the nature of trait terms, perceivers would not spontaneously compare these two targets to one another. However, if required to rank order the "athletic" man and the "athletic" woman on the dimension of athleticism (thereby forcing a cross category comparison) we suspect that perceivers would judge the male target as "more" athletic than the female target. One reason for this is that the athleticism exhibited by males is more prototypical of the trait "athletic" (and perhaps more valued as an athletic behavior) than is the athleticism exhibited by females (Biernat et a/., 1998). In other words, "playing sports" is a better exemplar of the trait category than is "doing aerobics". In parallel-constraint satisfaction terms, the exemplars or nodes associated with "playing sports" should receive greater activation than those for "doing aerobics" for the trait "athletic", when both male and female categories are activated. In short, we agree with Kunda et al. (1997) that not only do stereotypes affect trait mean ing in terms of quantity or degree, but also in terms of quality or kind. In fact, it may be the case that standards of comparison shift precisely because the behaviors expected of one group differ in kind, or qualitatively, from the behaviors expected of the other group. Work by Dunning and his colleagues (Dunning & Sherman, 1997; Dunning, 1993; Dunning & Cohen, 1992; Dunning, Meyerowitz, & Holzberg, 1989; Dunning, Perie, & Story, 1991) demonstrates that trait terms have adjustable meanings; they are "sponge" words that can take on the connotations of the context or the needs of the perceiver (Dunning, 1993). Furthermore, many traits have ambiguous behavioral referents, and therefore interpretations of and memory for these behaviors may be influenced by the social category membership of the actors (i.e., stereotypes). In a series of five studies, Dunning and Sherman (1997) found that stereotypes affected people's encoding and recall of ambiguous behavioral information. For example, participants were more likely to recall the sentence, "The nun was unhappy about the amount of liquor being served at the party", when cued with "didn't like all the alcohol" than when cued with "wanted more alcohol". Likewise, the sentence, "The rock musician was
SHIFTING STANDARDS IN STEREOTYPING
127
unhappy about the amount of liquor being served at the party", was better recalled when cued with "wanted more alcohol" than with "didn't like all the alcohol". Since the stereotype-consistent cues facilitated recall (rock musi cians like alcohol; nuns do not), it appears that participants made tacit in ferences at the time of encoding, based on their stereotypes, that were not explicit in the presented information (Dunning & Sherman, 1997; see also Slusher & Anderson, 1987). These findings are similar to the aforementioned work by Kunda and Sherman-Williams (1993) on the differential construal of "hitting someone who annoyed him/her" when applied to a housewife versus a construction worker. Participants in that study believed that the construction worker had "punched someone", while the housewife had "spanked a child". The SSM would predict that if the housewife and construction worker's aggression were assessed on subjective judgment scales (e.g., a 1-9 rating of aggressiveness), the two would be judged equivalently (based on the use of within-group standards). Spanking a child may be quite aggressive for a housewife, as is punching someone for a construction worker. However, if judges were asked to make a cross-category comparison (which is the more aggressive of the two?), we strongly suspect that the construction worker would be chosen. Not only does this judgment reflect the stereotype of construction workers as more aggressive than housewives, but also the perception that punching an adult is more aggressive than spanking a child (and perhaps more prototypical of the category "aggressive behavior"). We believe that these differences in meaning or construal contribute significantly to the signature shifting stand ards pattern-greater evidence of stereotyping on externally-anchored than on subjective judgment scales. Furthermore, our own research, described ear lier, on the "translation" of subjective evaluations into behavioral expecta tions is consistent with both the SSM and the PCSM in suggesting that the "same" traits may have very different meanings depending on the group stereotype that is activated (Kobrynowicz & Biernat, 1 997; cf., Peabody, 1967). We also see one other important connection between the two models. In their review of the literature on how stereotypes combine with individuating information to influence judgments, Kunda and Thagard (1996) note that, in situations where diagnostic individuating information overrides the influence of stereotypes on trait ratings of targets, stereotypes may nonetheless con tinue to influence behavioral predictions relevant to the trait. This argument echoes back to the notion that a given trait or category has many associates. Not only do construction workers and accountants differ with respect to aggression, but they also differ with respect to social class; furthermore, there are different expectations or associates of aggression for different social classes. For example, although a construction worker and an accountant were judged equally unaggressive after "failing to react to an insult", judges
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MONICA BIERNAT AND ELIZABETH R. THOMPSON
nonetheless assumed that the construction worker was more likely than the accountant to engage in aggressive behaviors such as "punching" and "cur sing" (Kunda et a/., 1997). This finding parallels the subjective-objective dif ference that emerges in much of our shifting standards research, suggesting that behavioral predictions function in much the same manner as objective judgments. For Kunda and Thagard (1996), behavioral predictions continue to be influ enced by stereotypes because individuating information about a trait (e.g., knowledge that a construction worker has walked away from a fight) does not override any number of other associates to the category label. These other associates (such as "working class" or "unrefined" in the case of the con struction worker), can have connections to other stereotype-consistent be haviors (e.g., "punches people"). Thus, activation of an expected behavior can still occur, even in the face of behavioral evidence or individuating infor mation that is non-stereotypical. In the SSM, objective judgments are influ enced by stereotypes because they invite a cross-category perspective that better taps into available stereotyped mental representations of targets. The stereotype makes a given behavior seem more likely for a target from one group versus the other. These explanations obviously differ in a number of ways. However, both views suggest that a stereotype is not simply a static piece of information used by perceivers. The important point here is that our research on the greater susceptibility of objective judgment scales to ster eotyping effects can readily be incorporated into the PCSM of impression formation. Differences Alongside these similarities, the shifting standards model also differs from the PCSM in a number of ways. First, the models offer different accounts of how perceivers arrive at a judgment of a target person. In the PCSM, associ ates of observed information (including social category information) are processed simultaneously until the system settles on a judgment, and this processing occurs automatically. In the SSM, the assumption is that acti vated stereotypes instantiate judgment standards against which individuals are compared. Judgment is either assimilated to, or contrasted from, the expectation, depending on the stereotype-consistency of the target and the type of judgment called for (within- vs. across-category). Although we have also suggested that this occurs relatively automatically, models incorporat ing comparison typically assume a more controlled, sequential process (Petty & Wegener, 1993; Schwarz & Bless, 1992). Furthermore, whereas Kunda and Thagard (1996) dismiss contrast effects as "too few" in number and too influenced by controlled processes to fall under the rubric of their model, contrast effects are a very likely outcome of the use of within-
SHIFTING STANDARDS IN STEREOTYPING
129
category judgment standards in the SSM. At this point, the process assump tions underlying the SSM have not been tested to the same degree as those of Kunda and Thagard's (1996) model, and it is therefore difficult to com ment on the differences between them. An intriguing possibility, however, is that judgment standards could be incorporated in an expanded version of a PCSM (see Read & Miller, 1 998), thereby providing a further means of integrating these perspectives. Looked at in a slightly different manner, a connectionist model (such as the PCSM) could address the possibility that a judgment context asking for a subjective evaluation of a target will activate a different subset of associates than a judgment context asking for an objective evaluation. Some indirect evidence for this comes from research on the use of meta-informational cues in social judgments (Abele & Petzold, 1 998). In these studies, a series of targets belonging to one of two different occupational categories were either presented in blocks (e.g., a block of nurses was judged, followed by a block of stockbrokers) or in a mixed presentation mode with targets from the two occupations interspersed. When participants judged the helpfulness of nurses and stockbrokers presented in blocks (thereby receiving the meta informational cue that nurses were to be compared with nurses and stock brokers to stockbrokers), stockbrokers were judged overall to be more help ful than were nurses (a contrast effect). However, when judges evaluated these same targets in a mixed presentation format (thereby receiving the meta-informational cue that nurses and stockbrokers were to be compared to one another across categories) nurses were judged to be more helpful than were stockbrokers (an assimilation effect). These results parallel the subjective-objective judgment distinction that emerges in shifting standards research, and they also suggest that different associates may be triggered by different meta-informational cues. In this sense, judgment type (subjective vs. objective; within-category vs. cross-category) may also be part of the context that determines what judgments emerge. A second difference between the two models concerns the centrality of stereotypes. As indicated above, stereotypes have no privileged status in Kunda and Thagard's (1996) model-they are but one piece of information about a person that enters into and constrains judgment. However, stereo types play a central role in the shifting standards model-the array of pre dicted effects is based entirely on the assumption that stereotyped expectations are critically important. There is much to like about Kunda and Thagard's (1996) perspective on stereotype non-centrality. Perhaps most not ably, the demotion of stereotypes to a smaller role captures the spirit of the meta-analytic finding that stereotypes influence judgments of individuals to a lesser extent ( r = 0.25) than does individuating information (r = 0.71; Kunda & Thagard, 1996, p. 292 ). Furthermore, it is often tricky to distinguish social category information from individuating information (is being a nurse an
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MONICA BIERNAT AND ELIZABETH R. THOMPSON
individuating attribute or a category?;
see Brewer, 1988), and the Kunda and
Thagard model avoids this problem. However, in our research on the SSM, we have focused on the effects of stereotypes on social judgment when other information is held constant. It is clearly the case that a person who gets As in
school will be judged more intelligent than a person who gets Cs, regardless of his/her race or gender. Nonetheless, within each level of ..inteUigence" evi dence, we suggest that stereotypes may have important, although
sometimes
subtle and complex, effects. For example, if one learns about a Black student who gets As and a White student who gets As, the Black student may be judged more intelligent in subjective terms, given comparison to within-group standards (e.g., ..for a Black student, he's really smart!"). At the same time,
our model suggests that the White student with As would nonetheless be chosen as the smarter of the two in a paired-choice comparison, and the White
student would likely be held to a lower standard to document competence
(see
Biernat & Kobrynowicz,
1997).5
Although social category information
(and its associated stereotypes) may be but one piece of information one knows about a person,
we suggest that it is a critical piece in that it activates
relevant comparison standards.
s......., Both the SSM and the PCSM of impression formation suggest that context will importantly affect the
use of stereotypes.
While the shifting standards
perspective has primarily focused on quantitative differences between stereo
typed groups and the paraUel-constraint satisfaction perspective emphasizes
qualitative differences, both models support the idea that the same traits
can
have very different meanings, depending upon the group membership of the
target in question. Both models have also found that behavioral predictions
can function quite differently than trait ratings. The models do differ in their descriptions of how a perceiver arrives at a particular judgment, but
we
be
lieve that incorporating perceivers' judgment standards into a PCSM could
benefit both perspectives. Although the role of stereotypes is central to the SSM and less so to the PCSM, both are ultimately concerned with how per
ceivers will judge members of stereotyped groups and what contextual factors influence those judgments.
'Kelley's (1973) "augmentation" principle suggests that if one assumes that the Black student with As � overcome obstacles to achieve that standing, he/she should be judged smarter than the CXJmparable White student. This is obviously at odds with ourperspective.Two issues may be relevant to reconciling this point (a) perceivers in today's American political climate may not assume that high-achieving Blacks have overcome obstacles; and (b) augmentation effects may be revealed more strongly in subjective rather than objective judgments. We have not directly addressed the role of attributions in the SSM. but this would provide an interesting avenue for future research.
SHIFTING STANDARDS IN STEREOTYPING
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CONCLUSIONS
Over the past several decades, the social psychological literature has seen a considerable shift in emphasis from the view of stereotypes as rigid cognitive structures that are too readily applied, to a view of stereotypes as flexible constructs, subject to contextual variation and change. Our work on the shift ing standards model incorporates this contextual view by noting that ster eotyping effects are dependent on the judge's frame of reference (e.g., within category vs. across-category) and the type of judgment scale or evaluative language at hand. It has been our goal here to review this work and to relate it to other perspectives that address the broader issue of stereotypes in context. We have focused on comparisons with two important theoretical perspec tives that strongly reflect the contextual view of stereotypes and stereotyping. Self-categorization theory emphasizes context in its view that the very content of stereotypes varies across situations and according to perceiver goals, in the construct of the meta-contrast ratio, which describes when a social category will become salient in a given situation, and in the notion that the self can shift from personal to social levels of identification (see Turner, 1999, for a review). The PCSM of impression formation emphasizes context in its recognition that stereotypes serve to influence and constrain the meaning of other information one might learn about a target person (Kunda & Thagard, 1 996). There are many differences between our work on the SSM and these other approaches. Most notably, both SCT and the PCSM are broader in scope than the SSM; SCT in particular speaks to many domains beyond stereotyping, and also incorporates the self in a way the other perspectives do not. Other dif ferences have been reviewed earlier in this chapter, but we prefer to leave the reader focused on the similarities among these approaches. Each model recognizes that stereotypes are not uniformly applied to indi vidual group members, but rather are "part of the mix" of impression form ation, and that the judge's frame of reference is a critically important determinant of perception and judgment. We feel that the SSM can most profitably benefit from the other perspectives by better incorporating the self (in terms of group membership and identification, and standing on the judg ment dimension), and by focusing more specifically on the process by which perceivers judge members of stereotyped groups (e.g., does a parallel con straint process hold? Does judgment relative to a category standard involve controlled or automatic processes?) In turn, we think the SSM offers to the PCSM and reinforces for SCT the message that response language matters. Not only can people mean different things by trait terms they use, but they may have conflicting judgments and perceptions of the same target at the same time, depending on the type of judgment standard activated (e.g., min imum vs. confirmatory) and the form of evaluative language at hand (e.g. , subjective vs. objective).
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Chapter 5
A Group By Any Other Name-The Role of Entitativity in Group Perception David L. Hamilton
University of California at Santa Barbara, USA Steven J. Sherman
Indiana University, USA Luigi Castelli
University of Padova, Italy
ABSTRACT The social world consists of numerous and diverse groupings of people into meaningful and important collectives. As perceivers, we routinely encounter aggregates of people, some of which we endow with the property of groupness, and others we do not. Moreover, the variety of groups is enormous, yet per ceivers differentiate among them and understand their properties. This chapter discusses how and why perceivers "see" an aggregate of persons as a group, the distinctions among different types of groups that perceivers detect, the variation among groups in their perceived groupness or entitativity, and the consequences that follow from perceiving a group as an entitative unit. The results of our research program addressing these issues are summarized, and implications for remaining unanswered questions are discussed.
Correspondence regarding this chapter should be addressed to David L. Hamilton, Department of Psychology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA. European Review of Social Psychology, Volume 12. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Edited by Wolfgang Stroebe and Miles Hewstone.
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Committee-a group of men who individually can do nothing but as a group decide that nothing can be done (Fred Allen). Land of our birth, we pledge to thee Our love and toil in the years to be; When we are grown and take our place, As men and women with our race (Rudyard Kipling). To the family-that dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape, nor, in our inmost hearts, ever quite wish to (Dodie Smith).
All of these quotes refer to groups with which we are very familiar. All of us originate from a family context; we all have some national and ethnic identi fication, and (for better or worse) we have all served on committees. To a considerable extent our social life is organized according to group-like struc tures, and we all are members of numerous groups. Yet, as the quotations above illustrate, the range and variety of those groups is impressively broad. Indeed, the term "group" encompasses an enormous array of social struc tures. Not only are we members of, and participants in, groups of various kinds, but also we, individually and collectively, perceive and interact with groups continually in everyday life. As perceivers, we recognize that others belong to and function in groups, and our cognizance of that fact influences both our perceptions of and behavior toward those persons. This chapter is concerned with the perception of groups by perceivers. A group, at its minimum, is a collection of individuals. However, not all collec tions of individuals are groups. The fact that perceivers can somehow dif ferentiate between collections of persons that are and are not groups, and that they can further differentiate among groups that are families, committees, and nationalities, is perhaps trivially obvious. It is also fundamental to successful adaptation in social life. And, for the social psychologist interested in group perception, it also poses a number of intriguing and challenging questions, the answers to which are not so obvious. In this chapter we raise some of those questions and attempt to address them. Since its beginnings, social psychology has developed massive literatures concerned with both the nature of groups at various levels of analysis and how they function (Levine & Moreland, 1998; Pruitt, 1998) and the perception of groups by observers and how those perceptions guide behavior (Brewer & Brown, 1998; Crocker, Major, & Steele, 1998; Fiske, 1998). Despite the rich and extensive history of research on these topics, questions of how perceivers "see" a collection of persons as a group have received little systematic investigation. In our work, we have focused on one important aspect of group perception, the perceived "entitativity" or "groupness" of the group. Although the term "entitativity" was coined by Campbell (1958) over 40 years ago, it is only in recent years that researcheFS have attempted to understand how that percep-
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tion is achieved and what differences it makes. However, this recent work has already revealed the varieties and complexities inherent in our conception of groups. As we shall see, differences in perceived entitativity have important consequences for various perceptions, inferences, and evaluations of the group and its members, as well as for behaviors toward, and interactions with, group members. ENTITATIVITY: THE CONCEPT
To begin our analysis, it is useful to consider the meaning of the concept of entitativity. When he introduced the term, Campbell ( 1 958) simply offered (in a footnote) the following: "Entitativity: the degree of being entitative. The degree of having the nature of an entity" (p. 17). Campbell's discussion made clear that the term referred to perceiving the "groupness" of groups, and his article was effective in delineating some of the cues that perceivers might use in detecting that an aggregate of individuals possesses that quality of group ness. Nevertheless, the definitional imprecision and the variety of cues on which such perceptions might be based has resulted in considerable latitude in the way the term has been defined, manipulated, and measured in research. Some authors (e.g., Brewer, Weber, & Carini, 1 995; McGarty, Haslam, Hutchinson, & Grace, 1995; Yzerbyt, Rogier, & Fiske, 1998) have focused on perceived similarity or variability among group members as a cue to group ness. Others (e.g., Haslam, 1 998; Yzerbyt, Rocher, & Schadron, 1997) have emphasized a relation between group entitativity and the concept of essential ism in the perception of social categories. Another view (Brewer & Harasty, 1996) has related perceived entitativity to the extent to which the perceiver has a clear prototype representing the group. Finally, some writers (e.g., Gaertner & Schopler, 1998; Hamilton, Sherman, & Lickel, 1 998) have stressed the interdependence, interconnectedness, and organization among group members as an important basis for perceived entitativity. These various approaches often reflect different, and sometimes unspecified, assumptions about the nature of entitativity. To avoid such assumptions and any ideologi cal constraints they may entail, we choose to employ a neutral, generic defini tion of the term. We will use the term "entitativity" to refer to the perception that an aggregate of individuals is bonded together in some way to constitute a group. The variety inherent in current conceptions of entitativity has brought both advantages and disadvantages to progress in research inquiry. The disadvan tage, of course, is that there remains an unsatisfying lack of clarity in the meaning of this term and especially in the limits on its referents. On the other hand, and particularly in the early stages of a new line of inquiry, this concep tual liberalism is perhaps beneficial in that it can permit researchers to
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consider and to explore numerous implications of the concept. We believe that this has, in fact, been the case in this new research on entitativity, and in the remainder of this chapter we hope to convey the richness and diversity of questions and issues that have been examined as a consequence. Neverthe less, it will soon become important that researchers come to a common under standing of what is and is not meant by this term. As Campbell (1958) noted, an analysis of entitativity is not simply a matter that some collections of groups "have it" and others do not; groups vary considerably in the extent to which we perceive them as possessing this quality. Moreover, as suggested at the outset, the term "group" itself can have a variety of meanings; it can refer to entities that vary considerably in their properties. Do perceivers meaningfully differentiate among different types of groups, and if so, on what basis? If perceivers do recognize groups as varying in entitativity, what difference does it make in their perceptions of those groups? Finally, do different types of groups differ in the extent to which they are perceived as entitative? In this chapter, we discuss the findings of recent research on perceiving group entitativity and attempt to use those findings to assess our understanding of these questions. ANTECEDENTS TO PERCEPTIONS OF ENTITATIVITY
Cues to Entitativity
Campbell's (1958) discussion of entitativity was focused on the question of how perceivers use available informational cues to infer that an aggregate of individuals has the quality of being a group. His analysis, based on a Gestalt approach, highlighted certain properties that, if present, might suggest that an aggregate is a group. For example, if the individual persons are in close proximity to each other, if they appear similar to each other, if they move together in coordinated action and appear to have common fate (e.g., shared goals and common outcomes), then it is more likely that they would be perceived as an entitative unit. Although Campbell reported no research evidence in support of his analysis, these ideas have provided useful guides to subsequent investigators. Following Campbell's conceptual analysis, our research has investigated the role of different types of stimulus information one might have about groups as bases for perceivers' inferences about the entitativity of groups. In a series of studies (Lickel, Hamilton, Wieczorkowska, Lewis, Sherman, & Uhles, 2000) , we sought to determine the extent to which several stimulus properties are predictive of perceptions of a group's entitativity. Parallel studies were con ducted at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) and the Uni versity of Warsaw, Poland. Participants rated a diverse array of 40 groups (e.g., a family, a committee, women, an orchestra, people at a bus stop) on a
ROLE OF ENTITA TIVITY IN GROUP PERCEPTION
143
variety of rating scales. Instructions indicated that some groups seem to be "groups" to a greater extent than others are (without suggesting why), and participants were asked to rate the extent to which each one of the 40 groups "qualified as a group", which we used as a measure of perceived group en titativity. Participants then rated each of those same groups on several group properties that previous authors had suggested as cues to entitativity. These included the extent to which members interact, the importance of the group to its members, the similarity among group members, the extent to which mem bers share common goals and common fate, the size of the group, the length of its history, and whether joining and leaving the group is easy or difficult. Among these group attributes, interaction, importance, common goals, com mon fate, and similarity were most strongly correlated with perceived group entitativity. In contrast, group size, length of group history, and the per meability of group boundaries were essentially uncorrelated with entitativity. These studies provided among the first empirical tests of the relative import ance of a variety of group properties as indicators of group entitativity across a broad spectrum of groups. Importantly, the results of these analyses, based on data from the UCSB and Warsaw samples, were remarkably similar (see Lickel et al., 2000, for details). Types of Groups
Our next step was to use these rated group properties to discern whether distinct types of groups could be identified. That is, the 40 stimulus groups rated by participants intentionally included a very diverse array of groups, which differed in many respects. Therefore, we considered the ratings on these eight group characteristics to comprise a profile for each group, and we then used these profiles to statistically identify several group types, each of which had a distinct pattern of features. For example, intimacy groups (e.g., family, close friends, local street gang) are small groups with high levels of interaction; membership is important to their members, the groups have long histories, and changing membership is not easy. Task-oriented groups (e.g., a committee, a jury, cast of a play, people working in a restaurant) are also relatively small and highly interactive and their mem bers have shared goals and common outcomes, but compared to intimacy groups, these groups are less centrally important to their members, are of shorter duration, and joining and leaving such groups is not difficult. In marked contrast to these first two types, social categories (e.g., women, Blacks, Jews, Americans) are very large groups with long histories and relatively impermeable boundaries, and lower levels of interaction among members. Loose associations (e.g., students at the same university, people living in the same neighborhood, people who like classical music) are also large groups but have very low levels of interaction, have shorter histories,
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DAVID L. HAMILTON, STEVEN J. SHERMAN AND LUIGI CASTELLI
are not centrally important to their members, and changing membership is relatively easy. Finally, transitory groups (people at a bus stop, people in line at a
bank)
were low on all properties except that joining and leaving the
groups is very easy. We then determined the average entitativity rating of the groups classified into each group type. We consistently found that inti macy groups were rated highest in entitativity, followed by task-oriented groups, social categories, and loose associations, in that order. In most analyses, the differences between group types in perceived entitativity were all statistically significant. The group types obtained in one of these analyses, and the mean ratings of each group type on the various attributes, are shown in Table 5.1. Tllble 5.1
Average ratings of five group types on entitativity and group properties
Property
Entitativity Interaction Importance
Goals Outcomes Similarity Duration Permeability Size
Intimacy groups
Task groups
6.79 8.22 8.24 7.16 5.64 5.56 6.22 21!;1 1.98
634 6.51 653 7.21 5.83 4.84 4.34 4.64 3.57
Social
Weak social
categories
groups
Transitory groups
4.47 4.21 5.70 3.87 252 335 7.94 3.72 8.02
4.66 4.64 4.68 4.80 3.28 3.83 5.06 6.01 5.05
2.31 1.92 1.80 5.03 3.48 225 1.48 8.41 4.35
Note. Ratings were made on nine-point scales. From Licltel et al� 2000, with permission. Participants in both of these studies also completed a sorting task in which
they were asked to sort the 40 groups into categories that reflected the same
"type" of group. Instructions were fairly non-specific and permitted sorting
on whatever criteria participants chose to use. These sorting data were then
used as a second empirical basis for identifying types of groups, as perceived by participants. The results of these analyses, for both the UCSB and Warsaw samples, revealed types of groups that largely paralleled those derived from participants' ratings of the groups on attribute dimensions. In fact, a series of analyses empirically comparing the ratings-based and the sortings-based
structures established a very high degree of comparability between (a) the two sets of analyses and (b) the results obtained from the two samples (Lickel et al., 2000).
In a third study, we extended these analyses to the important case where
the participant is a member c:l. the groups being considered We sought to
determine whether, and how, group membership influences the perception d group entitativity. Participants at Indiana University were asked to list
12
ROLE OF ENTITATIVITY IN GROUP PERCEPTION
145
groups to which they belonged, and subsequently were asked to rate each of these groups on a series of attributes. These rating scales assessed the same variables rated in the previous studies, as well as one additional attribute-the importance of membership in the group to the participants themselves. Cor relational analyses of these variables with ratings of groupness (entitativity) paralleled those relations found in the earlier studies: interaction, importance of membership, common goals, common fate, and similarity again were most strongly related to perceived group entitativity. In this case, however, ratings of the importance of one's own membership in the group were most strongly correlated with perceived entitativity. When the group profiles based on these ratings were analyzed to determine types of groups, the results were again similar to the earlier analyses, with intimacy groups, task groups, social cate gories, and loose associations evident in these results. In sum, in this series of studies we have investigated some of the antecedent cues upon which perceptions of group entitativity may be based. These studies have shown that certain group features or properties-high interaction among group members, importance of group membership, sharing of common goals and common outcomes, similarity among members-consistently were most highly correlated with ratings of group entitativity across a broad spectrum of groups. Moreover, structural analyses indicated that perceivers differentiate several distinct types of groups, including intimacy groups, task groups, social categories, and loose associations. Finally, these types of groups differed sig nificantly in the extent to which they were perceived as possessing entitativity. All of these findings consistently emerged in similar analyses: (a) in three separate studies (conducted in Santa Barbara, CA, USA; Warsaw, Poland; Bloomington, IN, USA); (b) in analyses based on ratings of groups on de scriptive scales and in structural analyses based on participants' sorting of the groups into categories; and (c) using groups provided by the researchers and also using groups generated by the participants to which they belonged (see Lickel et at., 2000, for details). Thus, our findings provide evidence of gener ality in the correlates of perceived entitativity, and also suggest that these types of groups reflect some fundamental distinctions in the ways people think about social groups. Spontaneous Differentiation of Group Types
All of the analyses reported by Lickel et at. involved tasks in which the participants engaged in thoughtful, deliberative procedures. One might plau sibly wonder: do people spontaneously make these distinctions among types of groups in their everyday perceptions, thoughts, and categorizations, even at times and in contexts when they are not asked to rate or sort various groups on various attributes? The answer appears to be "Yes". We (Sherman, Castelli, & Hamilton, in press) have recently obtained evidence that people
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DAVID L. HAMILTON, STEVEN J. SHERMAN AND LUIGI CASTELLI
spontaneously distinguish among these group types in their normal cognitive functioning. If the group types that emerged in the Lickel et a/. studies are indeed psychologically meaningful, then those types would represent cognitive struc tures that would influence the way information about social groups is spon taneously processed and stored in memory. We focused on how information about individuals who are presented as members of different social groups is organized in memory. If the defining characteristics of a group type are spon taneously extracted and used to categorize groups into different typologies, specific information about two groups that share similar defining characteris tics should be more likely to be confused, even when this information is unrelated to the distinct defining features. In the first experiment (Sherman et a/., 2000 ) , we adopted a recognition memory paradigm that represents a useful, unobtrusive measure of how information is encoded and stored in memory (Taylor, Fiske, Etcoff, & Ruderman, 1978). We presented participants with pictures of 60 male faces one time each for 3 seconds, along with a label indicating the group mem bership of the person portrayed in the picture. Six different group labels were used (10 members of each group), two for each of the three major types of groups identified in the Lickel et a/. (2000 ) studies (i.e., family members and friends for intimacy groups, co-workers and jury members for task-oriented groups, and French and Presbyterians for social-categories). Participants simply looked at the faces and read aloud the group identifica tion labels. In a subsequent recognition test, only the pictures of the 60 faces were presented, and participants were asked to recall the original group membership of the person. Errors and response latencies constituted the main dependent variables. We predicted that the highest number of errors would occur from a given group to a group of the same type (e.g., misremembering a French person as a Presbyterian) rather than to a group of a different type (e.g., misremembering a French person as a jury member). In other words, "within-group-type er rors" should be more frequent than "between-group-type errors". In addi tion, response latencies should be faster for within-group-type errors than for between-group-type errors, because participants will be more certain of the (mis)identifications in the former case. The accessibility of the group-type label will make all groups of that type appear to be familiar. Results showed significantly more within-group-type errors than between group-type errors. Figure 5.1 shows the findings from Experiment 1. Thus, if a face had been labeled as a Frenchman (a social category), then participants were far more likely to misidentify the face as a Presbyterian (another social category) than as a family member (an intimacy group) or a jury member (a task-oriented group). In addition, the within-group-type errors were signifi cantly faster than the between-group-type-errors.
ROLE OF ENTITATIVITY IN GROUP PERCEPTION
3.4
3 Identification errors 2.8
2.64
2.57
2.6
3.25
3.21
3.19
3.2
147
2.4
2.3
2.2 2
Wlhin intimacy
Between Intimacy
Within task
Between task
Within soccat
Between soccat
Within· vs. between goup-type errors for each type of goup
Ftpre S.l Within group and between-group errors as a function Reproduced with permission
of
group
type.
A second experiment served to replicate these results, using behaviors of
different group members (as opposed to photographs) as stimuli. In the recog nition phase, the
60 behaviors
were presented for group identification. In a
replication of the results of the first experiment, behaviors performed by members of one group were more likely to be misremembered as having been performed by members of a different group of the same type than as having been performed by members of a different group of a different general type.
A third experiment investigated the organization of information in memory
by employing free recall. In particular, the sequence of free recall was used to
reveal this memory organization. If participants utilized the distinctions among group types in the representation of information in memory, the prob ability of sequentially retrieving information about two groups of the same type should be greater than the probability of sequentially retrieving informa
tion about two groups of different types. To investigate this possibility, 60 behaviors (again,
10
behaviors for each of six groups; two groups d. each
general group type) were presented. and a surprise recall task was then ad ministered. As predicted, recall sequences involving transitions within the same general group type were significantly more common than recall se quences involving transitions from one type of group to another type. Finally. a fourth experiment investigated the effects of our group typology on the speed and accuracy of category membership verification. It was hypothesized
that. after individuals have learned the correct category membership of a
social target (e.g
.•
a specific person is a Pentecostal, a social category), it will
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DAVID L. HAMILTON, STEVEN J. SHERMAN AND LUIGI CASTELLI
be more difficult to then conclude that he is not a member of another group of the same type (e.g., a Belgian, another social category). Knowledge that the target belongs to a group of a particular type (e.g., a social category) should lead one to infer (at least momentarily) that the target is a member of that type of group, and therefore groups of the same type will be confusable. In this study, participants learned, to a strict criterion, the group memberships of 24 social targets, by viewing their pictures and a category label. Six different category labels were used, two representing each of the three group types. Participants then performed a social category verification task. On the com puter screen, one of the six group labels appeared. One second later, a previously-seen picture appeared below the label, and participants had to respond as quickly and accurately as possible whether the target in the picture was or was not a member of the group indicated by the label. The data of interest are participants' responses, in terms of both accuracy and speed, for mismatching trials, when the label was not the correct membership category of the person in the picture. We expected that a higher number of incorrect "Yes" answers would occur in the case of members of a group of the same type. In addition, we predicted that response latencies to incorrectly say "Yes" would be faster if the incorrect group label were of the same group type as the actual membership. The results supported both predictions, and again indicated that groups of the same general type are highly confusable and thus that they are represented together in memory. These experiments clearly indicate that not all groups are alike and that the group typology identified by Lickel et a/. (2000) is spontaneously used when information is encoded about various social groups. This spontaneous use of an implicit group typology has a powerful influence on the cognitive organiza tion of information about social groups and their members. These different group types are represented according to a typology that takes into account the phenomenal antecedents that serve as indicators of perceived "group ness" (Campbell, 1958; Hamilton et a/., 1998). The ways in which these group types differ are systematic and involve some rather high-level, abstract char acteristics. The fact that people spontaneously differentiate among group types is especially interesting, given that there do not appear to be any simple words to describe the group types. There are important implications of this spontaneous use of a group typol ogy. For example, the impression one forms of any given social group should be more affected by any information about other groups of the same general type than by information about groups of different types. In addition, memory errors about which group might have been responsible for any given initiative or outcome may be greater when two groups are of the same type. Thus, source-monitoring processes (Johnson, Hashtroudi, & Lindsay, 1993) may be affected by our group typology, because membership in the same superordi nate category is known to affect source monitoring. Finally, impressions of
ROLE OF ENTIT A TIVITY IN GROUP PERCEPTION
149
individuals may be affected by group typology if information about individ uals is sought and organized according to similarities of the individual's group membership, as specified by this typology. The functionality of employing such a group typology in the cognitive organization of persons and groups will be discussed in a subsequent section. What We've Learned, and Some New Questions
These studies by Lickel et al. (2000) and Sherman et al. (in press) provide evidence for several points that have important implications for social percep tion. First, they document that perceivers recognize variation among groups in the extent to which they constitute meaningful entities, in the sense of having the quality of "groupness" and bondedness among their members. Second, they provide evidence that perceivers distinguish among different types of groups and recognize the different types as having meaningfully different properties and characteristics. Third, the results show that these different types of groups are seen as differing in entitativity, as well as in other important characteristics. Fourth, evidence indicates that these distinctions are not the product merely of completing paper-and-pencil tasks involving group descriptions, which could reflect demand characteristics and/or seman tic and cultural distinctions regarding groups, but that people spontaneously utilize these distinctions in encoding and storing information about group members. The findings also raise a number of intriguing questions, the answers to which await further investigation. We briefly consider two such questions here. First, given that perceivers meaningfully and consistently differentiate among different types of groups, and that these different group types are all seen (to varying degrees) as possessing entitativity, one might pose the follow ing question: does entitativity mean the same thing for all group types? Is it meaningful to talk about entitativity in all of these cases? A complete answer to these questions is not currently available. We defined entitativity as the perception that a collection of persons is bonded together in some way and is therefore seen as a meaningful unit, and our results show that these very different types of groups are indeed seen (to varying degrees) as comprising groups. What our findings also show is that the different group types are defined by different features or properties. For example, intimacy groups are perceived as small, highly interactive, long-lasting, and unchanging groups that are highly important to their members. Task groups share some of these properties (small size, high interaction), but are also characterized by other features (lower importance to members, shorter history, ease in joining or leaving). Social categories are defined by quite different features, such as their long histories and their unchanging (impermeable) membership status. These differences in defining features (at least in how these groups are perceived)
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DAVID L. HAMILTON, STEVEN J. SHERMAN AND LUIGI CASTELLI
suggest the possibility that the very perception of entitativity or groupness itself may be based on different group properties for different types of groups. Second, assuming that there is a psychological reality to these different group types, the question naturally arises as to what functions are served by having such a cognitive organization and categorization of groups. That is, it may be entirely plausible that perceivers make important distinctions be tween individuals and groups, that they think of others as individuals and also recognize that people join together to form groups. But why isn't that ade quate? Why does the perceiver go further, as our findings document, and perceptually differentiate among, and presumably form distinct cognitive structures for, different types of groups? What functions are served by making such distinctions? Again, at this point we can only speculate. As we saw, our perceivers differentiated among three major group types intimacy groups, task-oriented groups, and social categories. We propose that these three group types correspond to three of the most important social motivations that characterize humans. First, there is the need for belonging ness (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). This need involves aspects of affiliation (Schachter, 1959), emotional attachment and support (Bowlby, 1969), love, and acceptance. Membership in high-intimacy groups, such as friends or fam ily, serves to promote these goals, while at the same time preventing loneli ness, alienation, and rejection. A second major social human motivation is that of achievement (Atkinson & Feather, 1966; McClelland, Atkinson, Clark, & Lowell, 1953) and compet ence (White, 1959). Here the goals are toward mastery, cohesion, success, cooperation, and efficacy (Bandura, 1982). In many contexts, task completion and goal attainment are more easily achieved, and sometimes can only be achieved, as a group effort. Thus, participation in task-oriented groups can serve an important function in helping the individual to achieve important goals. At the same time, the possibilities of failure and conflict are reduced by membership in task-oriented groups. Third, humans also have an important need to establish a stable and secure sense of self and social identity (Tajfel & Turner, 1979, 1986; Turner, 1987). The specific goals may involve self-esteem maintenance and enhancement, self-knowledge, self-protection, self-validation, and reduction of uncertainty (Hogg & Mullin, 1999). As emphasized in social identity theory, these goals are often met by the broad social categories to which people belong. Individ uals take pride in and often find much of their personal identities in their group memberships, including their identification with large social categories, such as their religion, nationality, or ethnicity. Because it is of primary importance that these three kinds of social motives are satisfied, it should not be surprising that people think about groups in ways that are associated with the satisfaction of these different needs and motives. If one has an acute need for achievement or affiliation, it is important
ROLE OF ENTITATIVITY IN GROUP PERCEPTION
151
to know exactly where to go i n order to fulfill such a need. Thus, groups that fulfill the same motive may be represented together in memory, even if they share few lower level features in common. CONSEQ UENCES OF PERCEIVED ENTITATIVITY
Given that the evidence reviewed above establishes that perceivers recognize variation among groups in their entitativity, the next question naturally con cerns the consequences of this variation. What difference does it make? Re search by several investigators has pursued that question in a number of different ways, resulting in documentation of several consequences of per ceived entitativity. Integrative Processing
Hamilton and Sherman (1996; Hamilton, Sherman, & Lickel, 1998) reasoned that entitativity reflects the perceived unity and coherence of a group target. They also recognized that different social targets vary considerably in the extent to which they are perceived as having these qualities. For example, there is a long and rich literature on forming impressions of individuals, with the inherent assumption that the target person has a unified and coherent personality and the perceiver's goal in forming an impression is to compre hend that personality. Individual targets, in other words, are assumed to be high in entitativity. If so, then differences in the perceptions of individual and group targets may parallel differences in the perceptions of groups that differ in perceived entitativity. Following Asch (1946), Hamilton and Sherman (1996) argued that the expectation of unity leads perceivers to use the information available to infer dispositional qualities in the target of impression formation, to assume consis tency across time and situation in the nature of that target's personality, to form an organized impression of the target, and to attempt to resolve any inconsistencies in the information acquired about the target. Hamilton and Sherman predicted that these processes would be more prevalent in forming impressions of individuals than of groups. More generally, they proposed that perceivers are more likely to engage in what they (Hamilton, Sherman, & Maddox, 1999) called integrative processing in forming impressions of individ uals than of groups and, by extension, of groups high in entitativity than of groups low in entitativity. The strategy they adopted was to compare two experimental conditions, both of which involved the same information (usually, behavior-descriptive sentences) and both of which employed the same task (impression formation) . The only difference between conditions was in the target of the impression to
1 52
DAVID L. HAMILTON, STEVEN J. SHERMAN AND LUIGI CASTELLI
be formed. In one case, participants were told that the same person had performed all behaviors and their task was to form an impression of that person. In the other case, participants were told that a different person per formed each behavior, but that all of these persons belonged to the same group, and the task was to form an impression of the group. A number of studies have been conducted using this basic paradigm, and these studies have assessed a variety of dependent measures tapping different aspects of infor mation processing (Hilton & Von Hippel, 1990; McConnell, Sherman, & Hamilton, 1994, 1997; Stern, Marrs, Millar, & Cole, 1984; Susskind et a/., 1999; Welbourne, 1999; Wyer, Bodenhausen, & Srull, 1984). For example, Susskind et a/. (1999) used this paradigm to investigate the inference processes engaged during the impression-formation process. They reasoned that the expectancy of unity and coherence in a social target would induce more on-line inference processes during information processing and, based on the assumptions outlined above, such integrative processing should be more evident for an individual target than for a group target. Participants were presented a series of 16 sentences describing behaviors performed: (a) by a single individual; (b) by individuals who all belong to the same group; or (c) by an aggregate of individual persons-and were told to form an impres sion of the target. After reading the stimulus sentences, they completed a number of dependent measures. The results, shown in Table 5.2, provided consistent support for the hypotheses. Participants rated the individual as more organized and coherent, and judged the stimulus behaviors to comprise a more coherent pattern, in the individual target condition than in the other conditions. Moreover, they made more extreme trait ratings of the individual target, made those judgments more quickly, and were more confident in those judgments for the individual target than for the group target. Table 5.2
Mean ratings on dependent measures Target type
Measure Individual
Group
Aggregate
Organization of target's behaviors
5.66
4.43
4.10
Perceived unity of the target
6.00
4.06
4.03
Trait ratings
5.98
5.29
4.92
Response latencies to trait ratings (in seconds)
4.74
6.16
6.16
Confidence ratings
5.54
5.23
4.21
Recall
5.72
5.09
4.26
From Susskind et al., 1999 , Experiment 1, with permission.
153
ROLE OF ENTITATIVITY IN GROUP PERCEPTION
In this study, all of the behavior descriptions were positive instantiations of one or another favorable trait Therefore, these differences in extremity of ratings reflected variation in the extent to which participants inferred a dis position from the same amount of trait-<:ansistent behavioral information. In a second study, Susskind
et at. (1999) investigated the extent to which incon
sistencies are resolved n i forming impressions of individuals and groups. In the context of an impression formation study, participants were given brief synopses that established an initial m i pression of either an individual or a group target on a single trait dimension (e.g., "He (They] tend to be thought
of as very intelligent. He is (They are] described as having [a] sharp, quick
mind[s] that help(s] him[them] excel at almost everything he[they] do(es]").
They then were presented a series of nine behavior-descriptive sentences, six of which were consistent with the initial impression
and three of which were
nconsistent i with that expectancy. For each of these stimulus sentences, the participant's task was to write a continuation of that statement (Hastie,
1984).
These continuations generated by participants were coded as being either
non-causal extensions or causal attributions.
The results of this study are shown in Table 5.3. Replicating Hastie's (1984)
findings for an individual target, participants in the individual target condition wrote non-causal extensions following impression-<:ansistent behaviors but wrote causal explanations in response to expectancy-inconsistent behaviors. The latter finding reflects integrative processing, in that participants were at
tempting to account for the inconsistent piece of information and to incorporate
it into an emerging, coherent impression. In contrast, when each behavior was performed by a different person, all of whom belonged to a group, this form of
integrative processing did not occur. Instead, participants in this condition
wrote non
of news "fits into" the coherent view of the person that is being
formed In contrast, learning that one group member has behaved in a manner inconsistent with one's overall impression of the group is not so troubling and does not initiate any special processing to account for that discrepmcy.
Table 5.3 Mean proportions of attributiom and oon-<:ausal extensions
Individual target Extension type Attribution Non-<:ausal extension
Congruent
Incongruent
0.40 0.59
0.46 0.37
From Susskind el al 1999, Experiment 2, with permission. .•
Group target Congruent 0.40
059
Incongruent 0.36 0.47
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DAVID L. HAMILTON, STEVEN J. SHERMAN AND LUIGI CASTELLI
Results reported by McConnell et a/. (1997) substantiate these findings. Like Susskind et a/. (1999), these researchers compared impression processes for individual and group targets, but in addition orthogonally manipulated perceiver expectations. Specifically, they induced expectations of high or low entitativity by presenting brief paragraphs at the outset that informed the participant that the person or group was either highly consistent in behaviors and personality, or that dissimilarity and inconsistency characterized the per son or group. A third condition was given no prior expectancy. Participants then read 24 behavior-descriptive sentences (16 desirable, 8 undesirable be haviors), and subsequently were asked to recall freely as many of those be haviors as they could and to rate the target on a 10-point liking scale. Three measures were assessed as indicators of integrative processing: amount of free recall, primacy in recall (recalling more early than late stimulus behaviors), and the correlation between free recall and evaluative judgments. Thus, the experiment had a 2 (individual or group target) x 3 (high, low, or no expec tancy induction) design. The theoretical prediction was that three of the conditions-high-entitativity individual, high-entitativity group, and no expectancy individual-would evidence greater integrative processing than the other three conditions-low-entitativity individual, low-entitativity group, and no-expectancy group. As can be seen in Table 5.4, the results conformed to predictions for each of these measures. The middle column of Table 5.4 compares the individual versus group comparison made in several previous studies, as we have just discussed. Again, the results suggest greater integrative processing for the individual than for the group target (better recall of stimulus information, and that recall appears not to be memory-based, as reflected in the near-zero memory-judgment correlation). The unique contribution of McConnell et a/. 's design was that the instructional manipulation of expected entitativity significantly altered this standard difference. Specifically, expectations of high Table 5.4 Effects of target type and entitativity manipulation on recall and memory judgment correlations
Expected entitativity
Target
Free recall Individual Group Memory-judgment correlation Individual Group
High
No information
Low
12.78 10.72
12.94 8.94
10.28 8.33
0. 1 1 0.33
-0.13 0.39
0.62 0.45
Adapted from McConnell et al. (1997), Experiment I, Tables 2 and 3.
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target (individual or group) entitativity produced results comparable to the "typical" individual target condition, whereas induction of low entitativity expectations (for either individual or group) led to results resembling those for the "typical" group target condition. These findings are useful in docu menting the importance of entitativity expectations in driving these differing outcomes for individual and group targets. Welbourne (1999), using a different paradigm, has also found differences in processing information about individual and group targets, and, like McCon nell et al. (1997), also manipulated expectations of entitativity as well. Her results were quite consistent with those summarized above, and also provided evidence suggesting that the effects of expected entitativity reflect assump tions about the coherence and organization of the target, rather than expecta tions of consistency (Hamilton et al., 1998). The results of several studies, then, tell a consistent story. Despite the fact that participants in the different conditions were given the same task and identical information, differences between conditions have consistently been obtained, and across studies, on a number of dependent measures. Compared to people forming impressions of a group target, people forming impressions of an individual make more extreme trait ratings; they make those judgments more quickly; they are more confident in those judgments; they recall more of the behavioral information, especially behaviors that are incongruent with the emerging impression; those incongruencies trigger causal attributional think ing to explain those inconsistencies; and memory-judgment correlations are typically low (for reviews of these studies, see Hamilton & Sherman, 1996; Hamilton, Sherman, & Maddox, 1999). Hamilton et al. (1999) have referred to this syndrome of processing characteristics as integrative processing. For all of these measures, differences have been obtained in comparisons of individual and group impression formation. Several of these studies have also compared conditions in which groups are described as being high or low in entitativity related qualities, and parallel differences have been obtained. All of these findings suggest that perceivers engage in more extensive and more integrative processing of information when the target is: (a) an individ ual person, rather than a group; and (b) a high-entitativity, rather than a low entitativity, group. Higher levels of perceived target unity and coherence, or entitativity, induce more integrative processing of information. The per ceiver's assumption is that high-entitativity targets have unified, organized "personalities" and hence use the available information to uncover the im portant themes and characteristics of that target. Judgment Polarization
If expectations or perceptions of entitativity increase integrative processing as information about a group is acquired, then one would expect differences in
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resulting judgments made of high- and low-entitativity targets. In some of the studies summarized earlier (e.g., Susskind et a/., 1999; Welbourne, 1999) we have already seen evidence of such an effect. However, the specific nature of those effects of entitativity on judgments can take several different forms, and these possibilities have been explored in recent research. Dasgupta, Banaji, and Abelson (1999; see also Abelson, Dasgupta, Park, & Banaji, 1998) have argued that group entitativity increases the perceived threat value of a stimulus group. Therefore, they proposed that greater en titativity of groups is associated with more negative, hostile perceptions of the group. For example, in one of their studies (Dasgupta et a/., 1999, Experiment 2) participants viewed computer-generated groups of five human-like crea tures, presumably created as a species for a new science fiction story. The five figures shown in the display were either highly similar (all of the same color) or dissimilar (of differing colors). The participants' task was to rate their impressions of the creatures on a variety of attributes and behaviors. Highly similar (entitative) groups of creatures were rated more negatively than were the less entitative groups. Thus, Dasgupta et a/. concluded that perceived entitativity leads to more negative impressions of groups. The results reported by Susskind et a/. (1999) seem to reflect a different pattern. These authors compared impressions of individual and group targets. As described earlier, participants read 16 behavior-descriptive sentences, de scribing either a person or members of a group, and were asked to form an impression of the target. All behaviors were desirable, and Susskind et a/. found significantly more favorable ratings of the individual than of the group target. Presumably, individuals are perceived as possessing more coherence and unity than groups (Hamilton & Sherman, 1996), suggesting that highly entitative targets induce stronger trait ratings, in this case more positive judgments. These findings are only seemingly incompatible, however. As noted, Sus skind et a/. presented only desirable behavior descriptions. In contrast, in the Dasgupta et a/. research the human-like creatures were described as members of some alien species and participants were explicitly told that the science fiction story would include not only this species but another as well, clearly suggesting an intergroup context that might imply hostile relations. Thus, in both cases participants made more extreme ratings of the high-entitativity target, but in opposite directions. Taken together, these findings suggest that entitativity may produce a polarization of judgments, the direction depending on the informational and situational context in which the groups are judged. Thakkar (2001) recently tested this hypothesis. Participants learned about a group and were asked to form an impression of it. Thakkar (2001) manip ulated expectations of group entitativity through instructions given at the outset. For example, one group was told that the group pursues a common set of goals, they depend on each other a lot, meet frequently to update each
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other on their progress toward completing assignments, etc., and ended with the statement that it is a "tightly-structured" group. In contrast, in another condition the instructions described the group as pursuing a variety of goals relevant to the group's objectives, that group members focused on completing their individual task assignments and hence did not depend on each other, that they met only once in a while, and the group was described as a "loosely structured" group. Following these instructions, participants read a series of 24 behavior-descriptive sentences, each of which described a different mem ber of the group, and the participants' task was to form an impression of the group. Eighteen of the behaviors were selected to reflect three trait domains (adventurous-unadventurous, friendly-unfriendly, intelligent-unintelligent; six behaviors representing each dimension), with the remaining six behaviors being neutral on all three of these dimensions. For half of the participants, the trait-relevant behaviors were all positively-valenced behaviors; for the other half, they were negatively-valenced behaviors. After reading these materials, participants then rated their impression of the group on a series of attribute scales, including scales representing the three traits incorporated in the be havior descriptions. Thakkar found that participants made more extreme ratings of the groups in the high-entitativity than in the low-entitativity condition. That is, the positively-described group was rated more favorably, and the negatively described group was rated less favorably, when it was perceived as being high, rather than low, in entitativity. Moreover, the evidence indicated that percep tions of group entitativity (as assessed on scales measuring several entitativity-related properties) mediated the effect of the entitativity manip ulation on the extremity of judgments. Thus, the perceived entitativity of a group leads to more polarized judgments, not simply to more negative views of the group. Results of other studies (Welbourne, 1999; Yzerbyt et al., 1998), although not designed to test a polarization hypothesis, obtained results that can be interpreted as supporting that hypothesis. Perceived Entitativity and the Perception of Group Members
Recently, we have begun to investigate another way in which processing dif ferences about groups and their members are affected by perceived entitativity (Crawford, Sherman, & Hamilton, 2001). This work is concerned not with the impact of perceived entitativity on the perceptions of groups, but rather on the perceptions of individual group members. As we have shown previously (Mc Connell et al., 1997), in the case of highly entitative groups, there is an on-line abstraction of stereotypes and a search for the "essence" of such groups. Conse quently, inferences about individual group members should be guided by this abstract essence, and group level characteristics should be applied rather indis criminately across all members of highly entitative groups.
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Based on this reasoning, we hypothesized that, for highly entitative groups, abstract group-level information will easily transfer from one group member to another. If so, then unique behavioral information about individual group members might well be lost in this case. For low-entitativity groups, on the other hand, individual members should be associated with their own unique behaviors, and the transference of attributes across different group members will be less likely. In other words, members of high-entitativity groups should be treated categorically, whereas members of low-entitativity groups should be treated individualistically. This prediction is compatible with Brewer and Harasty's (1996) proposal that perceivers have prototypic representations of high-entitativity groups but are more likely to have exemplar representations of low-entitativity groups. In order to examine this issue, Crawford et a/. (2001) employed the savings in-relearning paradigm (Carlston & Skowronski, 1994). In the first phase of the experiment, behavioral information was presented about individual mem bers of two different groups, Group A and Group B. Each group contained 16 members. On each trial, a photograph was presented along with a first-person description of a behavior (e.g., "Where I work, I share a desk with another person who puts his stuff all over the place. I finally got fed up with it and ran all of his papers through the paper shredder. That should teach him"). For Group A, eight members performed a behavior that was aggressive in nature (as in the example), and eight performed intelligent behaviors. For Group B, eight members performed a behavior that was honest, and eight performed lazy behaviors. Prior to presentation of the stimulus information, participants read, in the instructions, descriptions creating expectations of either high or low entitativity for the two groups, similar to the strategy used in previous studies (McConnell et a/., 1997; Thakkar, 2001 ) The next phase involved a learning task. Each of the previously seen 32 photographs was paired with a single trait term. Half of the time, a photo graph was paired with the trait term implied by the behavior that was pre viously associated with the person in the photograph. Thus, an individual who had performed an aggressive behavior was paired with the trait "ag gressive". These are called inference trials. In the other half of the cases, the photograph was paired with the trait term implied by the behavior of other members of the group, but not by the behavior of the specific person in the photograph. For example, a person who performed an aggressive behavior earlier was now paired with the trait "intelligent", a trait implied by the behaviors of other members of his group (Group A). These are called trans ference trials. Inference trials should be easier in the case of low entitativity groups, where individuals are perceived in terms of their unique behaviors and characteris tics. Thus, an individual from a low-entitativity group who has engaged in a behavior indicative of a trait should quickly and easily be paired with that .
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trait. However, for high-entitativity groups, where individuals are perceived as interchangeable, all individuals should be "equally" associated with all the traits indicated by the behaviors of any members,
and inference trials should
not be particularly easy. In contrast, transference trials should be easier for high-entitativity groups, where the essence of the group (e.g., aggressive and
intelligent for Group A) is abstracted and is applied to all group members. Thus, any trait derived from the behavior of any group member should be easily learned for all members, not just for the one who engaged in the behavior indicative
of the
trait. In the case of low-entitativity groups, mem
bers are treated more as unique, independent individuals, and it should be
difficult to learn to associate a trait with a member who did not engage in a
behavior indicative of that trait. A recall task of the photograph-trait pairings
showed exactly this pattern of results. Participants had better performance on inference trials for low-entitativity groups, and better performance on trans ference trials for high-entitativity groups. These results support the view that the perception of highly entitative groups involves two related processes: the abstraction of the essence of the group and the subsequent transfer of that essence across all members of the group. l..ow-entitativity groups, on the other hand, are treated quite dif
ferently. Each member is perceived as an individual, and each member's traits are stored separately from those of the traits of other members.
Colledive Responsibility The Crawford
et a/. (2001)
research shows that, in high-entitativity groups,
attributes of one group member can be transferred to other group members. Our next topic illustrates the same principle in another context. Lickel (Lickel, 2000; Lickel, Schmader,
& Hamilton, 2001 ) has investigated
the consequences of an important element of entitativity, specifically, per ceived interdependence among group members, for judgments of group mem bers' responsibility for the actions
of
a fellow group member. Consider the
following example. Six members of a fraternity go to a pub one evening. They spend a few hours together, socializing and having a good time, with the assistance of several beers in the process. One of the brothers becomes intoxi cated and, while in another area of the pub, becomes embroiled in a heated argument with another (non-fraternity) patron. Tempers flare, voices rise, and ultimately the fraternity brother punches the other customer. The fraternity
brother is clearly responsible for his own action. In addition, however, per ceivers may hold the other fraternity members partially responsible as well. That is, because it is a tight-knit group, members of the group who did not
commit the undesirable act may nevertheless be judged partially responsible for the wrongdoer's behavior. This is what is meant by
responsibility.
collective
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Collective responsibility is hypothesized to be more likely when the group of which the wrongdoer is a member is a highly interdependent group. Inter dependence reflects the extent to which the group has high interaction among its members, is important to its members, and is an organized group. These variables are among the most important predictors of group entitativity (Lic kel et a/., 2000) . Therefore, judgments of collective responsibility are most likely to occur under conditions of high perceived group entitativity. Why would other group members be held accountable for the actions of another group member, when they in fact had no direct involvement in the wrongdoing? Lickel (2000) has differentiated two causal explanations upon which perceivers' judgments might be based. One possibility is that perceivers may believe that the other group members may benefit from the wrongdoer's action, that they may ultimately experience some indirect benefit, or even that they simply were sympathetic to or supportive of the wrongdoer's actions. For example, consider a case in which a member of a protest group or a terrorist group is arrested for some illegal activity, performed individually. Even though they may have had no direct role in the wrongdoer's illegal action, other group members may be judged critically, simply because they are viewed as being sympathetic to those actions, as sharing the actor's views or motives, and as viewing the action as useful in advancing their overall cause. This is referred to as responsibility by commission. On the other hand, percep tions of collective responsibility may be based on perceptions of responsibility by omission, in which group members are judged accountable because it is believed that they should have been able to prevent the wrongdoer from performing this act. This is referred to as responsibility by omission. In this case, responsibility does not reflect perceptions of possible support or benefit; in fact, the other group members may not have been at all sympathetic to the wrongdoer's behavior. However, it is perceived that they had the ability to prevent the action, and should have done so, and therefore they share in the responsibility for the action. The earlier example of the fraternity brother who punched a customer fits this model; the other brothers should have recognized that their friend was getting out of control and should have prevented the incident from escalating. Research conducted by Lickel (Lickel, 2000; Lickel, Schmader, & Hamilton, 2001) provides support for this model. In several studies, measures of perceived interdependence among group members have been significantly predictive of judgments of collective responsibility. Furthermore, mediational analyses have shown that both responsibility by commission and by omission are significant mediators of this relationship. Moreover, Lickel, Schmader, and Hamilton (2001) tested the role of collec tive responsibility in people's perceptions of responsibility for the 1999 shoot ings at Columbine High School, in which two teenaged boys shot and killed 12 schoolmates and one teacher before committing suicide. In the aftermath of
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this tragedy, there was considerable discussion throughout the country, as well as in the media, about the role of two important groups in these boys' lives, namely, their parents and a social group to which they belonged, called the Trenchcoat Mafia. In two questionnaire studies, one conducted 9 days after the incident and the second conducted a month later, participants (UCSB students) rated a number of groups with whom the boys had contact, including both the parents and the Trenchcoat Mafia, on the extent to which they viewed these groups as responsible and accountable for the boys' actions. They also completed several scales assessing the perceived interdependence of the boys with the members of these groups, as well as their perceptions of responsibility by commission and by omission. In general, perceptions of interdependence of a group's members with the shooters significantly pre dicted judgments of collective responsibility. Moreover, this relationship was mediated by the two causal explanations. Of particular interest was the fact that responsibility by commission was the more important mediator for the Trenchcoat Mafia. Also, the parents received high ratings of responsibility by both commission and omission. Thus, entitativity-related properties of groups can influence the extent to which group members are viewed as responsible and accountable for the actions of another group member, even when those other members are not directly involved in the action in question. SUMM ARY AND CONCLUSIONS
We began this chapter with quotations reflecting thoughts and perspectives on three different groups-a committee, a country, and a family. There is no question that each of these three entities constitutes, in the minds of most observers, groups with which we are quite familiar. Yet the very nature of these entities, as well as our perceptions of them, differ in many important respects. Our goal in this chapter has been to consider several questions concerning the perception of groups as entities. These questions have be come, in recent years, the focus of a considerable amount of research, our own as well as that of others. The accumulated findings document the importance of one particular factor, perceived group entitativity, in social perception. Our social world is rich in the variety of groups with which we are engaged, both as members of groups in which we participate and with which we iden tify, and as observers of and interactants with groups that we encounter in our everyday lives. Given that we routinely deal with a vast variety of aggregates of people, why is it that we perceive some of those aggregates to be groups and others not? Why, how, and on what bases do we endow some of those aggregates with the quality of groupness to a considerable degree, while oth ers are perceived as possessing that quality to a much lesser extent? Given the diversity of the social groups that we encounter, what differences are there in
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our perceptions of the nature of their groupness, and in the bases on which we endow that property on them? And given that we perceive varying degrees of entitativity in the groups we encounter, what differences follow as con sequences of perceiving that groupness? Our research program has provided at least partial answers to these ques tions. We have documented that people do recognize considerable variety among groups in the extent to which they possess the quality of groupness. We have discovered several variables that are meaningfully correlated with the perception of entitativity in a broad array of groups, properties such as interaction among group members, importance of membership in the group to its members, the sharing of common goals and common fate, and similarity among group members. These group characteristics provide information about the group that can serve as functional cues, which the perceiver can use to determine the relative entitativity of groups (Lickel et a/., 2000) . Our re search has also established an empirically-based typology of groups, as per ceived by our research participants. These group types-intimacy groups, task groups, social categories, loose associations-were derived from data pro vided by participants in two countries (USA and Poland) and on two different tasks (ratings of groups on entitativity-related group properties, free sortings of groups), with great consistency in the results obtained across these tasks in the data obtained in both countries (see Lickel et a/., 2000, for details of these comparisons). Moreover, our research has also employed a categorization and recognition task to verify that our participants spontaneously employ these group-type distinctions in their processing of information about individual members of such groups (Sherman et a/., in press). Our research (along with that of others) has also shown that, once a group is perceived as possessing entitativity to a certain degree, that perception can itself influence subsequent perceptions of and processing of information about that group and its members. Variations in degree of perceived target entitativity influence the extent to which perceivers engage in integrative processing of information about group members (Hamilton et a/., 1999), with consequent effects on the resulting impressions and perceptions of the group. These effects have been documented in more extreme (polarized) judgments of the target person or group (Susskind et a/., 1999; Thakkar, 2001); faster judgments about the group, based on inferences formed on-line (McConnell et a/., 1994, 1997; Susskind et a/., 1999); greater confidence in one's impres sions of the group (Susskind et a/., 1999); greater spontaneous transfer of attributes from one group member to another (Crawford et a/., 2001); better recall of information acquired about the group and its members, especially information that contradicts an existing impression (McConnell et a/., 1997; Susskind et a/., 1999); and greater use of attributional thinking to understand such expectancy-violating information (Susskind et a/., 1999). In addition, the perception of group entitativity can influence the perception of moral
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responsibility of group members for the wrongdoings performed by another group member (Lickel et al., 2000). All of these effects have been shown to occur to differing degrees as a function of the perceived entitativity of the target person or group. In sum, the concept that Campbell (1958) introduced over 40 years ago has, in recent years, become the focus of active research inquiry, the results of which have documented its important role in group perception. Now that this empirical foundation has been laid, the implications and potential relevance of this concept for numerous other topics in social perception become more obvious and, we suspect, will become the focus of increased inquiry in the future. In this chapter we have only briefly explored the relationship of per ceived group entitativity to perceptions of groups to which one belongs (Lic kel et al., 2000, Study 3), yet that relationship is of obvious importance for group functioning as well as for social identity reasons (Sherman et al, 1999; see also Deaux, Reid, Mizrahi, & Ethier, 1995; Prentice, Miller, & Lightdale, 1994; Wilder & Simon, 1998). Consideration of social identity issues immedi ately raises questions of perception of group entitativity in in-group/out-group contexts, which in tum leads to analyses of the role of perceived entitativity in intergroup relations, such as cooperative or competitive intergroup contexts, about which there is only a little current evidence, not all of which is entirely consistent (Brewer et al., 1995; Gaertner & Schopler, 1998). Also, of course, thinking about intergroup contexts leads immediately to thoughts about the re1ationship between perceived group entitativity and stereotyping, with spe cial note of the fact that stereotypes typically pertain to one of Lickel et al.'s (2000) group types (social categories), but less prevalently to the other types. All of these questions remain to be explored more thoroughly in future research. In our view, these lines of research are likely to be fruitfu], for one simple reason Note that for all of these topics of long-standing interest in social psychology-social identity, intergroup relations, stereotyping-the perception of the groupness or entitativity of a social aggregate is the founda tion on which all of these other effects build. Thus, the perception of a group's entitativity is the starting point for numerous other topics and concerns at the heart of social psychology.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
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Susskind, J., Maurer, K. L., Thakkar, V., Hamilton, D. L., & Sherman, J. (1999) . Perceiving individuals and groups: Expectancies, inferences, and causal attributions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 181-91. Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (1979). An integrative theory of intergroup conOict. In W. G. Austin & S. Worchel (Eds), The Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations (pp. 3347). Monterey, CA: Brooks-Cole. Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (1986). The social identity theory of intergroup behavior. In S. Worchel & W. G. Austin (Eds), Psychology oflntergroup Relations (2nd Edn, pp. 7-24). Chicago: Nelson-Hall. Taylor, S. E., Fiske, S. T., Etcoff, N. L., & Ruderman, A. J. (1978). Categorical and contextual bases of person memory and stereotyping. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36, 778-93. Thakkar, V. (2000) . The role of entitativity in judgments about groups (unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of California, Santa Barbara, CA. Turner, J. C. (1987). Rediscovering the Social Group: Self-Categorization Theory. Ox ford: Blackwell. Welbourne, J. L. ( 1999). The impact of perceived entitativity on inconsistency resolu tion for groups and individuals. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 35. 481508. White, R. W. (1959). Motivation reconsidered: The concept of competence. Psycholog ical Review, 66, 297-334. Wilder, D., & Simon, A. F. (1998). Categorical and dynamic groups: Implications for social perception and intergroup behavior. In C Sedikides, J. Schopler, & C A. Insko (Eds), Intergroup Cognition and Intergroup Behavior (pp. 27-44). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Wyer, R. S. Jr., Bodenhausen, G. V., & Srull, T. K. (1984). The cognitive represen tation of persons and groups and its effect on recall and recognition memory. Jour nal of Experimental Social Psychology, 20, 445-{i9. Yzerbyt, V. Y., Rocher, S., & Schadron, G. (1997). Stereotypes as explanations: A subjective essentialistic view of group perception. In R. Spears, P. J. Oakes, N. Ellemers & S. A. Haslam (Eds), The Social Psychology of Stereotyping and Group Life (pp. 20-50). Oxford: Blackwell. Yzerbyt, V. Y, Rogier, A, & Fiske, S. T. (1998). Group entitativity and social attribu tion: On translating situational constraints into stereotypes. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24, 1089-103.
Chapter 6
The Meaning and Consequences of Perceived Discrimination in Disadvantaged and Privileged Social Groups Michael T. Schmitt Nyla R. Branscombe
University of Kansas, USA
ABSTRACT The subjective meaning and consequences of perceived discrimination depend on the position of one's group in the social structure. For members of disadvantaged groups, attributions to prejudice are likely to be internal, stable, uncontrollable, and convey widespread exclusion and devaluation of one's group. For members of privileged groups, the meaning of attributions to prejudice is more localized. Be cause of such meaning differences, attributions to prejudice are considerably more harmful for the psychological well-being of members of disadvantaged groups than they are for members of privileged groups. According to the Rejection Identification Model (Branscombe, Schmitt, & Harvey, 1999), members of disad vantaged groups cope with the pain of attributions to prejudice by increasing identification with their disadvantaged group. We conclude with an exploration of the social contextual factors that can affect how the disadvantaged cope, and a discussion of the challenges facing future research on attributions to prejudice.
Correspondence regarding this chapter should be addressed to Nyla R. Branscombe, Department of Psychology, 1415 Jayhawk Blvd, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA. E mail: nyla@ukans. edu European Review of Social Psychology, Volume 12. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Edited by Wolfgang Stroebe and Miles Hewstone.
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One of the most enduring ideas in social psychology is that the subjective experience of social life is moderated by attributions (Weiner, 1985). We con sider the psychological consequences of attributing one's negative outcomes to prejudice against one's group membership. We review and integrate previous theoretical and empirical work on such attributions to prejudice, and consider how attributing negative events to prejudice influences psychological well being. We first outline our theoretical reasoning for how and why attributions to prejudice have very different meanings for disadvantaged and privileged groups. We conclude that these attributions are more psychologically harmful for members of disadvantaged groups than for members of privileged groups and review evidence supporting this conclusion. We then discuss how the psy chological benefits of identification with one's disadvantaged group can counter some of the painful consequences of recognizing prejudice. Finally, we consider factors that limit disadvantaged group members' ability to cope via group iden tification, and make suggestions for future research on attributions to prejudice. THE TOTAL RELEVANCE OF ATTRIBUTIONS TO PREJUDICE
What an attribution to prejudice means to the person making it is central to understanding its emotional consequences. In its most basic sense, an attribu tion to prejudice explains a negative event as the result of someone's bias against one's category membership. While this description of an attribution to prejudice describes what the attribution implies for the immediate situation its "local relevance"-it does not necessarily capture all of its larger potential meanings and implications-its "total relevance". Heider ( 1958, p. 253) sug gested that it is the total relevance of an attribution, not its local relevance, that guides our interpretation of and reaction to events. Thus, understanding the meaning and consequences of an attribution to prejudice requires a con sideration of its total relevance for the person making it. Because prejudice and discrimination are intergroup phenomena, an anal ysis of attributions to prejudice calls for an examination of how the state of intergroup relations determines the meaning of those attributions. Our cen tral argument is that the total relevance of an attribution to prejudice is a function of the ingroup's and the outgroup's relative positions ofpower within the social structure. The meaning and consequences of an attribution to preju dice will depend on the nature of the existing intergroup relations at a particu lar historical juncture and, more importantly, the position of one's own group within the social structure. The psychological experience of perceiving preju dice will be very different depending on whether one belongs to a group that is disadvantaged relative to other groups, or to a group that is relatively privileged. For the reasons we outline below, we argue that because of their
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differing social realities, members of disadvantaged groups experience more harmful psychological consequences when making attributions to prejudice than do members of privileged groups. Severity of Discrimination Experiences
Clearly, disadvantaged groups suffer because the outcomes they receive are poorer relative to higher-status groups. We consider the psychological con sequences of how those negative events are interpreted, rather than the con sequences of the events themselves. However, the differential severity of events potentially labeled as "discrimination" is also likely to moderate the subjective experience of interpreting those events as due to prejudice. Be cause the magnitude of an event is likely to influence the magnitude of its effects, minor instances of discrimination will have minimal implications for well-being, while more severe discriminatory experiences will have a greater impact. Thus, one of the most important ways in which attributions to preju dice differ for disadvantaged and privileged groups is in the severity of the type of the events typically attributed to prejudice. For instance, Branscombe (1998) found that when men and women were asked to describe the disadvan tages that they had experienced based upon their gender group membership, women described relatively severe events, such as a lack of freedom, fear of sexual assault, and job discrimination. In contrast, men described less severe and more circumscribed events, such as having to pay for dates, or being more likely to get a speeding ticket. In a related study (Kappen, Branscombe, Kobrynowicz, & Schmitt, 2001 ) women and men listed discriminatory events they had personally experienced, and coders who were blind to the gender of the participants rated the discriminatory events for their potential life con sequences. The events generated by women were coded as having a substan tially greater impact on the recipient's life, compared to the events generated by men. Likewise, when White Americans were asked about their experiences with racial discrimination, they reported relatively minor types of discrimina tion, such as not having exclusively White organizations and being seen as racially biased (Branscombe, Schiffbauer, Schmitt, & Valencia, 2001), while Black Americans reported discrimination in a wide range of important life domains, including housing, education, and employment (Sigelman & Welch, 1991). Thus, because of real differences in the severity of the discriminatory events experienced, attributions to prejudice are likely to have greater emo tional consequences for disadvantaged than for privileged groups. ,
Attributional Dimensions
An analysis of attributions to prejudice requires consideration of where these attributions fall on the three main dimensions of attribution: locus of the cause
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(Heider, 1958), stability (Weiner et a/., 1971), and controllability (Weiner, 1979). Indeed, "knowing the dimensional locations of a given attribution allows accurate prediction of the consequences of that attribution" (Anderson, Krull, & Weiner, 1996, p. 280). In this section, we explore the total relevance of an attribution to prejudice by considering its locus (the extent to which it reflects something about the self), stability (the implications the attribution has for future situations), and controllability (the extent to which the outcome is per ceived as controllable). We limit our analysis to these three aspects of attribu tion because they alone can account for a wide variety of effects, and the evidence for the existence or importance of other attributional dimensions (e.g., intentionality, globality) is inconclusive (Anderson et a/., 1996). Attributions to Prejudice as both Internal and External Social psychologists often consider the causal locus of attributions as reflect ing a single dimension, ranging from internal to external, or even as a categor ical distinction where attributions are either internal or external. However, assuming that external and internal attributions are inversely related may be an oversimplification (Kelley, 1983), and numerous empirical studies have found that, in fact, internal and external attributional ratings are often inde pendent (McClure, 1998). Thus, the internal and external dimensions of at tribution are best conceptualized and measured separately. Most of the existing theoretical work on attributions to prejudice has as sumed that the locus of such attributions is purely external (e.g., Crocker & Major, 1989; Crocker, Major, & Steele, 1998). This assumption led to the "discounting hypothesis", the idea that attributions to prejudice discount the self as a cause of negative events (Crocker & Major, 1989; Crocker et a/., 1998; Crocker & Quinn, 1998). Accordingly, it is argued that "because prejudice against one's group is an external attribution, making this attribution should protect the self-esteem of stigmatized people" (Crocker, Voelkl, Testa, & Major, 1991, p. 219). Attributions to prejudice certainly do have an external component, with the prejudice of the source being outside of the self. On the other hand, we argue that they also have a substantial internal component-the target's own group membership. Although attributions to prejudice are often described as at tributions to "group membership" (e.g. Crocker & Major, 1989, pp. 613-14), the fact that group membership is an internal aspect of the self has been largely ignored. Because the prejudice of the source (external) and the tar get's group membership (internal) are both necessary but not sufficient causes of prejudicial treatment, neither can be discounted when making an attribu tion to prejudice (McClure, 1998). The characterization of attributions to prejudice as partially internal is important, because it leads to very different predictions about the
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consequences of attributions to prejudice than does the widely-held view that attributions to prejudice are external. We argue that, because attributions to prejudice do not allow for the discounting of all aspects of the self as causes of the negative outcome, they will not necessarily result in self-protection. Be cause attributions to prejudice are partially internal, they involve the self and therefore have potential for negative self-evaluation (Stipek, 1983, Weiner, 1985; Weiner, Russell, & Lerman, 1979). Rather than shifting the locus of the cause away from the self, attributions to prejudice, in fact, implicate an aspect of the self-one's group membership-that is often important (Tajfel & Turner, 1986), enduring, and uncontrollable (e.g., gender, ethnicity). Recent empirical work supports the idea that attributions to prejudice have a substantial internal component. Schmitt and Branscombe (in press) asked male and female undergraduates to consider a situation in which a professor refused their request to enroll in a class that required the professor's permis sion to do so. In one condition, participants learned that the professor bad a very disagreeable disposition and refused everyone's request-providing a highly plausible external explanation for the rejection. In the other condition, participants learned that the professor had often publicly expressed a strong bias against the participant's gender and only admitted those of the other gender-making an attribution to prejudice highly plausible. A manipulation check confirmed that attributions to gender discrimination (e.g., "The pro fessor's actions were due to gender discrimination") were made exclusively in the prejudice condition. In order to test the hypothesis that attributions to prejudice involve both internal and external causes, participants completed separate measures of the internal aspects (e.g., "The professor refused to let me into the class because of something about me") and external aspects (e.g., "The professor refused to let me into the class because of something about him/her") of attribution. Participants who were asked about the cause of the rejection in the prejudice condition attributed the rejection to both internal and external causes, although in the condition in which the professor rejected everyone, attributions were predominately external Furthermore, in the pre judice condition the internality of the attribution was significantly higher compared to the other condition, and above the midpoint of the scale. These results suggest that attributing negative treatment to another's bigotry is not purely external to the self in the same way that an attribution to another's personality might be. In a similar study, Schmitt and Branscombe (2001) again asked undergradu ates to consider a situation in which a professor denied their request to be let into a class. However, rather than manipulating information about the pro fessor's disposition or prejudices, we manipulated information about what factors co-varied with the professor's behavior (Kelley, 1967). In the "No-one accepted" condition, the participant learned that the professor did not grant anyone's request to be let into the class, making an attribution to one's own
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qualities implausible. In the "Others accepted" condition, the professor granted the requests of about 10 other students, making an attribution to the self more plausible. In the "Other gender accepted" condition, the professor only let in students who were not of the participant's gender, making an attribution to gender prejudice highly plausible. Indeed, as revealed by a manipulation check, attributions to prejudice were much higher in this condi tion than in the other two. As predicted, the locus of the attributions made differed by condition. Attributions were significantly more internal in the Other gender accepted condition than in either of the other conditions, while externality of attributions did not differ by condition. Taken together, these two studies suggest that, like attributions to other aspects of the self, attribu tions to prejudice against one's group membership do have a substantial internal component. Our findings are inconsistent with the fundamental assumption of the dis counting hypothesis-that attributions to prejudice are exclusively external. Because these data illustrate that attributions to prejudice are in part internal, they undermine the theoretical basis for predicting that attributions to preju dice are self-protective in disadvantaged groups. By treating attributions to prejudice as purely external, the discounting hypothesis may greatly overesti mate their self-protective properties. Consistent with this argument, in the two studies just described, women reported less positive affect when rejection was attributable to sexism compared to when the rejection was attributable to an exclusively external cause, the professor's disposition. This suggests that, for members of disadvantaged groups, attributions to prejudice do not offer the level of self-protection provided by purely external attributions. Stability Although the internal aspects of attributions to prejudice call into question their potential for protecting the self, it is important to note that not all internal attributions for negative events are equally harmful (Rhodewalt, Morf, Hazlett, & Fairfield, 1991; Snyder & Higgins, 1985). Attributional sta bility is likely to moderate their effects. Attributions to prejudice are likely to be more stable for members of disadvantaged groups than for members of privileged groups. Disadvantaged groups, by definition, experience discrimi nation more frequently and across a wider variety of contexts than do privil eged groups (Sigelman & Welch, 1991; Swim, Cohen, & Hyers, 1998). Women report experiencing more prejudice against their group and perceive preju dice against them as more pervasive across a wider variety of social contexts than do men (Kobrynowicz & Branscombe, 1997; Schmitt, Branscombe, Kobrynowicz, & Owen, in press). Indeed, in the USA there is considerable consensus among men and women and among different ethnic groups regard ing the relative status differences that exist between them (Sidanius & Pratto,
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1999; Stewart, Vassar, Sanchez, & David, 2000 ) . Precisely because members of disadvantaged groups are aware that they may face negative treatment on the basis of their stigma in many situations, attributions for negative events that implicate their group membership are likely to be stable and painful (Branscombe, Schmitt, & Harvey, 1999; Golin, Sweeney, & Shaeffer, 1981; Robins, 1988; Weiner, 1985). In contrast, because privileged groups do not see prejudice against them as pervasive, they will see negative treatment based on their group membership as anomalies or localized occurrences. Thus, for privileged groups, attributions to prejudice are more likely to be unstable and lack meaning beyond the immediate situation. In summary, the differential pervasiveness of discrimination faced by privileged and disadvantaged groups makes attributions to prejudice much more stable, and as a result, more psychologically costly for the disadvantaged. Because the level of stability of attributions to prejudice reflects the degree to which prejudice will affect one's outcomes in the future, the stability di mension is of critical importance for understanding the total relevance of an attribution to prejudice. Because an attribution to prejudice among disadvan taged groups reflects more stable treatment, the total relevance of the attribu tion will be much greater that its local relevance. However, among privileged groups, for whom an attribution to prejudice is more unstable, the total relev ance of an attribution to prejudice is likely to be equivalent to its local relevance. Controllability The controllability dimension of attribution refers to the extent to which the cause of an outcome is under the volitional control of the self or others (Anderson, et al., 1996). The subjective consequences of the perceived con trollability of attributions to prejudice can best be captured by considering who, in the context of prejudicial treatment, has the power to inflict their prejudices on others. Because disadvantaged groups are afforded less power within the social structure than privileged groups, encounters with prejudicial treatment are likely to be seen by disadvantaged groups as relatively uncon trollable. Conversely, the outcomes of privileged group members are unlikely to be seen as generally under the control of members of disadvantaged groups, because their privileged status affords them a position of greater power. Consequently, attributions to prejudice made by privileged groups are less likely to harm feelings of control. Empirical research supports the idea that attributions to prejudice have negative consequences for perceived control among disadvantaged groups. Ruggiero and Taylor (1997) found that disadvantaged groups who at tributed negative feedback to discrimination suffered a reduction in per ceived control. Efficacy-based approaches to self-esteem (Bandura, 1997)
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suggest that the perception of control over one's outcomes is an important component of well-being. According to Weiner (1985), negative, internal, uncontrollable events (as attributions to prejudice among disadvantaged groups are likely to be) result in depression (Brown & Siegel, 1988), and can even undermine cognitive ability (von Hecker & Sedek, 1999). Further more, when prejudice is recognized by the disadvantaged, making discrimi nation claims may be perceived as a futile effort because they could result in even more negative treatment from members of the privileged group (Kai ser & Miller, 2001 ). While members of disadvantaged groups may engage in a number of strat egies to avoid encounters with prejudicial treatment (see Miller & Major, 2000) , the use of such strategies may not leave one feeling very empowered. For instance, groups with "invisible" stigmas have the option of attempting to pass as members of the privileged group. Attempts to pass in order to achieve more positive outcomes clearly places the control over one's life in the hands of the privileged group. For example, members of the US military who are gay, lesbian, or bisexual are required to hide their sexual orientation or face exclusion. In such contexts, passing may give stigmatized group members some control in terms of whether they will avoid negative outcomes, but being forced to hide an important aspect of one's identity severely limits one's freedom and is likely to be experienced as a vital lack of control. Similarly, having to prove oneself as worthy of equal treatment is a severe disadvantage in itself, and implies that one has less control over one's life than members of privileged groups, who are more likely to be assumed to be worthy of positive treatment even before they have the opportunity to demonstrate (or discon firm) the validity of that assumption. In summary, attributions to prejudice are not simply external attributions that permit a discounting of the self's causal role in the production of negative outcomes. For disadvantaged groups, attributions to prejudice will be harm ful, because they implicate an aspect of the self that can result in uncontroll able negative treatment across a wide variety of situations. In privileged groups, prejudicial treatment is attributed to an aspect of the self that only infrequently results in negative outcomes. Because of their instability, attribu tions to prejudice should be less harmful for privileged groups than for disad vantaged groups, and could even be beneficial if they serve to remind the privileged of the positive treatment that they normally receive. Despite these attributional reasons for expecting attributions to prejudice to have very dif ferent consequences for disadvantaged and privileged groups, the total relev ance of an attribution to prejudice cannot be fully appreciated without looking beyond locus, stability, and controllability to other factors that are intimately intertwined with the power of one's group in the social structure. Two other important ways in which attributions to prejudice might differ for disadvantaged and privileged groups are the degree of ambiguity about the
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actual causes of events, and the implications that these attributions have for acceptance
of one's group in society.
Attributional Ambiguity Major and Crocker
(1993)
concluded that members
of
stigmatized groups
"exist in a chronic state of attributional ambiguity with regard to the causes of others' behavior toward them" (p. 346). Based on the assumption that attribu tions to prejudice for negative events are self-protective, they hypothesized that such attributional ambiguity could be beneficial because it provides the stigmatized with frequent opportunities for discounting the role of ability or
performance as an explanation for negative outcomes. Crocker and Major
(1989) argue that, "people who believe they personally are frequent victims of
discrimination should be particularly likely to attribute negative outcomes or performance feedback to prejudice or discrimination against their group and, thus, may have high self-esteem" (p. 621). In other words, attributional ambi guity makes it possible for members
of disadvantaged groups to blame their
outcomes on prejudice when they encounter a variety of negative outcomes. Indeed, Crocker and Major (1989) write that making attributions to prejudice for negative outcomes "is particularly powerful because it may not only be used in response to negative evaluations or outcomes that do, in fact, stem from prejudice against the stigmatized group, but also in response to negative outcomes that do not stem from prejudice" (p.
612).
A number of empirical investigations, however, "strongly suggest that stig matized individuals are relatively reluctant to blame their negative outcomes on prejudice or discrimination, even when there is good reason to suspect that the evaluator discriminates" (Crocker eta/.,
1998,
p.
522).
Indeed, when the
likelihood that negative treatment is due to prejudice is even slightly ambig uous, members of disadvantaged groupsprefer to attribute negative feedback to their own behavior (Ruggiero
&
Taylor,
1995, 1997).
In Ruggiero and
Taylor's studies, members of disadvantaged groups received negative feed
(0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%) for the probability that the raters were biased against their group. Only when participants were told that 100% of the raters were biased and discrimi
back, and were presented with different base-rates
nation was a virtual certainty did the disadvantaged attribute their failure to prejudice more than to their own performance. More importantly, in all other conditions, participants attributed their failure to their own performance more than the prejudice of the raters. As Ruggiero and Taylor
(1997)
concluded, "under conditions of situational ambiguity, minority group mem bers are likely to minimize discrimination in response to negative feedback" (p.
374).
As Crocker eta/. ( 1998) note, these data are inconsistent with the idea that members of disadvantaged groups are motivated to make attributions to
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prejudice, and suggest that attributional ambiguity and attributions to preju dice may have some costs (p. 522). However, they also suggest that the clear evidence of minimization in Ruggiero's studies is not generalizeable to other disadvantaged groups (p. 522). To reconcile the evidence of minimization of attributions to prejudice with the attributional ambiguity perspective, Crocker et a/. (1998) offer a revised perspective on the potential costs and benefits of attributional ambiguity. As Crocker et a/. (1991 ) found, attributional ambigu ity is costly when it leads to the discounting of one's personal role in bringing about positive outcomes. For negative events, they suggest that the self protective properties of attributional ambiguity "may be limited to circum stances in which negative outcomes are unrelated to one's negative social identity" (Crocker et a/., 1998, p. 520). In other words, in their revised view, attributional ambiguity is threatening when "negative events that are caused by prejudice cannot be easily attributed to prejudice" (p. 521 ). This statement suggests that, while attributional ambiguity for stigmatized group members "affords them a degree of latitude" to make attributions to prejudice (p. 521 ), such ambiguity is threatening when it interferes with reaping the benefits of making an accurate attribution to prejudice. Furthermore, they suggest that, while attributions to prejudice for personal outcomes might be minimized because of their costs, attributions to prejudice for group outcomes are not as likely to be minimized. However, the presumed difference between personal and group discrimination perceptions has been shown to be due to the two ratings involving different comparisons and does not reflect distancing one's own experience from that of the ingroup (see Kessler, Mummendey, & Leisse, 2000; Postmes, Branscombe, Spears, & Young, 1999). Indeed, as Crocker et a/. (1998) note, its not clear theoretically why the potential costs and benefits of making attributions to prejudice would differ for judgments made at the personal and group levels (p. 524). Our perspective on attributional ambiguity is much simpler. We argue that chronic attributional ambiguity-having to regularly consider prejudice as an explanation for one's negative outcomes-will be detrimental to the well being of disadvantaged groups. Such ambiguity about the role of prejudice in one's outcomes is stressful because it is an ongoing reminder of the rejection and devaluation in the broader culture. Indeed, the fear of confirming other people's negative views of the ingroup undermines the performance of Black Americans (Steele & Aronson, 1995), women (Spencer, Steele, & Quinn, 1999), and members of the working class ( Croizet & Claire, 1998). The mental work required to navigate through social contexts in which one may be a target of prejudice is likely to be extremely taxing (Frable, Blackstone, & Scherbaum, 1990; Goffman, 1963; Kramer & Wei, 1999). Furthermore, not having to consider the role of group membership as a cause of one's outcomes is one of the major advantages of belonging to a privileged social group (Mcintosh, 1998). From our perspective, attributional ambiguity is generally
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costly to the psychological well-being of disadvantaged groups and, in contrast to the original attributional ambiguity perspective, it is only self-protective in that it provides opportunities to deny that prejudice might actually be the true cause of negative treatment. Implications for Acceptance into Society
Among disadvantaged groups, a pattern of stable attributions to prejudice reflects perceived systematic exclusion by the privileged group. Because privileged groups have the power to define who is and who is not fully accepted, rejection by privileged groups implies that one's group is excluded from the most valued positions in society. Many theoretical approaches predict that feeling excluded in this way will harm self-esteem (Baumeister & Leary, 1995; Cooley, 1956; Mead, 1934; Rosenberg, 1979; Tajfel & Turner, 1986), and empirical research has supported the contention that such exclu sion is painful, resulting in anxiety, depression, feeling a lack of control, and lowered self-esteem (Baumeister & Tice, 1990; B owlby, 1973; Cozzarelli & Karafa, 1998; Frable, 1993; Leary, Tambor, T,erdal, & Downs, 1995; Sol omon, Greenberg, & Pyszczynski, 1991; Williams, Shore, & Grahe, 1998). In contrast, when privileged group members are rejected by the disadvantaged, it carries no implications for exclusion from the wider culture. Thus, because attributions to prejudice among privileged groups do not represent exclu sion of one's social identity from the dominant society as a whole, they are less painful than when the same attributions are made by disadvantaged group members.
RECOGNIZ ING DISADVANTAGE IS PAINF UL
As we have argued, the attributions to prejudice made by disadvantaged groups differ on a number of dimensions from those made by privileged groups. Attributions to prejudice made by privileged groups are less stable, and are less likely to reflect a general lack of control or rejection by the dominant culture. In contrast, attributions to prejudice among members of disadvantaged groups will be more stable, more likely to reflect a lack of control over one's life, and more likely to represent exclusion from the cul ture. Stated another way, in disadvantaged groups, the total relevance of an attribution to prejudice extends far beyond the immediate situation; however, for members of privileged groups, the total relevance of an attribution to prejudice is virtually identical to its local relevance. Thus, attributions to prejudice should be more harmful to the well-being of disadvantaged groups than for privileged groups.
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Empirical Support
Research on a variety of disadvantaged groups has demonstrated that recog nizing prejudice against one's social group is negatively related to psychologi cal well-being. For instance, women (Kobrynowicz & Branscombe, 1997; Landrine, Klonoff, Gibbs, Manning, & Lund, 1995) and African-Americans (Branscombe et a/., 1999; Cross & Strauss, 1998; Klonoff & Landrine, 1999; Williams, Yu, Jackson, & Anderson, 1997) who perceive pervasive discrimi nation against their group are more likely to exhibit debilitating psychiatric and physical health symptoms, compared to those who perceive less discrimi nation. In a recent review, Clark, Anderson, Clark, and Williams ( 1999) con cluded that perceived racism among African-Americans results in psychological and physiological stress responses that have a number of long term negative health effects. Such costs of making attributions to prejudice are not limited to women or ethnic minority groups. In a study of lesbian and gay crime victims, those who attributed the crime to prejudice against their sexual orientation experienced more symptoms of depression, anxiety, vul nerability, and post-traumatic stress than did those who attributed the crime to other causes (Herek, Gillis, & Cogan, 1999). Consistent with our perspec tive, Herek et a/. concluded that the greater costs associated with attributing victimization to prejudice occur because they link the negative outcome with one's stable social identity. Although the repeatedly observed negative relationship between perceived discrimination and well-being is compelling, one might argue that this finding results from the reverse causal direction. This alternative explanation would suggest that those who generally see the world as "out to get them" are consequently more likely to see themselves as the target of prejudice (e.g., Crocker, Luhtanen, Broadnax, & Blaine, 1999; Kramer, 1998). However, this "paranoia" explanation is less plausible as an account of the relationship between physical health outcomes and perceived discrimination (Clark et a/., 1999). Further, experimental studies have found that, in fact, attributions to prejudice do harm well-being among members of disadvantaged groups. In one of the earliest experimental investigations of this issue, Dion and Earn (1975) found that Jewish participants who could attribute their failure to a Gentile's anti-Semitism felt more stress and negative affect than those in experimental conditions where an attribution to prejudice was implausible. In a recent study from our own laboratory (Schmitt, Branscombe, & Postmes, 2001 ), women read an article that argued that sexism and discrimi nation against women was either pervasive or rare. The manipulation was very successful. In the rare condition, participants reported that 27% of men were biased against women, while women in the pervasive condition believed that 5 1 % of men were sexist. Participants also reported expecting to encoun ter gender discrimination more often in the pervasive condition than in the
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rare condition. Women in the pervasive condition had significantly lower personal self-esteem and collective self-esteem compared to those in the rare condition. Thus, the more that women believed that future negative events in their lives might be explained by prejudice, the worse they felt about them selves and their group membership.
In a second study (Schmitt, Branscombe, & Postmes, 2001), we found that for
a single negative performance outcome, attributions to prejudice were mart
harmful when prejudice was
seen as pervasive. In the context of a mock job
interview, women received extremely negative evaluations from a man, who was ostensibly a business person who made real hiring decisions. Just before the participant received the negative feedback, a female experimenter confided in the participant, telling her about how the evaluator had evaluated past particip ants. In the "Jerk" condition, the female experimenter suggested that the inter viewer was a "jerk" who evaluated almost everyone negatively. In the "Lone Sexist" condition, the experimenter told the participant that the interviewer
was sexist, but that the other 19 interviewers helping with the study were not. In
the ''Pervasive Sexism" condition, participants learned that all 20 interviewers involved in the study were biased against women. Manipulation checks re vealed that participants were more likely to attribute the negative feedback to prejudice in the Lone Sexist and Pervasive Sexism conditions compared to the Jerk condition.
As predicted, women reported the most depressed affect in the
condition in which the negative feedback came from a sexist evaluator and
sexism was pervasive, and the least depressed affect when the feedback was not perceived as due to sexism Depression in the Lone Sexist condition fell in between the other two conditions. Thus, attributions to pervasive prejudice are particularly harmful to the well-being of members of disadvantaged groups.
Although perceiving prejudice harms well-being among disadvantaged group
members, it does little harm to, and sometimes even benefits, members of privil
eged groups. In a correlational study, Schmitt, Branscombe, Kobrynowi� and
Owen (in press) found that perceptions of discrimination against one's gender were unrelated to well-being in men, but they were negatively correlated in women. In an experimental study, Branscombe (1998) asked participants to think
about and list the consequences of their group membership. Women and men were randomly assigned either to list the disadvantages that they had received
because of their gender group membership, or to list the privileges they received
because of their gender. Men considering their gender group's disadvantages exhibited higher personal self-esteem than men who thought of their gender group's advantages. Women, however, showed the reverse trend
Reconsidering the Evidence for the Discounting Hypothesis The discounting hypothesis suggests that disadvantaged groups may be motivated to make attributions to prejudice because such attributions are
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self-protective (Crocker & Major, 1989; Crocker et a/., 1998). However, stud ies of disadvantaged groups have not provided strong support for the self protection hypothesis. Dion's (1975) early study of attributions to prejudice manipulated the perceived likelihood that sexism could explain the negative treatment that female participants received by varying the gender of the source of the treatment. Contrary to the self-protection hypothesis, particip ants felt worse about themselves when an attribution to prejudice was most plausible (i.e., when the source of the negative treatment was a man), com pared to when it was less plausible (the negative treatment came from a woman). In favor of the discounting perspective, Crocker et a/. (1991, Study 1) found that women who received negative evaluations from a sexist male evaluator reported less depressed affect compared to those who received negative feedback from a non-sexist evaluator, although no support for the discounting hypothesis was obtained on a measure of self-esteem. In Study 2, the discounting hypothesis was not supported. Black participants who re ceived negative feedback did not significantly differ in terms of mood or self esteem as a function of whether the feedback was attributable to prejudice or not. If attributions to prejudice do have self-protective consequences for mem bers of disadvantaged groups, it is logical to suspect that members of disad vantaged groups might be motivated to make attributions to prejudice when those attributions are at least somewhat plausible. Any evidence that stig matized individuals "overuse" attributions to prejudice and discrimination could be therefore interpreted as support for the discounting hypothesis. However, the evidence of vigilance on the part of disadvantaged groups is especially dubious. Not only is this hypothesis inconsistent with a large body of work finding that the disadvantaged groups minimize the extent to which they perceive the painful reality of their own disadvantage (Crosby, Pufall, Snyder, O'Connell, & Whalen, 1989), when it has been carefully tested ex perimentally it has not been supported. Ruggiero and Taylor (1995, 1997) found that women, Asian Americans, and Black Americans who had received negative feedback were quite reluctant to attribute their failure to an evalua tor's prejudice, and did so only when prejudice was presented as a virtual certainty. Kleck and Strenta (1980) are often cited as demonstrating that the self protective properties of an attribution to prejudice lead the disadvantaged to make such attributions, even when they are a logical impossibility. In their study, the experimenter applied a fake facial scar on participants, but then secretly removed it while ostensibly applying moisturizer to the make-up. After interacting with another person, participants who believed that they had been given the facial disfigurement perceived a strong bias against them. However, attributions to prejudice against a fake, temporary scar would nei ther be internal nor stable, and would not raise concerns of potential
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devaluation or rejection in the future. For that reason, the meaning of the attributions to prejudice made in the context of Kleck and Strenta's experi ment are very different from those made by members of historically disadvan taged groups. The aversive qualities of attributions to prejudice that reflect the experience of real disadvantaged groups is absent. In a study comparing the attributions of Black and White participants, Crocker et al. ( 199 1) found a racial group main effect where, "Black subjects were more likely than White subjects to attribute the feedback they received to prejudice when they received negative rather than positive feedback and when the evaluator could see them, hence was aware of their race, than when they were not seen" (p. 225), and interpreted this as evidence that disadvan taged groups might be overly vigilant of prejudice against them. However, because of a confound of the design, there is a more plausible explanation for these data. In their research, both Black and White participants received negative feedback from a White evaluator-an outgroup member in the for mer case, but an ingroup member in the latter. While the Black participants' racial prejudice attribution ratings were indeed higher than those of the White participants, as the authors themselves note, this is likely to have resulted from a confound between participant race and whether the evaluator was an ingroup or outgroup member. In order to compare Whites and Blacks in terms of the degree of attributional ambiguity and willingness to make at tributions to prejudice, attributions to prejudice must be at least somewhat plausible for both groups. For Whites, being evaluated by a White evaluator clearly creates a context in which attributions to prejudice are implausible, and for that reason White participants were less likely to make attributions to prejudice than Blacks, for whom an attribution to prejudice was plausible. Despite this alternative explanation for the observed racial difference, social psychologists continue to cite this study as evidence that disadvantaged groups are more motivated to make attributions to prejudice than are privil eged groups. However, this racial difference in attributions really indicates that participants realistically assume that Whites are more likely to be preju diced against Blacks than Whites are likely to be prejudiced against Whites. Recent empirical work that does not contain the confound present in Crocker et al. (1991), has found that the differences between privileged and disadvantaged groups in willingness to make attributions to prejudice show a quite different pattern than Crocker et al. found. When Ruggiero and Major (1998) controlled for the plausibility of discrimination for a particular event by manipulating the probability of discrimination from an outgroup member orthogonally to group membership, disadvantaged groups (Blacks and women) minimized perceptions of discrimination against them, but privileged groups (Whites and men) appeared to be vigilant in detecting it. Thus, the motivation to exaggerate the possibility of discrimination (given the oppor tunity) appears to be present in privileged groups, while the opposite-the
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motivation to minimize the possibility of discrimination-appears to be pres ent in disadvantaged groups. In another study with interpretational problems, Crocker et a/. ( 1999) con cluded that, because Black Americans rated anti-Black conspiracies as more plausible than did Whites, Blacks are vigilant in detecting systematic discrimi nation against them. However, this racial difference could also be explained by Whites' lack of awareness or denial of the existence of real anti-Black conspiracies. Recently, we conducted a study (Nelson, Branscombe & Schmitt, 2001) in which Black and White participants evaluated the plau sibility of a bogus newspaper article describing an alleged White conspiracy against Blacks. As in the Crocker et a/. (1999) study, Blacks did rate the anti Black conspiracy as more plausible than did Whites. However, we found that this racial difference was eliminated when we controlled for Blacks' greater knowledge of real past conspiracies against Blacks (e.g., the Tuskegee experi ment). These results suggest that Crocker et al.'s finding that Blacks see anti Black conspiracies as more plausible than do Whites is not due to Blacks' motivation to protect personal or group-based self-esteem, but rather that Whites are unaware of, or deny the reality of, past conspiracies by Whites against Blacks. Are Attributions to Prejudice Ever Self-protective?
As Crocker and Major (1989) suggested, attributions to prejudice can, under some circumstances, protect perceptions of one's performance or ability by discounting them as causes of the negative outcome (Britt & Crandall, 2000; Ruggiero & Taylor, 1997). However, for disadvantaged groups, attributions to prejudice also imply stable exclusion, making them mostly harmful, as the research we reviewed indicates. In contrast, when members of privileged groups make attributions to prejudice they endure less harmful consequences and reap more psychological benefits than do members of disadvantaged groups. Privileged groups can discount their own personal qualities as causes of the specific negative outcome without simultaneously feeling systematically devalued and disadvantaged. Research on disadvantaged groups provides strong evidence that attribu tions to prejudice are even more costly than attributions to one's performance (Ruggiero & Taylor, 1997). Perhaps this is because one's performance, qualifications, and even ability in a domain are perceived as less stable than prejudice against one's group membership. We can, however, imagine a poss ible situation where an attribution to personal qualities is more stable, and therefore more threatening, than an attribution to prejudice. Attributing a lack of long-term success in a highly valued domain to a stable personal characteristic might well be a worse alternative to an attribution to prejudice. In such situations, discrimination may be seen as a less stable impediment to
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future success than one's personal traits. In that context, an attribution to prejudice, while still being an unpleasant attribution to make, might be some what less painful than the alternative. That said, we suggest that such situations are relatively rare, in part because in most situations many other more psychologically comforting explanations for negative outcomes exist. The discounting perspective considers only two attributional alternatives for negative events: that they "could be due to one's lack of merit, inferior qualifications, poor performance, or other shortcom ings", or "due to prejudice and discrimination against one's social identity" (Crocker et al., 1998, p. 520). However, in many situations where people face a negative outcome, these are not the only two types of attributions that might be plausible. For instance, one could attribute a negative outcome to truly external factors (e.g., another's negative disposition toward everyone, aspects of the situation that could interfere with performance, task difficulty, or chance) or transient internal factors (e.g., fatigue or mood). Furthermore, in many situations in which members of disadvantaged groups regularly face negative treatment, an attribution to personal qualities, ability, or perfor mance are highly implausible, because the negative treatment occurs before there is even an opportunity to demonstrate one's deservingness or lack thereof. In future research, to fully gauge the costs or benefits of attributions to prejudice, we must consider such attributions within a wider range of plausible attributions. The preponderance of the data suggests that attributions to prejudice among disadvantaged groups are painful. Thus, our review is inconsistent with Crocker et al.'s ( 1991) speculation that "members of stigmatized groups who believe that they are discriminated against or that others are racist should be more likely to attribute negative feedback to prejudice and therefore may be higher in self-esteem" (p. 226). In contrast, our perspective suggests that the relative frequency of disadvantaged groups' encounters with prejudice make such attributions especially harmful, while the self-protective properties of such attributions are mainly limited to members of privileged groups, who are likely to encounter prejudice relatively infrequently. COPING WITH PREJ UDICE IN DISADVANTAGED GROUPS
Both correlational and experimental evidence attests to the psychological costs of attributions to prejudice among members of disadvantaged groups. Given these costs, we now consider how members of disadvantaged groups cope with the pain of recognizing their disadvantaged status. Crocker and Major (1989) argued that members of disadvantaged groups do not simply passively accept the dominant culture's devaluation of their social identity,
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but resist the internalization of that devaluation. Our perspective suggests that group identification is one important means by which disadvantaged groups cope with the pain of recognizing their devaluation.
Tile Rejedioe-ldeotifiatioa Model The "Rejection-Identification Model" of attributions to prejJC:1ice (Branscombe et al., 1999) suggests that psychological identification with one's disadvantaged group attenuates the negative effects of attributions to preju dice on well-being. At. shown in Figure 6.1, the Rejection-Identification Model predicts that perceiving prejudice directed against one's disadvantaged group harms psychological well-being. However, in response to prejudice. disadvantaged group members increasingly identify with their disadvantaged group, which in tum alleviates some of these harmful consequences. Despite the fact that recognizing group-based disadvantage harms well-being, re sponding to that threat by identifying with that group tends to offer psycho logical benefits to counter that harm. Indeed. minority group identification is associated with less depression (Munford. 1994), more positive self-esteem. (Bat-Chava, 1994; Grossman. Wirt. & Davids, 1985; Phinney, 1990), and other measures of psychological adjustment (Rowley, Sellers, Chavous & Smith, 1998). For persons with bulimia and gay, bisexual, and lesbian individuals, the mere presence of similarly stigmatized others raises self-esteem and Jowers depression and anxiety (Frable, Pratt, & Hoey. 1998; McKenna & Bargh, 1998). In the context of failure on a verbal ability test (a domain in which Black Americans are likely to see themselves as disadvantaged), Black Amer icans who were reminded of their racial identity felt better than those who were not reminded (Major. Spencer, Schmader. Wolfe. & Crocker. 1998).
� 6.1 The Rejection-Identification disadvantaged groups
Model rl attributions
to prejudice among
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Threats to the ingroup generally encourage group identification (Turner, Hogg, Turner, & Smith, 1984). As the Rejection-Identification Model pre dicts, recognizing prejudice and minority group identification are correlated among Jews (Rollins, 1973), women (Gurin & Townsend, 1986), African Americans (Gurin, Gurin, Lao, & Beattie, 1969), lesbians (Crosby et at., 1989), and non-mainstream college groups (e.g., punks, hippies, nerds; Cozzarelli & Karafa, 1998). In order to experimentally test the causal dir ection of this relationship, we conducted a study in which we manipulated, rather than measured, perceived discrimination against one's group (Jetten, Branscombe, Schmitt, & Spears, 2001). In a sample of people with body piercings, we provided participants with bogus information about the per vasiveness of anti-piercing prejudice among members of the mainstream. In one condition, participants were told that the majority of the mainstream disliked them and would discriminate against them. In another condition, participants were led to believe that treatment by the mainstream was more positive. Consistent with predictions, participants in the pervasive discrimina tion condition reported significantly more identification with other group members than did participants in the positive treatment condition. Although the reverse effect of group identification on perceptions of dis crimination might also be possible (as hypothesized by Crocker & Major, 1989; Crocker et at., 1998), we are aware of no experimental evidence support ing this causal direction. Furthermore, a number of other researchers have found experimental evidence of the Rejection-Identification Model's predic tion that attributions to prejudice encourage minority group identification. Dion (1975) found that women who had attributed their failure to sexism subsequently described themselves more favorably on positive aspects of the stereotype of women. Similarly, Dion and Earn (1975) found that Jewish participants who were led to believe that their failure at a task was attribut able to a Gentile's anti-Semitism described themselves more in terms of the positive aspects of the Jewish stereotype compared to participants in the non prejudice condition. Dion, Earn, and Yee (1978) argued that these two studies suggest that attributions to prejudice elicit a heightened identification with the positive aspects of one's minority group. Similarly, when women are made aware of their stigmatized status, they are more likely to self-stereotype in terms of their gender (Foster & Matheson, 1999; Hogg & Turner, 1987). Reminding gay men of anti-gay prejudice increases their identification with the gay movement (Simon et at., 1998). More generally, when power relation ships among experimentally created groups were manipulated, Depret and Fiske (1993) found that the lower-power group showed increased allegiance to their ingroup compared to the more powerful group. All of these studies provide support for the hypothesis that perceiving prejudice leads members of disadvantaged groups to see themselves more in group terms, and to feel greater emotional attachment to that group.
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MICHAEL T. SCHMITT AND NYLA R. BRANSCOMBE
E111pirkal Tests or the Rejectioa-ldeadficatioa Model Thus far, we have reviewed evidence that is consistent with the three relation ships predicted by the Rejection-Identification Model: (a) perceptions of per vasive prejudice wiD harm psychological well-being in disadvantaged groups; (b) perceptions of pervasive prejudice will encourage identification with one's disadvantaged group; (c) identification with one's disadvantaged group wiU positively affect psychological weD-being. However, examination of the Rejection-Identification Model is incomplete without assessing these rela
tionships simultaneously in disadvantaged group members. Such tests of the model are crucial because the direct negative effect of perceiving prejudice on well-being is expected to be suppressed by the positive effects of coping via group identification. Below we describe research testing the fuU Rejection Identification ModeL
African-Americans The Rejection-Identification Model was first tested with a sample of African
Americans (Branscombe
et al., 1999). Participants completed measures con
cerning past experiences with racial discrimination, attributions to prejudice for hypothetical instances of negative treatment across a variety of life do mains, minority group identification, hostility toward Whites, and well-being. Personal well-being was measured with the Rosenberg Personal Self-esteem Inventory (Rosenberg,
1979),
a measure of the frequency of negative emo
tions and collective self-esteem Using structural equation modeling, we found that the hypothesized Rejection-Identification Model fit the data ex
tremely weD. Furthermore, as shown in Figure
6.2, aU
of the hypothesized
effects were significant and in the predicted direction. Perceiving prejudice encouraged hostility toward Whites and directly harmed psychological well being. However, African-Americans coped with this harm to weD-being to some extent by increasing identification with their racial group. Thus, consis tent with the Rejection-Identification Model, by turning toward the ingroup in response to prejudice, the psychological benefits of group identification counter some of the psychological costs of recognizing the disadvantaged status of one's group.
Women and Men In order to test
the model with a non-ethnic disadvantaged social group, and
to assess how the model fits differently for disadvantaged and privileged groups, we asked White women and men to complete measures of perceived prejudice against their gender group, gender group identification, the Rosen berg Self-Esteem Inventory, the Beck Depression Scale, the Taylor Manifest
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Fipre '-Z Structural equation modeling te� of the Rejection-Identification Model of attributions to prejudice among African-Amen'cans (Branscombe, Schmitt, &
Harvey, 1999), Copyright e 1999 by the American Psychological Association. Adapted with permission
Anxiety Inventory, and general life satisfaction (Schmitt, Branscombe, Kobrynowicz, &. Owen, in press). Consistent with the findings obtained with African-Americans, the more women perceived discrimination based on their gender group membership, the poorer psychological adjustment they ex hibited. Moreover, identification with women attenuated the negative effects of perceived prejudice. In other words, perceiving prejudice increased gender group identification, which in turn enhanced well-being in women. Thus, the Rejection-Identification Model fit the data for women extremely well. Because of our basic assumption that attributions to prejudice will have different effects for privileged than for disadvantaged group members, in this research we compared the model fit for men as well as women. Consistent with our theoretical perspective, we found that the model did not fit the data for men. Unlike for women, perceived discrimination against theirgrou p had no significant impact on men's psychological well-being. Thus, in a privileged group, attributions to prejudice were not harmful, as they were in disadvan taged groups. In addition, perceived diSCrimination did not encourage identi fication with their gender group, suggesting that because privileged groups do not experience attributions to prejudice as threatening, there is no need to tum toward their group as a means of coping. The differential pattern of effects observed for women and men implies that increased identification in response to prejudice is serving defensive purposes in the disadvantaged group that are not needed by privileged groups.
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FUTURE DIRECfiONS FOR THE REJECfiON IDENTIFICATION MODEL
The Rejection-Identification Model provides a basis for studying the subjec tive experience of disadvantaged groups from a social identity perspective. Social identity theory guided the creation of the model, and offers a number of ways in which the model can be expanded in the future. Below we describe how the Rejection-Identification Model can be used as a theoretical vehicle for examining the processes by which group identification protects well-being, and the factors that might moderate how well the disadvantaged cope.
'The Psychological Benefits of Group Identification
Although a number of empirical studies have documented that identification with one's disadvantaged group is associated with psychological well-being, more work needs to be done to examine the processes by which group identi fication protects the well-being of members of disadvantaged groups. At first it may seem paradoxical to suggest, as the Rejection-Identification Model does, that people can make a threatening intergroup comparison in which they recog nize their group's disadvantage relative to other more privileged groups, and simultaneously benefit psychologically by identifying with that group. Social identity theory suggests that group identification can lead to two general strat egies for constructing a positive social identity, despite threatening comparisons with more privileged groups-viz., social creativity and social competition (Taj fel, 1978). When adopting the social creativity strategy, the disadvantaged shift their intergroup comparisons to dimensions on which their group fares more favorably, and increase the relevance of those dimensions to the group's iden tity. Crocker and Major (1989) also suggest that such "selective devaluing" is one way that disadvantaged groups cope with a negative social identity. Re search supports the idea that disadvantaged groups acknowledge reality and admit that the outgroup is superior on status-defining dimensions (e.g. wealth), but see the ingroup as superior on non-status-defining dimensions (Ellemers, van Rijswijk, Roefs, & Simons, 1997; Lemaine, 1974). In political terms, social creativity amounts to rejecting the norms and standards of the dominant culture that disadvantage and devalue the ingroup. In fact, rejection of mainstream norms-which serve the interests of privileged groups-is probably a necessary condition for building a positive minority identity. In Tajfel's (1978) words, "differentiation [from the mainstream) often represents, socially and politically, a rejection of the status quo by groups which perceive themselves as separate and socially disadvantaged" (p. 7). Tajfel (1978) identified social competition as another outcome of group identification that will be adopted by disadvantaged groups who perceive
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alternatives to their group's disadvantage as possible. In support of this idea, a number of empirical investigations have found that group identification is an important predictor of willingness to engage in collective action on behalf of the group (Kelly & Breinlinger, 1996; Kelly & Kelly, 1994; Veenstra & Haslam, 2000) . By engaging in attempts at social change, members of disad vantaged groups can actively alter the relative status of theirgroup, and create a more positive group identity based on a positive future for the group (De Vos & Suarez-Orozco, 1990). While recognizing that prejudice harms percep tions of personal control, group identification may provide an alternative basis for a sense of control-that of collective efficacy (Bandura, 1997). Indeed, social change movements typically acknowledge that individual control over the social system is impossible, but believe that collective action can bring about a more positive outcome for the group as a whole (see Kelly & Breinlinger, 1996; Klandermans, 1997). Group identification might a1so protect well-being by providing greater opportunities for social support from other ingroup members. Such social support can be provided in the form of direct emotional support or in terms of shared time and resources, which can help counter some of the material costs of discrimination. Group identification might a1so counter the psychological costs of feeling rejected and devalued by the dominant culture by providing disadvantaged groups with a sense of belonging and acceptance. Therefore, when members of disadvantaged groups perceive that acceptance and fair treatment by the more powerful group are unlikely, increasing psychological investment in their ingroup may be the best possible strategy for feeling accepted and enhancing psychological well-being. Future work examining the psychological benefits of group identification among the disadvantaged should consider the mediating processes by which identification affects subjective well-being. Social creativity, social competi tion, increased social support, and feelings of acceptance are all potential routes by which group identification could protect psychological well-being.
Factors that Block Group Identification Although the Rejection-Identification Model predicts that perceptions of pervasive discrimination lead members of disadvantaged groups to increase their identification with the ingroup, the more general theory on which the model is based-social identity theory-suggests that under certain social conditions, group identification will not increase in response to perceived disadvantage. As Tajfel (1978) proposed and a number of empirical studies have confirmed, group identification is less likely when the boundary between the minority and the majority is blurred by the apparent potential for individ ual upward social mobility (Ellemers, van Knippenberg, de Vries, & Wilke, 1988; Ellemers, van Knippenberg, & Wilke, 1990; Mummendey, Kessler,
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Klink, & Mielke, 1999), when alternatives to the current social structure are difficult to imagine (Ellemers et a/., 1990; Martin, 1986), and when the status quo is legitimized (Ellemers, Wilke, & van Knippenberg, 1993; Commins & Lockwood, 1979). Crocker and Major (1994) have also considered the importance of the perceived legitimacy of prejudice and discrimination as a moderator of the costs of making attributions to prejudice. They argued that, while an attribu tion to illegitimately held prejudice can be self-protective, making an attribu tion to prejudice that is seen as justifiable is costly. Research on "overweight" women supports the idea that attributions to legitimately held prejudice are harmful to well-being (Crocker, Cornwell, & Major, 1993), and that believing in or being reminded of ideologies that legitimize prejudice against the over weight harms psychological well-being (Quinn & Crocker, 1999). While we do agree that attributions to prejudice are more harmful when prejudice is seen as legitimate, compared to when it is seen as illegitimate, we reach this conclu sion for a different reason. Social identity theory suggests that the perceived legitimacy of prejudice blocks the possibility of coping with disadvantage through group identification, making perceptions of prejudice and discrimina tion especially harmful. We (Garza, Branscombe, Schmitt, & Zarate, 2001) found support for this idea in a study of Mexican-Americans. Participants completed measures of the perceived legitimacy of discrimination, perceived pervasiveness of prejudice, group identification, and psychological well-being. As expected, we replicated our findings with African-Americans and women among those who saw prejudice against Mexican-Americans as illegitimate. Among those participants, perceived prejudice was positively related to group identification, and group identification partially attenuated the negative con sequences of perceiving discrimination on well-being. However, among Mexican-Americans who saw prejudice against them as legitimate, the rela tionship between perceived discrimination and minority group identification was non-significant. As a result, the overall effect of perceived discrimination was more harmful among those who saw it as legitimate, compared to those who saw it as illegitimate, even though the direct negative effect was equivalent in both cases. Like legitimacy, other factors, such as the perceived mutability of the social structure and perceived opportunities for individual upward social mobility, are likely to moderate when perceived rejection from the mainstream will encourage coping via group identification. Factors that block coping via group identification can arise from a number of sources, but of particular interest are aspects of culture that are primarily controlled by the powerful. For example, disadvantage can be legitimized by beliefs in the inferiority of disadvantaged groups (e.g., "old-fashioned" racism), or the controllability of their stigma (e.g. weight, sexual orientation). Similarly, group identification might be dis couraged by ideologies that make individual upward mobility appear possible
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despite the group's overall disadvantage (e.g., the Protestant work ethic, the "American Dream" or through the practice of "tokenism"; Ellemers et al., 1993; Taylor & McKirnan, 1984; Wright, 1997; Wright & Taylor, 1998; Wright, Taylor, & Moghaddam, 1990). In addition, ideologies that make inequality appear immutable or inevitable (e.g., those that explain inequality in terms of its functionality or evolutionary adaptiveness) may also affect how the disad vantaged cope by discouraging group identification. More generally, ide ologies that endorse an individualistic perspective on human nature (political perspectives advocating "color-blindness"; Ferdman, 1989) may discourage perceptions of discrimination and, thus, minority group identification. Not only might these ideologies harm members of disadvantaged groups by blocking group identification as a means of psychological well-being protec tion, but they simultaneously discourage collective action and social change. Social psychologists have noted that the ideologies promoted by privileged groups often protect their position in the social structure by justifying preju dice and discrimination against the disadvantaged (Biernat, Vescio, & Theno, 1996; Jackman, 1994; Katz & Hass, 1988); however, these ideologies also protect the status quo by affecting and limiting how the disadvantaged cope with and resist their structural position in society (Jost, 1995; Marx & Engels, 1864). Future research should investigate the role of dominant ideologies in maintaining the status quo by reducing the likelihood of group identification and collective action by the disadvantaged
CHALLENGES FOR FUTURE RESEARCH ON ATTRIBUTIONS TO PREJUDICE As social psychologists continue to research this important and socially mean ingful area of study, they are likely to encounter a variety of methodological and theoretical challenges. These difficulties arise, in part, because the at tributional processes underlying the meaning of perceived discrimination do not occur in a "social vacuum". They operate in relation to the larger social context. In order to capture the total relevance or meaning of an attribution to prejudice, researchers must consider the individual'spositionwithin the larger social context of the existing intergroup relations. Attributions to prejudice can vary along a number of dimensions that have important implications for their consequences. For this reason, generalization beyond the specific laboratory context requires close attention to where the attributions made in that context fall on those dimensions. First and foremost, researchers must ensure that the stigma employed in their studies is an actual quality of the participants. Perceived discrimination on the basis of an at tribute that the individual knows he/she does not in fact possess will be attributed externally, while attributions to prejudice made by real members of
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disadvantaged groups are, in part, internal. Second, because stability and perceived legitimacy are important moderators of the effects of attributions to prejudice, researchers should be cognizant of what the laboratory context suggests to participants about the pervasiveness and legitimacy of prejudice. For example, discrimination coming from a single individual might imply that discrimination is less pervasive than if the discrimination comes from the outgroup as a whole (see Abelson, Dasgupta, Park, & Banaji, 1998). In addi tion, when groups are created ostensibly on the basis of performance, coping via group identification is less likely because discrimination against the low performance group is likely to be perceived as legitimate. In sum, all forms of discrimination are not experienced identically. Thus, researchers must create in their laboratories or examine in the field the kinds of psychological contexts that actually reflect the psychological dilemmas faced by the disadvantaged groups of interest. In addition, researchers should consider the important role of identification with one's social group as a means of coping with perceived discrimination. As we have shown, group identification suppresses some of the harmful effects of attributions to prejudice; consequently, the harmful effects of such attributions are more evident when identification is included in the analysis. Thus, researchers who do not include group identification in their analyses are likely to underestimate the direct negative effects of attributions to prejudice. CONCLUSIONS
Crocker and Major (1989) brought the issue of attributions to prejudice in disadvantaged groups to the forefront of mainstream social psychology. That being said, there are important differences between our theoretical perspec tive and that of our colleagues. Crocker and Major conceptualized attribu tions to prejudice in comparison to attributions to personal aspects of the self, such as ability, performance, and qualifications. Accordingly, they hypoth esized that attributions to prejudice are self-protective because they avoid the alternative attributional possibility-that negative outcomes are the result of a personal lack of deservingness. Approaching this topic from a social identity perspective, we conceptualized attributions to prejudice in disadvantaged groups using a different point of comparison-attributions to prejudice made by members of privileged groups. Attributions to prejudice do not just dis count personal aspects of the self, but actually implicate another important aspect of the self--one's group membership. Because the consequences of attributions to prejudice are likely to depend on the meaning of its internal component, we considered how attributions to prejudice have different mean ings, depending on the position of the ingroup within the social structure. For disadvantaged groups, attributions to prejudice are likely to be relatively
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stable, uncontrollable, and reflective of widespread rejection and devaluation. For privileged groups, however, attributions to prejudice are likely to be far more unstable and controllable, with very localized implications. For this reason, we hypothesized that, while attributions to prejudice are less harmful and potentially self-protective for members of privileged groups, they are detrimental to the psychological well-being of the disadvantaged. We perceive social psychologists as having generally accepted the idea that disadvantaged groups protect their psychological well-being by making at tributions to prejudice for negative events, with very little empirical evidence to support this conclusion. Our review of the empirical research revealed strong support for the hypothesis that for disadvantaged groups, recognizing prejudice is not self-protective and is, in fact, painful. In a variety of disadvan taged social groups, we found that the disadvantaged cope with the psycholog ical pain of perceiving prejudice by increasing identification with their ingroup. However, this coping strategy only partially alleviates the harm to psychological well-being caused by attributions to prejudice. We suggest that future work on attributions to prejudice examine how aspects of the culture discourage group identification as a means of coping with the recognition of devaluation. ACK NOWLEDGM ENTS
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Chapter 7
Goal-based Explanations of Actions and Outcomes Jobn McClure
Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
ABSTRACT Most attribution theories focus on inductive inferences and abstract causal cate gories. By contrast, goal-based and knowledge structure theories focus on people's perceptions of intentional actions, their deductive inferences, and their concrete explanations of actions. Goal-based theories have demonstrated the importance of goals and intentions as explanations. However, research shows that explanations of goal-based actions reflect the extremity and controllability of the actions, the presence of obstructions, and the type of causal question eliciting the explanation. These factors determine whether people prefer to invoke goals or enabling conditions (or conjunctions) as explanations. Judg ments of explanations also reflect communicative principles or informativeness and relevance, more than logical judgments of probability and necessity. The goal-based approach is often seen as an alternative to the inductive co variational approach, but the two lines of research can be integrated.
How do people explain other people's actions? This is an issue of interest in social psychology, law, and philosophy, to name just a few of the relevant areas. This chapter focuses on social psychological theories of explanation, but theories in law and philosophy are often relevant and have stimulated Correspondence regarding this chapter should be addressed to John McClure, Department of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box 600 Wellington, New Zealand. E mail: [email protected] European Review ofSocial Psychology, Volume 12. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Edited by Wolfgang Stroebe and Miles Hewstone.
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social psychological theories. In several instances, ideas from other disciplines have been translated by social psychologists into testable concepts and propo sitions (e.g., Hilton, 1990; Malle, 1999). In social psychology, the dominant model of explanations has been attribution theory, an orientation that focuses on logical and inductive judgments about the causes of actions (e.g., Forster ling, 1989; Kelley, 1967). However, a second line of research that has flour ished in the 1980s and 1990s is the goal-based approach, which focuses on the intentional nature of human action and real-world knowledge. The flowering of goal-based theories of explanations has been strengthened by the emer gence of research on knowledge structures (e.g., Schank & Abelson, 1977), folk psychology (e.g, Fletcher, 1995), and theory of mind (e.g., Wellman, 1990). This emergence of interest in goal-based approaches is illustrated by the fact that the preconference for the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in 1998 focused on Heider's ( 1 958) theory of a naive psychology. This theory typifies a goal-based approach. The present chapter focuses on goal-based approaches to explanations, but it also examines potential connec tions between goal-based theories and orthodox attribution theories. To place goal-based theories in context, it is useful to provide a brief overview of theories of explanations in social psychology. The first systematic theory of explanations was Heider's (1958) interpersonal theory, which has two aspects. First, it focused on judgments of intentional actions and the ways that those judgments differed from judgments about non-intentional actions and physical events. This aspect of Heider's model revolved around lay people's concepts, such as "can" (as in, "I can do this task") and "want" (as in, "I want to do it"). A second branch of Heider's work set out to define logical processes underlying causal inferences about behavior. In this analysis, Heider drew on the co-variational reasoning defined by J. S. Mill (187211973), which proposes that people attribute an event to the cause that is present when the effect is present and that is absent when the effect is absent. Follow ing Heider, attribution theories focused primarily on this logical inductive strand of Heider's theory, and research examined co-variational reasoning, the distinction between the person and the situation, and the processes that underlie dispositional inferences (e.g., Jones, 1979; Kelley, 1967). Researchers continue to examine co-variational reasoning and dispositional inferences (e.g., Fiedler, Walther & Nickel, 1999; Fosterling, 1989; Morris & Larrick, 1995). However, recently theorists have returned to the other main issue examined by Heider (1958): the nature of judgments about intentional actions. For example, the knowledge structure framework focuses on goal based explanations, and uses categories, such as goals and preconditions, rather than the person and the situation (e.g., Abelson & Lalljee, 1988; Lalljee & Abelson, 1983; Leddo, Abelson, & Gross, 1984; Read, 1987, 1988; Read & Marcus-Newhall, 1993; Schank & Abelson, 1977). With Schank and Abelson's (1977) classic example of going to a restaurant, for example, one goal is
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wanting a meal (or wanting to meet someone at the restaurant), and precondi tions include having money to buy a meal and the restaurant being open. Knowledge structure theorists have framed questions about explanations in the following terms. How do judgments about actions tie in with people's scripts and knowledge structures about actions? Do people judge goals to be better explanations of actions than the preconditions that are needed for an action to occur? Recent research also links these questions to folk psychology (e.g., Malle, 1999). This chapter outlines the leading theories of goal-based explanations and the research on those theories. Three key theories are Heider's (1958) theory of personal causality, Hart and Honore's (1985) theory of causation in the law, and the knowledge structure approach (e.g., Lalljee & Abelson, 1983). After reviewing these theories, the chapter outlines research on goal-based explanations, focusing on knowledge structures, the extremity of actions, the controllability of actions, and the causal question soliciting the explanations. This research also examines the role of pragmatic factors in explanations, and points out the importance of distinguishing between logical measures of ex planations, such as the probability and necessity of causes, and pragmatic criteria, such as the informativeness and relevance of explanations (Hilton, 1990; Schwarz, 1999). The chapter then examines whether goal-based theories of explanation can be integrated with other approaches: folk psychology on the one hand, and inductive attribution theories on the other. A final section discusses the broader relevance of goal-based explanations. THEORIES OF GOAL- BASED EXPLANATIONS
A number of theories have been applied to goal-based explanations, but the most important are Heider's (1958) theory of personal causality and equifinality, Hart and Honore's (1985) theory of causation in the law, and the knowledge structure approach (e.g., Lalljee & Abelson, 1983). These theories are described in turn here, before turning to the relevant research. Intentional Action and Equifinality
Heider focused on intentional action, and the defining features of intentional action, which he sometimes called "personal causality", as opposed to non intentional action and physical causes. He claimed that a key characteristic of intentional action is that it demonstrates equifinality, which is the condition where the means to achieve a goal may vary, but the goal itself stays constant (i.e., it is equi-final). When one route (or precondition) toward a goal is blocked, people with goals pursue other routes to achieve their goals. Take the case of a man who wishes to visit a friend. If he tries to start his car and
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finds it does not start, he is likely to seek an alternative means of fulfilling his goal of visiting his friend (e.g., catch a taxi). Heider contrasted this equifinal quality of intentional action with physical causality: to adapt Hume's ( 173911888) classic example, when a billiard ball encounters an obstacle on the path to the hole, it doesn't keep trying out different routes to get into the hole. The ball merely ricochets away from the obstacle. Heider's theory recognized that preconditions such as abilities, and en vironmental forces such as task difficulty, may serve as obstacles that impede actions. But Heider considered that human action is typically equifinal in nature, and that by pursuing different routes to a goal, people can circumvent obstacles. He claimed that within a wide range of environmental conditions, the person's intention or goal is the sufficient cause to effect an action: "If there are obstacles in his way, the goal-directed person will circumvent them" (Heider, 1958, p. 102). Heider discussed environmental conditions that im pose limits to a person's goals as sufficient causes, but he did not fully define those limits. In general, Heider's view would suggest that goals are likely to be better explanations than the particular means used to achieve an action, be cause goals are normally sufficient to produce the action (see also Kruglanski, 1996). Causation in the Law
The perceived role of intentionality in action is important in the legal con text. Hart and Honore (1985) examined the issue of how people impute causality for actions in the context of legal judgments. Like Heider, Hart and Honore proposed that the voluntary nature of intentional actions influ ences causal judgments and that people see voluntary causes as better ex planations of actions than non-voluntary causes. To illustrate this claim, they cited the case of a forest fire that results when a person discards a cigarette butt when driving through a forest and a breeze fans the flames, leading to the forest fire. They claimed that people are likely to attribute the forest fire to the voluntary action, which in this case is the person throwing the cigarette butt, because this cause is more abnormal than the breeze. According to Hart and Honore, one reason why this happens is that people see voluntary causes as deviations from the natural order, and see them as more abnormal than natural causes. In some cases both of two causes preceding an event may be voluntary. Hart and Honore claimed that in this case people attribute the event to the most recent voluntary cause. For example, with the forest fire scenario, the first cause may again be a person throwing a cigarette butt, but the second cause, rather than being a breeze, may be a person fanning the flames ignited by the cigarette butt. The two actions result in a forest fire. In this case, Hart and Honore claimed, people are likely to attribute the fire to the most recent
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GOAL-BASED EXPLANATIONS
voluntary action, the person fanning the flames. They claimed that people trace actions back only to the most recent voluntary cause.
A
possible problem with Hart and Honore's analysis is that it may con
found abnormality and voluntariness. The theory tends to categorize natural causes (such as a breeze) as normal causes and to categorize voluntary causes
(such as dropping a cigarette butt or fanning flames) as abnormal causes.
However, both natural and voluntary causes can be normal or abnormal. In the case of the breeze, for example, the breeze could be a normal breeze or an abnormal gale. The same applies to voluntary actions, which may be relatively
normal, as in the case of a hiker lighting a campfire, or very abnormal, as when an arsonist pours a can of petrol in a fore.st and ignites it. Hilton
(1988)
proposed connections between Hart and Honore's theory
about voluntary causes and Heider's concept of equifinality. Like Hart and Honore, Hilton focused on causes in sequences, particularly sequences where
a voluntary cause precedes a natural cause that in turn leads to an accident. When the natural cause is an artifact
of the voluntary cause, in the sense of
being a means to an end, Hilton proposed that people will attribute the accident to the voluntary cause, even if that natural cause is abnormal. For
example, when a car crashes on a road that has iced up, people are likely to attribute the crash to the iced-up roads if the ice is a result of natural causes.
However, if the iced-up road occurs as a result of a person maliciously spray ing water on the road in below-freezing conditions, with the goal of causing
the crash, people are likely to see the action of spraying the road as "the
cause" of the crash. In this event the second cause (ice forming) is seen as dependent on the first cause (spraying the road). This example contrasts with the forest fire scenario, where the two volun tary causes of the fire, dropping the cigarette butt and fanning the flames, are independent In fact, the two actions could be carried out by two different people without knowledge
of the other person's action.
In contrast, with the
scenario where the person pours water on the road and the water turns to ice, the second cause is linked to and dependent on the first, and is merely a means to an end.
These views are consistent with Read and Marcus-Newhall's
2)
(1993, Study
demonstration of the effects of prior goals on judgments of subsequent
explanations. This research examined whether participants' judgments of the goodness of explanations were influenced by information about the target person's prior goal that made sense of the given explanation. For example, in a scenario, Cheryl felt tired and her getting pregnant was one possible explan ation of her tiredness; the prior goal referred to Cheryl and her husband wanting to start a family. Participants judged the explanations to be more plausible when they were given the relevant prior goal than when they were not This finding suggests that linking an explanation to a relevant goal in creases the plausibility of that explanation, and supports Heider's
(1958)
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claim, that explanations in terms of a person with an intention are seen as good explanations. 'The Knowledge Stmcture Approach
Several authors have applied the knowledge structure approach to goal-based explanations (e.g., Abelson & Lalljee, 1988; Abraham, 1988; Lalljee & Abelson, 1983; Leddo et a/., 1984; McClure & Hilton, 1997, 1998; Read, 1987; Read & Marcus-Newhall, 1993; Schank & Abelson, 1977). Knowledge struc tures refer to the schemas and scripts that people use to comprehend every day reality and understand stories, and that influence people's explanations for actions. In place of the abstract categories preferred in covariational ap proaches, such as, "something about the person" and "something about the situation", the knowledge structure approach examines specific concrete ex planations, such as, "He did it because he wanted to get revenge". Categories like "the person" and "the situation" are broad and heterogeneous, and fail to distinguish important differences in explanations. For example, when a listener complements a speaker, the "person" category fails to distinguish between the goal of flattering the speaker and the goal of expressing genuine admiration for the speaker. In contrast to the inductive inferences emphasized in covariational attribu tion models, the knowledge structure approach claims that people's explana tions often reflect their prior knowledge, and that people use real-world knowledge to determine which explanations are more plausible. The know ledge structure approach claims that explanations are derived deductively from people's knowledge of the world, rather than an abstract inductive pro cess. This knowledge can be represented in the form of a script, a stereotyped sequence of actions that serve the goals of the actor(s) in the script (Lalljee & Abelson, 1983; Abelson & Lalljee, 1988). With regard to explanations of actions, the knowledge structure approach focuses on explanations that account for intentional actions. The most import ant of these are goals, but they also include preconditions and other causes. Goals typically refer to the intention behind an action, and preconditions refer to causal factors that enable actions to occur. Goals and preconditions do not map directly onto the person-situation distinction, because only some preconditions are situational (e.g., when a cafe is closed), and others are located in the person (e.g., when a person lacks the ability to perform an action). Of course, goals may sometimes serve as a precondition to an action, but the knowledge structure approach treats goals and preconditions as dis tinct categories. In support of this goal-based taxonomy of explanations, Lall jee and Abelson (1983) noted that, when research has examined the categories that people use to distinguish different actions, the dimensions that people use most comprise the goals and motives of actors, rather than the
GOAL-BASED EXPLANATIONS
207
person and the situation (e.g., Passer, Kelley, & Michela, 1978). People are particularly interested in goals when explaining actions, such as explaining a person's studying for an examination, rather than when explaining outcomes, such as a person's result in an examination. In short, the knowledge structure approach has provided a developed framework in which to study goal-based actions. Much of the research on goal-based explanations described in the following sections has been framed by the knowledge structure approach. However, this research also draws on pragmatic theories suggesting that principles of com munication influence explanations (e.g., Grice, 1975; Hilton, 1990, 1991; Schwarz, 1994). The pragmatic approach suggests that people evaluate ex planations in terms of whether the explanations are informative and relevant, rather than in terms of their probability and their necessity.
RESEARCH ON GOAI.rBASED EXPLANATIONS The research described here examines goal-based explanations in relation to knowledge structures, the extremity of actions, the controllability of actions, and the causal question soliciting the explanations. This research also exam ines the role of pragmatic factors in explanations, and points out the import ance of distinguishing between logical measures of explanations, such as the probability of causes, and pragmatic criteria such as the relevance of causes.
Knowledge Structures, Goals and Competing Goals Research applying the knowledge structure approach to goal-based explana tions has presented people with scripted events and compared their judg ments of goals and preconditions as explanations of actions (e.g., Leddo & Abelson, 1986; Leddo, Abelson, & Gross, 1984; McClure, Lalljee, Jaspars, & Abelson, 1989; Read, 1988). In a seminal series of studies, Leddo eta/. (1984) presented scenarios describing a scripted action, and participants rated the probability of goals and preconditions as explanations of the action. For example, one scenario read, "Fred was driving down the highway when he noticed an Italian restaurant up ahead Fred stopped in for something to eat"; the goal was "Fred was hungry" and the precondition was "Fred had money in his pocket". As predicted by the knowledge structure approach, particip ants judged goals to be more probable explanations than the relevant preconditions. Leddo, et a/. also obtained ratings of conjunctions of goals and precondi tions, and found that people judged conjunctions of goals and preconditions to be more probable than goals on their own. So, with the scenario where Fred went to the restaurant, the explanation that he was hungry and had
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money in his pocket was judged more probable than the explanation that merely stated that he was hungry. This preference for conjunctions over indi vidual causes is consistent with research in other domains demonstrating conjunction effects (e.g., Tversky & Kahneman, 1983). The finding that people rate goals and preconditions together as more probable than goals on their own suggests that preconditions are an important component of good explanations, even though preconditions on their own are seen as less import ant than goals. Preferences for conjunctions differed, however, for completed and failed actions (Leddo et a/., 1984). For completed actions like going to the restaur ant, participants judged that both goals and preconditions were probable, but for uncompleted or failed actions, like not going to the restaurant or not passing an examination, people judged that the absence of one cause, either the goal or the precondition, was likely. This finding suggests that conjunction effects are more likely for completed actions than uncompleted actions. For someone to go to the restaurant, he/she needs to want a meal and have the money to buy it. But for someone to not go to the restaurant, only one relevant cause needs to be absent: for example, the person isn't hungry or the restaurant is closed. This pattern is analogous to many physical causes. To start a car, petrol in the tank and a charged battery are both necessary, but the absence of either cause, such as running out of petrol or a flat battery, will prevent a car from moving. To explain this difference in conjunctions for completed and failed actions, Leddo et a/. (1984) drew on people's knowledge structures about causal rela tions. They proposed that when people explain an action, they combine their knowledge about the particular situation with their abstract knowledge about causal relations in an explanatory frame. These frames represent people's beliefs about the structure of a completed explanation for the action. With completed actions, the frames contain slots for typical goals for the action and enabling conditions that make the action possible. With uncompleted actions, however, the frame contains a single slot for any cause that could prevent the action. So with uncompleted actions, people seek a single suitable cause that fills the available slot. This cause may be a goal (or the absence of a goal) or it may be an absent precondition. This interpretation accounts for Leddo et al.'s findings, but it fails to account for the importance of competing goals and competing causes. Wilensky (1983) proposed that a common reason why people do not complete actions is that they have competing goals. For example, a person's failure to go to a restaurant may occur not because he/she lacks the goal of going to the restaurant or lacks a precondition such as money that would enable him/her to go, but because he/ she has the conflicting goal to go to a movie. In support of this view, McClure et a/. (1989) showed that when people evaluate conflicting goals as explanations, they judge that a conjunction of a conflicting goal and a relevant precondition is
GOAL-BASED EXPLANATIONS
209
a more probable explanation for the failure to complete an action than the conflicting goal or the precondition in isolation. When explaining Fred's failure to go to the restaurant, for example, the presence of the desire to go to the football match and his possession of a ticket for the match is judged a better explanation than either the competing goal or the precondition on their own. So the pattern of conjunctions and single causes found with goals that motivate the action is reversed with goals that conflict with the action. This finding shows that people's explanations take account of goal conflict and the oppositions between causes that arise in cases of goal conflict (Wilensky, 1983). In sum, the initial research applying knowledge structures to explanations suggested that goals are better explanations of scripted actions than precondi tions. The presence or absence of conflicting goals plays a key role in whether people prefer a mere goal as an explanation rather than a conjunction of a goal and precondition. The Effect of Extremity and Difficulty
The research described up to this point is consistent with the view that goals are good and sufficient explanations of actions. Recent research, however, has shown a number of boundaries to the idea that people prefer goals as explana tions for actions. This research has demonstrated that preconditions some times play an important role in explanations and shows that judgments about goals as explanations are influenced by a number of factors. These factors include the extremity of actions, the controllability of actions, and the causal question that prompts the explanations. This research also shows that judg ments differ, depending on whether the measures assess the probability, necessity, or informativeness of explanations. Research examining boundaries to preferences for goals first showed that judgments of explanations are influenced by the extremity or difficulty of the relevant action. Previous research on attributions had pointed in this direction, although earlier goal-based theories did not explore this point. Kelley's (1972) theory of discounting and causal schemata proposed that, when people are presented with two or more alternative causes for a common action, they tend to discount one of the alternative causes. In contrast, with extreme and difficult actions, rather than discounting one of the causes, people tend to see several causes as contributing to the action. Kelley linked discounting to the multiple sufficient schema, a causal schema where people see either of two alternative causes as sufficient to explain the effect. Kelley linked the lower levels of discounting with extreme actions to the multiple necessary schema, a schema where multiple causes are necessary to explain an action. So, whereas people are likely to attribute a moderate achievement to the presence of either ability or effort, they are likely to attribute an outstanding (extreme) success to the combination of ability and effort.
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Kelley's proposition applies equally to all causes and makes no distinctions between different explanations, such as goals and preconditions. However, the theory implies that when people are explaining extreme actions or achieve ments, goals in isolation are likely to be seen as insufficient explanations. Research on Kelley's theory has shown that, for some outcomes, people judge actions in the way that the theory implies, and give more conjunctive explanations for extreme actions than moderate actions (Kun & Weiner, 1973; Morris & Larrick, 1995). However, with many extreme actions, people invoke a single extreme cause as an explanation, and this cause is often a precondition (McClure, 1998; McClure, Lalljee, & Jaspars, 1991; Reeder & Brewer, 1979). For example, McClure et a/. (1991) showed that when people explained Einstein's success as a scientist, they did not invoke a conjunction of working hard and intelligence, as Kelley's theory might suggest, but they said that Einstein's success occurred because he was brilliant. In other words, they invoked an extreme level of intelligence to explain the success, and made no reference to effort or hard work. In contrast with effort or the goal to succeed, brilliance is a precondition, in the form of extreme ability. This finding sug gests that for some extreme events, preconditions such as ability are seen as better explanations than a person's effort or goals. This finding supports Reeder and Brewer's (1979) claim, that actions in general are diagnostic in terms of preferences (goals), but only extreme actions are diagnostic in terms of abilities, which are a subset of preconditions. McClure and Hilton (1997) applied this idea to goal-based explanations, a domain where most previous studies found that goals are better explanations than preconditions (e.g., Leddo et a/., 1984). In studies comparing goals and preconditions as explanations, the events being explained have typically described relatively common scripted actions, at least in Western or indus trialized cultures, such as going to a restaurant or having a barbecue (e.g., Leddo et a/., 1984). For these relatively common actions, goals are typically achieved by moderate effort and goals are preferred as explanations. McClure and Hilton (1997) suggested that this finding would not generalize to difficult and extreme actions, and that for these actions preconditions would be pre ferred as explanations. To test this view, they manipulated the extremity of different actions and the level of obstruction facing the actor who was attempting to carry out the action. Extremity was defined in terms of the resources required to perform the action. With a purchasing scenario, for example, the extreme version of one scenario referred to Mary buying a new expensive car, an action that requires substantial financial resources, and the moderate version of the scenario referred to Mary buying a new dress, an action that requires rela tively modest resources. "Obstruction" was defined in terms of the level of resources that the given target person possessed. The obstructed version of the purchasing scenario described Mary as poor, whereas the unobstructed
211
GOAL-BASED EXPLANATIONS
version described Mary as rich. Participants gave their judgments d goals. such as wanting the new car or dress, and preconditions, such as acqUJring an inheritance. The study compared people's explanatJ.'ons for actions {buying the dress) and non-actJons (not buying the dress). The results replicated previous findings that for common actions, such as
buying a new dress, goals are preferred over preconditions as explanations, and showed that goals were also preferred for unobstructed extreme actions (e.g., a rich person buying a new expensive car) (see Figure 7.1). Goals were also preferred for common actions when those actions had been obstructed (e.g., a poor woman buying a new dress when she had not previously been able to do so). Ratings of preconditions were nonetheless higher in this condi tion than with unobstructed actions. In contrast, when actions were extreme (i.e., they required substantial preconditions) and where they were obstructed (the target person lacked ready access to the preconditions), this pattern was reversed. With these scenarios, participants judged the acquisition of the relevant precondition to be the best explanation of the action. In a situation where a poor person buys a new expensive car, for example. people judged that the precondition of acquiring an inheritance explained the action better than the goal of wanting the car. These findings confirm the view that for common actions, people's explana tions center around goals and intentions, as implied by Heider (1958) and most goal-based theones. This suggests that, with common actions, people assume that actors can circumvent obstacles that block one means of complet ing the action; so when an action is performed, people judge that the goal is a
7 6 5
Quality
4 Goal
3
•
Precondition
2
U1obstructed
Obstructed Unobstructed
Moderate
Obstructed
Extreme
Ratings of quality of goals and preconditions for moderate and extreme events that are unobstructed and obstructed (McClure & Hilton, 1997)
F&xure 7.1
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JOHN MCCLURE
sufficient explanation of the action. People make this assumption even when common actions have been obstructed, although in this case they give more weight to preconditions (see also Johnson, Boyd, & Magnani, 1994; Lalljee & Abelson, 1983). In contrast, when an actor performs an extreme action that was previously obstructed by a precondition deficit people attribute the action to the precondition becoming available. With extreme actions, such as buying a very expensive car, people judge goals to be better explanations only when the action is unobstructed, such as when the person buying the car is very rich. In the case of a poor person, the availability of a precondition, such as winning a lottery or acquiring an inheritance, is a better explanation of the action. In sum, these findings suggest the use of goals and preconditions reflects the difficulty of the action being performed and the presence of obstructions hindering the actions (Kelley, 1972; McClure, 1991, 1992; McClure, Lalljee, & Jaspars, 1991; Read, 1987; Wilensky, 1983). Pragmatic Influences on Explanations
Recent research on goal-based explanations for actions shows that the mea sure used to judge causes is important. In the initial research on knowledge structures described earlier, the judgments assessed the probability of the causes (e.g., Leddo et a/., 1984; McClure et a/., 1989). This research found that people preferred conjunctions over mere goals as explanations of scripted actions. However, subsequent research has shown that this preference for conjunctions on probability ratings disappears on measures of pragmatic as pects of explanations. The pragmatic approach claims that people evaluate statements in terms of communicative principles (Grice, 1975; Hilton, 1990, 1991, 1995; Schwarz, 1999; Strack, Schwarz, & Waenke, 1991). For example, people evaluate explanations according to whether the explanations are infor mative and relevant, rather than in terms of their probability and necessity. To apply this perspective to goal-based explanations, research has asked par ticipants to judge goals and preconditions in terms of their informativeness and relevance, as well as their probability and necessity (Hilton & Knott, 1996; McClure & Hilton, 1997; McGill, 1990). McClure and Hilton (1997) also examined which of these different specific measures of explanations (e.g., probability) was the best predictor of judgments of the overall quality of explanations, as assessed by questions such as, "How good overall is the statement 'Fred was hungry' as an explanation of Fred stopping in to a res taurant to eat?" McClure and Hilton (1997) replicated previous findings that, when common actions occur, people judge that both goals and preconditions are probable and necessary for the action to occur. However, on measures of the overall quality of explanations, participants judged goals on their own to be better explanations of common actions than conjunctions of goals and preconditions,
213
GOAL-BASED EXPLANATIONS and they rated goals more informative than preconditions (see Table
7.1). In
those scenarios for which participants judged preconditions to be better ex planations, such as scenarios describing extreme actions, the preconditions were rated more informative than goals. Regression analyses examined whether the informativeness, probability, or necessity of the explanations predicted ratings of the overall quality of the explanations. These analyses showed that the informativeness of the explanations was a better predictor of the overall quality of the explanations than the probability or the necessity of the explanations, although probability and necessity did add to the variance accounted for. So, for example, if Mary goes to a restaurant for a meal, people see it as probable that she both wants a meal (goal) and that she bas enough money to pay for it (precondition). However, when explaining her action, they see it as sufficient to say that she wanted a meal. These findings suggest
that when giving explanations forcommon actions, people frequently omit the preconditions for the actions, even though they see those preconditions as necessary for the action (Grice,
1975; Hilton, 1990). This finding shows that
the measures used to assess explanations are important, and that on measures of the overall goodness of explanations, goals are judged to be good and sufficient explanations of scripted actions. In sum, this research shows that pragmatic factors influence judgments of goals and preconditions. Although conunctions j of goals and preconditions are udged j better explanations than mere goals on a probability measure, goals are judged better explanations than . conjunctions on a measure of
Table 7.1 Judgments of causes when precondition necessary for action is fulfilled
(normal) and when it s i obstructed (from McClure & Hilton, 1997) Question
Scenario action version Extreme
Moderate
Normal
Obstructed
Normal
Obstructed
Overall quality, goal Overall quality, precondition Overall quality, conjunction
5.45 4.11 4.95
4.03 4.78 5.57
5.45 3.54 4.40
5.CB 4.31 4.99
Informativeness, goal Informativeness, precondition
5.06 426
4.04 4.84
5.29 3.82
4.99 4.59
Probability, goal Probability, precondition
5.71 4.18
5.28 4.87
5.41 3.53
5.27 4.01
Necessity, goal Necessity, precondition
4.96 3.40
4.39 4.09
5.07 3.07
5.17 3.89
Inhibitory
3.40
455
3.50
453
RaJings
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JOHN MCCLURE
overall quality. In addition, people judge that the informativeness of an ex planation is a better predictor of the overall quality of explanations than its probability. 'lbe Effed of Controllability
The research described in previous sections shows that the extremity of actions influences judgments of goals and preconditions as explanations for those actions. This finding suggests that explanations may be influenced by the controllability of actions. With extreme actions and outcomes that require substantial preconditions, such as buying an expensive house or completing a highly skilled task, many people find it difficult or impossible to obtain the preconditions required for the action. An event that requires substantial pre conditions is thus likely to be harder to control, and this inability to control the action explains why a goal is often insufficient to explain the action. In contrast, with common scenarios that require modest preconditions, people are likely to view the actions and outcomes as controllable, and to judge goals to be a good explanation. This reasoning suggests that goal-based theories of explanation need to integrate a control dimension (Malle & Knobe, 1997). Research on action theories has shown that control is an important variable in relation to actual actions, as distinct from lay people's explanations of actions (Gollwitzer, 1993; Skinner, Chapman, & Baltes, 1988). In the area of lay explanations, the con trollability of causes is also recognized as an important variable. It is recog nized in achievement theories of attribution, along with other dimensions, such as locus and stability (e.g., Weiner, 1986), and in research on motivated social cognition (Kruglanski, 1996), and counterfactual reasoning (Girotto, Legrenzi, & Rizzo, 1991; Mandel & Lehman, 1996). Girotto et a/. (1991), for example, showed that, for negative events, people judge controllable factors, such as an actor's decision, to be more preventable and mutable, than uncon trollable causes. This was the case even when other causes, such as abnormal circumstances and the actions of other people, were seen as being more important in causal explanations of the event. When an actor suffers a road accident, for example, observers judge that the accident could have been prevented by changes to the actor's choice, such as the choice of route, rather than non-voluntary causes, such as road conditions and the actions of other drivers. These findings indicate the importance of control in relation to actions and events, but research on goal-based explanations has yet to fully integrate this variable (Malle & Knobe, 1997). To address this issue, McClure, Densley, Liu, and Allen (2001 ) examined the relation between the controllability of events and judgments about goals and preconditions as explanations. They aimed to show that preferences for goals apply only to controllable events. As with previous studies, the research
215
GOAL-BASED EXPLANATIONS
examined the relation between the extremity of events and judgments of goals
and preconditions as explanations. However, in these studies participants also udged j the controllability of the events. Participants read either an extreme form of a scenario (e.g., Sally, a student at Victoria University, obtained an A+ average in her third-year papers) or a moderate version (e.g., Sally, a student at Victoria University, obtained a
B-
average in her third-year pa
pers), and rated the overall goodness of a goal ("she wanted the grades" and a
precondition ("she bad the ability to attain the grades"). Other scenarios referred to having a large or small amount of money, going on an expensive or cheap holiday, and having a date with either a supermodel or a fellow student The studies examined whether extreme events were seen as less controllable than moderate events, and whether controllability predicted judgments
of
explanations for these events. The measures also included judgments of the
probability of the events ("How probable is this event?"), to check that the extreme versions of the events were more improbable than the moderate versions
of the events, and to see whether the probability or controllability of
causes was a better predictor of preferences for explanations (cf. Leddo eta/.,
1984; McClure & Hilton, 1997). McClure et al. (2001) predicted that, as in previous studies, participants would prefer goals as explanations for moderate events but would prefer preconditions for extreme events. The novel predictions were that the ex treme events would be judged less controllable than the moderate events, and that ratings
of
controllability would predict judgments about goal explana
tions, but not precondition explanations. These predictions were based on the
finding that, when people are asked which causes preceding events are mutable and controllable, they select causal factors that involve the actor's choice or goal (Girotto
et a/., 1991; Mandel & Lehman, 1996). In contrast,
people perceive less mutability and preventability in non-voluntary causes, such as preconditions and other people's actions. It follows that judgments of controllability should predict judgments of goals as explanations but not pre dict judgments of preconditions. In contrast, the extremity of events and judgments of the probability of events should predict ratings of preconditions. The results supported these predictions.
As in previous studies, goals were
preferred as explanations for the moderate events, whereas preconditions were rated higher than goals for the extreme events. More importantly, the results showed that the extreme events were judged less controllable and less probable than the moderate events. Also, as predicted, the controllability of the events was a significant predictor of participants' judgments of the quality
of goal explanations, and probability added little to the variance. In regard to preconditions, when extremity was included, extremity was the only signifi cant predictor. So, although extreme events are more uncontrollable and improbable than moderate events, the higher rating of preconditions as ex planations for extreme actions reHects the extremity of those events.
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This finding clarifies the boundaries to the idea that goals are better explan ations than preconditions, and shows that the lower preference for goals for extreme events reflects the low controllability of those events. Even in the context of explanations of goal-based actions, participants judge that some outcomes are outside most people's control and that the goal is not the best explanation of the action. The finding that controllability is the best predictor of goals has important implications. It suggests that judgments about goals as explanations for extreme events are determined not by the improbability per se of improbable events, but by the fact that improbable desirable events are typically uncontrollable (Mandel & Lehman, 1996; Roese & Olson, 1995). These findings suggest that goals are good explanations only for controllable actions and outcomes. It is interesting to consider how these findings may relate to the concept of equifinality (Heider, 1958; Kruglanski, 1996). The findings on the effects of controllability suggest that observers judge everyday scripted actions to be relatively controllable for the actor. This finding suggests that observers judge that, with these scripted actions, the actor can circumvent obstacles and ob tain the means (or preconditions) necessary to fulfill their goals. This finding thus seems to be consistent with the concept of equifinality, which proposes that when one means to achieve a goal is blocked, people circumvent the obstacle and obtain other means to achieve their goals (e.g., Heider, 1958; Kruglanski, 1996). However, the findings on controllability also suggest that equifinality may apply only with outcomes that the actor can control, and may not extend to events that fall beyond people's control (Malle & Knobe, 1997). The findings show that observers prefer goals as explanations with a target person who has more resources (e.g., money, skills), and preconditions with a target person who has fewer resources. This suggests that what is controllable for one person or group may be uncontrollable for other persons or groups (McClure, 1985; McClure & Hilton, 1997). What is controllable for a rich person or a skilled person may be uncontrollable for a poor person or an unskilled person. For people with more resources, equifinality may apply in many domains (although not necessarily all domains: "money can't buy me love"). For people with access to only limited resources, equifinality may apply only within a narrow domain of their lives (Wilensky, 1983). As the concept of equifinality suggests, a wealthy woman wanting a good meal has an almost infinite number of ways of achieving her goal, and can easily circum vent an obstacle that prevents her from eating at the first restaurant she comes to. In contrast, a starving woman in a famine-struck country who wants to eat a good meal may have no ways of achieving her goal, and equifinality is close to non-existent. She has no ways of circumventing the obstacles that prevent her from achieving her goal. This suggests that equifinality may be con strained within the bounds of what is possible for a given person or group (Cross & Markus, 1991; Oyserman, Ager, & Gant, 1995). This reasoning
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suggests that, depending on the resources and enabling conditions available to the person, equifinality may apply to a very broad or very narrow range of
outcomes. It would be useful for research to clarify the potential link between goal-based attributions, the controllability
of
actions, and the concept of
equifinality.
The Eft'ed of Ditferent Causal Questions These findings in the previous sections show that people's preferences for
goals and preconditions are shaped by the extremity and the controllability of
actions. This research suggests that when common actions occur, people pre fer to explain these actions in terms of goals, even when those actions have been obstructed by an absent precondition (e.g., Leddo et al.,
& Hilton, 1997). In
1984; McClure
addition, with extreme actions, when the actor possesses
the preconditions necessary for the actions, people prefer to explain the ac tions in terms of goals. So, when a rich person goes to a restaurant or buys a
car, his/her ability to pay is not in question; it simply doesn't make much sense to ask how he/she managed to pay for the purchase. What is in question is his/ her particular motive for this action at this time. This reasoning suggests that different events relate to different questions. And indeed, subsequent studies suggest that the use of goal and precondition explanations for actions relate to the framing of the question that solicits the explanations. Previous research on this issue examined the effect of causal questions on people's recall of narratives (Graesser, Graesser, Robertson, Lovelace,
&
& Anderson, 1981; 1980). This research presented
Robertson,
Swinehart,
narratives to participants, then asked them different questions about the narra tives, such as "why" questions and "explain" questions.
The
''why" questions
prompted goals in people's accounts more than "explain" questions. According to Graesser et al.
(1980), this research shows that when people are asked why a
given action has occure r d, they identify the question as a goal-orientation ques tion, and generate possible goals or motives behind the action (see also Antaki
& Leudar, 1992;
1984; Turnbull, 1986; White, 1992). (1994) took this reasoning one step further; they
McClure,
Graesser and Person
proposed that questions are speech acts that not only make an inquiry but also
presuppose information (see also Hilton,
1990; Rips, 1998; Schwarz, 1999).
For example, the question, "What was your reason for going to the restaur ant?" assumes that there is a reason for the action. Graesser and Person acknowledged that there is not a simple mapping between syntactic structures and different categories of pragmatic speeeh acts. However, they proposed that questions such as "why" and "what for" as in the question, ''What did you do that for?" imply that an action was performed for a goal (or reason).
These questions assume a particular type of explanation, and are likely to elicit that type of explanation.
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The finding that "why" questions about actions tend to elicit goal explana tions may account for the high use of goal explanations for common actions in McClure and Hilton's (1997) studies on the effects of extremity. These studies showed that people preferred goals as explanations of common actions, even when those actions previously were obstructed by a precondition default. The measures of the informativeness and the overall quality of explanations in these studies were framed as "why" questions. The measure of informative ness, for example, asked, "How informative is the explanation 'Fred was hungry' in regard to the question 'Why did Fred go the restaurant'?". The measure of the overall goodness of explanations was framed in similar terms. Graesser et al.'s (1980) analysis suggests that the "why" framing of these questions may have implied that the best explanation was a goal. Of course, this interpretation does not explain the finding that preconditions were pre ferred for difficult events, whereas goals were preferred for common events, because both extreme and moderate scenarios used the same "why" ques tions. But this interpretation does suggest that the preference for goals with common actions was enhanced by the "why" wording of the questions (see also Graesser, Langston, & Baggett, 1993; Graesser & Person, 1994; McClure, 1998; Schwarz, 1999). In related research on causal questions, McGill and Klein (1993) found that the framing of causal questions influenced the focus of information that people sought about explanations. Participants were more likely to seek infor mation verifying the necessity of causes when a question was framed as, "What do you think caused [the target event) to happen?", than when a question identified the candidate factor and asked, "Did something about X cause the target event to happen?". Given that the "What do you think caused X?" question enhanced a focus on necessity, this type of question should elicit preconditions as much as goal explanations, because precondi tions are regarded as necessary causes, even where goals are preferred as explanations (Hilton & Knott, 1996; McClure & Hilton, 1997). This reasoning suggests that framing a causal question as a request for an explanation should elicit preconditions more than "why" prompts. To test this proposition, McClure and Hilton (1998) examined the effect of causal questions on goals and preconditions as explanations for actions. They examined whether people explain common actions more in terms of precondi tions than goals when the question is phrased as requesting a causal explana tion, rather than when posed as a "why" question. As in previous studies, McClure and Hilton (1998) obtained explanations for obstructed and unob structed actions; the actions being explained were all common actions adapted from Leddo et a/.'s (1984) scenarios, such as the "going to the restaurant" scenario. The studies also took account of the fact that previous findings on the issue may reflect the use of structured measures that might suggest an explana tion that participants would not otherwise have thought of. To counter this
219
GOAL-BASED EXPLANAliONS
possibility, McOure and Hilton (1998) used both free-response and structured measures to assess participants' preferences for goals and preconditions. These studies tested the effect of causal questions by manipulating the framing of questions, by either requesting a "causal explanation" for common actions or by asking "why" the actions occurred. On both free-response and structured measures, the wording of the causal questions influenced explana tions in the predicted directions (see Figure 7.2). With "why'' questions, goals were preferred, although when the action had been obstructed, preconditions rose in importance. However, the preference for goals disappeared when the question was framed as a request for a causal explanation. Although goals were rated higher than preconditions when there was no obstacle to the action, precondiu'ons were rated higher than goals when the action was obstructed (see also Malle & O'Laughlin, 1998). 7
6 5
Quality
4 3 2
Why
Explain
Unobstructed
Why
Explain Obstructed
Figlu'e 7.2 Ratings of quality of explanations when causal question is framed as a "why" question and an "eltplain" question. From McClure & Hilton, 1998, with permission
McClure and Hilton (1998) also examined whetherjudgments of the overall goodness of explanations are mediated more by probability of causes or the informativeness of causes (Hilton & Knott, 1996; McClure & Hilton, 1997; McGiU, 1990). Informativeness was the best predictor of overall goodness, which suggests that explanatl·ons reflect the cause that is most informative, rather than that which is most probable (see Table 7.2). So, although the explanations changed as a function of the question ('why" vs. "causal explan ation"), the criterion for selecting explanations was unchanged, with people preferring the explanation that is most informative. This finding supports the
220
JOHN MCCLURE
Table 7.2 Ratings of causes when causal question is phrased as a "why" question and a "causal explanation" question
Question
Scenario action version Why
Explanation
Normal
Obstructed
Normal
Obstructed
Goodness, goal Goodness, precondition
5.97 3.38
5.63 4.96
4.75 4.03
4.08 4.72
Informativeness, goal Informativeness, precondition
6.03 3.78
5.68 5.10
4.84 4.23
4.33 4.89
Probability, goal Probability, precondition
5.67 4.28
5.80 5.43
5.35 4. 19
5.22 5.20
Necessity, goal Necessity, precondition
5.31 3.92
5.66 5.56
5.28 4.28
5.16 4.92
Inhibitory
2.86
4.89
3.15
4.79
Ratings
From McClure & Hilton, 1998. © John Wiley & Sons Limited. Reproduced with permission.
claim that pragmatic principles of communication, such as informativeness, play a stronger role in judgments of the quality of explanations than probabil ity judgments (Grice, 1975; Hilton, 1990, 1991; Schwarz, 1999). This research by McClure and Hilton (1998) manipulated only two catego ries of causal question: "why" questions, and requests for a "causal explana tion". These questions reflected the key categories of causal question proposed by Graesser et a/. (1980), but they represent only two of a number of possible causal questions that can be asked in naturalistic settings (Graesser & Person, 1994; Turnbull, 1986; White, 1992). Using the same scenarios de veloped by Leddo et a/. (1984), McClure, Hilton, Cowan, Ishida, and Wilson (2001) examined the effects of a wider range of causal questions, including not only "why" and "give a causal explanation", but also two questions that are often posed in naturalistic settings: "suggest why" and "how come?". The "why" and "suggest why" questions elicited more goals, but the "give a causal explanation" and "how come" questions elicited more preconditions. These findings also suggest a relationship between the availability of pre conditions and what is abnormal or surprising about an action. When people ask causal questions in naturalistic situations, these questions take account of people's existing knowledge about the relevant events ( Graesser & Person, 1994). So questions about actions reflect the availability of the preconditions for the action. This point can be illustrated with the scenarios used by Mc Clure and Hilton (1997). When explaining rich people making an expensive
GOAL-BASED EXPLANATIONS
221
purchase, the preconditions necessary for the actions are likely to be assumed, and people will be interested in the actors' goals. They are thus more likely to ask questions that presuppose the relevance of goals, such as "why" or "what was their reason?" to obtain an explanation of the action. In contrast, when explaining poor people making an expensive purchase, observers are more likely to be interested in explaining the means with which they completed the actions (i.e., preconditions) , and may ask "how" in order to explain their action. These results, of course, are obtained in controlled experimental contexts and may not generalize to other more naturalistic contexts. However, both linguistic and knowledge structure analyses suggest that "why" questions about actions are usually seen as goal-orientated questions (e.g., Graesser et al., 1980; Schank & Abelson, 1977), so these findings are likely to generalize to naturalistic contexts. The results are also consistent with the claim that, in the context of establishing responsibility for crimes, "why" questions are linked to judgments of intention and goal-based action more than questions about causal factors (Hart & Honore, 1985). In sum, these findings reinforce the view that neither goals nor preconditions are inherently better explanations for actions. Causal selections are based not only on the difficulty and con trollability of the action being explained, but the way the causal question is asked. These findings suggest that the wording of causal questions plays a signifi cant role in determining explanations of goal-based actions. Previous research on language and attribution has shown that the linguistic category used in sentences influences attributions (e.g., Semin & Fiedler, 1 991). The research described here shows that the wording of causal questions also influences explanations. In sum, people's explanations of goal-based actions are shaped by causal questions. Causal Chains: Sequences of Goals and Preconditions
In the research up to this point, observers judge goals and preconditions as explanations as concurrent influences on the outcome, and evaluate their goodness as explanations at a single point in time. These studies clarify people's judgments of goals and preconditions as concurrent influences on actions, but they show little about judgments regarding the consecutive influ ence of the causes on the outcome and on each other. For example, these studies give no idea of whether these causes are judged to have a temporal dependence on each other. Yet it is likely that goals and preconditions both influence each other sequentially (Hart & Honore, 1985; Hilton, 1988; Lalljee & Abelson, 1983; Mandel & Lehman, 1996; Read & Marcus-Newhall, 1993; Spellman, 1997).
222
JOHN MCCLURE
One reason why preconditions are judged good explanations for extreme events may be that preconditions affect the likelihood of goals with these events. With difficult actions that require substantial preconditions, the pres ence of preconditions is likely to influence the emergence of goals. People who lack the money to buy a new Mercedes Benz are less likely to form the goal to buy one than those who have the means. By the same token, when a poor person who has never seriously thought of buying a new Mercedes wins a lottery, the acquisition of the precondition of money may enhance the goal to buy a Mercedes, or something else requiring a lot of money. The same principle applies with other preconditions, such as abilities. In contrast, pre conditions may have weaker effects on those cognitions that hold a less direct link to actions, such as fantasies. Goals and fantasies both represent a desire or aspiration, but fantasies have a weaker connection to the performance of actions (Bybee, Luthar, Zigler, & Merisca, 1997; Gollwitzer, 1993; Oettingen, 1996). People may have a fantasy about a difficult action, such as buying a new Mercedes or winning an international award, even if they lack the precondi tions to complete the action. This idea can be related to the concept of equifinality, which proposes that with intentional actions, people circumvent obstacles to obtain the means necessary to achieve their goals (e.g., Heider, 1958; Kruglanski, 1996; Lalljee & Abelson, 1983). The present reasoning does not directly contradict this claim, but it does suggest that the prior availability of the preconditions necessary for an action affects the likelihood that the relevant goal will emerge. Most people don't generate the goal to walk across water, because people cannot walk across water. This reasoning implies that the relation between goals and preconditions (means) is more bidirectional than the rela tion covered by the concept of equifinality. Whereas the concept of equifinality proposes that the person with a goal will attempt to circumvent obstacles and obtain the means required to achieve his/her goal, the present reasoning implies that when people have no chance of obtaining the means to achieve a goal, they will not form the goal in the first place. However, there has been little research on this issue of the sequential effects of preconditions on goals and actions. Clearly, this issue needs more research. Different Criteria of Causation and Explanation
The research described in previous sections shows that different explanations reflect different causal questions, and that there are different criteria of causal influence and causal explanation. People's judgments of what makes a good explanation can be defined and measured in a number of ways. Many studies use unitary measures of causal judgments and treat these measures as ade quate reflections of people's judgment about the relation between causes and actions (e.g., Einhorn & Hogarth, 1986). The tendency to use a single measure
GOAL-BASED EXPLANATIONS
223
of causal influence is apparent in research and theory on causal discounting, where many analyses focus on single measures, such as the probability or sufficiency of contending causes (e.g., Morris & Larrick, 1995). However, there are different criteria for relations between cause and effects and there are different criteria for a good explanation, and it is important to distinguish between these criteria (McClure, 1998). For example, researchers should distinguish between perceived causes and communicated causes, or explanations. There is a difference between the issue of whether a cause is seen as contributing to an effect and the issue of whether a cause is included in an explanation. Communicated explanations may refer only to one cause, but it is possible that the person perceives that several causes contribute to the action. Where people select a single cause and apparently discount others, they may do so for reasons other than thinking that the other causes are weak or uncertain. Causes may be omitted from explanations because people see them as irrelevant or uninformative, and because people take the causes for granted, even though those causes contrib uted to the action. For example, when athletes who win a contest are asked to explain their win, they usually do not mention that they wanted to win, even though this goal is likely to have contributed to the outcome. The goal is taken for granted (Cheng & Novick, 1991; Grice, 1975; Hilton, 1990; McClure & Hilton, 1998; Schwarz, 1994, 1999). The cause that is presented in an explanation may be selected for a range of reasons. It may be the cause that distinguishes the event being explained from other similar situations, rather than being the primary determinant of the effect (Cheng & Novick, 1991; Hilton, 1990). In addition, an explanation may include only the most recent or proximate cause that preceded an action, and omit more distal causes that are important links in a causal chain (Hart & Honore, 1985). Research on explanations needs to clarify the status of different causes, including causes that people discount on structured measures or omit from their explanations on unstructured measures. Research can then distinguish between causes that are seen as exerting little influence on an action, and causes that are seen as important, but omitted for some pragmatic reason. Research can best clarify the status of causal candidates by distinguishing judgments of probability, necessity, sufficiency, informativeness, and ex planatory value (Hilton & Erb, 1996; Hilton & Knott, 1996; Johnson et al., 1994; McClure & Hilton, 1997, 1998; McGill, 1990, 1991; N'gbala & Branscombe, 1995) . Necessity can be assessed by judgments of whether an action occurs when the cause is absent, whereas sufficiency can be assessed by judgments that the action always occurs when the cause is present. For example, one cause may be judged to be a sufficient explanation of an action, even when other causes are seen as important on other measures, such as probability and necessity. Informativeness can be assessed by
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judgments that the explanation is informative or relevant to explaining the action. McClure (1998) proposed that if researchers examining explanations take account of these different measures, they are likely to produce co herent findings that are consistent with other findings on causal judgments and communication (Cheng & Novick, 1991; Hart & Honore, 1985; Hilton, 1990; Read & Marcus-Newhall, 1 993). EXPLANATIONS AND FOLK PSYCHOLOGY
Theorists have recently taken up the idea of a folk psychology, which involves the systematic analysis of natural categories in people's perceptions of inten tions and intentional actions (e.g., Fletcher, 1995; Kashima et a/., 1998; Malle, 1999; Malle & Knobe, 1997; Smedslund, 1997). This new interest in folk psychology echoes Heider's (1958) interest in intentional action and naive psychology, but it examines these domains with more systematic research. Malle and Knobe (1997) examined the features that people perceived as characterizing intentional actions, and showed that people view these actions as comprising two core elements: the desire to perform the action and the belief that a particular action would fulfill that desire. People judged that when both desire and belief are present the actor will have the intention to perform the action, but when either desire or belief is absent, the intention is unlikely to emerge. Further support for this model was obtained by Kashima et a/. (1998), who gave participants scenarios in which either a desire or a belief was reversed (said to be absent) or substituted by an inappropriate option. As Malle and Knobe's model predicts, only scenarios that included appropriate desires and beliefs made sense to participants. This finding also seems to be consistent with the notion of scripts proposed by the knowledge structure approach. Although beliefs and desires are central to folk psychology, Malle and Knobe (1997) claimed that lay people's idea of intentional actions is charac terized by two further elements: the actor's awareness of the desire-action relation, and the actor's possession of the skill required to perform the action. Malle (1999) more recently extended the model to include preconditions (or enabling factors), to take account of research showing that people cite precon ditions in explanations of intentional actions (e.g., McClure & Hilton, 1997). Malle claimed that the folk psychology of intention takes account of the preconditions that enable an action and that are necessary for the action. Malle claimed that, even though extreme achievements are intentionally brought about by the agent, people may invoke enabling factors rather than reasons to explain them. Enabling factors explain how, rather than why, inten tional actions or accomplishments occur (see also Ahn, Kalish, Medin, & Gelman, 1995).
225
GOAL-BASED EXPLANATIONS Malle
(1999) also examined ways in which people's explanations reflect the
folk psychology of intentional action. He claimed that people use differing types of explanation for intentional and unintentional behaviors, and that people give reason explanations for intended actions and causal explanations for unintended behaviors. Malle's distinction between reason and cause ex planations is similar to Heider's distinction between personal and impersonal causes, and has been proposed several times as an alternative to the person situation categories that have been dominant in attribution theory (e.g., Buss,
1978; Locke & Pennington, 1982; McClure, 1983, 1984).
This proposal links a particular category of explanation, such as reasons,
to a particular category of action, such as intentional actions. This idea contrasts with research that suggests that people may invoke either goals or preconditions as explanations for intentional actions, and that the preferred explanation depends on the type of causal question that is asked and the extent to which the available explanations are judged to be informative and relevant (McClure
&
Hilton,
1997, 1998). Kashima et al. (1998) applied
pragmatic concepts to folk psychology, by showing that people's judgments about the relevance of desires and beliefs took account of the audience's background knowledge about events. For example, when participants were told that their audience already knew that a desire or a belief was present, they omitted that element from their explanations to that audience. Kashima's finding is consistent with the research on goal-based explanations showing that pragmatic factors influence udgments j of goals and precondi tions. It thus strengthens the link between folk psychology and explanations of goal-based actions.
INTEGRATING GOAL-BASED AND INDUCfiVE ATIRIBUTION MODELS As noted in the introduction, research on explanations in social psychology
has followed two strands: attributional approaches that emphasize inductive
reasoning, and goal-based approaches that emphasize knowledge-based rea soning and goal-related explanations. Many researchers have considered these two approaches to be competing or incompatible (e.g., Lalljee Abelson,
&
1983; Leddo et al., 1984). However, previous sections of this chapter
have shown some connections between goal-based approaches and inductive attribution models. As noted previously, McClure and Hilton's (1997) finding that people's judgments of goals and preconditions reflect the extremity of actions has some connecti()I)S with Kelley's (1972) theory of discounting and causal schemata And McClure et al.'s (in press) finding that judgments about
goals were affected by the controllability of actions makes a conceptual link with Weiner's (e.g.,
1986) theory of achievement attributions.
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People's judgments about goals and preconditions are also consistent with Hilton and Slugoski's (1986) abnormal conditions focus theory, which claims that explanations reflect whatever cause is most abnormal in the circum stances, and which has been applied to covariation-based judgments. For example, McClure and Hilton's (1997) finding that participants elevate pre conditions with obstructed actions is consistent with the abnormal conditions model. When actions previously have been obstructed by some precondition default, the occurrence of the action is abnormal by comparison with the previous occasions where it was obstructed. The abnormal conditions model has mostly been applied to the person-situation categories of explanation. However, the model also applies to goal-based explanations. There are also potential links between goal-based explanations and theories about correspondent inferences (Jones, 1979). Correspondent in ferences involve the judgment that an actor has a disposition that corresponds to a given action. As Hilton (1990) noted, the concept of category-based expectancies in the theory of correspondent inferences deals with similar contrasts to the abnormal conditions focus model. A category-based expec tancy is an expectancy that derives from the perceiver's knowledge that the target person belongs to a particular class or group (Jones & McGillis, 1976). According to correspondent inference theory, where an action deviates from that expectancy (i.e. it is abnormal), the perceiver is likely to make a corres pondent inference, and infer that the person has a disposition that corres ponds to the action. Applying this model to goal-based explanations, if goals are seen as similar to dispositional inferences, the model would suggest that, when an action deviates from category-based expectancies, people will attribute the action to the actor's goals. It is interesting that this prediction contrasts with McClure and Hilton's (1997) finding with actions that would seem to deviate from category-based expectancies, such as where a poor person buys a new expensive car. Participants explain these actions more in terms of preconditions becoming available than goals. Clearly there is a need for work on comparing and integrating these models. Despite these links between goal-based models and the more inferential attribution models, research suggests that knowledge structures and co variation information can have competing effects. Hilton and Knibbs (1988) examined the competing effects of knowledge structures and covariation in formation. They presented an action and two types of information: goal relevant information and covariation information (e.g., consensus information indicating how many other people performed an action). For example with the scenario, "Laura acts coolly on the date with Justin", the goal-relevant information was, "Laura knows she likes acting hard-to-get", and the con sensus information was, "almost everyone acts coolly on a date with Justin". The two classes of information either converged or conflicted in the causes that they implicated. For example, one condition presented goal-relevant
GOAL-BASED EXPLANATIONS
227
information implicating the person as a cause and covariational information implicating the situation as a cause. Participants then judged different causes of the effect. The results showed that goal-based information was not swamped by covariation information, and that people made slower and less confident judgments when there was a conflict between goal-based and covariational information. These findings suggest that goal-based and covariation information have different and sometimes conflicting effects. However, Sutton and McClure (2001) proposed that goal-based and co-variation approaches can be integ rated in a single model that overcomes the weaknesses of these two approaches. As noted earlier, covariational models deal with people's in ferences in terms of broad categories of explanation, such as a person explanation, but they fail to predict important distinctions between sub categories of explanation. For example, with the "person going to the restaur ant" scenario, the covariation model fails to distinguish between two different types of "person" explanation for the action: "she went to the restaurant because she is a foodie" and "she went to the restaurant because she was hungry". In addition, few researchers have applied covariational models to intentional actions and goals. Goal-based approaches, on the other hand, distinguish specific categories of explanations within a given causal locus and apply to intentional actions and goals. However, they fail to specify clearly when a given explanation is likely to be preferred over others. The integrative model proposes that goal-based explanations can be linked to the reasoning rules specified by the covariational approach. The model proposes that when people observe intentional actions, they infer antecedent events from their real-world beliefs. These potential explanations include motivating causes, such as goals, and enabling causes, such as preconditions. People then select the causes that co-vary with the action on dimensions such as consensus and distinctiveness, and offer these causes as explanations of the action. The model predicts not only when people invoke causes within the person, the situation, and the occasion, but also when people will invoke a stable cause ("he is always violent") rather than an unstable cause ("he wanted to defend himself"), and when people will use a motivating cause (a goal) rather than an enabling cause (a precondition). Sutton and McClure (2001) demonstrated this model with scenarios that manipulated the consensus, consistency and distinctiveness of motivating and enabling causes. For example, one version of the "buying the car" scenario said that many were willing to buy a car (motivating cause, high consensus), but only the actor was able to buy the car (enabling cause, low consensus). The scenarios also gave information about the actor's and other people's purchases on other occasions (i.e. combinations of consensus and distinctive ness information). Participants then judged motivating and enabling causes as explanations of the action, and gave the explanations predicted by the
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JOHN MCCLURE
integrative model. With this version of the "buying car" scenario, for example, participants attributed the action to an enabling cause. The integrative model also accounts for the finding that goals are used more for common events and preconditions more for extreme events (McClure, 1998; McClure & Hilton, 1 997; McClure et a/., in press). According to the model, the reason why people often use enabling causes, such as having an abnormal amount of money, to explain extreme actions is that there tends to be low consensus in the possession of those enabling causes. Sutton and McClure's research showed that with both extreme and moderate events, participants used enabling causes (preconditions) rather than motivating causes whenever the covariational information suggested that enabling causes were likely candidates. This finding contrasts with earlier goal-based models that predict the predominant use of goals as explanations, particularly for common actions (e.g., Leddo et a/., 1984; McClure & Hilton, 1997). The integrative model provides a conceptual bridge between goal-based accounts and covariation models of explanations, while retaining the strengths of goal-based models. This synthesis of goal-based and co-variational models shows how covariational information influences a range of goal-based explan ations, and when such information will favour the selection of goals and preconditions that are either stable or unstable. In sum, although the goal-based and inductive attributional approaches to explanations have a number of differences, there are potential links between them. IMPLICATIONS AND APPLICATIONS
The present chapter has attempted to clarify the current state of theory and research on goal-based explanations of actions and outcomes. There is an interesting relation between research on lay people's explanations of actions and research on motivation and actions. The increase in research on goal based explanations parallels the expansion in research on actual actions, in terms of intentions, willpower, and goals (e.g., Gollwitzer, 1993; Gollwitzer & Bargh, 1996). The analysis of goal-based explanations examines lay persons' explanations of actions, and fits within the realm of "folk psychology". By comparison, the analysis of action examines factors that determine whether people's actual intentions lead to actions. Researchers need to take care not to confuse the two domains (Fletcher, 1 995), but there is potential for researchers to exchange concepts between the two domains. For example, research on intentions and actions tends to focus on cognitive processes and mechanisms such as attention, the ability to delay gratification, and the importance of subgoals in implementing superordinate goals. These processes often determine whether a given intention is implemented in an
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229
action. Research on goal-based explanations has paid less attention to these cognitive mediators, and has focused on goals as a global concept. This research also examines explanations that include enabling preconditions and resources that affect actions, such as abilities, money, and time. The current research on folk psychology provides a bridge between these different em phases, as it incorporates several concepts in action psychology, such as inten tions, beliefs, and awareness, into the analysis of lay psychology (e.g., Kashima et al., 1998; Malle, 1999). Clearly, there is potential for more theoretical exchanges between the social psychology of action and the social psychology of explanation For example, research on folk psychology and explanations could examine such questions as when people judge others to have implementation intentions, a question that derives from Gollwitzer's (e.g., 1993) research on intentions and actions. This chapter focuses on factors that influence explanations, but there are practical implications to different explanations for actions and outcomes. Weiner (e.g., 1986) has shown that different attributions have different effects on people's expectancies, emotions, and motivation. Weiner's analysis applies to attributional dimensions, such as locus and stability, but similar principles are likely to apply to different categories of goal-based explanations, such as goals and preconditions. For example, when a person explains his/her own success in terms of his/her own goals, rather than preconditions such as his/her ability or inherited wealth, this is likely to affect his/her emotions, motivation, and expectancy of future success. People's explanations of events influence the subsequent actions that they take. As proposed by Heider ( 1958) and reiterated by Fiske (1998), explana tions determine what we expect will occur and what we should do about it. In real life, people often lack the necessary conditions to fulfill their goals and aspirations (McClure, 1985, 1991; Wilensky, 1983). The research here shows where people take account of these preconditions in their explanations, as in the case ofextreme and difficult actions. However, observers sometimes assume that the primary determinant of a person's success or failure involves a goal, and they fail to recognize the role of the person's circumstances in determining that outcome. A tendency to always make goal explanations for people's out comes is analogous to the dispositional attribution bias (Jones, 1979), and would lead people to explain disadvantaged people's circumstances in terms of their motivations or goals. When goals comprise the relevant factor, this in ference may be valid and useful But when the key factor hindering an action is the lack of enabling conditions, observers who focus on goal explanations may overlook the conditions that are necessary for persons to achieve their goals. When people see that preconditions play a role in fulfilling goals, then they are more likely to see that these conditions may need to change to enable actors to achieve their goals. So explanations of other people's actions affect the ex plainer's responses to those actions and outcomes.
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The research described here also shows that the way people ask causal questions has a significant effect on the explanations that people give for actions. This research complements research showing the importance of ques tion framing in relation to attitudes (e.g., Schwarz, 1999) , and shows the importance of question framing in regard to explanations. This finding has implications for the researchers' design of questions intended to elicit explan ations, in that the type of causal questions used may favor different types of explanation. Researchers should be aware that their choice of causal ques tions is likely to shape the explanations that they obtain. The findings with causal questions also have implications for legal contexts and procedures. The framing of causal questions about intentions and actions may influence witnesses' and defendants' statements. For example, when a lawyer asks a defendant why he/she was in the place of a crime at a given time, the question implies that the defendant had a particular reason or motive for being in the vicinity of the crime (Graesser & Person, 1994). If the defendant gives an answer that implies that he/she had no particular motive for his/her presence, the answer may seem evasive, because the answer would violate the assumption implicit in the lawyer's question. So the effect of causal questions is not only a methodological issue; it also has applied implications. The present research also shows that people's explanations of goal-based actions depend on how their explanatory task is defined. For example, people may offer a different explanation if they are being asked what causes are necessary for an action to the explanation they would give if they are asked to explain what purpose an action has to a child or to an overseas tourist who doesn't understand the action. As the research here shows, the fact that someone thinks a cause is highly probable does not mean that the person thinks that the cause provides a good explanation of an action. So researchers should be aware that there are very different meanings to explanations and to different measures such as probability and informativeness that tap these different meanings. CONCLUSIONS
Most attribution theories have focused on the distinction between the person and the situation and inductive models of inference. However, recent years have seen the emergence of models that focus on people's perceptions of intentional actions: knowledge structure theories, folk psychology, and theory of mind. These theories have prompted research on goal-based explanations that focus on people's concrete concepts about actions and that link explana tions to real-world knowledge, rather than inductive or statistical reasoning. Initial research on goal-based theories focused on common actions and sug gested that people predominantly use goals as explanations, but recent
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research clarifies where people use other explanations, such as preconditions, to explain actions. Explanations reflect the extremity of actions, the degree of obstruction facing actions, and the type of causal question that solicits the explanation. People's judgments of explanations are also influenced by prag matic factors, such as the relevance and informativeness of the explanations. Goal-based theories can be integrated with covariational theories, but this synthesis requires covariational theories to use goal-based categories of action, rather than abstract categories such as "the person" and "the situa tion". There are useful potential links between the psychology of explanations and the psychology of action, but many of these links remain to be explored. ACK NOWLEDGM ENTS
I thank Denis Hilton, Yoshihisa Kashima, Jim Liu, Bertram Malle, David Mandel, Michael Morris, Sik Hung Ng, Giin Semin, Ben Slugoski, and Robbie Sutton for valuable comments on the ideas in this manuscript. REF ERENCES Abelson, R. P., & Lalljee, M. ( 1 988). Knowledge structures and causal explanations. In D. J. Hilton (Ed.) Contemporary Science and Natural Explanation: Commonsense Conceptions of Causality. Brighton: Harvester. Abraham, C. (1988). Seeing the connections in lay causal comprehension: A return to Heider. In D. J. Hilton (Ed.), Contemporary Science and Natural Explanation: Com monsense Conceptions of Causality. Brighton: Harvester. Ahn, W. K., Kalish, C. W., Medin, D. L., & Gelman, S. A. (1995). The role of covaria tion versus mechanism information in causal attribution. Cognition, 54, 299-352. Antaki, C., & Leudar, I. (1992). Explanation in conversation: Towards an argument model. European Journal ofSocial Psychology, 22, 181-94. Buss, A. R. (1978). Causes and reasons in attribution theory: a conceptual critique. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36, 1311-2 1 . Bybee, J., Luthar, S., Zigler, E., & Merisca, R. (1997). The fantasy, ideal, and ought selves: Content, relationships to mental health, and functions. Social Cognition, 15, 37-53.
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Forsterling, F. (1989). Models ofcovariation and attribution: How do they relate to the analogy of analysis of variance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 615-25. Girotto, V., Legrenzi, P., & Rizzo, A. (1991 ). Event controllability in counterfactual thinking. Acta Psychologia, 78, 1 1 1-33. Gollwitzer, P. M. (1993). Goal achievements: The role of intentions. In W. Stroebe & M. Hewstone (Eds), European Review of Social Psychology (Vol. 4, pp. 141-85). Chichester: Wiley. Gollwitzer, P. M., & Bargh, J. H. (1996). The Psychology of Action: Linking Cognition and Motivation to Behavior. New York: Guilford. Graesser, A. C., Robertson, S. P., & Anderson, P. A. (1981 ). Incorporating inferences in narrative representations: A study of how and why. Cognitive Psychology, 13, 1-26. Graesser, A. C., Robertson, S. P., Lovelace, E. R., & Swinehart, D. M. (1980). Answers to why-questions expose the organization of story plot and predict recall of actions. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 19, 1 10-19. Graesser, A. C., Langston, M. C., & Baggett, W. B. (1993). Exploring information about concepts by asking questions. The Psychology ofLearning and Motivation, 29, 41 1-36. Graesser, A. C., & Person, N. K. (1994). Question asking during tutoring. American Educational Research Journal, 31, 104-37. Grice, H. P. (1975). Logic and conversation. In P. Cole & J. L. Morgan (Eds), SyniiJX and Semantics 3: Speech Acts (pp. 41-58). New York: Academic Press. Hart, H. L. A., & Honore, T. (1985). Causation in the Law (2nd Edn). Oxford: Claren don Press. Heider, F. (1958). The Psychology oflnterpersonal Relations. New York: Wiley. Hilton, D. J. (1988). Logic and causal attribution. In D. J. Hilton (Ed.), Contemporary Science and Natural Explanation: Commonsense Conceptions ofCausality. Brighton: Harvester. Hilton, D. J. (1990). Conversational processes and causal explanation. Psychological Bulletin, 107, 6S-81. Hilton, D. J. (1991). A conversational model of causal explanation. In W . Stroebe & M. Hewstone (Eds), European Review of Social Psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 31-50). Chichester: Wiley. Hilton, D. J. (1995). The social context of reasoning: Conversational inference and rational judgment. Psychological Bulletin, 118, 248-71. Hilton, D. J., & Erb, H.-P. (1996). Mental models and causal explanation: Judgments of probable cause and explanatory relevance. Thinking and Reasoning, 2, 273-308. Hilton D. J., & Knibbs, C. S. (1988). The knowledge-structure and inductivist strategies in causal attribution: A direct comparison. European Journal ofSocial Psychology, 18, 79-92.
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Johnson. J., Boyd, K., & Magnani, P. (1994). Causal reasoning about rare and common events. Journal ofPersonality and Social Psychology, 66, 229-42. Kashima, Y., McKintyre, C., & Clifford, P. (1998). The category of mind: Folk psychol ogy of belief, desire, and intention. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 1, 289-313. Kelley, H. H. ( 1 967). Attribution theory in social psychology. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, 15, 192-238. Kelley, H. H. (1972). Causal schemata and the attribution process. In E. E. Jones, D. E. Kanouse, H. H. Kelley, R. E. Nisbett, S. Valins & B. Weiner (Eds), Attribution: Perceiving the Causes of Behavior (pp. 151-74). Morristown, NJ: General Learning Press. Kruglanski, A. W. (1996). Goals as knowledge structures. In J. A. Bargh & P. Goll witzer (Eds) Motivation and Action. New York: Guilford. Kun, A., & Weiner, B. (1973). Necessary versus sufficient causal schemata for success and failure. Journal ofResearch in Personality, 1, 197-207. Lalljee, M., & Abelson, R. P. (1983). The organization of explanations. In M. Hewstone (Ed.), Attribution Theory: Social and Functional Extensions. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Leddo, J., & Abelson, R. P. (1986). The nature of explanations. In J. Galambos, R. P. Abelson & J. B. Black, (Eds), Knowledge Structures (pp. 103-22). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Leddo, J., Abelson, R. P., & Gross, P. H. (1984). Conjunctive explanations: When two reasons are better than one. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 47, 93343. Locke, D., & Pennington, D. (1982). Reasons and causes in attribution processes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42, 212-33. Malle, B. F. ( 1999). How people explain behavior: A new theoretical framework. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 3, 23-48. Malle, B. F., & Knobe, J. (1997). The folk concept of intentionality. Journal of Experi mental Social Psychology, 33, 171-89. Malle, B. F., & O'Laughlin, M. (1998). The study of free-response behavior explana tions: Theory and method (paper in preparation). University of Oregon. Mandel, D. R., & Lehman, D. R. (1996). Counterfactual thinking and ascriptions of cause and preventability. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 450-63. McClure, J. L. (1983). Telling more than they can know: The positivist account of verbal reports and mental processes. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 13, 111-27. McClure, J. L. (1984). On necessity and commonsense: A discussion of central axioms in new approaches to lay explanation. European Journal of Social Psychology, 14, 123-50. McClure, J. L. (1985). The social parameter of "learned" helplessness: Its recognition and implications. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 48, 1534-9. McClure, J. L. (1991). Explanations, Accounts and Illusions: A Critical Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. McClure, J. L. (1992). An economy of explanations. In M. L. McLaughlin, M. J. Cody & S. J. Read (Eds), Explaining One's Self to Others: Reason-giving in a Social Context (pp. 61-82). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. McClure, J. L. (1998). Discounting causes of behavior: Are two reasons better than one? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 7-20. McClure, J. L., Densley, L., Liu, J. H., & Allen, M. (2001). Constraints on equifinality: Goals are good explanations only for controllable outcomes. British Journal of Social Psychology, 40, 99-115. McClure, J. L., & Hilton, D. J. (1997). For you can't always get what you want: When preconditions are better explanations than goals. British Journal of Social Psychol ogy, 36, 223-40.
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Chapter S
The Self in Relationships: Whether, How, and When Close Others Put the Self "in Its Place' ' Constantine Sedilddes
University ofSouthampton, UK
W. Keith Campbell
University ofGeorgia, USA Glenn D. Reeder
Illinois State University, USA Andrew J. Eliot
University ofRochester, USA
ABSTRACf We examined whether, bow, and when relational closeness reduces self enhancement and, more specificaJJy, the self-serving bias (SSB). Relational closeness was either measured or induced. In several experiments, either rela tionally close or relationally distant dyads worked on interdependent outcomes tasks. The SSB was present in members of distant dyads (i.e., participants took individual credit for the dyadic success but blamed the partner for the dyadic failure), but absent in members of close dyads (i.e., participants were equally likely to take personal responsibility for the success or the failure of the dyad). The gracious attributionalpatternofclose dyad members is due to: (a) forming a Correspondence regarding this chapter should be addressed to Constantine Sedikides, Depart ment of Psychology, University of Southampton, Highfield Campus, Southampton S017 IBJ, UK. E mail: [email protected].
European Review ofSocialPsychology. Volume 12. Edited by Wolfgang Stroebe and Miles Hewstone.
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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favorable impression of the partner; and (b) expecting attributional generosity from the partner. In fact, when the partner violates this expectancy (i.e., when he/she displays the SSB), members of close dyads respond by manifesting the SSB in tum. We discuss these and several other contingencies that are likely to keep an individual's self-enhancement tendencies in check.
Individuals enhance the self in diverse and remarkable ways. They consider themselves more moral, trustworthy, kind, and physically attractive than oth ers. They rate themselves as above-average teachers, managers, and leaders. They also believe that they are happier than others, that they are likely to be healthier and live longer than others, and that they are more likely than others to experience positive life events but less likely than others to experience negative life events. They even believe they are better drivers! Such overblown self-evaluations are well documented (Sedikides & Strube, 1997). These beliefs are maintained through several mechanisms. One mechanism is biased memorial processes, such as better memory for positive than negative self-attributes (Skowronski, Betz, Thompson, & Shannon, 1991) and for feedback pertaining to one's strengths rather than one's weaknesses (Sedikides & Green, 2000) . Another mechanism is the selective reconstruction, generation, and evaluation of confirming causal theories (Kunda, 1990; Ross, 1989). A third mechanism is the idiosyncratic (i.e., favorable to the self) definition of traits and abilities (Dunning, 1993). Other mechanisms include denial (Janoff-Bulman & Timko, 1987), psycho logical distancing from others (Schimel, Pyszczynski, Greenberg, O'Mahen, & Arndt, 2000) , affirmation of a self-domain that is unrelated to the self domain under threat (Steele, 1988), downward social comparison (Wills, 1981), favorable self-presentation (Schlenker & Pontari, 2000 ) , and self favoring causal attributions for success and failure - an attributional pattern known as the self-serving bias (SSB). The SSB is the individual's propensity to make internal attributions for success, but external attributions for failure. Stated otherwise, the SSB refers to the individual's taking responsibility for successful task outcomes, but denying responsibility, or blaming other persons or circumstances, for failed task outcomes. For example, students will take credit for passing a difficult examination, but will attribute failing the same examination to its difficulty or the instructor's tough grading policy; business partners working on an account will claim disproportionate credit if the account is gained, but will avoid personal responsibility if the account is lost; and group members will over emphasize their individual contribution on a group project, but will blame other members for the group's inferior output. The SSB is pervasive, and is one of the most robust and easily replicable phenomena in social and person ality psychology (for both narrative and quantitative reviews, see Arkin, Cooper, & Kolditz, 1980; Campbell & Sedikides, 1999; Mullen & Riordan, 1988; Weary"Bradley, 1978; Zuckerman, 1979).
HOW RELATIONSHIPS CHANGE THE SELF
239
Imagine that George and Alexi, two perfect strangers, find themselves in an interesting predicament as rookie university students. In their first intro ductory psychology class session, the instructor invites them to complete a short assignment. She asks one of them to generate a list of as many "why" questions as possible, and asks the other student to generate a list of as many "because" answers as possible. The instructor explains that the two contes tants will work independently of one another. However, the outcome of the assignment is interdependent, as the rest of the class will be given the two lists and will judge how imaginative and humorous each why-because com bination is. George and Alexi work fervently for a few minutes. Then, the moment of truth arrives: the two helpless contestants learn that their joint output is poor and disappointing. How will they respond? Based on the robustness of the SSB, one would expect for them to blame (at least pri vately) each other for the dyadic failure. Now, consider the scenario in which the contestants are told that their collaborative exercise produced highly imaginative and humorous question-and-answer items. How will they respond in this case? Again, based on extant literature, one would expect them to claim privately disproportionate personal credit for the success of the dyad. The situation, though, becomes less predictable if we assume that George and Alexi are high-school friends. Would the outcome of the assignment (i.e., success vs. failure feedback) determine whether each person displaced responsibility for the failure of the dyad or claimed credit for its success? Would their friendship stop George and Alexi from being selfish, how so, and when? These are the questions that sparked the present investigation. More formally, the scope of our research is the role of close relationships in self-enhancement. The central issue with which we are concerned is whether close relationships attenuate self-enhancement tendencies. Do close relation ships put the self "in its place"? How so? When does this relational function (i.e., curtailing individual self-enhancement) break down? We will focus on the SSB as a traditional and well-validated signature of self-enhancement. Rephrasing our research questions, we want to know: (a) whether relation ship closeness reduces the SSB; (b) what are the mechanisms by which this reduction occurs; and (c) when relational closeness attenuates or accentuates the SSB. THE EFF ECT OF RELATIONSHIP CLOSENESS ON THE SSB: HYPOTHESES
We propose two competing hypotheses that address the role of relationship closeness in the SSB: the relationships-as-bound hypothesis and the relationships-as-enabler hypothesis.
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CONSTANTINE SEDIKIDES ET AL.
'The Relationships-as-bound Hypothesis
Several broad theoretical perspectives offer a sound rationale for the hypoth esis that close relationships will reduce self-enhancement, or that closely related partners will not manifest the SSB, We labeled this hypothesis the relationships-as-bound hypothesis. According to balance theory (Heider, 1958), attitudes toward the self extend to close others. Self-expansion theory (Aron, Aron, Tudor, & Nelson, 1991 ) posits that the self-concept expands to incorporate a close partner ("the you in me", according to Hornstein, 1976). Oose others are indeed perceived as a natural category (Sedikides, Olsen, & Reis, 1993). Interdependence theory and the communal-exchange relationships literature maintain that an important goal in close relationships is the maximization of outcomes for both partners (Rusbult & Arriaga, 1997), with partners being genuinely concerned for each other (Oark & Mills, 1979), and being trustful (Holmes & Rempel, 1989; Wieselquist, Rusbult, Foster, & Agnew, 1999) , committed (Rusbult, 1983), and even sacrificial (Van Lange, Rusbult, Drigotas, Arriaga, Witcher, & Cox, 1997) to each other. In a similar vein, the extended self-evaluation maintenance model (Beach & Tesser, 1995) proffers that close individuals are motivated to protect not only their own but also their partner's self-concept. Indeed, as suggested by Sedikides and Strube's (1997) self-concept enhancing tactician (SCENT) model, one important function of close relationships is to keep an individual's self-enhancing tendencies in check. Studies of self-presentational modesty among closely related partners (Tice, Butler, Muraven, & Stillwell, 1995) are consistent with this suggestion. If the need to belong is a fundamental human motivation (Baumeister & Leary, 1995), individuals will be willing to relegate self-interest in exchange for (perceived or real) relational benefits. All of these theoretical statements converge in advocating the notion that, in close dyadic relationships, one will be as likely to protect or enhance the partner as one will be to protect or enhance the self. Close individuals will share the responsibility for a task outcome with their partner, regardless of whether the dyadic outcome is successful or unsuccessful. The SSB will be absent in close relationships. 'The Relationships-as-enabler Hypothesis
As a counterpoint, an equally broad and diverse body of literature emphasizes the view that close relationships serve a self-protective or self-enhancing role. Close relationships will augment self-enhancement, or enable closely related partners to display the SSB. We labeled this hypothesis the relationships-as enabler hypothesis. Individuals are rather inaccurate in how they think they are viewed by specific related others (Kenny & DePaulo, 1993), perhaps because others do
241
HOW RELATIONSHIPS CHANGE THE SELF not disclose their true impression
of
1993). Indeed, (Goffman, 1959).
the individual (Felson,
relationally close individuals avoid evaluating each other
When they have no choice but to communicate information about each other, close individuals either distort the communication to make it more consistent with their partner's self-concept (Manis, Cornell, & Moore, each other's positive rather than negative traits (Blumberg,
1974) or discuss 1972). As Tesser
and Rosen (1975) put it, among close individuals, ". . . good news tends to be communicated more frequently, more quickly, more fully, and more spon taneously than bad news" (the MUM effect; p.
228).
Friends shower each
other with support, which regulates or alleviates negative affect (e.g., depres
1985; Coyne, Burchill, & Stiles, 1991; Sarason, & Pierce, 1990) and increases positive affect, feelings of well-being, and self-esteem (Cohen & Hoberman, 1983; Major, Testa, & Bylsma, 1991). sion and stress; Cohen & Wills, Sarason,
Indeed, friends and partners promote each other's positive identities (Schlenker
&
Britt,
1999)--a
process
that
Bernard
(1968)
termed
"stroking"-and shape identities in the direction of the ideal self (Drigotas, Rusbult, Wieselquist,
& Whitton, 1999). It is not surprising, then, that individ
uals consider an elevation in their self-esteem as one of the major benefits of relationships (Sedikides, Oliver,
&
Campbell,
1994),
with relationally in
volved individuals reporting higher self-esteem than relationally uninvolved ones (Long,
1983).
The common thread of the above-reviewed literature is that close others are a safety cushion (even a cheerleader! ) for one's self-protective or self enhancing tactics. Close others make the person feel comfortable and relax the person's social conventions. One can be "himself" or "herself" with close others. This comfort zone ("felt security", according to Ainsworth,
1989) enables the individual to pursue somewhat more freely his/her egoistic
objectives, as long as pursuit of these objectives does not seem to harm directly
the
partner or the relationship.
The relationships-as-enabler
perspective implies that the SSB will be present in close relationships. Close individuals will privately take disproportionate personal credit for the
dyadic success and will privately assign the partner disproportionate blame
for the dyadic failure.
THE EFFECT OF RELATIONSHIP CLOSENESS ON THE SSB: A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE We wondered whether there is direct confirmatory or disconfirmatory evi dence in the SSB literature for the relationships-as-bound and relationships as-enabler hypotheses. Before engaging in such a literature review, however, we need to detour to a brief exposition SSB.
of issues pertaining to research on the
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CONSTANTINE SEDIKIDES ET AL.
As stated previously, the SSB is an empirically robust phenomenon. Parti cipants manifest the SSB in individual (Miller, 1976) and group (Schlenker & Miller, 1 977) settings. Also, participants manifest the SSB in both interperso nal influence and skills-orientated tasks (Weary-Bradley, 1978). Interpersonal influence tasks include two major paradigms. One is the teacher-student para digm, in which participants assigned the role of the teacher report their influ ence on ostensibly successful or unsuccessful (fictitious) students (Beckman, 1970). That is, participants are asked to take responsibility for their "stu dent's" progress, or lack of it, on an instructional assignment. The second is the therapist-patient paradigm, in which participants assigned the role of the therapist report their level of contribution to the successful or unsuccessful therapeutic course of a patient (actually, a confederate) (Arkin, Gleason, & Johnston, 1976). Skills-orientated tasks are classified under two categories. The first category includes independent outcomes tasks. In these settings, participants work on a task independently (Luginbuhl, Crowe, & Kahan, 1975). The second category includes dyadic interdependent outcomes tasks. In our research, we were concerned exclusively with dyadic interdependent outcomes (or "pooled interdependence") tasks. Such tasks involve collabora tion between participants. Success or failure of the dyad depends on the joint rather than unique contribution of the members. Given the dyad's common fate, several factors-such as interaction, effort coordination, and a good working relationship between partners----<:onstitute important prerequisites for an optimal task outcome. Explanations for the SSB have been the topic of considerable debate in social and personality psychology. One early review proposed a cognitive explanation-more specifically, differential access to information due to selective attention and information accessibility in memory (Miller & Ross, 1975). For example, individuals display the SSB because they restrict their attention to information readily available to them, failing to realize that this information is incomplete. Another explanation advocated the role of mo tives. Individuals manifest the SSB because they are motivated to think positively or avoid thinking negatively of the self (Weary-Bradley, 1978). Despite early pessimism about the conclusiveness of the cognition versus motivation debate (Tetlock & Levi, 1982), there is now consensus that cogni tive explanations alone cannot account fully for the SSB. Instead, motiva tional reasons have emerged as a sufficient explanation for the SSB (Campbell & Sedikides, 1999; Zuckerman, 1979). In our research, we are interested in the motivational underpinning of the SSB. Indeed, as we stated previously, we regard the SSB as a valid signature of the motivation to enhance the self. For this reason, we sought to outline clearly the features of an adequate test for the motivationally-based emergence of the SSB in dyadic interdependent tasks. This test would minimize the contributions of cognitive factors and
HOW RELATIONSHIPS CHANGE THE SELF
243
maximize the contributions of motivational factors. Such a test would need to satisfy the following four procedural criteria: (a) members of the dyad ought to be separated (i.e. seated in different rooms), so that they are unable to interact during the completion of the experimental task; (}?) the dyad ought to complete a relatively unfamiliar task; (c) each dyad member ought to receive false and randomly determined success or failure feedback at the dyadic rather than individual level; and (d) each dyad member ought to attribute privately the task outcome to the self or the partner. These procedural criteria arguably limit cognitive explanations for the ob tained SSB. One reason for this is the timing of the attributions: the attribu tions of the dyad members follow the temporally immediate rather than distant completion of a task, thus effectively neutralizing memorial biases (i.e., distortions or intrusions). Another reason is that the unambiguous ap praisal of the magnitude of own contribution to the task is virtually imposs ible, given that the task is novel and the feedback is at the dyadic level. A third and final reason is that the members of the dyad are unaware of the quality of each other's task performance. In our literature review, then, we searched for experiments whose pro cedures satisfied the four criteria named above. Both in the review and our research we were concerned with relativistic attributions, that is, attributing the task outcome, on a continuum, either to the self or the partner. Our choice of relativistic attributions was theory-guided: The relationships-as-bound and relationships-as-enabler hypotheses make relativistic predictions, which would be tested best by relativistic attributions. We focused on two types of dyadic relationships: close (i.e., friends) and distant (i.e., strangers). We pres ent the relevant research below. The SSB in Interdependent Outcomes Tasks: The Case of Close Dyads
Several studies have examined the presence of the SSB in close dyads (Chris tensen, Sullaway, & King, 1 983; Fincham & Bradbury, 1989; Maass & Vol pato, 1988; Ross & Sicoly, 1979; Thompson & Kelley, 1 981). Some of these studies have obtained evidence for the SSB, others have found a reversal of the SSB (what we term the other-serving bias or OSB), and others have reported null findings. We will not discuss the results of these studies in detail, because two of their procedural features fall short of satisfying our review criteria. These studies allowed for memorial distortions or intrusions because they tested particip ants' recall of past interdependent activities, rather than participants' im mediate appraisal of their recently completed task performance. More importantly, these studies did not include a manipulation of success or failure performance feedback. Hence, prior to conducting our own research, we found no published studies that tested conclusively whether close participants
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CONSTANTINE SEDIKIDES ET AL.
working on dyadic interdependent tasks display a motivationally-based SSB. We found no evidence in favor of or against the relationships-as-bound and the relationships-as-enabler hypotheses. 'The SSB in Interdependent Outcomes Tasks: The Case of Distant Dyads
Three experiments have examined the presence of the SSB in distant dyads that are involved in interdependent outcomes tasks. These experiments were reported by Johnston (1967) and Wolosin et a/. ( 1973, Experiments 1 and 2). Participants in Johnston's (1967) experiment believed (falsely) that they worked on a tracking task with a partner who was in a neighboring room. The task required holding a moving cursor steady at zero by manipulating a con trol knob. Participants repeated this task in three experimental sessions, each of which consisted of 20 trials, each of 60 seconds duration. Then, participants received randomly determined and bogus success or failure feedback. The results revealed an OSB: participants who received success feedback tended to give less credit to the self than the partner, whereas those who received failure feedback accepted more responsibility for the task outcome. Participants in Wolosin et al.'s (1973) research either cooperated (Experi ment 1) or competed (Experiment 2) on a task. The task consisted of choosing from each of 20 geographic location pairs the location in which participants were more likely to reunite with a friend. At the conclusion of the task, participants received randomly determined success or failure feedback. Co operative participants displayed the SSB: they accepted individual respon sibility for the dyadic success, but blamed the partner for the dyadic failure. Likewise, competitive participants accepted individual responsibility for dyadic success, but blamed the self and partner to an equal extent for dyadic failure. In all, the evidence for the presence of the SSB in dyadic interdependent outcomes tasks is weak. The SSB was present in two cases (Wolosin et a/., 1973, Experiment 1; Wolosin et a/., Experiment 2, success condition), the OSB was obtained in another case (Johnston, 1967), and null findings were re ported in still another case (Wolosin et a/., 1 973, failure condition of Experi ment 2). How can this inconsistency be accounted for? We maintain that a reason for the weak evidence for the SSB is task importance. The SSB inten sifies as task importance and a looming threat to the self increase (Campbell & Sedikides, 1999). We contend that Johnston's (1967) tracking task-a task that produced an OSB-was probably perceived by participants as a low importance task. Our research controlled for differential task importance by standardizing it. We used a task that was a face valid measure of creativity, an attribute that university students, our targeted population, consider important (Amabile, 1983). We believed that the introduction of an important task, coupled with
HOW RELATIONSHIPS CHANGE THE SELF
245
the adoption of the four critical procedural features outlined above, would allow us to demonstrate a motivationally-based SSB in dyads consisting of distant partners. HYPOTHESIS TESTING
We conducted several experiments in an effort to test the viability of the relationships-as-bound and relationships-as-enabler hypotheses. We began by asking the question of whether relationship closeness reduces the SSB. We proceeded by addressing the issue of how relationship closeness might reduce the SSB. We concluded by examining when relationship closeness reduces or augments the SSB. Does Relationship Closeness Reduce the SSB?
We attempted to address the question of whether relationship closeness re duces the SSB in an experiment conducted by Campbell, Sedikides, Reeder, and Elliot (2000) . One objective of this experiment was to test whether the SSB emerges in distant dyads. In the absence of a relational bond and in light of the robustness of the SSB, we expected such dyads to display the SSB. We predicted that participants whose dyad received success feedback would regard the self as more responsible for the task outcome than the partner, whereas participants whose dyad received failure feedback would blame the partner more than the self for the task outcome. The primary objective of this experiment, though, was to find out whether the SSB emerges in close dyads. We were interested in comparing the attribu tional pattern of close dyads with that of distant dyads. Suppose that close participants were equally likely to assume personal responsibility for the dyadic success and its failure (compared to distant dyads). This pattern would be consistent with the relationships-as-bound hypothesis. Such a finding would demonstrate that relationship closeness poses limits on self enhancement. On the other hand, suppose that close participants outdid each other in taking responsibility for the dyadic success rather than its failure (compared to distant dyads). This pattern would be in line with the relationships-as-enabler hypothesis. Such a finding would show that relation ship closeness creates self-enhancement tendencies. We began by examining the presence of the SSB among strangers and among friends. Half of the participants reported to the laboratory with a friend, whereas the other half reported with a stranger. The experimenter placed each dyad member in a separate room, in which he/she stayed for the rest of the experiment. Not surprisingly, a manipulation check indicated that friends reported a higher degree of closeness than strangers.
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CONSTANTINE SEDIKIDES ET AL.
For exploratory purposes, we asked participants to record their mood state. Next, participants learned that they would take the "Lange-Elliot Creativity Test", which was described as a well-validated test. Participants were in structed that the purpose of the experiment was to study how brainstorming affects dyadic creativity, Brainstorming was defined ("coming up with cre ative ideas in a group setting") and operationalized for the purposes of the experiment ("coming up with as many uses for an object as you can"). Parti cipants were informed further that they had been assigned to the control group and, as such, they would not interact with their partner. Specific instructions regarding the completion of the Lange-Elliot Creativity Test followed. Participants were told that they and their partner would be presented with the names of two objects, one at a time. The objects were "brick" and "candle". Participants would have 5 minutes to generate individually as many functionally distinct uses as possible for each object. They were to write each object use on a slip of paper, fold the paper in half, and drop it in the box next to them. In the end, the experimenter would place the slips in another box. Then, the experimenter would sum up the total number of functionally distinct and non-common uses that the two particip ants had generated. This sum would constitute the overall creativity score for the dyad. The experimenter could only know the dyadic, not the individual, creativity score. After rating the importance of creativity to them (creativity was equally important to friends and strangers), participants completed the test. Subsequently, participants received bogus and randomly determined suc cess or failure feedback at the dyadic level. The feedback was administered both graphically and verbally. The graphic form included a bell-shaped histo gram, in which the vertical axis was labeled "count" (representing the com bined total number of object uses) and the horizontal axis was labeled "Z score". Each participant in the success feedback condition was shown a mark at the 93rd percentile, was told "You did well", and was further informed, "Your and the other participant's combined score on the Lange-Elliot Creativity Test was at the 93rd percentile. You scored better than 93% of the individuals used in our normative reference sample". In contrast, each parti cipant in the failure feedback condition was shown a mark at the 31st percen tile, was told "You did poorly", and was further informed that, "Your and the other participant's combined score on the Lange-Elliot Creativity Test was at the 31st percentile. You scored worse than 69% of the individuals used in our normative reference sample". Participants were also asked to initial the feed back as evidence that they understood it. The completion of the dependent measures followed. Participants were assured that their responses to the scales would be anonymous and con fidential, and that they would not interact with their partner at the end of the experiment. The two key dependent measures were preceded by a statement
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HOW RELATIONSHIPS CHANGE THE SELF
that the experimenters were "unable to determine which of you was more responsible for the overall positive or negative results obtained by the pair". The two measures were as follows: "Who was more responsible for the out come of this test?" and "Who made the greater positive contribution to this test?". Finally, participants filled out a success and failure feedback manip ulation check, composed of two questions: "How well do you think that both you and the other participant did on this test?", and 'How important was the outcome of this test to you?". The feedback manipulation was effective. Dyads who received success feedback reported having performed better than dyads who received failure feedback. Additionally, participants considered the creativity test more im portant after receiving success than failure feedback; that is, participants com pensated for their failure by downgrading the importance of the test (Wyer & Frey, 1983). We display the results in Table 8.1 . Participants in distant relationships displayed the SSB: they assumed greater personal responsibility for the suc cess of the dyad than its failure. This pattern is consistent with our prediction and demonstrates the motivational significance of the SSB. Interestingly, however, participants in close relationships did not manifest the SSB: they assumed equivalent levels of personal responsibility for the dyad's success and failure. As a conceptual replication of the above findings, close participants claimed a less positive contribution to the test outcome than distant particip ants. Thus, close participants refrained from the SSB. These findings render support to the relationships-as-bound hypothesis at the expense of the relationships-as-enabler hypothesis. As a reminder, we had assessed participants' mood states upon arrival at the laboratory. Friends were in a happier mood than strangers. However, Table 8.1
Attributions as a function of feedback and relationship closeness in Campbell, Sedikides, Reeder, and Elliot (2000) I.
Task outcome question Distant dyads Close dyads
II.
Failure feedback s.ota 5.4Sa
Positive contribution question Distant dyads 6J6a
Success feedback 6.22b 5.73a Close dyads 5.52b
Note 1: Responses to the task outcome question were made on a 1 (the other
participant was more responsible) to 10 (I was more responsible) scale; re sponses to the positive contribution question were made on a 1 (the other participant made the greater positive contribution) to 1 0 (I made the greater positive contribution) scale. Note 2: Within a row, means with different superscripts are significantly different.
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CONSTANTINE SEDIKIDES ET A L.
these mood differences did not qualify the findings. Additionally, the findings generalized over participant gender. How Does Relationship Closeness Reduce the SSB? In Search of Mechanisms
What are the mechanisms by which relationship closeness reduces the SSB? We addressed this issue in two experiments reported by Sedikides, Campbell, Reeder, and Elliot (1998). Participant Selection and Anticipated Interaction as Explanations for the Relationship-as-bound Hypothesis The Campbell et a/. (2000) experiment showed that close partners keep self enhancement beliefs (i.e., the SSB) in check. However, this study can be criticized on the grounds of a critical confounding, participant selection. It is likely that participants who agreed to come to the laboratory with a friend were particularly gregarious and sharing. The results, then, may be due to personality differences rather than relational closeness. An important objec tive of our next experiment (Sedikides, Campbell, Reeder, & Elliot, 1998, Experiment 1 ) was to control for this potential confounding. We also intended to address another, more critical issue: what is the mecha nism that is responsible for the elimination of the SSB in close dyads? One such mechanism may be the anticipation of future interactions. Friends antici pate seeing each other outside the context of the experiment and sharing their experiences. Thus, friends may have acted generously in the Campbell et a/. (2000) experiment in order to avoid the possibility of having to provide their friend with an account for selfish attributions. In this way, close partners might have refrained from the SSB for the sake of relationship maintenance. In fact, an influential literature on communal-exchange relationships (Clark, 1984; Mills & Clark, 1982) suggests that anticipation of future and rewarding interaction with a partner can lead to a less selfish (i.e., more communal) orientation in outcome distribution. We addressed this possibility in our next experiment (Sedikides et a/., 1998, Experiment 1) by using unacquainted par ticipants exclusively. Given that they were unacquainted, participants were unlikely to expect future interactions, let alone rewarding interactions. In fact, care was taken so that no participant (a) anticipated interacting with his/her partner following the experiment, or (b) intended to discuss the experiment with the partner in incidental encounters outside the laboratory. The crucial manipulation in this experiment (Sedikides et a/., 1998, Experi ment 1 ) was aimed at inducing closeness in half of the participants. Reciprocal and escalating self-disclosure is a vital feature in the development of a close relationship (Derlega, Metts, Petronio, & Margulis, 1993). We devised a task
HOW RELATIONSHIPS CHANGE THE SELF
249
to simulate such self-disclosure between unacquainted participants, which we named the Relationship Closeness Induction Task (RCIT; Sedikides, Camp bell, Reeder, & Elliot, 1 999). Will members of close dyads, who do not anticipate interacting with one another in the future, still refrain from the SSB? Stated otherwise, is antici pated interaction a necessary condition for the elimination of the SSB in close dyads? If anticipated interaction is not a necessary condition, the results of the Campbell et al. (2000) experiment will be replicated (i.e., the SSB will be absent in close dyads). On the other hand, if anticipated interaction is indeed a necessary condition, close partners will display the SSB. Four unacquainted participants arrived at the laboratory for each experi mental session and were split into two separate dyads by the experimenter. Participants in each dyad were seated across from each other, were informed that they would not interact with each other at the end of the experiment, and were asked not to talk about the experiment if they encountered each other on campus. Participants also learned that they would engage in two short and ostensibly unrelated studies. The first study would involve a communication task. This study actually was the RCIT, a structured self-disclosure task. The RCIT consists of three lists of questions and instructs participants to self disclose mutually for 9 minutes while engaging in as natural a conversation as possible. Participants spend 1 minute on List I (7 questions, e.g., "Where are you from?", "What year are you at this university?"), 3 minutes on List II (12 questions, e.g., "What are your hobbies?", "What would you like to do after graduating from this university?"), and 5 minutes on List III (10 questions, e.g., "Describe the last time you felt lonely", "Tell me one thing about your self that most individuals who already know you don't know"). The three lists of questions become progressively personal. While participants take turns answering the questions, the experimenter waits outside the room and acts as a time keeper, intervening only for the purpose of instructing participants to proceed to the next list. The majority of dyads managed to respond to almost all questions within each list. They also reported that they had adequate privacy, felt comfortable, considered conversation a valid way to become familiar with a stranger, and had experienced conversations of this sort in the past with strangers. Most importantly, participants in the close relationship condition reported feeling closer to their partner than participants in the distant relationship condition. The results of this manipulation check attest to the effectiveness of the RCIT in inducing relationship closeness. Then, participants were told that it was time to proceed with Study 2, in which they would take a creativity test Participants in the close condition stayed with the same partner, but participants in the distant condition were switched to a new partner, who had just completed the RCIT with another participant. This practice ensured that participants in the close and distant conditions went through an
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CONSTAN11NE SEDIKIDES ET AL.
identical relationship induction procedure. From this point on, the experiment followed the same procedure and used the same manipulation checks and dependent measures as the Campbell et al. (2000) experiment. Close and distant participants reported equivalent mood levels. Also, creativity was equally important to the two types of participants. Finally, the feedback manipulation was effective: participants in the success feedback condition reported that both they and their partner performed better com pared to reports of participants in the failure feedback condition. Also, parti cipants who received success feedback ended up regarding the creativity test as more important than participants who received failure feedback. As shown in Table 8.2, this experiment replicated the results of the Camp bell et a/. (2000) experiment. Distant participants assumed greater personal responsibility for the dyad's success than its failure. However, close particip ants assumed equivalent levels of responsibility for the dyad's success and failure. Furthermore, close participants reported making a less positive contri bution to the test outcome relative to distant participants. In all, the SSB emerged in distant but not close dyads. The absence of the SSB in relationally close dyads is consistent with the relationships-as-bound hypothesis. (Note that, in contrast to the Campbell et a/. experiment, men displayed the SSB to a greater degree than women.) Table 8.2 Attributions as a function of feedback and relationship closeness in Sedikides, Campbell, Reeder, and Elliot ( 1998, Experi ment 1 )
I.
Task outcome question Distant dyads Close dyads
II.
Failure feedback 5.233 5.6(}3
Positive contribution question Distant dyads 5.9Qa
Success feedback 6.20b 5.3Qa Close dyads 5.27b
Note 1: Responses to the task outcome question were made on a 1 (the other participant was more responsible) to 10 (I was more responsible) scale; re sponses to the positive contribution question were made on a 1 (the other participant made the greater positive contribution) to 10 (I made the greater positive contribution) scale. Note 2: Within a row, means with different superscripts are significantly different.
This experiment (Sedikides et a/., 1998, Experiment 1) ruled out participant selection as an explanation for the relationships-as-bound hypothesis and increases our confidence in the relationships-as-bound hypothesis. The ex periment also demonstrated that the anticipation of future rewarding interac tions is not a necessary condition for the absence of the SSB in close dyads.
HOW RELATIONSHIPS CHANGE THE SELF
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Partner Impression as an Explanation for the Relationships-as-bound Hypothesis Our next investigation examined partner impre�ion as an explanation for why close relationships curtail the SSB. Impressions of close others are more favorable than impressions of distant others. For example, individuals con sider friends more sincere, dependable, and considerate, and less spiteful, rude, and superficial than strangers (Brown, 1986, Experiments 2 and 3; Hall & Taylor, 1976). Impressions, in tum, can affect attributions and even the distribution of behavioral outcomes (Berscheid & Walster, 1978; Van Lange & Kuhlman, 1994). Based on this logic, our next experiment (Sedikides et al., 1998, Experiment 2) tested the notion that closely-related individuals refrain from the SSB, in part because they form a relatively favorable impression of their partner. The first part of this experiment was identical to Experiment 1 of Sedikides et al. (1998). Specifically, participants went through the RCIT and took the creativity test. Before receiving test feedback, however, participants com pleted, in private, a modified version of the Interpersonal Judgment Scale (IJS; Byrne, 1971). Participants recorded their impression of their partner in terms of his/her intelligence, morality, knowledge of current events, creativity, psychological adjustment, fairness, and desirability as a co-worker. Next, par ticipants received success or failure feedback and filled out the dependent measures. As in the preceding experiment, the RCIT was successful in inducing rela tionship closeness. As in the Campbell et al. (2000) experiment, close particip ants were in a better mood than distant participants, but this difference did not qualify the findings. Although close participants regarded creativity as more important than distant participants (in contrast to previous experi ments), this difference also did not qualify the findings. Finally, the sue� and failure. feedback manipulation was effective. We a�e�ed partner impressions on a 1-8 scale, with high numbers reflect ing positive impressions. As expected, close participants formed a more favor able impression of their partner (M = 5.13) than distant participants did of their own (M = 4.04). Stated somewhat differently, distant partners formed a neutral impression of each other, whereas close partners formed a mildly positive impression of each other. In replication of our previous work, the relationships-as-bound hypothesis was supported (Table 8.3). Distant participants assumed more personal responsibility for the succe� than the failure of the dyad, but close particip ants were equally likely to take responsibility for the dyadic success or failure. Likewise, close participants thought that they made a less positive contribu tion to the task outcome than distant participants. (In addition, men were more likely to display the SSB than women.)
252
CONSTANTINE SEDIKIDES ET AL. Table 8.3 Attributions as a function of feedback and relationship closeness in Sedikides, Campbell, Reeder, and Elliot (1998, Experi ment 2)
I.
Task outcome question Distant dyads Close dyads
II.
Failure feedback 4.778 5.928
Positive contribution question Distant dyads 6.038
Success feedback 5.88b 5.758 Close dyads 5.31b
Note 1: Responses to the task outcome question were made on a 1 (the other participant was more responsible) to 10 (I was more responsible) scale; re sponses to the positive contribution question were made on a 1 (the other participant made the greater positive contribution) to 10 (I made the greater positive contribution) scale. Note 2: Within a row, means with different superscripts are significantly different.
Our next objective was to test whether partner impressions mediated the SSB. Before we proceed with a description of the relevant analyses, however, we wish to clarify how we intended our experimental results to map onto the actual conceptual explanation that we evoke. Conceptually, we propose that a reason for the non-manifestation of the SSB in closely-related participants is that they view their partner in relatively favorable terms. Empirically, we manipulated closeness of relationship and, therefore, labeled the mediator as the fonnation of a favorable impression. That is, we hypothesized and demon strated empirically that relational closeness leads to the formation of a favor able impression. We now want to know whether these impressions are partially responsible for keeping the SSB in check. We proceeded with a two-step, interactional mediation analysis (see Sed ikides et a/., 1998, p. 384, for more details). In the first step, we established that partner impression predicts attributions of responsibility for the task outcome and for positive contribution to the task. In the second and critical step, we established that the relatively favorable partner impressions among close par ticipants (relative to distant participants) accounted for close partners refrain ing from the SSB. In summary, the interactional mediation analyses revealed that partner impression mediated the association between relationship type and the SSB. The favorable impressions that close dyad members formed of each other accounted for the non-manifestation of the SSB. Stated otherwise, a reason that close participants (a) were equally likely to take responsibility for the success and failure of the dyad and (b) claimed a lesser positive contribution to the test outcome was that they formed a more favorable impression of each other.
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HOW RELATIONSHIPS CHANGE THE SELF
When Does Relational Closeness Reduce or Augment the SSB?
Our research so far succeeded in establishing the viability of the relationships as-bound hypothesis: relational closeness curtails self-enhancement. Our re search also identified a critical psychological mechanism for this effect. Closely related partners are attributionally generous to each other, because they form a positive impression of each other. However, are close partners always generous to each other? (Alternatively, are distant partners always selfish in their attributional patterns?) In our final round of work (Sedikides, Campbell, Reeder, & Elliot, 2001), we considered some of the circumstances under which relationship closeness is likely to reduce or augment the SSB. Attributional Expectancies We reasoned that distant and close partners probably have different expec tancies about each other's behavior in interdependent outcomes tasks. Perhaps because they have a neutral impression of each other (as shown in Sedikides et al., 1998, Experiment 2), distant partners have competition ex pectancies. On the other hand, perhaps because they have a positive impres sion of each other (also as shown in Sedikides et al., 1 998, Experiment 2), close partners have cooperation expectancies (Argyle & Henderson, 1984; Clark, 1984; Rusbult & Van Lange, 1996). We conducted an experiment (Sedikides et al., 2001, Experiment 1) to test directly the above derivations. Do distant and close partners have different expectancies about each other's behavior in an interdependent outcomes task, such as the one used in the present program of research? More specifically, do close partners have mutual expectations for refraining from the SSB? Do distant partners hold mutual expectations for displaying the SSB? Participants imagined a scenario. They and a same-gender other (friend or stranger) reported to the laboratory for a psychology experiment. Each mem ber of the dyad was seated in a separate room. They imagined completing the Lange-Elliot Creativity Test jointly with their partner and receiving either success or failure feedback. In order to increase the realism of the procedure, the instructions that accompanied the visualizations pertaining to the creativity test and the performance feedback were taken verbatim from the previously described experiments. In the end, participants indicated how they expected their partner to fill out the dependent measures. The wording of the dependent measures was identical to that used in our previous experiments. Close and distant participants indeed harbored different expectancies about their partner's attributions for task performance (Table 8.4 ) Distant participants expected a selfish response (i.e., the display of the SSB) from their partner. That is, they expected their partner to assume more personal responsibility for, and claim a greater positive contribution to, the dyadic .
254
CONSTANTINE SEOIKIDES ET AL T8ble 8.4 Partner attributiooal expectancies as a function of (imagined) feedback type aod .relationship type in Sediltides, Campbell. Reeder, aod Elliot (2001, Experiment 1) I.
II.
Expected partner attributions: responsibility for task outcome Failure feedback Success feedback 6.5Jb 4.67• Distant dyads 4.9Ja 521• aose dyads Expected partner attributions: positive contribution to task outcome aose dyads Distant dyads 6.37• 5.5Jb
Note 1: Responses to the task outcome question were made on a 1 (the other participant would claim that I was responsible) to 10 (the other participant would claim that he/she was responsible) scale; responses to the positive contribution question were made m a 1 (the other participant would claim that I made the greater positive contribution) to 10 (the other participant would claim that he/she made the greater positive contribution) scale. Note 2: Within a row, means with different superscripts are significantly different.
success than the dyadic failure. To the contrary, close participants expected a gracious response (i.e., the absence of the SSB) from their partner. That is, they expected their partner to take equivalent responsibility for, and claim an
equally positive contribution to, the success and failure of the dyad
Expectancy Violation and Attributional Reciprocily How do distant and close participants respond when their dyadic partner reinforces or violates their expectancies? How would distant participants respond upon learning that their partner behaved either competitively (thus
confirming their expectancies) or cooperatively (thus violating their expectan cies)? How would close participants respond upon learning that their partner behaved either competitively (thus
violating
their expectancies) or cooper
atively (thus confirming their expectancies)? We derived predictions based on our attributional expectancies experiment
et al., 2001 , Experiment 1) and on relevant literature (Gouldner, 1960; Rusbult, Verette, Whitney, Slovik, & Lipkus, 1991; Wieselquist et al., 1999). We made differing predictions for distant and close participants. We
(Sedikides
predicted that distant participants, upon learning that their partner had behaved selfishly (i.e., he/she had taken most of the credit for the success of the dyad or had displaced most of the blame for its failure), would regard their
expectations as confirmed. Hence, they would behave equally selfishly, as they would have behaved anyway (i.e., regardless of whether their partner's attributional pattern were known to them). However, upon learning that their partner behaved graciously (i.e., he/she had not endorsed the credit for the success of the dyad and had not displaced the blame for its failure), distant
HOW RELATIONSHIPS CHANGE THE SELF
255
participants would have their expectancies disconfirmed. Hence, they would reciprocate in a gracious attributional manner-by refraining from the SSB. We predicted a different pattern for close participants. Upon learning that their partner behaved selfishly, close participants would have their expectan cies disconfirmed. Hence, they would behave in an attributionally retaliatory manner, i.e., by assuming credit and displacing blame. However, upon learn ing that their partner behaved graciously, close participants would have their expectancies confirmed and would behave as they would have behaved any way, that is by refraining from the SSB. We tested these predictions empirically (Sedikides et al., 2001, Experiment 2). As in previous experiments, we induced relationship closeness in the laboratory via the RCIT. After completing the Lange-Elliot Creativity Test, participants received either success or failure performance feedback. However, prior to the completion of the dependent measures, we introduced another manipulation. Two-thirds of the participants were told that they were selected randomly to preview their partner's responses, although their partner would not be granted the same privilege. In actuality, the partner's responses were fabricated by the experimenter. The partner responses fell into two categories: constructive and destructive. The remaining one-third of particip ants were unaware of their partner's response. Specifically, some participants (constructive partner response condition), previewed a generous partner response (i.e., an OSB ). They learned that their partner attributed the success of the dyad to them, whereas the partner took personal responsibility for the failure of the dyad. However, other particip ants (destructive partner response condition) previewed a selfish partner response (i.e., an SSB). They learned that their partner blamed them for the dyadic failure, but took credit for the dyadic success. As stated above, the other one-third of participants comprised the no partner response (or control) condition. The RCIT was successful in inducing relationship closeness. Additionally, close and distant participants did not differ in their mood states at the start of the testing session. Moreover, close and distant participants regarded creativity as equally important. Finally, the success and failure feedback manipulations were effective. We will examine distant and close dyads separately (Tables 8.5 and 8.6). Let us first consider the attributions of distant dyad members. In the no partner response condition, distant participants manifested the SSB: they took dis proportionate responsibility for the success than the failure of the dyad, and they also claimed a more positive contribution for the success of the dyad. This finding replicates our past research. Interestingly, the SSB of distant dyad members was magnified in the destructive partner response condition. On being informed of their partner's selfish claim, distant members reacted in kind by taking the lion's share of the responsibility for the dyadic success and
CONSTANTINE SEDIKIDES ET AL.
256
assigning the partner much of the blame for the dyadic failure. In contrast, distant participants were disarmed by their partner's gracious response. When the partner inflated the participant's contribution
response condition), participants
refrained from the
(constructive partner
SSB:
they were equally
likely to take responsibility for the dyadic success or failure, and they also
claimed an equally positive contribution for the outcome of the test.
Tllble8.5 Responsibiity l for task outcome attributions as a function of feedback type, relationship type, and partner response type in Sedikides, CampbeU, Reeder, and Elliot (2001, Experiment 2) I.
Distant dyads No partner response Destructive partner response Constructive partner response
n.
Failure feedback 5.354.255.55-
Success feedback 6.88b 7.2ri> 5.BOa
Failure feedback 5.455.2()1 6.13-
Success feedback 6.oo6.9()1> 5.85-
aose dyads No partner response Destructive partner response Constructive partner response
Nae 1: Responses to the task outcome question were made on a 1 (the other panicipant was
more responsible) to 10 (I was more responsible) scale. Nae 2: Within a row, means with different superscripts are significantly different.
Tllble 8.6 Positive contribution to task outcome attributions as a function of relation· sbip type and partner response type in Sedikides, CampbeU, Reeder, and Elliot (2001, Experiment 2) L
Distant dyads No partner response 6.34•
Destructive partner response 5.3()1>
Constructive partner response 6.92•
Destructive partner response 6.62b
Constructive partner response 5.62•
II. aose dyads No partner response 5.60-
Nae 1: Responses to the positive contribution question were made on a 1 (the other participant made the greater positive contribution) to 10 (I made the greater positive contribution) scale. Note2: Within a row, means with different superscripts are significantly different. Let us now describe the reactions of the close dyad members. In the no
partner response condition, participants refrained from the SSB. This pattern replicates our previous research. Interestingly, a similar pattern was obtained in the
constructive partner response condition.
When given credit for the
dyadic success and denied blame for the dyadic failure, participants not only
257
HOW RELATIONSHIPS CHANGE THE SELF
suppressed the SSB, but they aJso manifested a non-significant trend toward exhibiting the OSB. In contrast, participants turned to an egoistic response mode when they were informed of their partner's selfish response: in the
destructive partner response condtion, i
close participants displayed the SSB,
thus reversing the findings of our previous experiments. (Note that men tended to be more self-serving than women.) In summary, this experiment (Sedikides
et al., 2001,
Experiment
2)
cap
italized on the differing expectancies that distant and close participants have of their dyadic partner. In so doing, the experiment highlighted some circum stances under which the SSB is or is not displayed in close (as well as distant) dyads. The modal response of close participants working together on an inter dependent outcomes task is to refrain from the SSB. This response is some what accentuated when the partner is gracious in his/her attributions for the task outcome. However, the response reverses when the partner's attribu tional pattern is destructive. Qose partners do display the SSB in reaction to a selfish partner claim. In contrast, the modal response of distant participants who work together on an interdependent outcomes task is the display of the
SSB. This response is magnified considerably as a function of a selfish attribu
tional pattern on the part
of
a partner. In contrast, the response dissipates
(i.e., no SSB is displayed) when the partner is gracious. Nevertheless, we would like to draw caution in interpreting the results of Sedikides et al.'s (2001) Experiment 2. Based on our previous work (Sedikides
et a/., 2001, Experiment 1) and on relevant literature (Axelrod, 1984; 1960; Rusbult et al., 1991), we surmised a pivotal role for expectan
Gouldner,
cies in our research paradigm. However, we did not measure expectancies directly. Unless expectancies are either assessed (and their role through medi ational analyses is affirmed) or manipulated, we cannot be certain that they are necessary for the augmentation or reversal of the SSB.
CONCLUDING REMARKS The research that we have described in this chapter is rooted in an intellectual tradition within social and personality psychology of viewing the self in a
& Aron, 1997; Borden & Levinger, 1991; Murray, 1996; Sedikides & Brewer, 2001). We built on this
relational context (Aron
1999;
Reis
&
Patrick,
tradition in addressing the question of bow close relationships influence indi viduals' tendency for self-enhancement, operationalized as the SSB.
We began by outlining two broad and incompatible theoretical perspectives,
the relationships-as-bound and the relationships-as-enabler hypotheses. We tested these hypotheses in the context of a dyadic, interdependent outcomes task (i.e., a creativity test). Members of either close or distant dyads worked together on the creativity test, received at the dyadic level either success or
258
CONSTANTINE SEDIKIDES ET AL.
failure feedback that was bogus and randomly determined, and attributed the dyad's performance relativistically to the self or the partner. According to the relationships-as-bound hypothesis, relational closeness inhibits self enhancement. Oosely related individuals refrain from the SSB. However, according to the relationships-as-enabler hypothesis, relational closeness pro motes self-enhancement. Oosely related individuals display the SSB. The results of several experiments provided unequivocal support for the relationships-as-bound hypothesis. In contrast to distant dyad members, close members refrained from the SSB. Relational closeness practically eliminates perhaps the most robust of self-enhancement tendencies, the SSB. Relational closeness puts the self "in its place". How do relationships keep self-enhancement tendencies in check? What is the mechanism through which the SSB is eliminated in close relationships? Furthermore, what are the circumstances under which relational closeness augments the SSB? We tested several explanations for the gracious attribu tional pattern of close others. One explanation was based on participant selection-that the disappearance of the SSB in close relationships was due to close partners having different personality characteristics than distant partners. Another explanation was based on the anticipation of future interactions-that close participants expect to have future truthful and rewarding interactions, and they cannot manifest the SSB in the laboratory without taking into account the dilemma of possibly having to lie to their partner when the topic is discussed after the experiment. The third explana tion was based on mood-that close participants refrain from the SSB because they are in a happier mood than distant participants. The fourth explanation was based on the differential importance of the creativity test for close and distant participants-that close partners regard the test as more important than distant partners. None of these explanations received empiri cal support. However, two other explanations based on favorable partner impressions (Sedikides et a/., 1998, Experiment 2) and expectancies of a cooperative part ner response (Sedikides et a/., 2000, Experiments 1 and 2) did receive empiri cal support. The absence of the SSB in close (compared to distant) relationships is due, in part, to close participants forming a favorable impres sion of each other and expecting each other to perform well on the interde pendent outcomes task. Furthermore, the absence of the SSB is probably due, in part, to the expectancies that close participants have of each other. That is, close participants expect their partner to refrain from the SSB. In fact, when they are informed that the partner's attributions for the task outcome have been self-serving, close participants retaliate with an equally self-serving attributional response. An obvious implication of the attributional reciprocity findings is that rela tionship closeness per se is not sufficient for the attenuation of self-
HOW RELATIONSHIPS CHANGE THE SELF
259
enhancement. The relationship needs to be both close and positive. In fact, self-enhancement is augmented when the close relationship goes awry, as when the partners observe each other to behave selfishly. These laboratory findings complement nicely field research with married or dating couples. Such research (Fincham & Bradbury, 1989; Fletcher, Fincham, Cramer, & Herson, 1987) bas documented an association between relationship satisfac tion and the SSB: the lower relationship satisfaction is, the higher is the magnitude of the SSB. We wish to urge circumspection in not generalizing the findings of our research beyond their intended domain of applicability. For theory-testing purposes, we used exclusively relativistic measures of attributions. That is, participants were asked to allocate responsibility on a continuum-with one end of the continuum being the self and another being the partner. However, in many situations, individuals are not forced into making zero-sum attribu tions about responsibility for a joint outcome. An individual can attribute the outcome to the self, the partner, or external circumstances. Alternatively, an individual can maximize positive outcomes by crediting them equally to the two close partners, but minimize negative outcomes by attributing them to external forces. To return to our opening example, George and Alexi, the two high-school friends, may each make a gracious attributional response in the case of dyadic success, but blame task unfamiliarity, stress or harsh classmates in the case of dyadic failure. We believe that the external validity of our research will benefit by future studies that include additional measurement strategies, besides relativistic attributions. In fact, the internal validity of our research may also benefit, as the relationships-as-enabler hypothesis may enjoy a measure of empirical support when non-relativistic attributional measures are used. Men displayed the SSB to a greater degree than women The literature on the SSB in independent outcomes tasks also reports a similar gender dif ference in the manifestation of the SSB (Campbell & Sedikides, 1999). Sev eral explanations for this gender difference have been offered One explanation for this finding is that the typical laboratory task is male- rather than female-orientated (Deaux & Farris, 1977); however, this criticism is not applicable to our research, given that women and men regarded creativity as an equally important trait. Another explanation states that men have higher success expectancies than women--especially when it comes to male orientated tasks (Rosenfield & Stephan, 1978). Finally, a third explanation is based on men having higher global self-esteem than women (Kling, Hyde, Showers, & Buswell, 1999). Given that high self-esteem individuals display a stronger SSB than low self-esteem individuals (Campbell & Sedikides, 1999), we favor this third explanation, although we have not tested it directly. Besides self-esteem, we would expect at least two additional and concep tually similar individual difference variables to affect attributions in interde-
260
CONSTANTINE SEDIKIDES ET AL.
pendent outcomes tasks: social value orientation and communal orientation. Research by Van Lange and his colleagues (Van Lange, Agnew, Harinck, & Steemers, 1 997; Van Lange & Liebrand, 1991; Van Lange, Otten, De Bruin, & Joireman, 1997; Van Lange & Semin-Goossens, 1998; see also Kuhlman, Camac, & Cunha, 1 986) has compared the responses of three classes of indi viduals: prosocials (those who are predisposed to distribute outcomes so as to maximize joint gains or minimize reciprocal losses), individualists (those who are predisposed to maximize own gains in an absolute sense), and competitors (those who are predisposed to maximize own outcomes relative to others' outcomes). In comparison to individualists and competitors, prosocials are more likely to respond cooperatively, regardless of their partner's response. In the context of our research, prosocials in closely related dyads may be least likely to display the SSB, regardless of whether their partner initiates a selfish or gracious attributional pattern. The role of communal orientation is also relevant. Individuals with a com munal orientation are concerned with other persons' welfare, feel responsible for them, are more likely to help them (Clark & Mills, 1979; Clark, Quellette, Powell, & Milberg, 1987), and are more likely to allocate resources equally in a dyadic setting (Thompson & DeHarpport, 1998). Like prosocials, individ uals high in communal orientation may be less likely to manifest the SSB. More interestingly, both prosocials and communally-orientated persons may be even less likely to display the SSB in the context of a close, dyadic relation ship. Indeed, recent research by McCall, Reno, Jalbert, and West (2000) has documented that communal orientation, along with the perception of the partner as community-orientated, reduces the SSB. Although our research has made substantive forays into the ways in which relational closeness affects self-enhancement, additional important issues remain. What are some other mechanisms, besides impression favorability and differen tial expectancies of partner responses, that reduce self-enhancement? What is the role of normative concerns (e.g., the norm to be loyal to the partner) in the attenuation of self-enhancement? How far beyond the immediate relational set ting does a gracious attributional pattern last? At what point is this unselfish response internalized to become a permanent fixture of the relationship? Does relational closeness affect other forms of self-enhancement, besides the SSB? Can high levels of self-threat lead the individual to behave selfishly rather than gra ciously toward a close partner? We hope that our research will stimulate progress toward empirical resolution of these and other issues. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We are grateful to Wolfgang Stroebe, Miles Hewstone, and two anonymous reviewers for their perceptive and constructive feedback on an earlier draft.
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Van Lange, P. A. M., & Liebrand, W. B. G. (1991). Social value orientation and intelligence: A test of the goal-prescribes-rationality principle. European Journal of Social Psychology, 21, 273-92. Van Lange, P. A. M., Otten, W., De Bruin, E. M. N., & Joireman, J. A. (1997). Development of prosocial, individualistic, and competitive orientations: Theory and preliminary evidence. Journal ofPersonality and Social Psychology, 73, 733-46. Van Lange, P. A. M., Rusbult, C. E., Drigotas, S. M., Arriaga, X. B., Witcher, B. S., & Cox, C. L. (1997). Willingness to sacrifice in close relationships. Journal of Person ality and Social Psychology, 72, 1373-95. Van Lange, P. A. M., & Semin-Goossens, A. (1998). The boundaries of reciprocal cooperation. European Journal ofSocial Psychology, 28, 847-54. Weary-Bradley, G. (1978). Self-serving biases in the attribution process: A re examination of the fact or fiction question. Journal of Personality and Social Psy chology, 36, 56-71. Wills, T. A. (1981). Downward comparison principles in social psychology. Psychologi cal Bulletin, 90, 245-71. Wieselquist, J., Rusbult, C. E., Foster, C . A., & Agnew, C. R. (1999). Commitment, pro-relationship behavior, and trust in close relationships. Journal ofPersonality and Social Psychology, 77, 942-66. Wolosin, R. J., Sherman, S. J., & Till, A. (1973). Effects of cooperation and competi tion on responsibility attribution after success and failure. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 9, 220-35. Wyer, R. S., & Frey, D. (1983). The effects of feedback about self and others on the recall and judgments of feedback-relevant information. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 19, 540-59. Zuckerman, M. (1979). Attribution of success and failure revisited, or: The motiva tional bias is alive and well in attribution theory. Journal of Personality, 47, 245-87.
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Chapter 9
Prospects, Pitfalls, and Plans: A Proactive Perspective on Social Comparison Activity Lisa G. Aspinwall
University of Utah, USA Douglas L Hill Samantha L. Leaf
University of Maryland, USA
ABSTRACT Most studies of social comparison activity have focused on reactive comparisons (those directed toward understanding outcomes that are already known), with little attention to proactive comparisons (those directed toward understanding future possibilities). We examine the usefulness of this distinction for under standing the motives underlying comparison activity and responses to upward and downward comparisons. When an outcome is known, comparison motives are often circumscribed, such that upward comparisons are deflating and frus trating and downward comparisons are self-enhancing and reassuring. In con trast, prior to an event, when one's own outcomes are unknown and potentially malleable, social comparisons may provide useful information about likely out comes (prospects), what to avoid (pitfalls), and different ways to achieve or
Correspondence regarding this chapter should be addressed to Lisa G. Aspinwall, Department of Psychology, University of Utah, 380 South 1 530 East, Room 502, Salt Lake City, UT 8411 2 0251 . E mail: [email protected]. Samantha L . Leaf is now at the Department of Psychol ogy, University of Utah. European Review of Social Psychology, Volume 12. Edited by © 2002 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Wolfgang Stroebe and Miles Hewstone.
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LISA G. ASPINWALL, DOUGLAS L. HILL AND SAMANTHA L. LEAF
avoid particular outcomes (plans). Importantly, because people may have time and other resources to respond constructively, they may benefit from both up ward and downward comparisons. We review recent evidence consistent with this framework and discuss the implications of proactive comparisons for self regulation in such domains as achievement, aging, and health.
Social comparison activity has been extensively studied as a central way in which people evaluate their current abilities, opinions, and outcomes (Buunk & Gib bons, 1997; Festinger, 1954; Suls & Wills, 1991; for recent reviews, see Biernat & Billings, in press; Blanton, 2001). Comparison to others' outcomes has also been shown to be an important aspect of coping with adversity among people experi encing chronic illness, physical disability, burnout, marital discord, unfavorable medical test results, poor academic performance, and other stressors (Buunk & Gibbons, 1997; Taylor, Buunk, & Aspinwall, 1990). Much of this evidence has necessarily focused on the impact of social comparisons on people's feelings and beliefs about outcomes that have already taken place. In this article, we will consider ways in which social comparison information may be used proactively, that is, not only to evaluate current outcomes, but also to make important deci sions about future courses of action, such as which goals to select, how to pursue them, and what to expect along the way. In doing so, we hope to illustrate the substantial, but largely unexplored, role of social comparisons in such future oriented processes as proactive coping, self-regulation, and planning. PROACfiVE COPING AS A BLEND OF SELF REGULATION AND COPING
Proactive coping refers to a set of processes through which people anticipate or detect potential stressors and act in advance to prevent them or to mute their impact (Aspinwall & Taylor, 1997). As such, proactive coping is a blend of two extensively studied processes, coping and self-regulation. Coping con sists of activities undertaken to master, reduce, or tolerate environmental or intrapsychic demands perceived as representing threat, harm, or loss (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Self-regulation is the process through which people con trol, direct, and correct their own actions as they move toward or away from various goals (Carver & Scheier, 1990). The study of proactive coping com bines these two processes by examining people's emotions, thoughts, and behaviors as they anticipate and address potential sources of adversity that might interfere with the pursuit of their goals (see Aspinwall, 2001 , in press; Aspinwall & Taylor, 1 997; McGrath & Beehr, 1990; Sansone & Berg, 1993). Recently, Schwarzer (in press) has suggested that the study of proactivity may be expanded to include thoughts and actions, not only in the service of pre venting adverse outcomes, but also in creating future opportunities. The purpose of this chapter is to examine ways in which social comparison activity may be used to accomplish both kinds of proactivity-troubleshooting
PROACTIVE SOCIAL COMPARISONS
269
potential problems and identifying potential opportunities. We will present a framework for understanding different kinds of proactive comparison situations, present a description of the differences between proactive and reactive com parison situations, and discuss the implications of these differences for under standing comparison motives and outcomes. We will then review recent evidence consistent with the proactive social comparison framework. We conclude with a discussion of the ways in which proactive comparisons may be used to guide future-oriented behavior in such domains as achievement, aging, and health. A F RAM EWORK F OR UNDERS TANDING PROACT IVE COMPARIS ON ACTIVITY Distinguishing Proactive from Reactive Comparison Situations
Our analysis suggests that the location of the comparer and target with re spect to the temporal development of some event or task is essential to understanding both the likely motives of the comparer and the likely out comes of comparisons to a particular target. If the comparer is either con sidering some new course of action or is already involved in it, and is making comparisons to a target who is further along in the course of events than the comparer, the comparison is proactive, rather than reactive. The hallmark of a proactive comparison situation is that some focal event (a new task, a stressor, or an opportunity) has yet to occur. Therefore, the event itself and/or the impact of the event on the self are potentially malleable.1 Of central import ance are the ideas that one's own outcome is not yet known or circumscribed (many potential outcomes are possible), and that one has the potential to alter one's thinking or behavior in order to approach or avoid the outcome experi enced by a particular comparison target. In such situations, information about other people who have adopted a new goal (e.g., a career change or parent hood), who are more advanced in their standing on the comparison dimension (e.g., the development of a skill, such as golfing or cooking), and/or who are further along on the developmental continuum of the event (e.g., adjustment to college; parents of children older than one's own; recovery from major surgery; retirement; aging) has the potential to be highly informative with respect to one's own actions. In such situations, both upward comparisons to those who did well and downward comparisons to those who experienced difficulty may be informative. These ideas are shown in Figure 9.1. 1Even if a n event o r outcome i s not malleable, people may use social comparisons to prepare for managing such eventualities (see Aspinwall & Taylor, 1997, for discus sion). For example, learning how others handled an unalterable future event, such as forced relocation following highway construction or transition to a nursing home, may be very useful in altering one's own preparations for and reactions to that event.
LISA. G. ASPINWALL, DOUGLAS 1... HILL AND SAMANTHA 1... LEAF
270
t
C1 T1
t
C2 T2
C3 T3
t
C4
cs
T4
TS
A temporal framework for representi� the location of the comparer (C) and target (T) at different places in the development of some focal event cr stressor. ne starburst at the center represents the event itself. The line to the left of the starburst represents time prior to the event. The fmes to the right d the starburst represent time following the event and three different potential Cl' actual post-event outcomes, with the ascending line representing improvement the flat line stability. and the descending line decline fipre 9.1
.
1n Figure 9.1, we present an expanded model of tbe social comparison space
that includes proactive comparisons made in advance of some focal evert (a ta5lc.
stressor, or opportunity). As shown in Figure
9.1, both
comparers (C) and com
parison targets (f) may lie at many dfferent points with respect to the develop
ment of an event, rangingfrom (1) well before the event. (2) just before the event,
(3) during the event, (4) just after tbe event. to (5) well after the event. Tile three
lines to the right eX the starburst represent not only the passage eX time after the event, but also the likely future course eX the comparer or target's standing on tbe
comparison dimension after tbe focal event Specificaly l , the upward curve re�
resents potenb al or expected improvement; the straight line, stability; and the '
downward curve, potential or expected decline. Thus. one may use Figure 9.1 to plot the
relab've posib'on of tbe target and comparer, with
respect to both the
temporal development eX the event and post-<:vent outcomes.
In terms of Figure 9.1, a reactive comparison situation is one in which some
focal event bas already occurred, the comparer's outcome is known, and a comparison target's outcome, usually at the same point in tbe development of the event, is also known.
Wben
comparisons are made after the event (e.g.,
the receipt of test scores) and the comparer and target are at the same point in tbe development of the event (e.g., both have taken the same test). social
comparisons may serve as important self-evaluative benchmarks for one's standing on the comparison dimension, but there are few other implications of
this information for future actions and outcomes. To be sure, some ongoing events may involve elements of both reactive and proactive responding, as people experience an event and use information about bow otbers fared to
271
PROACTIVE SOCIAL COMPARISONS
plan for their next experience with the comparison dimension, but we will
suggest that many of the events that are typically studied, especially in labora
tory experiments, do not have this property. Consider the typical laboratory study of social comparison preferences. Parti cipants complete a test of a fictitious cognitive ability, such as "cognitive per ceptual integration" or "scanning ability," and are then given false feedback that they have obtained a poor score. They are then offered a choice of com parison targets for whom they might view additional information. In terms of our figure, both comparer and target are right at the focal event, the receipt of
the test score, producing a C3-T3 configuration. Under such conditions, people
usually choose to see the score of someone who performed worse than they did
(see Aspinwall,
1997, for review).
The selection of a downward target, instead
of a similar-performing lateral target or a superior upward target, is usually taken to indicate that the self-enhancement motive in this situation is stronger than either the self-evaluative or self-improvement motives. However, a self regulatory analysis of this situation suggests that there are few goals other than self-enhancement that might be served through social comparisons under these conditions. Specifically, if there are no additional
trials
and/or the ability in
question has been described as relatively fixed in nature, there is no chance for
improvement on the part of the comparer.
As a result, upward comparisons to
superior performers cannot provide benefits, but can only make one feel worse
in comparison Additionally, if one's performance cannot decline to the level of the downward target, there are no costs to engaging in downward comparisons.
Thus, in this commonly-studied reactive comparison situation, people fre quently select a downward target in order to feel better and are arguably none the worse for making this choice. Many other classic studies, especially of upward social comparisons, have similar properties, in that the comparer's options for meeting the high stan dard or performance of an upward target are severely constrained Consider the Mr Clean/Mr Dirty study (Morse
&
Gergen,
1970). Participants
arriving
for a job interview who waited with a sharply dressed and clearly well prepared fellow applicant, Mr Clean, felt worse about themselves than those waiting with the scruffy Mr Dirty. Note, however, that the useful information provided by Mr Clean's superiority (that it is important to dress well for the interview and to appear prepared and confident) cannot be immediately em
ployed by the participants, as they do not have time to go home and put on a
suit In such situations, as in the task failure situation described above, com
parison activity may be primarily reactive; that is, it may serve to alter the way
we feel about our outcomes and ourselves, but we cannot make immediate use of this information and do not necessarily focus on ts i potential implica tions for future actions, plans, and goals.
In contrast, imagine a version of the Mr Clean!Mr Dirty study in which the participant encounters the well-dressed Mr Clean
2
days before his own
272
LISA G. ASPINWALL, DOUGLAS L. HILL AND SAMANTHA L. LEAF
interview. Now, responses to Mr Clean might differ dramatically. The person so exposed to Mr Clean might purchase a suit and prepare for the interview. Alternatively, he might be intimidated by Mr Clean's level of preparation and give up on the interview. In either case, exposure to Mr Clean provides important information about the level of preparation and professionalism required in the interview setting. To recap these examples in terms of our figure: in the original Mr Clean/Mr Dirty study, both the comparer (C2) and target (TI) await the interview. In this situation, the target is optimally situated to provide self-evaluative infor mation, as both comparer and target are at the same point with respect to the upcoming interview. However, because the interview is imminent, the infor mation provided by Mr Clean's superior preparation cannot be used by the comparer to alter his outcomes in this particular situation; thus, the com parison is experienced as aversive ("I'm no good"). In contrast, when the participant encounters Mr Clean 2 days before his own interview, the com parer is now at Cl, well before the interview, and the superior target at TI, just before. The comparison is now proactive and can serve a wide range of motives and self-regulatory functions, as exposure to Mr Clean provides use ful information about standards (the level of preparation required by the task), possible courses of action (dress up, cancel the interview), and likely outcomes for the comparer (if he does nothing to improve, he won't compete successfully for the job). Under such circumstances, participants might well be glad they had run into Mr Clean, and it is unlikely that his polished self presentation would be as deflating as it was in the original study. Different Kinds of Proactive Comparison
Our proactive version of the Mr Clean/Mr Dirty study provided an example in which both the target and the comparer were in the left part of the figure, as they encountered each other prior to the focal event (the job interview). A second important kind of proactive comparison may occur when the target has already experienced an event that awaits the comparer. The best illustra tion of such a situation, and its dramatic influence on self-regulation, is the series of field experiments on hospital roommate assignments conducted by Kulik and Mahler (1997; see also Kulik, Mahler, & Moore, 1996). People awaiting major surgery were randomly assigned to either preoperative or postoperative roommates. With respect to our Figure 9.1, in the preoperative roommate condition, both the patients and their roommates are at time 2 with respect to the surgery, whereas in the postoperative-roommate condition, the patients are at C2 and their roommates at T4, presumably on the upward curve indicating post-surgical improvement. As we know from research on fear and affiliation, exposure to another person awaiting the same stressful event (the C2-T2 configuration) may be
PROACTIVE SOCIAL COMPARISONS useful
273
in understanding whether one's emotional responses prior to surgery
are appropriate (Schachter, 1959; see Kulik & Mahler, 1997, for review), but
the results of Kulik and Mahler's studies suggest that information useful in regulating such responses is more likely to be gained from exposure to some one who is further along in the course of the event (the C2-T4 configuration). Specifically, patients assigned to postoperative roommates were less anxious and were released from the hospital sooner than other patients. Exposure to someone who had gone through the experience of surgery may have benefited the patients in at least two ways: by providing information about what to expect (e.g., about the sensations and procedures one might experience be fore and after surgery) and by providing living evidence of good potential outcomes (e.g., that people do survive major surgery). This information may then have been used by patients to manage the experience of having surgery. Thus, when the target is further along in the event than the comparer, the target's outcomes may provide a wealth of information to the comparer.
Proactivity, Comparison Motives, and Self-replation As illustrated by these examples, exposure to someone who is doing what one may soon be doing oneself can be both welcome and useful for a variety of reasons. Thus, proactive comparisons may serve a wide range of motives and self-regulatory functions. We have summarized these potential functions in Table 9.1. First, exposure to the good outcomes of someone ahead of you may provide inspiration and hope, as well as lower anxiety, as in Kulik and Ma hler's (1997) hospital studies. Second, proactive comparisons may provide information about future tasks and standards for them (cf. Bandura, 1986; Butler, 2000; Ruble & Frey, 1991 ). Specifically, people engaged in a course of action, or considering one, want to know not only how they are doing at the moment, but what the future holds for them and what they should do to achieve desired outcomes or avoid undesired ones. They may also be inter ested in understanding specific problems they may face along the way. A critical task of proactive coping is to run potential future problems forward in time to simulate and anticipate what they might become (Aspinwall & Taylor, 1997; see also Taylor, Pham, Rivkin, & Armor, 1998; Taylor & Schneider, 1989). That is, the questions guiding social comparison activity may shift from the more reactive (How did I do?, How do I feel about it?, and How can I feel better?) to the more proactive (What is the likely outcome here?, What can I do to achieve it or avoid it?, and How would I feel about it if I did?). In such cases, exposure to a wide range of possible outcomes (good as well as bad; success stories as well as cautionary tales) may be useful in simulating and planning for one's own possible future outcomes. Third, in addition to influencing planning and strategy selection, exposure to proactive comparisons may also lead people to generate new goals, such as
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LISA G. ASPINWALL, DOUGLAS L. HILL AND SAMANTHA L LEAF
Table 9.1 Summary of potential self-regulatory functions of proactive social comparisons 1.
Affective benefits
Proactive comparisons may offer n i spiration and hope, lower anxiety, and reduce fears of failure.
2.
Information
Proactive comparisons may provide strategic information about bow one might succeed, thus aiding in skill acquisition. They may also provide information about the comparison dimension itself, such as its amenability to personal control, its likely future trajectory, and its link to one's ingroup, thus informing expectations for future outcomes in a variety of ways.
3. Goal setting
Proactive comparisons may influence whether goals will be adopted. may aid in the prediction of performance, and may alter the standards used to evaluate success and failure, thereby altering future outcomes via self-regulatory processes.
4. Self-definition
Proactive comparisons may alter self-representations, including global sdf-evaluations (self-esteem), perceptions of self-efficacy for specific tasks, and possible selves.
5.
Ultimately, proactive comparisons may lead to more adaptive outcomes, thus improving people's prospects for dealing with and responding to new situations they might encounter in the future.
Life outcomes
different possible selves (cf. Markus & Nurius, 1986). Through these informa tional and motivational functions, proactive comparisons may play an import ant role in goal setting, self-definition, and, ultimately, life outcomes. An important implication of our analysis is that people making proactive comparisons to achieve the self-regulatory goals listed in Table 9.1 are likely to be interested in, and open to, a wider range of comparison information than are people whose immediate goals may be emotion regulation or self enhancement. In the next sections, we consider two aspects of proactive com parisons that are likely to be important determinants of people's openness or receptivity to social comparisons, especially upward ones.
fmplicatiODS of Pro8ctive Social Comparbloas (cw the Self-c.cept In our framework, the relative placement of the comparer and target has important implications, not only for the usefulness of the comparison for understanding potential future outcomes, but also fer the impact of the com parison on the self. Specifically, the relative placement of the comparer and the target along some developmental continuum influences the direcmess or immediacy of the comparison By this, we mean the degree to which the
PROACfiVE SOCIAL COMPARISONS
275
comparison is experienced as a direct hit or match to one's own situation, as something that is directly (and unavoidably) relevant to one's immediate self evaluation. If the comparer and target are at the same point with respect to the development of the event [e.g., both are high school juniors who have just taken their Scholastic Aptitude Tests (SATs)], direct comparisons of test scores-and resulting differences in self-evaluation of ability and future col lege prospects-are probably unavoidable. However, if the comparer and target are at different places in the trajectory of the event (for example, one is an 8th-grader taking a practice SAT and the other is a junior in high school), the comparison may be more or less personally relevant, and the psychologi cal results of the comparison more malleable. As we will review, one intrigu ing aspect of proactive upward comparisons is that comparisons to people who are supposed to be doing better by virtue of their advanced progress on some developmental continuum may provide the motivational and informa tional benefits of upward comparisons without the usual sting of being outper formed (see, e.g., Lockwood & Kunda, 1997, 1999). Proadivity and the Comparer•s Psychological State at the Time of the Comparison
A final major difference between proactive and reactive comparison situa tions is the likely psychological state of the comparer at the time com parisons are made. Reactive comparisons, by definition, occur after some focal event. If the outcome was worse than desired, the presence of psycho logical distress may drive comparison preferences and/or activity toward downward comparisons in the service of self-enhancement (Aspinwall & Taylor, 1993; Gibbons & Boney McCoy, 1991; Wills, 1981; see Aspinwall, 1997, and Gibbons & Gerrard, 1991, for reviews). In the proactive situation, because one's own outcomes are unknown, and because some focal event, such as a stressor or failure, has yet to occur, psychological distress is less likely (Aspinwall & Taylor, 1997), although worry and anxiety about future outcomes may be present. This observation suggests that, in general, pro active comparisons are more likely than reactive ones to be made under con ditions of positive mood. Although studies of mood and proactive comparisons are rare, there is related evidence that suggests that the presence of positive mood may influ ence the motives underlying comparison activity and, especially, the outcomes of upward comparisons. Specifically, recent evidence suggests that positive moods and experiences may help people manage useful negative information (Aspinwall, 1998; Reed & Aspinwall, 1998; Steele, 1988; Trope & Pomerantz, 1998). For example, Trope and his colleagues (Trope & Neter, 1994; Trope & Pomerantz, 1998) found that people who experienced success in one domain showed greater interest in learning about their personal weaknesses in a
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LISA G. ASPINWALL, DOUGLAS L. HILL AND SAMANTIIA L. LEAF
second domain, whereas people who failed an initial task were more interested in learning about their strengths in the second domain. Explana tions of such findings have focused on the potential of positive mood to bolster people's sense of the resources they have available to withstand ex posure to negative information (Aspinwall, 1998; Trope & Pomerantz, 1998; see Steele, Spencer, & Lynch, 1993, and Tesser, Crepaz, Beach, Cornell & Collins, 2000, for discussion of alternative explanations involving self-esteem). To the extent that an upward social comparison can be thought of as useful, but negative, information relevant to the self (useful in the sense that it contains information relevant to one's own prospects and future actions, but negative in the sense that it contains information that one has been outper formed), the presence of positive mood may help people manage the typical affective and esteem costs of such comparisons. Consistent with this pos sibility, Tesser and his colleagues have shown that the typical pattern of unfavorable reactions to upward comparisons (i.e., derogating upward targets or decreasing closeness to them) can be attenuated completely by some prior opportunity to feel good about the self. Specifically, participants given a chance to affirm an important personal value were less likely to take actions to harm the performance of another participant who had outperformed them than those not given the opportunity to self-affirm (Tesser & Cornell, 1991, Study 1 ). It is unknown how negative moods affect the motives and outcomes of proactive comparisons, but evidence from studies of reactive comparisons suggests that such effects will not be favorable. Negative moods, whether they are transitory or chronic, seem to predict that people will focus on the adverse or unfavorable aspects of upward comparisons. For example, relative to non depressed people, dysphoric and depressed people seem to engage in more such comparisons, to request more detailed information about them, and to be particularly threatened by them (Swallow & Kuiper, 1988, 1992, 1993; see Ahrens & Alloy, 1997, for review). For example, work by Swallow and Kuiper ( 1988) suggests that depressed people may adopt unrealistic comparison standards and fail to adjust them for any advantages an upward target may have had, thus perpetuating feelings of inferiority. Other reactions to upward targets may minimize the usefulness of such comparisons. For example, Wenzlaff and Beevers (1998) found that depressed individuals, as well as those whose mood was manipulated with sad music, were more likely to choose negative questions for a happy target, in an apparent attempt to find out negative information about the target. Such a strategy might reduce the unpleasant feeling generated when individuals are confronted by an upward comparison target whose outcome is seen as unattainable, but would also seem to preclude finding benefits in the target's superior outcome. The literature on individual differences related to chronic mood yields similar findings, suggesting that positive moods facilitate, and negative moods
1:77
PROACTIVE SOCIAL COMPARISONS
compromise, constructive reactions to upward comparisons. On the positive side, Lyubomirsky and Ross (1997) found, in two studies, that individuals with a self-reported happy temperament experienced less of a decline in positive mood and self-ratings of performance after exposure to upward comparison information than individuals with a self-reported unhappy temperament. In terestingly, participants who described themselves as unhappy reported lower mood after upward comparisons, even if they had been given positive feed back about their own performance. Similarly, several studies suggest that people high in neuroticism seem either to respond poorly to or fail to benefit from upward social comparisons (van der Zee, Buunk,
&
Sanderman,
1996,
1998). Summary of Differences between Proactive and Reactive Comparisons Thus far, we have presented several ways in which proactive and reactive comparisons are different: they serve different motives, they have different
outcomes, and they are differentially useful in self-regulation and other kinds
of future-oriented thinking and behavior. Specifically, proactive social com parisons are more likely to serve a wider range of motives than reactive ones.
At the same time, they are less likely to be harmful to the self-image, because
comparison to someone at a different stage of development is less direct and because the comparer is less likely to be experiencing psychological distress.
In the following sections, we will examine in greater detail the implications of these properties of proactive comparisons for understanding reactions to up
ward and downward comparisons.
USING THE PROACfiVE VERSUS REACfiVE DISTINCTION TO UNDERSTAND REACflONS TO UPWARD AND DOWNWARD a>MPARISON TARGETS Although early research on upward comparisons examined ways in which desire for information about people who had outperformed the self could be welcome and useful (e.g., in furthering one's self-enhancement and self improvement efforts through association with a positive instance
of a trait, or
in acquiring information about the range of outcomes; Arrowood & Friend,
1969; Gruder, 1971; Thornton & Arrowood, 1966; Wheeler, 1966; Wheeler et see Collins, 1996, and Wood, 1989, for reviews), most studies from
al., 1969;
the past two or three decades document the hostility, jealousy, frustration, and decreased self-evaluation that result from exposure to others' superior outcomes (see, e.g., Marsh & Parker, Rodin,
1984;
Tesser,
1988).
1984; Morse & Gergen, 1970; Salovey &
Additionally, researchers have documented an
impressive arsenal of strategies used to ward off the adverse effects of upward
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LISA G. ASPINWALL, DOUGLAS L. HILL AND SAMANTHA L. LEAF
comparisons, especially their implications for the self. Specifically, people have been shown to downgrade the importance of the task (Tesser, 1988), to shift the basis of their self-evaluations to other dimensions (Crocker & Major, 1 989; Gibbons, Benbow, & Gerrard, 1994), and to distance themselves from superior others (Tesser, 1988), even to the point of elevating the upward target to a superior class (such as genius) in order to make the comparison irrelevant to the self (Alicke, LoSchiavo, Zerbst, & Zhang, 1997). Thus, as a whole, the contemporary research base of social comparison theory, especially among people under stress, provides strong evidence for predomi nantly negative reactions to upward comparisons and a preference for, as well as favorable reactions to, downward comparisons (Aspinwall, 1997; Gibbons & Gerrard, 1991; Taylor et a/., 1990; Taylor, Wood & Lichtman, 1983; Wills, 1981). Although efforts to avoid or defuse upward comparisons and to create novel downward comparisons provide fascinating examples of creativity in social behavior and self-definition, researchers have long been concerned by the possibility that avoiding upward comparisons and courting downward ones may have detrimental effects. In particular, as we and others have sug gested, upward comparisons have the potential to provide useful information about task performance, ways of coping with problems, standards and upper boundaries of performance, and motivation or inspiration. How can people learn from others' good outcomes if they actively avoid such information? Worse yet, how will people improve if they focus on people who are perform ing worse than they are (see, e.g., Gibbons et a/., 1991 ; Gibbons, Blanton, Gerrard, Buunk, & Eggleston, 2000; Wills, 1997)? In light of these concerns, the identification of the conditions that allow people to profit from upward comparisons and avoid the risks of downward comparisons has been a central research topic. To date, there are several compelling accounts of moderators of responses to upward and downward comparisons. We will review these briefly and then examine what the proac tive perspective may add to them. Moderators of Responses to Upward and Downward Comparisons
One class of explanations centers on the comparer's perceived degree ofper sonal control over future outcomes (Buunk, Collins, Taylor, VanYperen, & Dakof, 1990; Major, Testa, & Bylsma, 1991; Ybema & Buunk, 1993). Specifi cally, if one's future outcomes are thought to be improvable through one's own efforts, then upward comparisons are not as aversive, because one can match the upward target's superior standing through effort or practice. In this vein, several studies have demonstrated that people's beliefs about the mal leability of their performance on a particular attribute sharply moderate their interest in, and reactions to, upward comparison information (Butler, 1992,
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1993, 2000; Dunning, 1995; Lockwood & Kunda, 1997). For example, when mathematics performance is perceived to be an incremental skill (one that is improvable through practice), as opposed to a fixed entity (an ability that cannot be increased), students do not find another student's superior perfor mance on a mathematics test to be aversive (Butler, 1993; see Butler, 2000, and Dweck & Leggett, 1988, for discussion). With respect to downward com parisons, exposure to another person's poor outcomes may not be upsetting if one believes one can work to avoid such outcomes. A second, related factor is the anticipated trajectory of one's future standing on the dimension, that is, whether one expects to improve, decline, or stay the same (Aspinwall, 1997; Ruble & Frey, 1991). Such expectations are not syn onymous with personal control beliefs, as factors generally outside of one's control, such as maturation and aging, may influence people's beliefs about their likely future standing on some dimension (Aspinwall, 1997). For dimen sions on which improvement may be expected (such as adjustment to college, or maturation), upward comparisons may not carry their usual sting, in that one may reasonably anticipate matching the target's good outcome in due time. If this is the case, the upward target may provide an inspiring example of the good outcomes one may soon experience. However, in cases where one expects stability or decline in one's own outcomes (such as progressive illness, or age-related declines), someone else's good outcome may be especially aversive, as the gap between one's own standing and the target's will only increase. In a similar fashion, beliefs about one's likely future standing are likely to moderate the effects of exposure to downward comparisons. If one believes one will decline, then downward comparisons may provide frighten ing visions of what one's future holds. In contrast, these risks are minimal if one believes that one's future standing is fixed or subject to improvement (see Aspinwall, 1997, for review and discussion). A third set of accounts has focused on whether the comparison activity is primarily affiliative, rather than explicitly self-evaluative, in nature (Taylor & Lobel, 1 989). Drawing on their work with cancer patients, Taylor and Lobel noted that people may affiliate with upward targets to derive motivational benefits, such as inspiration, from them (see also Helgeson & Mickelson, 1995; Taylor, Aspinwall, Giuliano, Dakof, & Reardon, 1 993), but they may avoid explicit comparisons to such targets to preserve self-esteem. Our anal ysis suggests that these benefits may be more easily obtained in the proactive situation, because comparisons to someone at a different stage are less direct than those to someone at the same stage. In the case of downward targets, Taylor and Lobel note that people appear to avoid affiliation with people who are worse off (such as other cancer patients in waiting rooms), but report frequent, explicit self-evaluative comparisons to them. In this way, people can simultaneously maintain hope and appreciate the relative advantages of their own situation.
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A fourth set of conditions in which upward comparisons may not be experi enced as aversive is when there is shared group membership or some other sort of bond to the upward target. In such cases, the target's success reflects well on one's group and/or oneself (Blanton, Crocker, & Miller, 2000; Brewer & Weber, 1 994; Brown, Novick, Lord, & Richards, 1992; Cialdini et a/., 1976; Helgeson & Mickelson, 1995; Tesser, 1988). In the collectivist context, people may also be motivated to make upward comparisons to improve the outcomes of their group (Chung & Mallery, 1999). With respect to downward com parisons, the poor performance of an ingroup member is, through this lens of reflected self -evaluation, unlikely to be seen as reassuring or self -enhancing (Snyder, Lassegard, & Ford, 1986). A Proactive Perspective on Upward and Downward Comparisons
We believe that the proactive versus reactive distinction is useful in understand ing reactions to both upward and downward comparisons, both in its own right and in conjunction with these other processes. As we have described, if the comparer and the target are at the same point with respect to the development of an event (e.g., they have both just had cancer surgery) or some developmen tal continuum (e.g., they are the same age), a comparison to the target provides information about one's relative standing at the moment, but relatively little information about future actions and outcomes. To be sure, one could infer from such a comparison that if the target is relatively advantaged at one point, he/she may also experience better outcomes at some later point, but the com parison itself provides little information about the demands of some future task, its likely trajectory, or its range of future outcomes. However, the moment the target is more advanced along some temporal or developmental continuum, the meaningfulness of the comparison, and its implications for one's own future actions, increase dramatically. In particular, information about targets who are further along in the development of some event can provide information useful in prediction (what to expect), prospects (what outcomes are possible, for better or for worse), and plans (what to do to approach or avoid certain out comes). In this way, proactive comparisons may be an important means through which people acquire information about the amenability of their standing to personal control efforts, the likely future course of events, and the outcomes experienced by ingroup members. NEW EVIDENCE CONCERNING PROACfiVE USES OF SOCIAL COMPARISON INFORMATION
A final task of this chapter is to use the proactive versus reactive comparison framework to review several recent studies that have examined the usefulness
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of different kinds of social comparison information to people considering different courses of action or making predictions about their own future outcomes. These studies have in common the idea that people can learn valuable information from targets who are further along in some course of events than they are. We also present two studies designed specifically to test our prediction that the typical pattern of responses to upward and downward comparisons obtained in reactive comparison situations may be reversed in a proactive situation. Using Social Comparison Information to Evaluate Future Outcomes
An interesting illustration of the psychological differences between adjusting to events (reactive) and considering future possibilities (proactive), and the implications of such differences for social comparison processes, comes from a recent experiment on pay satisfaction by Blanton, George, and Crocker (2001). In an extension of Major's (1989) work suggesting that women remain content with inferior compensation because they compare themselves to other women instead of to more highly paid men, Blanton et al. had college men and women complete a laboratory task for which they were told that the pay range was $5.25 to $7.35/hour. All participants then received a pay rate of $6.25/hour. This pay rate was framed either as compensation for work just completed or as part of an offer for future employment. Participants were then told that they could see the pay rate of past participants and were asked to rank order their preferences for viewing the average male pay rate, the average female pay rate, or the average combined pay rate. As predicted, women who were given a pay rate for work already com pleted had lower pay expectations and sought intragroup comparisons to other women, whereas women who were given the same pay rate framed as a job offer had higher pay expectations and sought intergroup comparisons to men. According to Blanton et al., the women who have already received their pay rate are focusing on what Jost and Banaji (1994) term system justification (feeling better with what they have), whereas those who are not yet invested (those considering the pay rate as an offer of future employment) are focused on system evaluation (Is what I have good enough? Could I do better?). These conclusions are highly consistent with the predictions of our proactive versus reactive comparison framework, in that our analysis suggests that the women who know their outcomes (those who have been given a pay rate) focus on feeling better about them, but those who are considering a course of action (in this case, the job offer) are willing to consider a wider range of comparison information, including the potentially upsetting comparison to what men are being paid for the same work. In the proactive situation, exposure to the upward comparison is worthwhile, because it will help one make a good decision about whether to accept the job at the offered rate of compensation.
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Using Social Comparisons to Predict and Improve Performance
Smith and Sachs (1997) examined two different proactive uses of social com parison information: predicting and improving future outcomes. In their terms, a proxy comparison involves using someone else's performance to gauge how a similar other (in this case, the self) will do on a task (see also Wheeler, Martin, & Suls, 1997), whereas comparison to a model involves considering what someone else did that worked, that could be used to im prove one's own performance. Smith and Sachs were able to distinguish the implications of each of these functions for social comparison activity in an experiment. The experiment involved two tests (Tests A and B) that assessed similar, but not identical, abilities. All participants received a score on Test A In the proxy condition, participants were told that the purpose of the study was to see how well participants could predict their performance on Test B, whereas in the model condition, participants were told that the purpose of the study was to see how much people could improve on their Test A perfor mance with practice on Test B. Participants were then allowed to choose a comparison target. Of the six choices, three had outperformed the participant on Test A and three had performed worse. Three findings were of interest. First, in the proxy condition, where accu rate prediction of performance on Test B was given as the explicit goal, comparison choices were similar (lateral) or slightly upward, with 90% of the participants choosing a target just above them in performance on Test A Second, in the model condition, in which self-improvement was given as the explicit goal, choices were predominantly upward, with 90% of participants choosing one of the top two scorers for comparison. Third, no participant in either condition chose a downward target. Thus, when the comparer's goals are either prediction or improvement of task performance, downward com parisons appear to have little use. Instead, in these two proactive situations, lateral and slightly upward (prediction) or strongly upward (improvement), comparisons are selected. A second study examined the proxy function of social comparisons in greater detail by examining how participants used a comparison target to predict their own performance. Participants learned how another participant had done on a first task (which the participants had already completed) and then learned the target's score on a second, related task. This information influenced participants' expectations of their own performance on the second task, such that those who had performed similarly to the target on Task 1 expected to perform similarly on Task 2, those who had outperformed the target on Task 1 expected to do so on Task 2, and those who had underper formed the target on Task 1 tended to expect to perform worse than the target on Task 2. Interestingly, confidence in one's predictions for Task 2 were highest in the similar target condition, and higher in the superior or inferior
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target conditions, than in a no-comparison condition. These findings provide
clear evidence that people use the outcomes of others to make estimates of their own performance on as-yet untried tasks. Wheeler et al.'s
(1997)
ability-proxy model similarly emphasizes the use of
comparison others to make "decisions or estimates regarding future perfor mance on tasks associated with uncertainty" (p.
55). They use the example of
a swimmer, who has trained mostly in an indoor pool, trying to decide whether he can safely swim across a large lake. This person may make de tailed comparisons of his ability and training to those of other swimmers. Consistent with the present analysis, the authors suggest that such future oriented comparisons ("Can I do this?") will invoke accurate, rather than self-enhancing, assessments of ability, because being wrong about one's own abilities presents the possibility of real costs, such as embarrassment, failure, and physical danger. Thus, as in the Smith and Sachs
(1997)
studies, careful
lateral comparisons for the purposes of accurate prediction may be made, and self-enhancing downward comparisons are unlikely.
Using Upwanl Comparisons to Draw Inspiration Another important proactive use of upward social comparisons is to draw
inspiration for one's own performance on a task, or hope for one's own outcomes, from someone who has chosen the same path and excelled
As
suggested earlier, social comparison theorists have long wrestled with the
question of when such upward comparisons will be inspiring versus deflating
(see
1996; Taylor & Lobe� 1989). A series of studies by Lockwood (1997, 1999) suggests that when an outstanding target's success is
Collins,
and Kunda
potentially attainable by participants, exposure to the target creates in creased, rather than decreased, self-evaluation, and produces greater reports of inspiration compared to no-target controls. Importantly, as we will illus trate, major factors in creating such attainability are whether the "superstar" target is further along in the course of events than the comparer and whether the comparison is experienced as a "direct hit" to the self. In the Lockwood and Kunda studies, first- or fourth-year university stu dents were exposed to a news account
of a "superstar,"
a fourth-year student
in the same major who had garnered high academic honors and who was involved in an impressive array
of community
activities. In cases where the
superstar's success was potentially attainable by participants, exposure to the superstar resulted in increased self-evaluation and greater reports of inspira tion on open-ended measures compared to no-target controls. In contrast, when the superstar's level of success was seen as unattainable, decreased self evaluation relative to no-target controls was reported For example, in their
1997 Study 2, first-year accounting students exposed to an outstanding fourth year student's accomplishments reported finding inspiration in the news
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article, but fourth-year students did not. In the terms of Figure 9.1, if being successful in college is taken as the focal event, the first-year students are making a C1-T4 comparison to a target who has already achieved great success in college, whereas the fourth-year students are making a C4-T4 comparison to the same target. In this latter case, because the comparer and target are at the same stage with respect to the comparison dimension (being fourth-year students), any discrepancy between their standing on academics or other dimensions provides meaningful (and unflattering) information about differences in ability, skill, or effort devoted to one's college career. In this case, the fourth-year students have no possibility of "catching up" with the upward target by matching his/her achievements. Thus, the upward target is likely to be experienced as a painful and permanent instance of someone outperforming the self, rather than as a source of inspiration. Consistent with this interpretation, Lockwood and Kunda found substantial evidence among the fourth-year students of efforts to denigrate the comparison process and to see the target as dissimilar to the self. In contrast, for first-year students, the information about the successful target served as a model of what might be achieved, and 82% of the first-year students reported feeling inspired by the news account of the superstar's success. It is interesting to note how delicate such effects are. In a second series of studies, Lockwood and Kunda (1999) found that priming people to think of their best possible achievements in college before exposure to the information about the superstar wiped out the motivational benefits of such exposure. Specifically, among students asked to think of the academic and career achievements they hoped to accomplish in the next 10 years, exposure to the superstar resulted in decreased self -evaluation relative to no-comparison con trols, whereas benefits of exposure to the superstar were obtained among college students asked to think about their current academic success. Similarly, in another study in the series, Lockwood and Kunda showed that being exposed to the outstanding target after one had already described one's aspirations for the next 10 years had a deflating effect on self-evaluations, whereas exposure to an outstanding target prior to generating one's own expectations resulted in higher aspirations. These latter studies highlight the importance of considering where the com parer is, relative to the target, in terms of some developmental sequence. As noted earlier, in terms of our Figure 9.1, in the current-status and pre comparison conditions, the comparer is at C1 and the superstar target at T4. The instructions to think about one's future accomplishments may have had the psychological effect of moving the comparer from C1 to C4, thus making the comparison reactive, rather than proactive. As we have seen in other studies, when both superior target and comparer are at the same stage, direct com parisons are likely, and in this particular case, decreased self-evaluation is the result (for related evidence and discussion, see Blanton, 2001; Reis-Bergan,
285
PROACTIVE SOCIAL COMPARISONS Gibbons,
&
Gerrard,
2000).
Thus, in predicting responses to upward com
parisons, it may be important not only to consider the comparer's actual status
with respect to the development of the event, but also to consider whether the comparer is running comparisons to the target forward in time, and thusjudging his/her future standing at the same point as the target If the upward target is so
clearly outstanding that one could never reasonably hope to match his/her accomplishments, such comparisons may ultimately be deflating. Under these
conditions, we may be motivated to redraw the boundaries of reasonable suc cess in order to avoid such comparisons (Alicke
et al., 1997).
In future research. it will be important to examine less extreme upward targets to identify situations in which simulations of one's future standing, relative to the target, may be more favorable, in that one may reasonably expect to meet or even to exceed the target's success. That is, it is likely that
negative reactions to upward targets would be less extreme or even absent, if the target selected for comparison were not the extreme superstar used in the
Lockwood and Kunda studies. Nonetheless, it is important
to note that, even
though the upward target was clearly highly successfu� people who were earlier in the sequence of events overwhelmingly reported favorable re sponses following exposure to such information.
Using Proadive Comparisons to Improve Outcomes Thus far, our review finds evidence for several proactive functions of upward comparisons-they may be used to evaluate future outcomes, to make predic tions for one's own performance, to obtain information useful in self improvement, and to inspire one's own efforts. What remains to be seen is whether such information is actually useful in improving outcomes. Our own recent work examines the effects of proactive exposure to social comparison information on task performance, task appraisals, and perfor mance standards (Aspinwall, Frazier,
&
Cooper,
2000).
We conducted two
experiments that explicitly contrasted proactive vs. reactive exposure to the
same comparison information. In our first study, female college students par
tici.pating in a study of speechcommunications were exposed to a videotape of another female student's outstanding speech on a different topic, either 2 days
before they were to give their own speech (a Cl-T3 configuration), ust j before
their own speech (C2-T3), or just after their own speech (C4-T3). A fourth group of participants did not see the tape. We predicted that students exposed to the superior speech
2
days prior to their own would have time and other
resources to benefit from it. In contrast, those shown the superior speech just before or just after their own speech would, like the participants in the Mr CleanJMr Dirty study, be unable to benefit, as there would be no opportunity to change their level of preparation to meet the high standard set by the comparison target.
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The results of this first study revealed that participants exposed to the superior tape 2 days before their own performance outperformed no comparison baseline participants and all other participants, as rated by objec tive observers. They also rated success at the speech task as more personally important to them than did other participants. Thus, when participants had time to alter their behavior to meet the high standard set by an upward comparison target, exposure to upward comparisons appeared to be benefi cial, and no adverse effects were obtained. Our second study expanded this design to include exposure to a tape of either a superior performance (upward comparison) or an inferior perfor mance (downward comparison) at one of the three exposure times (2 days before, just before, or just after participants' own speeches). As in Study 1, another group o f participants completed the speech task without seeing another student's performance. When participants saw another student's speech 2 days before their own, upward comparisons facilitated perfor mance on the speech task, whereas downward comparisons compromised it, relative to a no-comparison baseline. Thus, as predicted by the proactive framework, exposure to upward comparisons prior to performance in an achievement context can improve objective performance. Interestingly, in this situation, exposure to downward comparisons sharply decreased performance. The timing of exposure to the comparison information had strong effects on other aspects of self-regulation of performance, particularly appraisals of task difficulty, preparation in the 2 days between sessions of the study, and self evaluations. Specifically, participants exposed to the superior tape 2 days prior to their own speech rated the task as easier and less challenging than did baseline participants, whereas participants exposed to the superior tape just before or right after their own speech rated the task as more difficult and more challenging. Consistent with our proactive versus reactive framework, these results suggest that the meaning of the upward comparison may change, depending on where the comparer is with respect to some action involving the comparison dimension. For the person who has yet to give the speech, the upward tape sets the standard and may make the task seem easier by provid ing a model of good performance. However, to the person who is just about to give the speech or who has just given the speech, the upward tape may seem like a noxious benchmark that makes one's own efforts look bad by comparison. As was the case for objective performance, these results were reversed in the downward comparison condition. Perhaps the most dramatic effects were found among the participants who were exposed to the inferior model 2 days prior to their own performance. In addition to performing worse than baseline participants, these participants appraised the task as much more difficult than did other participants and tended to report lower intended preparation times.
PROACTIVE SOCIAL COMPARISONS
287
Thus, it appears that exposure to an inferior performance prior to one's own can have a demotivating effect on preparation and performance. Participants in this condition appeared to conclude from the target's poor performance that the task was unusually scary and difficult. As a result, they reported lower intentions to prepare for the task and performed poorly. Interestingly, these deficits did not occur among participants exposed to the inferior target im mediately prior to (or, of course, after) their own performance. This second study also provided some evidence that exposure to either the outstanding or the inferior speech altered participants' standards for self evaluation of performance on the speech task. On the first day of the study, all participants were told that their speeches would be evaluated by research assistants, and they had been oriented to and given a copy of a list of eight criteria that would be used by these raters. Following each participant's speech performance, he/she was asked to rate his/her own speech according to these same criteria. We then compared these ratings to those provided by the objective raters. The results among participants in the 2-days-before condition were striking: even though participants who had been exposed to the superior tape significantly outperformed those who had been exposed to the inferior tape, the two groups provided similar self-evaluations of the quality of their speech. Further analyses revealed that participants in the 2-days-before upward comparison condition gave themselves significantly lower ratings than did the objective raters, whereas their counterparts in the downward com parison condition gave themselves significantly higher ratings than did objec tive observers. Thus, although participants in the proactive upward condition performed well, they did not give themselves sufficient credit for their good performance. Of particular interest, participants exposed to proactive down ward comparisons performed poorly in objective terms, but appeared not to realize it. These effects, which were unique to participants in the 2-days before condition, suggest that proactive exposure to comparison information influences the standards used to judge one's own task performance, with those exposed to superior targets adopting higher standards and those exposed to inferior targets adopting lower standards than participants who were not exposed to another student's performance. In sum, these studies suggest that people learn quite a bit from exposure to similar others' performances on a task they will soon face themselves. Parti cipants exposed to a superior target in advance of their performance viewed the task as easier, performed better, and appeared to adopt higher standards for performance, whereas participants exposed to the inferior target saw the task as more difficult, tended to report lower preparation intentions, per formed poorly, and seemed to adopt lower performance standards. Consistent with the predictions of the proactive versus reactive comparison framework, the overall effects in the proactive (2-days-before) condition were the op posite of what is typically obtained, in that exposure to upward comparisons
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was beneficial and exposure to downward comparisons was detrimental. These latter findings are also highly consistent with Gibbons et al. 's (2000) findings indicating that people who reported making downward comparisons experienced worse academic performance over time and that this perfor mance decrement was mediated by decreased expectations.
DISCUSSION AND DIRECfiONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
Expanding the Comparison Space to Include Proactive Comparisons
Our goal in this chapter was to examine ways in which the understanding of social comparison activity and its consequences could be expanded by con sidering proactive comparisons. We suggested that most contemporary stud ies of social comparison processes have focused on reactive comparisons. As a result, they have examined ways in which people use downward comparisons to feel better after adversity, and ways in which upward comparisons, al though useful in many ways, are often rejected. We presented several reasons why comparisons undertaken in advance of some focal stressor, event, ac tivity, or life task might serve a wider range of motives and functions. Specifi cally, in proactive situations, when one's future is not written in stone, all kinds of comparisons-upward, lateral, and downward-may provide useful information about one's own likely performance, what to expect, and dif ferent ways to achieve or avoid particular outcomes. In addition, because one has not yet experienced the full impact of a negative event, comparison pref erences are less likely to be driven downward in the service of the regulation of negative affect. Finally, because many proactive comparison situations involve comparisons to targets who are further along in some course of events, the risks of aversive direct comparisons to superior others may be more easily navigated, and the informational and motivational benefits of upward comparisons appreciated. We reviewed many potential benefits of proactive comparisons. In particu lar, upward comparisons appear to serve a wide range of self-regulatory func tions, including the evaluation of future outcomes, prediction of performance, inspiration for performance, and the acquisition of high performance stan dards. Ultimately, these benefits may facilitate better outcomes, as they did in our two public speaking studies (Aspinwall et al., 2000) . These findings under score the same point-in situations in which one believes one has time and other resources to achieve what the upward target has achieved, upward comparisons may be both useful and inspiring. Upward comparisons seem to be harmful only when one has been baldly outperformed by someone at the same stage and when improvement is either impossible or seems that way (Aspinwall et al., 2000; Lockwood & Kunda, 1997, 1999; Major et al. 1991).
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Our analysis suggests that reactions to downward comparisons may similarly depend on where people are in the course of their engagement with a task, event, or stressor. In the studies we reviewed, downward comparisons were sought when people were seeking to adjust to some outcome, but not when they were evaluating a future course of action (Blanton et al., 2001 ) or trying to improve or predict their future performance (Smith & Sachs, 1997). When proactive exposure to downward comparisons was forced on people, as it was in our speech-preparation study, it had detrimental effects on task appraisals, preparation intentions, performance standards, and objective per formance (Aspinwall et al., 2000). A task for future research will be to identify the conditions under which proactive downward comparisons may be useful to people anticipating or considering engagement in a task or event. It may be the case that downward comparisons are dangerous only if they are one's sole source of information about the domain (cf. Gibbons et al., 2000; Wills, 1997). In the speech prepara tion task used in our studies, participants in the downward comparison condi tion were exposed to only a single videotape-that of a poor performance. Without the leavening provided by exposure to good outcomes, exposure to single or even multiple negative instances of others' poor outcomes may be insufficient to provide information useful in proactive coping. In such cases, one cannot Jearn about the full range of possible outcomes, because all targets did poorly; and one cannot easily learn about ways to avoid poor outcomes, because no one did. Perhaps proactive downward comparisons may be benefi cial when they are used in combination with lateral and upward comparisons to gain an understanding of the range of possible outcomes and ways to avoid poor outcomes.
An Expanded Role for Social Comparison Adivity in the Study of Self· Regulation A second goal of this chapter was to illustrate the substantial role of social comparison activity in self-regulation. In major theories of self-regulation, social comparisons are thought to affect self-regulation primarily through their influence on self-evaluation (Carver & Scheier, 1990); that is, social comparisons may influence the standards used to evaluate one's progress toward goals. There is ample empirical support for this function of social comparisons. In particular, the study of people who have just failed or experi enced some sort of adversity has provided valuable information about bow people change their standards in response to adversity, usually in the service of self-enhancement (Buunk & Gibbons, 1997; Taylor et al., 1990). Our analysis of proactive social comparisons suggests that comparisons may influence many more aspects of self-regulation than bas been previously recog nized Specifically, social comparisons may influence goal-directed behavior at
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all points in the self-regulatory process, starting with decisions about whether to adopt a specific goal (Blanton et a/., 2001; Ruble & Frey, 1991); appraisals of tasks and their demands (Aspinwall et a/., 2000) ; predictions about one's own performance (Smith & Sachs, 1997; Wheeler et a/., 1997); the acquisition of specific coping or problem-solving methods (Butler, 1992, 1993, 2000) ; and the allocation of effort toward task preparation (Aspinwall et al., 2000) . Social comparisons have also been found to influence perceptions of self-efficacy dur ing the course of task engagement (Bandura & Jourden, 1991) and thus may play an important role in sustaining goal-directed behavior. Proactive comparisons may also play an important affective function in generating such sustaining emotions as inspiration and hope (Lockwood & Kunda, 1997, 1999; Taylor & Lobel, 1989). Of course, proactive comparisons to unattainable good outcomes or to frightening future outcomes have the potential to generate potent negative affects, such as resentment, resignation, fear, and dread, but it is important to note that our review suggested several reasons why such effects are less likely in the proactive setting. Specifically, when the information in the comparison may help the comparer to achieve a positive outcome or to avoid or prepare for the negative outcome, the com parison is less likely to be experienced as aversive. Finally, we suggested that proactive comparisons may be an important means through which people learn about the properties of comparison dimen sions, such as their range of potential outcomes, their amenability to personal control, and their prospects for improvement or decline. Such comparisons may also provide valuable information about group- or identity-linked out comes. In these ways, information gleaned from such comparisons may play a critical role in the adoption of goals (if he can do it, I can do it), the exercise of personal control in pursuit of one's goals (he tried hard, and it worked), and in disengagement from unworkable goals (if he couldn't do it, I can't do it). Taken together, these findings suggest that proactive social comparisons may play an important role in planning, enacting, sustaining, and modifying behavior. Continuing to Expand Social Comparison Research Beyond the Aehievement Context
Most of the examples we reviewed were concentrated in the achievement context. Both task acquisition and longer-term academic goals, such as com pleting college, provide important examples of the costs and benefits of social comparison activity (Aspinwall & Taylor, 1993; Blanton, Buunk, Gibbons, & Kuyper, 1999; Gibbons et a/., 2000) . However, these comparison dimensions may be limited in that both discrete task performance and longer-term achievement goals are goals for which one can reasonably expect improve ment or at least stability (in the form of a performance plateau), but for which
PROACTIVE SOCIAL COMPARISONS
291
declines are rare. It will be important to expand the study of proactive com parison activity to dimensions in which decline is expected. In such cases, the poor outcomes of down ward comparison targets may contain depressing, but realistic and useful, information for the comparer; that is, they may provide information useful in preparing for hard times ahead Understanding the personal and situational factors that allow people to benefit from exposure to such information will be an important avenue for future research.
Extensions to Aging and Preventive Heahh Behavior Two domains in which one's beliefs about and preparations for future out comes may be especially important are aging and health. Financial and life
style decisions related to aging and health, such as saving for retirement and
preventive health behavior, are interesting because they (a) involve the con sideration of possible or even certain decline in physical and mental health, and (b) usually involve a short-term sacrifice (e.g., save money now, skip dessert, undergo cancer screening) in order to achieve a long-term gain (e.g., a comfortable retirement, better cardiac health, early detection and treatment). In each of these areas, one must make decisions based on one's expectation about uncertain and potentially unpleasant future outcomes (e.g., Will I out live my partner?; Will I live long enough to need long-term care insurance?;
Will I have a heart attack?; Am I likely to get cancer?). As just noted, such decisions may also require the detailed consideration of some undesirable
future state, such as serious disability (long-term care insurance), relocation from one's home (planning for nursing home care or assisted living), and
spousal bereavement or one's own death (in the cases of retirement planning, life insurance, advanced medical directives, and living wills). Researchers are just beginning to understand the components of people's willingness and ability to think through these unpleasant possibilities, either for themselves or for loved ones, and to prepare for them (see, e.g., Ditto, Druley, Moore, Danks, & Smucker, 1996).
Despite the unpalatability of even thinking about such decisions, there is evidence of creative proactive coping, in which people plan to make the best
of some future situation (see, e.g., Kahana & Kahana's (1996) studies
of
planning for retirement housing). Proactive social comparison information may be an important determinant of such decisions and behavior. People may have been exposed to, or may seek out, many favorable and unfavorable examples and derive from these a better sense of the challenges that lie ahead and what to do, or what not to do, to meet them. For example, hearing about someone who failed to save for retirement and finished her life in poverty may
have a dramatic effect on a younger person's saving habits. In contrast, hear ing (a true story) about someone whose retirement savings allowed her to live
in an oceanfront apartment into her 90s may provide inspiration for a savings
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program. In both cases, comparers may wish to know what an older target did when she was young that led to her current outcomes. Exposure to information about other people's favorable and unfavorable outcomes may also have strong effects on beliefs about preventive health behavior and its likely consequences. Ample research eviden ce suggests that comparison instances may be more memorable and more influential than abstract statistics about health risks (see, e.g., Taylor & Thompson, 1982; Nisbett, Borgida, Crandall, & Reed, 1976; see Gibbons & Gerrard, 1997, for discussion of social comparison prototypes and their influence on health-risk behavior). Learning the (unfortunately true) story of a friend's mother who skipped her annual gynecological examination for 3 years and was then diag nosed with terminal ovarian cancer that could have been treated earlier may serve as a powerful incentive to have regular cancer screenings. So, too, may the positive instance of someone who had the annual examination and whose cancer was detected early and treated successfully. Research on positive and negative message framing may be useful in delineating the different condi tions under which each kind of comparison (the cautionary tale or the success story) is more motivating (Rothman & Salovey, 1997). As people live longer and as more information about the long-term effects of health behavior (e.g., exercise, diet, smoking, drinking) in young adulthood be comes available, we can expect people to be paying more attention to different kinds of outcomes in aging in an effort to understand which are amenable to personal control earlier in life and how to prepare for those that are not. To date, studies of social comparison and aging have focused on how older people main tain a sense of competence in the face of actual or expected declines in health and other areas of life (see, e.g., Brandtstadter & Greve, 1994; Heckhausen & Brim, 1997; Heidrich & Ryff, 1993; Ruble & Frey, 1991). A more proactive approach to this domain would involve assessing younger people's reactions to older targets who illustrate a variety of potential outcomes in aging, and any changes in current behavior or expectations about aging that result. If proactive upward and downward comparisons to older people prove to be influential in this way, then health-promotion, illness-prevention, and illness-detection campaigns may profitably use such comparisons. One inter esting practical and conceptual question that arises from this discussion is how and when such messages should be presented. For example, at what ages do messages about health and age-related topics, such as retirement savings, become relevant and impactful? Is there a latitude of acceptance (Sherif & Hovland, 1961) for such information,2 such that people will be more or less responsive at different ages to pleas for cancer screening or retirement plan ning? An intriguing possibility is that these latitudes of acceptance may de pend on the social comparison models to which one has been exposed, their 2We are grateful to Miles Hewstone for suggesting this idea.
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similarity to the self, and other factors, such as cultural views of aging. Com bining models of social comparison prototypes and similarity (Gibbons & Gerrard, 1997) with developmental lifespan approaches to comparison pro cesses (Aspinwall, 1997; Heckhausen & Schulz, 1995; Reis-Bergan et al., 2000; Ruble & Frey, 1991) may provide answers to such questions. CONCLUSION
Examining how people look to others' outcomes to see what the future holds for them, and what they might do about it, may reveal a multiplicity of uses of proactive comparisons for self-regulatory purposes. Proactive comparison ac tivity may serve a wide range of goals, including prediction, preparation, motivation, or inspiration, and efforts to understand relevant standards, as people strive to achieve or avoid particular outcomes. We have focused on the potential of upward comparisons to meet these needs, but proactive downward comparisons may prove to be important as well, as they may illustrate what not to do to achieve a particular goal or what may happen if one does not take action. Future work on these topics may increase our understanding of how people use information about other people to shape their life choices and outcomes. ACK NOWLEDGM ENTS
The authors wish to thank Hart Blanton, Rick Gibbons, two anonymous reviewers, and the editors for helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. Preparation of this work was supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation (SBR-9709677) to the first author. REF ERENCES Ahrens, A. H., & Alloy, L. B. (1997). Social comparison processes in depression. In B .P. Buunk & F. X. Gibbons (Eds), Health, Coping, and Well-Being: Perspectives from Social Comparison Theory (pp. 39-410). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Alicke, M. D., LoSchiavo, F. M., Zerbst, J., & Zhang, S. (1997). The person who outperforms me is a genius: Maintaining perceived competence in upward social comparison. Journal ofPersonality and Social Psychology, 73, 781-9. Arrowood, A. J., & Friend, R. (1969). Other factors determining the choice of a comparison other. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 5, 233-9. Aspinwall, L. G. (1997). Future-oriented aspects of social comparisons: A framework for studying health-related comparison activity. In B. P. Buunk & F. X. Gibbons (Eds), Health, Coping, and Well-being: Perspectives from Social Comparison Theory (pp. 125-65). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
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Chapter 10
Social and Cognitive Influences in Group Brainstorming: Predicting Production Gains and Losses Paul B. Paulus Karen Leggett Dugosb Mary T. Dzindof et Hamit Coskun Vicky L. Putman
University of Texas at Arlington, USA
ABSTRACT The creation of novel ideas often takes place in social contexts. Past research on brainstorming and other types of group tasks have shown that groups often perform poorly in comparison to conditions in which tasks are done individually. Past reviews have evaluated various factors that may be responsible for the production losses in group brainstorming (Diehl & Stroebe, 1987; Mullen, Johnson, & Salas, 1991; Stroebe & Dieh� 1994). We re-evaluate these factors in light ofsubsequent research in our laboratory and demonstrate conditions under which groups can perform quite well in comparison to similar groups of individ uals (nominal groups). We present a comprehensive model for predicting pro duction gains and losses. Research on cognitive and social factors that may enhance brainstorming in groups is summarized.
Correspondence regarding this chapter should be addressed to Paul B. Paulus, Department of Psychology, Box 19528, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX 76019, USA E mail: paulus@utaedu
European &viewofSociaJPsychology,Volume 12. Edited by Wolfgang Stroebe and Miles Hewstone.
© 2002 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
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Groups are often formed for the purpose of information exchange. Examples of such groups include committees, therapy groups, and collaborative learning groups. This type of exchange process allows individuals to tap a broad range of perspectives and knowledge domains to solve problems or develop innova tions. In many domains, it is impossible for one individual to acquire all the relevant knowledge. Consequently, much scientific and innovative work re quires group interaction (Dunbar, 1997; Paulus, 2000; West, 1997). With the increasing complexity of work tasks, many corporations are relying on collab orative work groups or teams to maintain productivity (Sutton & Hargadon, 1996). A similar trend is evident in scientific research (Dunbar, 1995). It is often presumed that such teams are associated with increased productivity in comparison to non-team-based structures (Cohen & Bailey, 1997; Dunbar, 1997; Macy & Izumi, 1993). This enthusiasm for the positive potential of group interaction draws addi tional support from the creative-problem-solving (CPS) approach (Parnes, 1992; Treffinger, Isaksen, & Dorval, 1994). In the CPS approach, problem solving groups progress through different stages, such as fact-finding, problem-finding, idea-finding, solution-finding, and acceptance-finding. Each stage requires the group to utilize the brainstorming technique that was advo cated by Osborn (1963). Brainstorming was designed to promote creative thinking in groups and involves the systematic application of four rules. Group members are instructed to generate as many ideas as possible without concern for quality. They are encouraged to say all ideas that come to mind and also to develop new ideas by building on the ideas shared in the group. To make this free exchange of ideas possible, group members are instructed to defer judgment of ideas and not to criticize ideas during the exchange process. Evaluation of ideas takes place in a later convergence phase, where the best ideas are selected The positive perspective on the effectiveness of the group creative process is shared by many practitioners (e.g., Ford, 1999), and has been promoted in a number of books (e.g., Bennis & Biederman, 1997; Kayser, 1995). Moreover, surveys of students and employees indicate that most people believe that groups will stimulate them to higher levels of creativity (Paulus, Dzindolet, Poletes, & Camacho, 1993; Paulus, Larey, & Ortega, 1995). Practice and "common-sense" thus strongly endorse the creative potential of group inter action However, there is at least one strong dissenting voice. Controlled laboratory research on group brainstorming indicates that individuals in inter active groups are typically much less productive than the same number of individuals in nominal groups (Diehl & Stroebe, 1987; Lamm & Trommsdorff, 1973; Mullen, Johnson, & Salas, 1991). A nominal group is a group of individ uals who brainstorm in isolation from one another, and their individual prod ucts are pooled to form a group product. The ideas generated by each individual are combined, and redundant ideas are removed The performance
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of interactive groups is then compared to the performance of nominal groups of equal size to determine the effects of the interactive process on the idea generation process. Despite the fact that the performance of interactive brain storming groups is inferior to the performance of nominal brainstorming groups, participants in nteractive i groups have more favorable perceptions of their performance than participants in nominal groups (Paulus et al., 1993; Stroebe, Diehl, & Abakoumkin, 1992). What do these contradictory findings about groups, teams, and perception of performance mean? Do the positive perspectives on teamwork and CPS simply reflect illusions about the effectiveness of group work? Are the nega tive findings of the laboratory research simply a function of the use of un trained participants in a short-term laboratory setting, doing a task in which they have little emotional investment? These findings may not generalize to the long-term work of group settings in which highly trained and motivated individuals seek to attain strongly valued goals. A satisfactory answer to each of these questions must await the completion of the necessary laboratory and field research. However, some tentative answers can be derived from the present research literature. In this review we will summarize research we have conducted on the group idea-generation process in the past 10 years. The research will be framed in terms of a model of social and cognitive processes. The model will be used to resolve the apparent contradiction between the results of laboratory research on group creativity and the applied perspective on the utility of group work.
PRODUCfiON LOSSES IN GROUP BRAINSTORMING Basic Findings Although Osborn (1957) proposed that group brainstorming was twice as effective as individual brainstorming, controlled laboratory studies soon demonstrated that this was not the case. Groups using brainstorming rules do perform better than those that do not (Parnes & Meadow, 1959), but Taylor, Berry, and Block (1958) demonstrated that group brainstorming was less productive than nominal group brainstorming (the summed per formance of individual performers, not including redundant ideas). This finding was confirmed by many subsequent studies (cf., Diehl & Stroebe, 1987; Lamm & Trommsdorf, 1973; Mullen et al., 1991). The production loss experienced by interactive groups increases as the size of the group in creases (Bouchard & Hare, 1970; Mullen eta/., 1991). For example, groups with four members are only half as productive as similar sized nominal groups (Diehl & Stroebe, 1987), but the performance of pairs of interac tive brainstormers is only slightly below that of nominal pairs (Mullen et al., 1991).
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'Theoretical Explanations
A major focus of research on group brainstorming has been uncovering the basis for the production loss in groups. Reviews by Lamm and Trommsdorff (1973), Mullen et al. (1991), Stroebe & Diehl (1994), and Paulus, Larey, and Dzindolet (2000) suggest that a number of social factors influence group brainstorming. Evaluation Apprehension It is emphasized in the brainstorming instructions that group members should not evaluate each others' contributions. Yet even though there may be no explicit evaluation in the group, there is likely to be much implicit evaluation. Most social contexts have a strongly evaluative component in which individ uals can compare performance with one another and with various standards, based on past experience (Cottrell, 1972; Sanna, 1992). These evaluative tend encies are not likely to be "shut off" by simple instructions. So, even individ uals in brainstorming groups where judgment is deferred may still be concerned with the evaluative perceptions of other group members (Paulus & Murdoch, 1971). Several studies have examined whether variations in the evaluative context will influence the brainstorming performance. Diehl and Stroebe (1987) manipulated the extent to which brainstorming performance could be evaluated later by external judges. The potential of external evalua tion reduced performance when participants were individually accountable, but it did so for both groups and individuals. Similarly, research on electronic brainstorming, in which individuals share ideas by means of a computerized system, has found that groups in which individuals cannot be identified with their performance (anonymous conditions) tend to perform better than groups in which ideas can be linked to specific individuals (Cooper, Gallupe, Pollard, & Cadsby, 1998). It is evident from this research that individuals are sensitive to the evaluative cues in their context and that these can inhibit the idea-generation process. However, it is not clear that this factor is responsible for the production loss in brainstorming groups. It is difficult to completely eliminate from a face-to-face interactive setting in order to demonstrate that such an elimination will over come the production-loss effect. An alternative strategy is to select individuals based on their sensitivity to evaluation in a group context. Some individuals appear to be much less sensitive to such cues (low interaction anxiety) than others (high interaction anxiety) (Leary & Kowalski, 1993). When brainstorm ing groups are composed of low-interaction-anxious individuals, the typical production loss is much reduced (Camacho & Paulus, 1995). Therefore, it appears that concern about evaluation of one's ideas in a group context is one factor that may inhibit the productivity of brainstorming groups.
303
SOCIAL AND COGNITIVE INFLUENCES
Motivation Losses One problem that can occur when groups collaborate on a task is a loss of task motivation (Shepperd,
1993).
One type of motivation loss, sometimes called
''social loafing" (Latane, Williams & Harkins,
1979), occurs whenever group
members are not individually identifiable or accountable for their perfor mance (Karau & Williams,
Shepperd,
1993;
1993).
Essentially, social loafing
involves similar dynamics to evaluation apprehension, since the loafing manipulations reduce evaluation apprehension (Harkins,
1987; Paulus, 1983).
There is some evidence for the role of social loafing in group brainstorming performance. Diehl and Stroebe
(1987)
varied, by means of instruction,
whether solitary performers and group performers expected individual eval uations or group (collective) evaluations. Collective evaluation instructions reduced performance for both the individual and group brainstormers. Paulus
et al. (1993) compared
brainstorming groups that had one common micro
phone with ones that had individual microphones. Only with a common mi crophone was a significant production loss found. However, Paulus and his
colleagues (Camacho & Paulus,
1995;
Paulus & Dzindolet,
1993)
have also
observed large production losses for groups in which each member had a separate microphone. Thus, even though identifiability appears to influence brainstorming performance, it cannot account by itself for the productivity loss in group brainstorming. The magnitude of the social loafing effect is also
rather small relative to the production loss in brainstorming groups (Karau &
Williams,
1993; Mullen et al. 1991; Price, 1993).
Production Blocking One obvious problem in brainstorming groups is that individuals have to take turns in presenting their ideas. Nominal group members have the allotted time entirely to themselves, but group members need to share the allotted time with others. The problems associated with this feature of group brain
storming have been termed "production blocking" (Diehl & Stroebe,
Lamm & Trommsdorff,
1973). In
1987;
addition to limitations on task time, group
brainstorming may actively interfere with the ability to generate ideas. It may
be difficult to maintain one's train of thought or remember ideas generated while others are talking. One may also self-<:ensor ideas that seem similar to those of others. Diehl and Stroebe a series
of
(1987, 1991) evaluated the role of some ofthe.seissuesin
experiments. In one type of experiment, a blocking manipulation
was introduced, in which individual performers brainstormed in separate rooms. They were seated in front of a panel of lights that were designed to represent which members of the group were talking. Individuals were in stnx:ted to generate ideas only when lights indicated that others were not
304
PAUL B. PAULUS ET AL.
talking. In this situation, blocking was introduced because only one group member could speak at a time. This procedure produced performance similar to that of a group condition. Hearing the ideas generated by others in addition to the light procedure did not lead to a further reduction in performance. These results suggest that not being able to talk while others are talking is an important factor in the productivity loss in group brainstorming. The fact that type of group condition accounts for considerably more variance than manip ulations of evaluation apprehension and identifiability led Diehl and Stroebe (1987, 1991) to conclude that blocking is the main factor responsible for production loss in groups. Some research has used computer-based idea exchange to overcome the effects of production blocking in the sharing process (e.g., Gallupe, Bas tianutti, & Cooper, 1991). With this technology, participants do not have to coordinate their idea generation with other group members, since they can enter ideas into a common shared file at any time. The ideas generated by the group are typically available on the top half of the computer screen. Small groups using this technology perform better than verbal brainstorming groups and about the same as electronic brainstormers who perform the task alone. When various procedures are used to introduce blocking into computer brain storming (such as delays after idea generation, and tum-taking), this type of brainstorming is no longer more effective than verbal brainstorming (Gallupe, Cooper, Grise, & Bastianutti, 1994). SOCIAL COMPARISON PROCESSES IN GROUP B RAINSTORMING
It is clear from the literature on group brainstorming and on group perfor mance in general that evaluation apprehension, motivation losses, and pro duction blocking play a significant role in limiting the ability of groups to reach their performance potential. However, group interaction also provides an opportunity for individuals to make social comparisons of their perfor mance with those of the other group members. These types of comparisons could play a role in increasing the production losses in groups, or could motivate groups to overcome the inhibiting factors. We will summarize the basic elements of a social comparison perspective for group brainstorming and related empirical support. Social comparison theory is concerned primarily with selection of com parison persons to evaluate our opinions, abilities, and emotions (Suls & Miller, 1977). In the absence of objective indicators, people are presumed to be motivated to use comparison others as reference points in self-evaluations (Festinger, 1954). Although there is a general tendency to compare ourselves to others who are similar in attributes (Goethals & Darley, 1987), with regard
305
SOCIAL AND COGNITIVE INFLUENCES
to ability there is a tendency to select those with slightly higher abilities for
1954). Comparisons may be motivated by motives for 1989) or motives for self enhancement (downward comparisons; Wills, 1991).
comparison (Festinger,
self-improvement (upward comparisons; Wood,
Social comparison theory can be used to make some interesting predictions
about task performance in groups (Goethals
&
Darley,
1987). Whenever
individuals perform in a group, the experience provides an opportunity for
behavioral matching and social comparison (Bandura, Goethals
&
Darley,
1989; Festinger, 1954; 1987). The type of ''forced comparison" that occurs in
groups may lead to an increased level of uniformity in groups if individuals adjust their performance to be in line with some modal level (Goethals Darley,
&
1987). Some individuals may discover that they are performing better
than other members of the group and other individuals may discover that they are performing worse. The comparison process may lead to a tendency of individuals in the group to converge in their performance levels (e.g., desire for uniformity; Festinger,
1950). The convergence process may be motivated
in part by a desire to limit within intragroup competition or conflict and avoid embarrassment or threats to self-esteem that occur when there are large
discrepancies in performance (Goethals
&
Darley,
1987). The convergence
process may also be the result of mutual imitation or matching processes (Miller & Dollard,
1941).
The convergence effect bas been observed in several studies. Participants in interactive dyads or groups of four tend to be more similar in their rate of idea
& Paulus, 1995; & Dzindolet, 1993). Electronic brainstorming groups show a tendency
generation than members of nominal groups (Camacho Paulus
to converge to the group mean when they are provided a continuous public display of the ideas generated by the group members (Roy, Gauvin, ayem,
& Lim
1996). The resulting group performance level on one brainstorming
task may have normative properties and influence performance on a subse quent different brainstorming task. For example, performance in an initial session predicted performance in a subsequent session (using a different
topic) more accurately for interacting groups than for nominal groups (Paulus
&
Dzindolet,
1993). Furthermore, the fact that performance in interactive
groups declines more slowly than it does in nominal groups is consistent with a perspective that normative factors may help maintain performance levels in groups (Camacho, 1991; Coskun, Paulus, Brown, & Sherwood, 2000; Paulus & Dzindolet, 1993; Oxley, Dzindolet,
& Paulus, 1996).
The social comparison process rnay also play a role in the illusion of
productivity (Paulus
et al., 1993). As group
members compare each others'
performance, many may discover that their performance level is close to, or better than, that of others. Therefore, they may be fairly satisfied with their performance. Solitary performers have no such point of reference or comparison and may be somewhat unsure about the adequacy of their
306
PAUL B. PAULUS ET A L .
performance level, partly because there are likely to be many pauses during their session as they try to think of new ideas. Downward Social Comparison
Yet how can a social comparison perspective explain production losses in groups? Paulus and Dzindolet (1993) presume that brainstorming groups may foster a tendency toward downward comparison. Since groups start their session by performing at a relatively low level, there should be a tendency for high performers to feel like "deviants". As a result they may move their performance in the direction of the low group standard. They may be partly motivated by a desire to not look foolish or "play the sucker" by taking the task more seriously than other group members (Kerr, 1983). Downward com parison processes have also been demonstrated in achievement situations. In these contexts individuals may be motivated to compare downward in order to enhance their self-esteem. However, continued comparisons of this type may lower one's performance standards or goals (Gibbons & Gerrard, 1991; Gibbons, Blanton, Gerrard, Buunk & Eggleston, 2000; Larey & Paulus, 1995). Several studies have provided evidence for downward comparison in group brainstorming. Paulus and Dzindolet (1993) found that the initial perfor mance level of the two lowest performing members predicted the perfor mance of a group of four toward the end of their session, but the initial performance level of the two highest performing members did not (Study 3). Camacho and Paulus (1995) investigated brainstorming productivity in groups in which members' levels of interaction anxiety varied (Leary & Kowalski, 1993), and found that groups composed of all high-anxious individuals per formed significantly more poorly than groups composed of all low-anxious individuals (see Table 10. 1 ). Mixed groups which contained two high- and two low-anxious individuals performed close to the level of the high-anxious groups, suggesting that the low-anxious individuals matched their perfor mance to that of the low-performing high-anxious individuals. The downward comparison effect is also seen in goal setting in groups. Brainstorming groups set much lower goals for the number of ideas they will generate per individual than do individual brainstormers (Larey & Paulus, 1995). Table 10.1
Number of ideas in a brainstorming task as a function of group composition
M SD
Low anxious
High anxious
Mixed
85.5 14.5
40.8 13.0
53.2 15.9
Adapted from Camacho & Paulus, 1995.
SOCIAL AND COGNITIVE INFLUENCES
?IJ7
Upward Social Comparison Even though downward oomparison processes may play a role in the production losses in group brainstorming. social oomparison processes may also motivate enhanced group performance. Opportunities for explicit and public oompuison with other group members may induce a sense of oompetition (Mulvey & Rib hens, 1999). This may be one reason why pairs of brainstormers perform as well as nominal pairs (Diehl & Stroebe, 1987; Paulus et al., 1993� In pairs it is fairly easy for individuals to keep track of their relative performance levels. Further more, several studies using oomputer brainstorming have found that providing explicit feedback about performance of the group during performance period enhances performance (Paulus, Larey, Putman, Leggett, & Roland, 1996; Roy et al., 1996; Shepherd, Briggs, Reinig, Yeo, & Nunamaker, 1995-1996). Upwardcomparison processes may occur in group brainstorming when the context elicits concerns for self-improvement or self-esteem. If one or two highly motivated group members maintain a high level of performance for an extended period of time, they may motivate the other group members to attain a similar high level of performance. Alternatively, if individual per formers or group members are exposed to high external standards, they may strive to reach such standards. Upward comparison processes are ma>t likely to occur when there is a sense of competition and/or individuals strongly value their task (Gibbons et al., 2000; Shepperd, 1993). Exposure to external stand ards or competing performers or groups may induce a sense of competition and the tendency toward matching one's performance in an upward direction A number of studies have provided support for upward comparison in group performance. For example, Seta (1982) found that individuals in a co action task performed better when they were paired with a partner who was slightly better than when they were paired with a partner who performed at the same or a lower level. Paulus et al. (1993) found conceptually similar results using a dyadic brainstorming procedure, in which a pair of individuals wrote ideas on slips of paper in two sessions. Some individuals were provided with feedback about the performance of their partner, while other individuals were not. This information was provided in two different ways: (a) the experi menter announced at the end of the first session how many ideas each mem ber of the dyad had generated (rate information or no rate information); and/ or (b) individuals placed their ideas in a common bin and could read the ideas that their partner had generated (shared or not shared). Thus, all dyad mem bers, with the exception of those in the no rate information/not shared condi tions, had information by which they could assess their performance relative to their partner's performance. In conditions in which performance informa tion was available, members of pairs who discovered that they were doing worse than their partner showed an increased level of performance in a second session, in comparison to individuals who discovered that they were
308
PAUL B. PAULUS ET AL.
doing better than their partner or who did not receive any feedback. Coskun (2000) found similar results using intergroup comparisons. Individuals and groups were given feedback after one performance session that they had performed better or worse than some comparison individual or group. The individuals and groups who received negative feedback showed enhanced performance in the second session, compared to the positive feedback and no feedback conditions. Paulus and Dzindolet (1993) found that providing groups or individuals with a high comparison standard at the beginning of the brainstorming session also had a strong positive effect on performance. In the experiment, some groups were instructed, prior to their brainstorming ses sion, that typical groups tend to generate about 100 ideas in a 25-minute session while other groups were not. The rate of 100 ideas in 25 minutes is actually 2.5 times greater than the rate usually achieved by brainstorming groups and represents a high comparison standard. The results indicated that groups generated more ideas when they received social comparison informa tion than when they did not receive social comparison information (see Table 10.2). In another context, Blanton, Buunk, Gibbons, and Kuyper (1999 ) found that the academic performance of Dutch school children tended to improve if they compared their examination grades with high-performing students. Table 10.2
task as a information
M SD
Number of ideas in a brainstorming function of social comparison No information
Information
39.9 14.1
62.4 25.9
Adapted from Paulus et al., 1993.
Evidence is thus clear that, with brainstorming and other tasks, feedback that someone else has performed better seems to motivate individuals to higher levels of performance. Of course, if there is a very large discrepancy in performance, individuals may not use the other person as a relevant com parison person, and thus demonstrate little change in performance (Seta, 1982). Interestingly, performing better than others is not associated with sub sequent increased levels of performance. This overall pattern of results is consistent with the upward comparison bias presumed to exist for ability comparisons (Festinger, 1954; Gibbons et a/., 2000) . Summary A social comparison/matching perspective suggests a variety of possible outcomes for group interaction-convergence, downward matching, and up-
SOCIAL AND COGNITIVE INFLUENCES
309
ward matching. Evidence exists for each of these three patterns, but further research is required to delineate clearly the conditions under which they will occur. Our discussion suggests some likely possibilities. Convergence to some model level of performance should be typical for all groups, given the pressures for uniformity and conformity that may exist in such groups. Al though we have observed such effects in short-term laboratory groups, they would seem even more likely for long-term work or decision-making groups that are quite cohesive (Janis, 1 982; Roethlisberger & Dickson, 1 939; Rom metveit, 1 955). The normative pressures may go in an upward or downward direction, depending on the social context. Under competitive conditions, when individuals are individually accountable, when self-improvement mo tives are dominant, upward matching processes may dominate (Gibbons et al., 2000). When there is little personal or group incentive, individual contri butions are dispensable, and efforts are costly (Shepperd, 1 993), or self enhancement motives are dominant (concern for evaluation, avoidance of embarrassment or playing the sucker), a downward matching process may be dominant. Upward Social Comparison versus Blocking
One interesting implication of a social comparison perspective is that the presence of highly productive members in a group could motivate increased performance by the other group members if the downward comparison pro cess could be counteracted or minimized. Such an increase in performance, associated with high activity levels of co-workers, would be in contrast to predictions from a blocking perspective. Highly productive group members should block opportunities for brainstorming of their co-workers. We have conducted a series of studies to assess these contrasting predictions. In these studies we manipulated the activity level of one pair of participants and assessed the influence on the performance level of the other two participants (Dzindolet, 1992; Roland, 1 994). Several studies using confederates who either performed at a very low level or not at all demonstrated no effects on the other two group members. The two naive participants seemed to ignore the inactive pair and function essen tially as a dyad. In another study, one pair was given prior experience on the brainstorming task for 20 minutes. They then joined a pair of inexperienced participants to brainstorm for another 20 minutes. In one condition the expe rienced pair was allowed to use any ideas generated in the prior session and in another condition they were not. Participants who generated a high number of ideas in the first session also generated more new ideas in the second session. Moreover, inexperienced pairs who were matched with productive experienced pairs in the second session had higher performance levels. This suggests a positive social influence effect of the productive pairs. The second
310
PAUL B. PAULUS ET A L.
session data were also coded in terms of how much of the time inexperienced pairs were blocked by the idea generation of the experienced pair, and how many ideas were generated by the experienced pairs. It was found that inex perienced pairs exposed to high-performing experienced pairs had a signifi cantly higher rate of performance. However, inexperienced partners who received a high amount of blocking did not differ in performance from those who received a low amount of blocking. The results of this research provide some additional support for the role of social comparison factors. However, the studies did not attain their goal of providing an unambiguous test of the relative importance of social com parison and blocking factors. It is likely that both factors play a role in group brainstorming and their effects may be counteracting one another. Product ive partners may increase motivation to perform, but their high rates of idea generation may limit opportunities for others to contribute. This was dem onstrated in a study in which students typed ideas on a computer (Paulus et al., 1996). In this study, group members either verbalized or did not verbal ize their ideas as they typed them. Additionally, group members were either provided or not provided with performance feedback about the other group members. In the performance feedback conditions, individuals announced to the group how many ideas they generated every 5 minutes. The results indicated that performance feedback increased performance compared to no feedback, but verbalization inhibited performance relative to the no verbalization condition (see Table 10.3). This study demonstrated both the potential positive effects of social comparison and the interfering effects of oral idea sharing. The key to overcoming the negative effects of idea sharing may be for productive partners to make their contributions in an efficient manner, so as to leave sufficient time/opportunities for others to make their contribution (Brown & Paulus, 1996). For example, Dzindolet (1992) found that the most productive inexperienced pairs were those that were matched with highly productive experienced pairs, who took very little time to ex press their ideas. Table 10.3
Number of ideas in a brainstorming task as a function of performance feedback and verbalization Performance feedback
No performance feedback
Verbalization
M SD
73.60 19.22
65.29 12.49
No verbalization
M SD
102.40 43.25
75.77 19.04
Adapted from Paulus et al 1996. .•
311
SOCIAL AND COGNITIVE lNFLUENCES
A SOCIAUCOGNITIVE INFLUENCE MODEL OF PERFORMANCE OF GROUP BRAINSTORMING The data from our laboratory and our analyses of the literature have led us to propose a social and cognitive influence model of group brainstorming that can account for variations in the level of performance of brainstorming groups (Paulus,
2000) . This model integrates the various processes we have discussed
and incorporates the potential for cognitive stimulation in groups (Figure
10.1 ).
It is proposed that one set of conditions will produce the typical produc
tion Joss observed in group brainstorming. Under other conditions, the pro duction Joss may be significantly reduced and production gains may even be observed. We will briefty summarize the factors involved in each of these two different scenarios.
Negative social tn•luences Evaluation apprehension Anonymity Blocking '-------'
Intervening J)rocesaes
"" �
Positive social Influences
Social facilitation Accountability Competition '------'
�
Positive cognitive Influences Attention Associations Memory
Diversity
/
Cawergence Low motivation Downward compan·son Ulusion
r------.
Convergence High motivaton Upward comparison Social stimulation Cognitive stimulation
.___
Outcome
�
Low performance
/
High performance High norms
Low norms
__,
_
lncubatiion
Figure 10.1
A social
and cognitive influence model of
performance
in group
brainstorming When group members are apprehensive (socially anxious or concerned about their self-presentation), when they feel their efforts are not identifiable, and when the group exchange process involves much blocking, groups may exhibit a rather low level of productivity. Although several studies have tried to assess the relative importance of these three factors, we feel that it is
premature to suggest a rank order of importance at this time. All three of
312
PAUL B. PAULUS ET AL.
these have been shown to be influential in different studies and their impact may depend on the nature of the manipulation, context, and participants (e.g., Larey & Paulus, 1999). Social comparison processes may lead to a con vergence in the rate of idea generation among participants and to the form ation of group performance norms. Because of the inhibitory effects of motivation losses, evaluation apprehension, and production blocking, groups may converge to rather low levels or norms. This tendency to a low rate of performance may be enhanced by a downward comparison process and illu sions that the group is actually doing quite well (Paulus et a/., 1993). The resulting low performance norms may be maintained in subsequent group sessions (Paulus & Dzindolet, 1993). The social convergence processes may also lead groups to generate ideas in a limited set of conceptual categories, rather than considering a broad range of categories (Lamm & Trommsdorff, 1973; Larey & Paulus, 1999). Performance in brainstorming groups can be enhanced by various social and cognitive influences. Group interaction can enhance motivation to per form at high levels because of social facilitation (heightened arousal; Zajonc, 1 980), by increasing accountability, inducing a sense of competition, and by producing a tendency toward upward comparison. Upward comparison is likely when individuals are individually accountable and there is some incen tive to perform as well as, or better than, others (Shepperd, 1993). Cognitive stimulation should result from exposure to novel ideas or category labels that can prime additional ideas or categories (Brown, Tumeo, Larey, & Paulus, 1998). Cognitive stimulation requires some degree of attention to, and mem ory for, the shared ideas. Some degree of diversity in idea pools of the group members is likely to facilitate generation of novel combinations (Diehl, 1992). Benefits of group cognitive stimulation may be most evident after some period of solitary reflection or incubation. The social and cognitive influence model suggests a number of ways in which production losses can be reduced and production gains can be demonstrated. We will review evidence for such outcomes. REDUCING PRODUCfiON LOSSES
The social/cognitive influence model suggests that group performance can be improved by counteracting the negative forces that occur during group inter action. Making individuals accountable (Shepperd, 1993), increasing the value of task performance (Karau & Williams, 1993), reducing evaluation ap prehension (Camacho & Paulus, 1995; Cooper et a/., 1998), and limiting pro duction blocking (Diehl & Stroebe, 1991) are all useful strategies to increase performance in brainstorming groups. Encouraging the development of high group norms, providing high performance standards or highly productive and
313
SOCIAL AND COGNITIVE INFLUENCES
efficient role models, and providing information about relative performance
in a competitive setting are additional strategies for encouraging high levels of
performance in groups (Coskun,
1993; Paulus et al., 1996).
2000; Dzindolet, 1992; Paulus & Dzindolet,
As discussed below, the use
of facilitators in verbal
interacting groups and computer-based sharing of ideas are two procedures that appear to be quite effective in eliminating the production loss in groups.
Faciitators One difference between laboratory brainstorming groups and brainstorming groups in real world settings is the use of facilitators in the latter case (Clawson, Bostrom, & Anson,
1993;
Osborn,
1963).
Facilitators can enforce
brainstorming rules, encourage continued idea generation during periods of inactivity, encourage participation by all group members, suggest new dir ections, and set goals for the group. A facilitator can manage a group in such a way as to minimize evaluation apprehension, reduce free riding or loafing, limit unnecessary blocking (task-irrelevant behavior), and encourage upward comparison processes.
Several studies have demonstrated that the use of such facilitators can
enhance the performance of brainstorming groups (Offner, Kramer, & Win ter,
1996; Oxley et al., 1996). For example, Oxley et al. (1996)
trained facilita
tors to encourage groups to follow Osborn's rules, to keep them focused on
the task, to stop unnecessary justifications or elaborations, to encourage con tributions by all group members, and to reintroduce topics that had not been fully discussed. Facilitators who had extensive training in these procedures were able to induce their groups to perform at about the same level as nomi nal groups in a
20 minute session. Moreover, while the nominal groups and
the untrained groups showed the typical decline in performance over time, the highly trained facilitator group did not.
Electronic Brainstorming An alternative approach to enhancing group brainstorming is to use tech niques that avoid the problems of verbal sharing
of
ideas in groups. A few
studies have found that exchange of written ideas may lead to better perfor mance than oral brainstorming (Madsen & Finger,
Delbecq,
1974).
1978;
Van de Ven &
More recently, there has been much interest in the use
of
computers for brainstorming and decision-making (e.g., Nunamaker, Briggs,
& Mittleman, 1995). Electronic brainstorming is typically part of a group decision support system, in which groups of varying sizes generate ideas on
computers. These computers are located in a large room and are connected to a central computer that collects the ideas generated and controls their display. Ideas can be displayed on a large screen at the front of the room or on part of
314
PAUL B. PAULUS ET AL.
the screen on the individual computers. Individuals usually are not identified by their contributions. Typically, participants can view subsets of ideas gener ated by other group members on part of the screen at any time by using a keystroke. At the end of the session, the ideas are projected on a large screen, and individuals are asked to rate them. The group may eventually vote on the most preferred ideas. A facilitator guides both the idea-generation and the decision processes (Jessup & Valacich, 1993; Nunamaker eta/., 1995). Electronic brainstorming was designed as a convenient alternative to group brainstorming that avoided the problems encountered in the typical group procedures. It avoids production blocking because it uses parallel rather than sequential communication (Valacich, Dennis, & Connolly, 1994); can limit evaluation apprehension by providing participant anonymity (Cooper et al., 1998); may reduce the tendency to loaf by making everyone feel they have something to contribute (each bas a separate computer); and can stimulate social competition by providing information about ideas being generated by others (Paulus et al., 1996). Studies comparing electronic brainstorming to group brainstorming have indeed demonstrated that electronic brainstorming yields higher levels of idea generation (Gallupe et al., 1991). However, the rate of idea generation of small electronic brainstorming groups (eight or less) is not higher than that of solitary electronic brainstormers or of those brain storming alone by writing or speaking into a microphone (Gallupe et al., 1991; Pinsonneault, Barki, Gallupe, & Hoppen, 1999). In fact, some comparisons suggest that solitary oral brainstorming leads to more ideas than electronic brainstorming (cf, Paulus et al., 1995). For group sizes of nine or more. elec tronic brainstorming groups can outperform similar size groups of solitary brainstormers (Dennis & Valacich, 1993; Valacich et al., 1994; Valacich, Wheeler, Mennecke, & Wachter, 1995). However, there is still some dispute about the reliability of this effect (e.g., Pinsonneault et al., 1999). Group Size and Eledronic Brainstorming The investigators of the group size effect in electronic brainstorming have been interested in the processes that underlie thiseffect. One interpretation is that exposure to ideas by others eliminates redundant responses (Valacich et al., 1994). In larger groups, the pressure to generate unique responses is particularly acute, since one is exposed to a large number of ideas. Therefore, ideas generated under such conditions are more likely to be unique. Another possibility is that exposure to ideas from large groups increases the chances of cognitive stimulation of unique ideas. However, Connolly, Routhieaux, and Schneider (1993) found no evidence for the stimulating impact of unique or rare ideas. A third possibility is that performing in the presence of other co workers in large groups increases feelings of competition or rivalry (Martens & Landers, 1972). This may increase motivation to generate ideas. Other
315
SOCIAL AND COGNITIVE INFLUENCES
studies indicate that increasing the number of individuals working together
1972). Mullen et al. (1991) in their meta-analytic review, found evidence that nominal groups that
will increase performance on a simple task (Wankel,
perform together in the same room generate more ideas than those who perform in separate rooms. Connolly et al. (1993) found some indication that individual electronic brainstormers generate more ideas (per person) in ses sions with six to ten participants in the room than in sessions with two to five participants. A final possibility is that the exposure to information about the performance of others leads to a desire to match and even exceed the others' performances. Although performers in electronic brainstorming typically do not know how many ideas others are generating, they do discover that there are many ideas being generated. This may motivate them to contribute their share of ideas. Several studies suggest that this informational component may be the critical factor, since they found that information about performance of co-workers increases brainstorming performance (Paulus
al., 1996;
Shepherd et al.,
et al., 1996; Roy et
1995-1996).
PRODUCfiON GAINS IN BRAINSTORMING GROUPS There is now evidence that, with the use
of facilitators or computers, group
brainstorming can be as effective as solitary brainstorming. This is an import
ant set of findings, since there are a number of scholars who have argued that there are benefits to the group sharing process beyond the mere number of ideas generated (Ford, Hargadon,
1996).
1999;
Kramer, Kuo,
&
Dailey,
1997;
Sutton
&
Group brainstorming can increase cohesion, morale, or
motivation, and give one a sense of having contributed to subsequent decisions. Although research cited in this chapter has provided some evidence that group brainstorming can equal nominal brainstorming, none
of this research
has indicated that group brainstorming can be more beneficial than solitary brainstorming in terms of ideas generated Osborn (1963) made claims for the latter effect on the basis of the presumed associational and social stimulation that would be produced by an exchange of a large number of ideas. The potential for production gains in group brainstorming would seem to derive most clearly from the cognitive stimulation that could occur by the exchange of ideas. We will briefly detail the cognitive component of our social/cognitive influence model (Figure
10.1) and then summarize some supporting evidence.
A Cognitive Basis for Production Gains It is presumed that hearing ideas from other group members will stimulate additional ideas or awareness of additional idea domains or categories. Most
316
PAUL B. PAULUS ET AL.
ideas generated in brainstorming sessions can be organized into categories. For example, brainstorming about ways to improve their university could lead students to consider categories of ideas such as classes, instruction, and stu dent life. Each category can then be further subdivided into subcategories (Larey & Paulus, 1999). This clustering of ideas may actually represent the associative structure or semantic network related to the issue (Collins & Loftus, 1975). There are several simple presumptions that seem basic to a cognitive model of group brainstorming. First, cognitive stimulation by idea exchange pre sumes that individuals attend carefully to the ideas and category information exchanged during the group session. This may be difficult when participants are attempting to generate their own ideas and listen to the ideas generated by others at the same time. Second, ideas from others should be most useful if they do not overlap precisely with ideas readily accessible to the participant. The most stimulating ideas should be those that remind individuals of catego ries of ideas or specific ideas/knowledge that they might not have considered on their own. Therefore, the stimulation value of other brainstormers is likely to depend on the number of ideas they generate, the uniqueness of those ideas, and the diversity of ideas or categories. Although there may be much potential stimulation as a result of idea ex change, the benefit of exposure may not be fully evident in a group brain storming session. In such a session, individuals are likely to be preoccupied with both generating their own ideas and the ongoing social interaction pro cesses. To derive full benefit from associations generated by the idea sharing process, it may be necessary to provide an opportunity for incubation (Csikszentmihalyi & Sawyer, 1995; Torrance, 1972). That is, it may take some time for individuals to process (consciously or unconsciously) the group induced stimulation. Providing a solitary brainstorming session after group brainstorming may be one means of tapping the potential cognitive stimu lation experienced in the group exchange process. In our current research program, we have been examining both the social and cognitive factors that may enable brainstorming groups to demonstrate production gains relative to nominal groups. Evidence for Production Gains in Brainstorming Groups
One of the aims of our studies was to determine whether one brainstormer could process the information provided by another brainstormer. So far there has been no evidence for such an effect. Diehl and Stroebe (1987) found no difference between those who heard others' ideas while they were brain storming and those who did not. Electronic brainstormers exposed to ideas from eight or fewer other brainstormers do not demonstrate any benefit from such exposure, compared to individual electronic brainstormers (e.g., Gallupe
317
SOCIAL AND COGNITIVE INFLUENCES
et al., 1991).
A factor responsible for these findings may be the degree of
attention paid to other brainstormers. As suggested earlier, when one is focus ing on generating one's own ideas, one may have either low motivation and/or limited cognitive resources for processing ideas generated by others. To over come a potential motivational deficit, we conducted several studies using an idea exposure paradigm (Dugosh, Paulus, Roland,
&
Yang,
2000).
In the
studies using this paradigm, individuals brainstormed in isolation and were presented with stimulus ideas on an audiotape. They received instructions to memorize the ideas that were presented on the tape, and participants brain stormed in two sessions. Participants were exposed to others' ideas in the first session, and the after-effects of such exposure were assessed in the second
session. In one experiment it was found that exposure to ideas from others increased idea generation in both sessions, relative to a control group that received no idea exposure (see Figure
10.2, Study 1).
The production gains
were more apparent when individuals received instructions to memorize the stimulus ideas than when they were not given such instructions. In a second
experiment, individuals were presented with either 30 or 60 stimulus ideas in
the first session. Additionally, half of the stimulus tapes contained added conversational material in addition to the ideas, while the other half of the stimulus tapes did not. The results indicated that exposure to 60 ideas led to greater facilitation
of idea generation than exposure to 30 ideas. Inclusion of
typical conversational material along with exposed ideas inhibited the idea generation process (see Figure
10.2, Study 2).
Although the tape exposure studies provide evidence consistent with a cognitive stimulation perspective
of
brainstorming, it remains to be seen
whether such benefits will be evident in a more realistic group idea-exchange process. This gap has been addressed in several studies. In one study we
examined whether instructions to memorize ideas would enhance the benefits of electronic brainstorming (Dugosh
et al., 2000).
In this study, individuals
brainstormed electronically in four-person interactive groups, in four-person nominal groups, or in four-person interactive groups that received instruc tions to memorize the ideas that were generated by the group. The results demonstrated that the inclusion of memory instructions in interactive groups led to enhanced performance relative to the performance of interactive (no memory) and nominal groups (see Figure
10.2, Study 3). This finding suggests
that previous findings demonstrating no differences between nominal and interactive electronic brainstorming groups (size eight or less; Connolly et al.,
1993) may be related to a lack of attention to the computer-generated ideas.
In another study we used' a brainwriting technique that has been cham
pioned by some practitioners (Greene,
1987;
Van Gundy,
1981). Two groups
of students wrote ideas on pieces of paper and exchanged them with three other students, while one group of students wrote their ideas in isolation and their contributions were pooled to form four-person nominal groups (Paulus
PAUL 8. PAULUS ET AL.
318
Study 1 •
:
20
� 15
�
f :I :z
8 Session 1
10
c session2
5 0 Mel1'10ry
No memory
Control
Study 2
D Session 1 C S ession 2
Ide••
ldeu +
ldeu
30
eo
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• Session 1
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osession 2
::s
z
0 Nominal
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fipre tt.z Number or ideas in a series or studies. Adapted (rom Dugosh et ol
.•
2000
319
SOCIAL AND COGNITIVE INFLUENCES
&
Yang, 2000). One group of students in the exchange conditions was in
structed to memorize the ideas (memory exchange group), while the other
group was not (regular exchange group). Ideas generated during the exchange process and in a subsequent session were analyzed, and the results are graph
ically displayed in Figure 10.3. Exchange of written ideas enhanced perfor
mance in both sessions relative to the control group for the regular exchange
condition. However, contrary to our expectau'ons, performance in the mem·
ory exchange condition was better than the control condition only in the second session. Apparently, participants are quite attentive to the ideas of others with a writing procedure. Memorization instructions do not further enhance the level of attention with this procedure and might have actually slowed down the exchange of the pieces of paper in the first session.
100
or-------.
80 m Reg .. llar exchange
$)
• Memory exchange 1
40
m Nominal
20
I
0 Session 1
Session 2
Session
Figure 10.3 Number of ideas in a brainwriting context. Adapted from Paulus & Yang, 2000 The studies presented indicate that in various brainstorming paradigms, individuals can benefit from exposure to ideas from others. Can such a benefit overcome the negative factors that often inhibit verbal group brainstmming? We do not have an answer to that question yet, but it seems feasible. In particular, if some of the techniques we have discussed are used to limit the negative factors in conventional group brainstorming, the potential cognitive benefits of idea sharing may become evident. Our cognitive/social influence model and prior research suggest that such production gains in conventional group brainstorming are most likely to occur under certain conditions. First, the group process should be efficient, so that the interaction maximizes the exchange of ideas and minimizes the distracting effects of task-irrelevant discussions. This could be accomplished by the use of a trained facilitator,
training groups in efficient brainstorming, or using computer- or writing-based interaction. Second, members should be encouraged to be attentive to the ideas of other group members while they are sharing ideas. The use of
320
PAUL B. PAULUS ET AL.
memory instructions, as in our prior studies or some other techniques, might facilitate this process. Groups consisting of individuals with diverse experi ences or knowledge bases are most likely to allow groups to develop a wide range of ideas by linking ideas from these diverse sources (Diehl, 1992). Finally, group members may need some time to process the shared ideas and to connect them to their various knowledge bases. This type of incubation effect has been demonstrated in our studies by using an individual brain storming session after an exposure or exchange session (Dugosh et a/., 2000; Paulus & Yang, 2000).
IMPLICATIONS AND FUfURE DIRECTIONS
Our summary and analysis of the brainstorming literature suggest that inter active brainstorming can be both beneficial and harmful. Which of these outcomes occurs depends on a range of variables that influence the social and cognitive processes in groups. Therefore, the "optimistic" practitioners and the "pessimistic" groups researchers may both be right. Groups left to their own devices are not likely to be very productive, particularly if they are involved in a verbal exchange of ideas. When group interaction is structured so as to limit the inhibitory processes and facilitate the social and cognitive stimulation potential, groups can achieve high levels of idea generation and be effective means of increasing innovation and productivity in teams and organ izations. We agree with Osborn (1963), that a mixture of individual and group brainstorming will be optimal. The same principle probably applies to other performance domains, such as intellectual teamwork (e.g., Csikszentmihalyi & Sawyer, 1995; Dunbar, 1997). Intellectual progress and creativity requires both the exchange of information and ideas among knowledgeable and di verse collaborators and personal reflection and analysis of the various im plications of the shared information. Although there is a tendency to attribute "lone genius" characteristics to many who have achieved great eminence, a careful analysis of their lives often reveals the important role of social factors in the development of the many creative contributions of eminent scholars and artists (Simonton, 1999). Although we have proposed a model of the social and cognitive factors that contribute to group creativity, there is still much research required to evaluate the relative importance of various components of this model. Moreover, much of our work has been restricted to laboratory studies of college students. Theory-based studies with populations in various work, educational, and therapeutic contexts are needed to assess the generality of our findings and theoretical notions (Ford, 1999; Paulus, 2001 ; Paulus & Paulus, 1997). If the laboratory research on idea generation does generalize to these other con texts, investigators should find that rather minor modifications in the group
SOCIAL AND COGNITIVE INFLUENCES
321
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Author Index
Page numbers in italic refer to tables or figures. Aarts, H., 13, 18, 27, 28 Abakoumkin, G., 301 Abele, A. E., 129 Abelson, R. P., 156, 192, 202-3, 206-7, 212, 221, 222, 225 Abraham, C., 2, 4, 16, 22, 23, 206 Adler, N. E., 3 Ager, J., 216 Agnew, C. R., 74, 240, 260 Ahn, W. K., 224 Ahrens, A. H., 276 Aiken, L. S., 54 Ainslie, G., 39-40, 53 Ainsworth, M. D., 241 Ajzen, 1., 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 11, 12, 17, 19, 20, 21, 40, 46, 50, 53, 54, 60, 73, 82 Akst, L. M., 75, 76 Alicke, M. D., 278, 285 Allen, M., 214 Alloy, L. B., 276 Allport, G. W., 37, 41 Amabile, T. M., 244 Anderson, C. A., 127, 170, 173 Anderson, L. R., 74 Anderson, N., 178 Anderson, N. B., 178 Anderson, N. H., 84 Anderson, P. A., 217 Anson, R., 313 Antaki, C., 217 Argyle, M., 253
Arkin, R., 238 Arkin, R. M., 242 Armitage, C. J., 3, 4, 11, 12, 18, 49, 51, 52, 54, 55, 58-9, 60-1, 63 Armor, D. A., 273 Armstrong, T. L., 79, 85 Arndt, J . , 238 Aron, A., 240, 257 Aron, E. N., 240, 257 Aronson, J., 176 Arriaga, X. B., 240 Arrowood, A. J., 277 Asch, S. E., 125, 151 Aspinwall, L. G., 268, 269, 271, 273, 275, 276, 278, 279, 285-8, 289, 290, 293 Atkinson, J. W., 150 Axelrod, R., 257 Baggett, W. B., 218 Bagozzi, R. P., 3, 17, 18, 20, 21, 80 Bailey, D. E., 300 Bainbridge, J., 61 Baltes, P. B., 214 Banaji, M. R., 41, 156, 192, 281 Bandura, A., 150, 173, 189, 273, 290, 305 Bargh, J. A., 25, 26, 52, 61, 63, 184 Bargh, J. H., 228 Barki, H., 314 Baron, R. M., 28, 54, 55, 56 Bassili, J., 93, 94
328
AUTHOR INDEX
Bassili, J. N., 3, 20, 41, 42, 43, 52, 60, 61, 63
Bastianutti, L. M., 304 Bat-Chava, Y., 184 Baumeister, R. F., 1 50, 177, 240 Baumgartner, H., 2 1 Baxter, J . C . , 74 Bayton, J. A., 84 Beach, S. R. H., 240 Beardsworth, A., 55 Beattie, M., 185 Beaufoy, S. L., 75, 77, 78, 79, 81, 83 Beckman, L., 242 Beckmann, J ., 2 1 Beehr, T . A., 268 Beevers, C. G., 276 Bell, D. W., 44, 60, 62, 76, 79, 86, 87, 88, 90-1, 92-3
Bell, R., 3, 44 Bern, D. 1., 93 Benbow, C. P., 278 Bennis, W ., 300 Berent, M. K., 63, 74 Berg, C. A., 268 Bernard, J., 241 Berry, P. C., 301 Berscheid, E., 251 Bertson, G. G., 46 Betz, A. L., 238 Biciotti, E., 74 Biddle, S. J. H., 1 9 Biederman, P . W ., 300 Biek, M., 89 Biernat, M., 103, 104, 1 06, 107-8, 109, 1 10, 1 1 1 , 1 12-13, 1 14, 1 15, 1 16, 1 17, 120, 122, 123, 126, 127, 130, 191, 268 Biesanz, J. C., 5 1 Billings, L . S., 268 Blackstone, T., 176 Blaine, B. E., 178 Blanton, H., 268, 278, 280, 281, 284, 289, 290, 306, 308 Bless, H., 128 Block, C. H., 301 Blumberg, H. H., 241 Bodenhausen, G. V., 104, 152 Boney McCoy, S., 275 Bonfield, E., 3 Boninger, D. S., 63, 74 Borden, V. M. H., 257 Borgida, E., 41, 87, 104, 108, 292
Bostrom, R. P., 313 Bouchard, T. J., 301 Bowlby, J., 150, 177 Boyd, K., 212 Bradburn, N., 40 Bradbury, T. N., 243, 259 Braly, K., 80 Brandstlitter, V., 13 Brandtstlidter, J., 292 Branscombe, A. R., 223 Branscombe, N. R., 167, 169, 171-2, 173, 176, 178, 1 79-80, 182-3, 184-5, 186, 187, 1 90 Breckler, S . J . , 37, 39, 41, 45, 62, 72, 74, 80, 87, 88 Breinlinger, S., 189 Brekke, N., 104 Brewer, M. B., 1 17, 130, 140, 141, 158, 163, 210, 257, 280 Briggs, R. 0., 307, 313 Brim, G. 0., 292 Britt, T. W., 182, 241 Broadnax, S., 178 Brock, T. C., 74 Bromer, P., 38, 54, 61, 62, 63, 64 Brown, J. D., 174, 251, 280 Brown, R. J., 140 Brown, V., 305, 310, 312 Burchill, S. A. L., 241 Burrows, L., 25 Busemeyer, J. R., 1 1 Buss, A. R., 225 Buswell, B. N., 259 Butler, J. L., 240 Butler, J. S., 1 13 Butler, R., 273, 278, 279, 290 Buunk, B. P., 268, 277, 278, 289, 290, 306. 308 Bybee, J., 222 Bylsma, W. H., 241 , 278 Byrne, D., 251
Cacioppo, J. T., 21, 46. 49, 74, 80
Cadsby, J., 302 Calantone, R., 3 Camac, C., 260 Camacho, L. M., 300, 302, 303, 305, 306, 312
Campbell, D. T., 64, 84, 106, 140, 141, 142, 148. 163
329
AUTHOR INDEX
Campbell, K. W., 238, 242, 244, 245-8, 250, 251, 259 Campbell, W. K., 241, 248-52, 253-5 Cantor, N., 104 Carini, B., 141 Carlston, D. E., 158 Carnot, C. G., 63 Carver, C. S., 268, 289 Castelli, L., 145--6 Chaiken, S., 37, 38, 39, 41, 52, 54, 59, 60, 63, 71 , 72, 73, 74, 85, 88, 95 Chapman, M., 214 Chartrand, T. L., 25 Chatzisarantis, N. L. D., 19 Chavous, T . M., 184 Chen, M., 25 Cheng, P. W., 223, 224 Christensen, A., 243 Chuang, Y. C., 63 Chung, T., 280 Cialdini, R. B., 280 Claire, T., 176 Clark, M. S., 240, 248, 253, 260 Clark, R., 178 Clark, R. A., 150 Clark, V. R., 178 Clawson, V. K., 313 Clore, G. L., 44 Close, S., 27 Clow, K. A., 83-4 Coats, S., 104 Cogan, J. C., 178 Cohen, G. L., 126 Cohen, J., 4-5, 14 Cohen, L. L., 172 Cohen, S., 241 Cohen, S. G., 300 Cole, E., 152 Coleman, L. M., 104 Collins, A., 44 Collins, A. M., 316 Collins, R. L., 277, 278, 283 Commins, B., 190 Conner, M., 3, 4, 9, 11, 12, 13, 18, 23, 27, 29, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47-8, 49, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57-9, 60-1, 63 Connolly, T., 314, 315, 317 Converse, P. E., 50, 53 Conville, R. L., 74 Conway, L. G. III, 104 Cooley, C. H., 177
Cooper, D. A., 285-8 Cooper, H., 238 Cooper, W. H., 302, 304, 312, 3 14 Cornell, D. P., 276 Cornell, S. D., 241 Cornwell, B., 190 Coskun, H., 305, 308, 313 Cote, J. A., 10 Cottrell, N. B., 302 Courneya, K. S., 5 Cox, C. L., 240 Coyne, J. C., 241 Cozzarelli, C., 177, 185 Cramer, L., 259 Crandall, C. S., 106, 1 12-13, 123, 182 Crandall, R., 292 Crawford, M. T., 157, 158, 159, 162 Crites, S. L., 81, 84 Crocker, J., 140, 170, 175, 176, 178, 181-3, 184, 185, 188, 190, 192, 278, 280, 281 Croizet, J. C., 176 Cronen, V. M., 74 Crosby, F. J., 180, 185 Cross, S., 216 Cross, W. Jr., 178 Crowe, D. H., 242 Csikszentmihalyi, M., 3 16, 320 Cunha, D. A., 260 Dailey, J. C., 315 Dakof, G. A., 278, 279 D' Andrade, R., 40 Danks, J. H., 291 Darley, J. M., 304, 305 Dasgupta, N., 156, 192 David, S. E., 173 Davids, A., 184 Davidson, A. R., 3 Davis, F. D., 3, 12 De Bruin, E. M. N., 260 De Vos, G. A., 189 De Vries, N., 23, 82, 189 De Vries, N. K., 22, 27, 43, 44 Deaux, K., 163, 259 Deci, E. L., 19 DeHarpport, T., 260 Delbecq, A. L., 313 Dennis, A. R., 314 Densley, L., 214
330
AUTHOR INDEX
DePaulo, B. M., 240 Depret, E., 185 Derlega, V. J., 248 Devine, P. G., 80, 82, 84 Diab, L. N., 1 19 Dickson, W., 309 Diehl, M., 38, 54, 299, 300, 301, 302, 303-4, 307, 312, 316, 320
Dijksterhuis, A., 13, 25 Dion, K. L., 178, 1 80, 185 Ditto, P. H., 291 Doll, J., 17, 20, 50 Dollard, J., 305 Donakowski, D. W., 77, 79 Doosje, B., 104, 120 Dorval, K. B., 300 Dovidio, J. F., 85, 86, 91 Downing, J., 39 Downs, D. L., 177 Drigotas, S. M., 240, 241 Druley, J. A., 291 Duan, C., 1 14 Dugosh, K. L., 317, 318, 320 Dunbar, K., 300, 320 Dunning, D., 126, 238, 279 Dunton, B. C., 80 Dweck, C. S., 279 Dzindolet, M. T., 300, 302, 303, 305, 306, 308, 309, 310, 312, 313
Eagly, A. H., 37, 38, 39, 41, 54, 59, 63, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 78, 79, 80, 81 , 82-3, 85, 92, 95 Earn, B. M., 178, 185 Edwards, K., 72 Eggleston, T., 278, 306 Einhorn, H., 222 Eiser, J. R., 1 14, 121 Ellemers, N., 104, 1 19, 120, 188, 189, 190, 191 Elliot, A. J., 80, 82, 84, 248-52, 253-5 Elliot, A. T., 245-8, 250 Emmons, R. A., 39 Engels, F., 191 Erb, H.-P., 223 Erber, M. W., 44, 46, 50, 5 1 , 53, 61 Esses, V. M., 44, 46, 60, 62, 72, 73, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 90-3 Etcoff, N. L., 104, 146 Ethier, K. A., 163
Evans, M. G., 83 Fabrigar, L. R., 81 Faes, S., 13 Fairfield, M., 172 Farris, E., 259 Fazio, R. H., 53 Fazio, R. J., 80 Feaganes, J. R., 42 Feather, N., 150 Fein, S., 104 Feldman, S., 40, 51 Felson, R. B., 241 Ferdman, B. M., 191 Festinger, L., 268, 304, 305, 308 Fiedler, K., 202, 221 Fincham, F. D., 92, 243, 259 Finger, J. R., 313 Finlay, K., 19 Finlay, K. A., 11 Fishbein, M., 1 , 5, 10, 17, 40, 46, 53, 54, 60, 73, 82, 83
Fiske, D. W., 64 Fiske, S. T., 38, 104, 140, 141, 146, 185, 229
Flesch, D., 5 1 , 54, 55 Fletcher, G., 202, 224, 228 Fletcher, G. J. 0., 259 Flowerman, S., 84 Foddy, M., 1 1 7 Folkman, S . , 268 Ford, C. E., 280 Ford, C. M., 300, 315, 320 Ford, T. E., 75, 104 Forsterling, F., 202 Foster, C. A., 240 Foster, M. D., 185 Frable, D. E. S., 176, 177, 184 Francke, L. B., 1 1 3 Frazier, L . E., 285-8 Freud, S., 40 Frey, D., 247 Frey, K. S., 273, 279, 290, 292, 293 Friend, R., 277 Fuegen, K., 1 1 5 Fuhrmann, A., 21, 24 Gaertner, L., 141, 163 Gallo is, C., 7, 28-9 Gallupe, R. B., 302, 304, 314, 316 Gangestad, S., 50
331
AUTHOR INDEX
Gant, L., 216 Gardner, P. L., 38, 39 Gardner, W. L,46 Garza, A. A, 196 Gauvin, S., 305 Geer, J. G., 78, 83 Gelman, S. A., 224 George, G� 281 Gergen, K. J� 271, 277 Gerrard, M., 275, 278, 285, 292, 293, 306 Gibbons, F. X., 268, 275, 278, 285, 288, 289, 290, 292, 293, 306, 307, 308, 309 Gibbs, J� 178 Gidron, D., 117 Gillholm, R, 13 GiUis, J. R., 178 Giner-Sorolla, � 41, 88 Girotto, V., 214, 215 Giulano, T. A., 279 Glass, B., 114 Gleason, J. M., 242 Glick, P., 38 Godin, G., 3, 19, 54 Goethals, G. R., 304, 305 Goffman, E� 241 Goffman, I., 176 Goldberg, P., 108 Golin, S., 173 Gollwitzer, P. M., 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 23, 25,214, 222, 228, 229 Gouldner, A W., 254, 257 Govender, � 52 Grace, D. � 141 Graesser, A C., 217,218, 220, 221, 230 Grabe, J. E� 177 Graziano, W. G., 51 Green, J. D., 42, 238 Green, M. L., 120 Greenberg, J., 104, 177,238 Greene, R. J� 317 Greenwald, A G.,37,41, 74 Greve, W� 292 Grice, H P., 207, 212, 213, 220, 223 Griffin, D., 125 Griffin, D. W� 38, ffl Grise, M. L., 304 Grogan, S., 44 Gross, P. H., 202, 207 Grossman, B., 184 Gruder, C.L� 277 Gurin, G., 185
Gurin, P., 185 Hackman, J. R., 74 Haddock, G., 46, 72, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 81, 83, 85, 92, 93 Hall, J. A� 251 Halpin, S. M., 106 Halton, B� 61 Hamilton, D. L., 1 15, 141, 142-6, 148, 151-2, 155, 156, 159, 160-1, 162 Harasty, A. S� 141, 158 Hare, M., 301 Hargadon, A� 300, 315 Harinck, F., 260 Harkins, S., 303 Harkins, S. G., 303 Hart, H L. A., 203, 204-5, 221, 223,224 Hartwick, J., 3, 4, 54 Harvey, R. D., 167, 173, 187 Hasbtroud� S., 148 Haslam, A. S., 104 Haslam, N. 0., 141 Haslam, S. A., 104, 119, 121, 122, 141, 189 Hass, R. G., 38, 79, 85, 87, 191 Hastie, R, 153 Hausenblas, H., 4 Hayes, B. K� 119 Hazlett, S., 172 Heckbausen, J� 292, 293 Hedderley, D., 40 Heider, F� 168, 170, 202, 203-4, 205-6, 211, 216, 222, 224, 229, 240 Heidrich, S. M., 292 Helgeson, V. S., 279, 2� Henderson, M., 253 Hepburn, C., 104 Herek, G. M., 74, 178 Heron, N., 259 Hewstone, M� 74, 79, 91-2 Higgins, E. T., 72 Higgins, R. L, 172 Hilton, D. 1� 202,203, 205, 206,207, 210-11, 212-13, 215,216, 217, 218-21, 223, 224, 225, 226-7, 228 Hilton, J. L, 152 Hoberman, H., 241 Hodges, S. D., 44, 51 Hodgkins, S., 1 3 Hodson, G., 92 Hoey, S., 184
332 Hofstee, G., 46-1 Hogarth, R., 222 Hogg, M. A., 103, 104, 1 19, 122, 150, 185 Holmes, J. G., 240 Holzberg, A. D., 126 Honore, T., 203, 204-5, 221 , 223, 224 Hopkins, N., 72 Hoppen, N., 314 Hornstein, H. A., 240 Hovland, C. 1., 121, 292 Hume, D., 204 Hunt, W. A., 106 Hunter, J. E., 4, 4, 5 Hutchinson, K. J., 141 Hyde, J. S., 259 Hyers, L. L., 172 Insko, C. A., 74 Isaksen, S. G., 300 Ishida, L., 220 Islam, M. R., 74 Izumi, H., 300 Jackman, M. R., 191 Jackson, J., 178 Jackson, J. R., 80 Jackson, L. M., 79, 85 Jalbert, N., 260 James, R., 41, 43, 47-8, 49, 54, 55 Janis, 1., 309 Janoff-Bulman, R., 238 Janssen, H. J. W., 47 Jaspars, J., 207, 210, 212 Jennings, L., 74 Jessup, L. M., 314 Jetten, J., 185 Johnson, C., 299, 300 Johnson, J., 212, 223 Johnson, M., 2 Johnson, M. K., 148 Johnston, L., 26 Johnston, S., 242 Johnston, W. A., 244 Joireman, J. A., 260 Jonas, K., 38, 41, 42, 43, 45, 52, 54, 59, 61, 62, 63, 64 Jones, E. E., 202, 226, 229 Jones, L. E., 1 1 Joreskog, K . G., 52 Jost, J. T., 191, 281 Jourden, F. J., 290
AliTHOR INDEX
Joyce, M., 3 Judd, C. M., 1 1 Jussim, L., 104 Kahan, J. P., 242 Kahana, B., 291 Kahana, E., 291 Kahneman, D., 208 Kaiser, C. R., 174 Kalish, C. W., 224 Kallgren, C. A., 59, 89 Kao, C. F., 80 Kaplan, K. J., 38, 43, 45, 85 Kappen, D. M., 169 Karafa, J. A., 177, 185 Karau, S. J., 303, 312 Kashima, Y., 28-9, 224, 225, 229 Kasser, T., 19 Katz, D., 80 Katz, 1., 38, 79, 85, 86, 87, 191 Kayser, T. A., 300 Kelley, H. H., 130, 170, 171, 202, 207, 209-10, 212, 225, 243 Kelly, C., 189 Kelly, J., 189 Kendzierski, D., 21, 22, 24 Kenny, D. A., 28, 54, 55, 56, 240 Kerr, N. L., 306 Kessler, T., 176, 189 Kiger, G., 79 Kim, M. S., 4, 5 King, C. E., 243 Kirkland, S., 104 Klandermans, B., 189 Kleck, R. E., 180-1 Klein, J. L., 218 Klem, A., 50 Kling, K. C., 259 Klink, A., 190 Klonoff, E. A., 178 Knibbs, C. S., 226-7 Knobe, J., 214, 216, 224 Knott, I. C., 212, 218, 219, 223 Ko Man Fung, J ., 79 Kobrynowicz, D., 106, 109, 1 1 1 , 1 12, 1 13, 1 15, 1 16, 127, 130, 169, 172, 178, 179, 187 Koehler, D. J., 1 1 7 Kok, G . , 3 , 19, 54 Kolditz, T., 238 Koomen, W., 104, 120
333
AUTHOR INDEX
Kowalski, R., 302, 306 Kramer, M., 315 Kramer, R. M., 176, 178 Kramer, T. J., 313 Krantz, D. L., 106 Krosoick, J. A., 37, 39, 50, 53, 63, 74, 95 Kruglanski, A. W., 50, 204, 214, 216, 222 Krull, D. S., 170 Kuhl, J., 21, 24 Kuhlman, D. M., 251, 260 Kuiper, N. A., 276 Kulik, J. A., 272, 273 Kun, A., 210 Kunda, Z., 103, 104, 124, 125--6, 127, 128, 129-30,131, 238, 275, 279, 283-4, 285,, 288, 290 Kuo, C. L., 315 Kuyper, H., 290, 308 Lalljee, M., 202,203, 206-7, 210, 212, 221, 222,225 Lamm, H., 300, 301, 302, 303, 312 Lamon, M., 85 Landers, D. M., 314 Landrine, H., 178 Lange, J. E., 80, 82, 83 Langston, M. C., 218 Lao, R. C., 185 Larey, T. S., 300, 302, 306, 307, 312, 316 LaRocco, J. M., 3 Larrick, R. P., 202, 210, 223 Lassegard, M.,280 Latane, B., 303 Lavine, H., 41, 54, 59, 87 Lazarus, R S., 268 Leary, M. R., 150, 177, 240, 302, 306 Leddo, J., 202, 206, 207-S, 210, 212, 215, 217,218, 220, 225,228 Leggett, E. L., 279 Leggett, K. L., 307 Legrenz� P., 214 Lehman, D. R., 214, 215, 216, 221 Leisse, U.K., 176 Lemaine, G., 188 Lepper, M. R., 73 Lerch, L, 104 Lerman, D.,171 Leudar, 1., 217 Lev� A., 242 Levine, J. M., 140 Levinger, G., 257
Lewis, A., 142-5 Lewis, N. A., 106 Lichtman, R. R., 278 Licke� B., 141, 142-5, 146, 148, 149, 151, 159, 160-1,162, 163 Liebrand, W. B. G., 260 Ligbtdale, J. R., 163 Limayem, M., 305 Lindsay, D. S., 148 Lindsey, S., 42 Lipkus, I., 254 Lipkus, I. M., 42, 45 Liu, J. H., 214 Lobe� M., 279, 283, 290 Locke, D., 225 Locksley, A., 104 Lockwood, J., 190 Lockwood, P., 275, 279, 283-4, 285, 288, 290 Loftus, E. F., 316 Long, B. H., 241 Lord, C. G., 73 Lord, K. A., 280 Lorenzi-Cioldi, F., 115, 122 LoSchiavo, F. M., 278 Lovelace, E. R., 217 Lowell, E. L., 150 Lowrey, T. M., 38 Luginbuhl, J. E. R., 242 Luhtanen, R., 178 Lund, M., 178 Lutbar, S., 222 Lycett, E., 92 Lynch, L., 114 Lynch, M., 276 Lyoo, D., 104 Lyubomirsky, S., 277 Ma,J. E., 117 Maass, A., 74, 117, 120, 243 MacDonald, T. K., 44, 57, 60, 87 Macrae, C. A., 26 Macrae, C. N., 104 Macy, B. A., 300 Maddox, K. B., 151, 155 Madsen, D. B., 313 Magna� P 212 Mahler, H. I. M., 272,273 Maio, G. R., 44, 46, 62, 63, 74, 76, 79, 80, 82, 86, 87, 88,90-3 �
334 Major, B., 140, 170, 174, 175, 180, 181, 182, 183, 184, 185, 188, 190, 192, 241, 278, 281, 288 Malle, B. F., 202, 203, 214, 216, 219, 224, 225, 229 Mallery, P., 280 Mandel, D. R., 214, 215, 216, 221 Manis, M., 103, 104, 106, 107-8, 109, 1 10, 1 12, 1 13, 1 15, 121, 241 Manning, V., 178 Manstead, A. S., 104, 120 Manstead, A. S. R., 22, 27, 44 Manstead, C. N., 3 Marcus-Newhall, A., 202, 205, 206, 221, 224 Margulis, S. T., 248 Markus, H., 22, 216, 274 Marrs, S., 152 Marsh, H. W., 277 Martens, R., 314 Martin, J ., 190 Martin, R., 282 Maruyama, G., 108 Marx, K., 191 Matheson, K., 185 McBroom, W. H., 6, 27 McCall, M., 260 McCamish, M., 28-9 McClelland, D. C., 150 McClelland, G. H., 1 1 McClure, J. L., 170, 206, 207, 208-9, 210-1 1 , 212-13, 214, 215, 216, 217, 218-21, 223, 224, 225, 226, 227-8, 229 McConahay, J. B., 79, 80 McConnell, A. R., 152, 154-5, 157, 158, 162 McCullough, J., 10 McGarty, C., 1 14, 1 19, 141 McGill, A. L., 212, 218, 219, 223 McGillis, D., 226 McGrath, J. E., 268 McGregor, 1., 62 Mcintosh, P., 176 McKenna, K. Y. A., 184 McKiman, D. J., 191 McMillan, B., 9 McMillan, D., 118 Mead, G. H., 177 Meadow, A., 301 Medin, D. L., 224
AUTHOR INDEX
Meek, G. A., 19 Mennecke, B. E., 314 Merisca, R., 222 Merton, R., 40 Metts, S., 248 Meyerowitz, J. A., 126 Michela, J. L., 207 Mickelson, K. D., 279, 280 Midden, C., 13 Mielke, R., 190 Milesi, A., 117 Mill, J. S., 202 Millar, K. U., 72 Millar, M. G., 72, 152 Millberg, S., 260 Miller, C. T., 174 Miller, D. T., 163, 242, 280 Miller, G. A., 105 Miller, L. C., 129 Miller, N. E., 305 Miller, R. L., 304 Miller, R. S., 242 Mills, J., 240, 248, 260 Milne, A. B., 104 Milne, S., 3, 4, 8, 13, 14, 15 Mischel, W., 104 Mittleman, D. D., 313 Mizrahi, K., 163 Mladinic, A., 72, 79 Mlicki, P. P., 120 Moghaddam, F. M., 191 Montalcini, F., 74 Montano, D. E., 9 Monteith, M. L., 74 Moonen, A., 18 Moore, J. C., 241 Moore, K. A., 291 Moore, M., 54 Moore, P. J., 272 Moreland, R. L., 140 Morf, C., 172 Morris, M. W., 202, 210, 223 Morrison, D. M., 3 Morse, S., 271, 277 Moskos, C. C., 113 Mullen, B., 3, 86, 238, 299, 300, 301, 302, 303, 315 Mullin, B. A., 150 Mulvey, P. W., 307 Mummendey, A., 176, 189 Munford, M. B., 184
335
AUTHOR INDEX
Muraven, M. B., 240 Murdoch, P., 302 Murgraff, V., 13 Murray, S. L., 257 Mussweiler, T., 106 Myers, D. G., 108 Naccarato, M. E., 49 Nario-Redmond, M. R., 107, 117 Nelson, G., 240 Nelson, J., 182-3 Nelson, T. F., 103, 104 Neter, E., 275-6 Newby-Ciark, I. R� 62 N'gbala, A., 223 Nichols, G., 123 Nicke� S., 202 Niemann, Y. F� 74, 82, 83, 104 Nisbett, R. E., 292 Nolan, J. � 85 Norman, P., 3, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 51, 54
Norman, R., 11 Notao� A. S., 3 Novick, L. R, 223, 224 Novick, N. J., 280 Nunamaker, J. F. Jr., 307, 313,314 Nurius, P., 274 Oakes, P. J., 103, 104, 119, 122 O'Connell, M., 180 O'Connor, E., 104 Oettiogen, G., 222 Offner, A. K., 313 O'Laughlin, M., 219 Oliver, M. B., 241 Olsen, N., 240 Olson, J. � 74, 82, 85, 93, 118, 216 O'Mahen, H., 238 arbea s� 3, 4, 5, 6, 7-8, 9, u, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19,20, 21, 22,23, 29, 51
Ortega, A. H., 300
Ortooy, A., 44, 47, 49 Osborn, A. F., 300, 301,313, 315, 320 Ostrom, T. M� 74 Otnes, C� 38 Otten, W., 23, 260 Otto, S., 72, 79 Ouelette, J. A., 3, 18, 26, 27, 28 Owen, S., 172, 179, 187
Oxley, N. L., 305, 313 Oysermao, D., 216 Palea� F. C., 92 Parducc� A., 105, 121 Park, B., 84, 117 Park, J., 156, 192 Parker, D., 3, 22 Parker, J. W., 277 Parker, K� 49 Parnes, S. J., 300, 301 Passer, M. W� 207 Patrick, B. C� 257 Paulus, L E� 320 Paulus, P. B., 300, 301, 302, 303, 305, 306, 307, 308, 310,311, 312, 313, 314, 315, 316, 317, 319,320 Peabody, D., 84, 127 Pennington, D., 225 Perle, M., 126 Person, N. K., 217, 218, 220, 230 Petronio, S., 248 Petty, R. E� 21, 37, 38, 39, 41, 45, 46, 49, 50,53, 59,62, 74, 8�81, 86, 95, 128 Petzold, P., 129 Pham, L. B., 273 Phillips, K, 13 Phioney, J.S., 184 Pierce, G. R� 241 Pieters, R. G. M� 20, 21 Pinsonneault, A., 314 Poletes, G., 300 Pollack, K. I� 104 Pollard, S., 302 Pomerantz, E. � 41, 88, 275-6 Pomerantz, E. V� 60, 63 Pontar� B. A., 238 Postman, L, 105 Postmes, T., 176, 178, 179 Potter, J� 72 Povey, R� 41, 43, 47-8, 49, 54, 55 Powea M., 260
Pratkaois, A. � Tl Pratt, L� 184 Pratto, F., 52, 172 Prentice, D. A., 163 Price, K. H., 303 Priester, J. R., 38, 41, 45, 46, 59, 62, 86 Pruitt, D., 140 Pryor, J., 25 Pryor, J. B., 117
336
AliTHOR INDEX
Pufall, A., 180 Putman, V . L., 307 Pyszczynski, T., 104, 177, 238 Quellette, R., 260 Quinn, D., 170 Quinn, D. M., 176, 1 90 Randall, D . M . , 4, 17 Rasinski, K. A., 40 Raymond, P., 25 Read, S. J., 129, 202, 205, 206, 207, 212, 221 , 224 Reardon, K., 279 Reed, H., 292 Reed, M. B., 275 Reeder, G., 245-52, 253-5 Reeder, G. D., 1 17, 210 Regalia, C., 92 Reicher, S., 72 Reicher, S. D., 103, 104, 119 Reid, A., 163 Reid, F. W., 6, 27 Reilly, M., 10 Reinig, B. A., 307 Reis, H. T., 240, 257 Reis-Bergan, M., 284, 293 Rempel, J. K., 71, 72, 73, 74, 93, 240 Reno, R. R., 260 Rhodes, N., 89 Rhodewalt, F., 172 Ribbens, B. A., 307 Richard, R., 22 Richards, J. M., 280 Riordan, C. A., 238 Rips, L. J., 217 Rivkin, I. D., 273 Rizzo, A., 214 Robertson, S. P., 217 Robins, C. J , 173 Rocher, S., 141 Rodin, J., 277 Roefs, M., 120, 188 Roese, N. J., 1 18, 216 Roethlisberger, F., 309 Rogers, R. W., 1 Rogers, S., 104 Rogier, A., 141 Roland, E., 309 Roland, E. J., 307, 317 Rollins, J. H., 185 .
Romero, A. A., 74 Rommetveit, R. , 309 Rosen, S., 241 Rosenberg, M., 88, 177, 186 Rosenblatt, A., 104 Rosenfield, D., 259 Rosenthal, R., 4, 14 Ross, L., 277 Ross, M., 238, 242, 243 Rothbart, M., 84, 117 Rothman, A. J., 292 Routhieaux, R. L., 314 Rowley, S. J., 184 Roy, M. C., 305, 307, 315 Rozell, R. M., 74 Rubin, D. B., 4 Ruble, D. N., 273, 279, 290, 292, 293 Ruderman, A. J., 104, 146 Ruggiero, K. M., 173, 175-6, 180, 181, 182 Rusbult, C. E., 240, 241, 253, 254, 257 Russell, D., 171 Ryan, M. J., 3 Ryan, R. M., 19 Ryff, C. D., 292 Sachs, P. R., 282-3, 289, 290 Saenger, G., 84 Salas, E., 299, 300 Salovey, P., 277, 292 Sanchez, D. T., 173 Sanderman, R., 277 Sanna, L. J., 302 Sansone, C., 268 Sarason, B. R., 241 Sarason, I. G., 241 Sawyer, K., 316, 320 Schachter, S., 150, 273 Schadron, G., 141 Schaller, C., 104 Schaller, M., 104, 120 Schank, R. C., 202-3, 206, 221 Scheier, M. F., 268, 289 Scherbaum, C., 176 Schiff, B. B., 85 Schiffbauer, K., 169 Schifter, D. E., 21 Schimel, J., 238 Schlenker, B. R., 238, 241, 242 Schmader, T., 159, 160-1, 184 Schmidt, F. L., 4
AUTHOR INDEX
Schmitt, M. T., 1 67, 1 69, 171-2, 173, 178, 179, 182-3, 185, 187, 1 90 Schneider, S . K., 273, 314 Schooler, T. Y., 42 Schopler, J., 141, 1 63 Schulz, R., 293 Schwartz, J. C., 104 Schwartz, S. H., 53 Schwarz, N., 128, 203, 207, 212, 217, 218, 220, 223, 230 Schwarzer, R., 268 Scott, W. A., 38 Sedek, G., 174 Sedikides, C., 42, 238, 240, 241, 242, 244, 245-52, 253-5, 257, 258, 259 Sellers, R. M., 1 84 Semin, G., 117 Semin, G. R., 221 Semin-Goossens, A., 260 Seta, J. J., 307, 308 Shaeffer, D. E., 173 Shannon, L., 238 Shavitt, S., 74 Sheeran, P., 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7-8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 29, 5 1 Sheeran, R., 1 1 Sheldon, K . M., 1 9 Shepherd, M . M . , 307, 3 1 5 Shepherd, R., 40, 4 1 , 43, 47-8, 49, 54, 55 Sheppard, B. H., 3, 4, 12, 54 Shepperd, J. A., 303, 307, 309, 312 Sherif, C. W ., 93 Sherif, M., 93, 121 , 292 Sherlock, K., 3, 51 Sherman, D. A., 1 26-7 Sherman, S. J., 1 15, 141, 145-6, 149, 151-2, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 162, 163 Sherman, S. L., 142-5 Sherman-Williams, B., 125, 127 Sherwood, J. J., 305 Shoda, Y., 104 Shore, W. J., 177 Showers, C. J ., 259 Shrum, L. J ., 38 Sicoly, F., 243 Sidanius, J., 172 Siegel, J. M., 174 Sigelman, L., 169, 172 Silverman, M., 13, 15
337 Simon, A. F., 163 Simon, B., 185 Simons, C., 120, 188 Simonton, D. K., 320 Sinclair, L., 104, 125 Skinner, E. A., 214 Skowronski, J. J., 158, 238 Slovik, L. F., 254 Slugoski, B. R., 226 Slusher, M. P., 127 Smedley, J. W., 84 Smedslund, J., 224 Smetana, J. G., 3 Smith, E. R., 104 Smith, L., 3, 54 Smith, M. A., 184 Smith, P. M., 185 Smith, W. P., 282-3, 289, 290 Smithson, M., 1 17 Smucker, W. D., 291 Snyder, C. R., 172, 280 Snyder, M., 50 Snyder, R. C., 180 Solomon, S., 104, 177 Sorbom, D., 52 Sparks, P., 3, 27, 40, 41, 43, 46, 47-8, 49, 50, 54, 55, 56 Spears, R., 104, 1 17, 120, 176, 185 Spellman, B. A., 221 Spencer, S., 184 Spencer, S. J., 104, 276 Spencer, S. L., 176 Spicer, C. V., 74 Srull, T. K., 152 Stahlberg, D., 117 Stangor, C., 75, 79, 80, 82, 83, 84, 104, 1 14, 1 18 Stanton, B. F., 6, 7 Steele, C., 140, 170 Steele, C. M., 176, 238, 275, 276 Steemers, G. E. M., 260 Stephan, W. G., 259 Stephens, A., 13 Stern, L. D., 152 Stewart, T. L., 173 Stiles, W. B., 241 Stillwell, A. M., 240 Stipek, D. J ., 171 Stocker, M., 40 Story, A. L., 126 Strack, F. , 25, 106, 212
338 Stradling, S. G., 22 Strauss, L., 178 Strenta, A., 180-1 Stroebe, W., 1 14, 299, 300, 301 , 302, 303-4, 307, 312, 316 Strube, M. J., 238, 240 Suarez-Orozco, M. M., 189 Sullaway, M., 243 Sullivan, E., 74 Sullivan, L. A., 75 Suls, J ., 268, 282 Suls, J. M., 304 Susskind, J., 152-3, 154, 156, 162 Sutton, R., 227-8 Sutton, R. 1., 300, 315 Sutton, S., 4, 5, 7, 9, 12 Swallow, S. R., 276 Sweeney, P. D., 1 73 Swim, J., 108 Swim, J. K., 172 Swinehart, D. M., 217 Tajfel, H., 103, 1 14, 1 19, 121, 150, 171, 177, 188, 189 Tambor, E. S., 177 Taplin, S. H., 9 Taylor, D. M., 173, 175-6, 180, 182, 191 Taylor, D. W., 301 Taylor, S. E., 104, 146, 251, 268, 269, 273, 275, 278, 279, 283, 289, 290, 292 Terdal, S. K., 177 Tesser, A., 53, 240, 241, 276, 277, 278 Testa, M., 170, 241, 278 Tetlock, P. E., 242 Thagard, P., 103, 104, 124, 127, 128, 129-30, 131 Thakkar, V., 156-7, 158, 162 Theno, S. A., 191 Thompson, C. P ., 238 Thompson, E. R., 1 14 Thompson, L., 260, 321 Thompson, M. M., 38, 39, 41, 42, 44, 45, 47, 49, 59, 62, 87, 88 Thompson, S. C., 243, 292 Thomsen, C. J., 41 Thomson, C. J., 87 Thornton, D. A., 277 Tice, D. M., 177 Tice, T. M., 240 Timko, C., 238 Tordesillas, R. S., 60
AUTHOR INDEX
Torrance, E. P., 316 Tourangeau, R., 40, 42 Townsend, A., 185 Trafimow, D., 3, 4, 1 1 , 17, 18, 19, 29, 51 Treffinger, D. J., 300 Triandis, H. C., 1, 2 Trommsdorff, G., 300, 301, 302, 303, 312 Trope, Y., 104, 275-6 Tudor, M., 240 Tumeo, M., 312 Turnbull, W., 217, 220 Turner, J., 171, 177 Turner, J. C., 103, 104, 1 19, 121, 122, 131, 150, 185 Turner, P. J., 185 Tversky, A., 117, 208 Uhles, A., 142-5 Upshaw, H. S., 105, 121 Valacich, J. S., 314 Valencia, L., 169 Van de Ven, A., 313 Van den Putte, B., 4, 54 van der Pligt, J., 22, 27, 43, 44, 46, 61, 82 van der Zee, K., 277 van Eekelen, S. A. M., 3 Van Gundy, A. B., 317 van Harreveld, F., 27, 42, 43, 44 van Knippenberg, A., 18, 27, 104, 119, 120, 189, 190 van Knippenberg, C . , 27 Van Lange, P. A. M., 240, 251, 253, 260 van Rijswijk, W., 120, 188 Van Yperen, N. W., 278 Vassar, P. M., 173 Veeder, M., 104 Veenstra, K., 189 Verette, J., 254 Vernberg, D., 3 Verplanken, B., 13, 18, 20, 21, 27, 28, 46-7 Vescio, T. K., 104, 109, 120, 122, 191 Vinokur-Kaplan, D., 3 Voelkl, K., 170 Volkmann, J., 105, 121 Volpato, C., 243 von Hecker, U., 174 von Hippel, W., 72, 152 Wachter, R., 314
339
AUTHOR INDEX
Waenke, M., 212 Walster, E., 251 Walther, E., 202 Wankel, L. M., 315 Warren, R., 27 Warshaw, P. R., 3, 4, 12, 54 Warshaw, R. P., 3 Waterman, M., 48 Weary-Bradley, G., 238, 242 Weber, J. G., 141, 280 Webster, D. M., 50 Wegener, D. T., 39, 64, 128 Wegner, D. M, 24-5, 26 Wei, J., 176 Weiner, B., 168, 170, 171, 173, 174, 210, 214, 225, 229 Welbourne, J. L., 152, 155, 156, 157 Welch, S., 169, 172 Wellman, H. M., 202 Wenzlaff, R. M., 276 West, M. A., 300 West, S. G., 51, 54, 260 Wetherell, M. S., 103, 104, 1 19 Whalen, P., 180 Wheatley, T., 24-5, 26 Wheeler, B. C., 314 Wheeler, L., 277, 282, 283, 290 Whitaker, D. J., 22, 24 White, D., 13 White, P. A., 217, 220 White, R. W., 150 Whitney, G. A., 254 Whitton, S. W., 241 Wieczorkowska, G., 142-5 Wieselquist, J., 240, 241, 254 Wigboldus, D., 117 Wiggins, E. C., 72, 74, 80 Wilder, D., 163 Wilensky, R. W., 208, 209, 212, 216, 229 Wilke, H., 189, 190 Wilkes, A. L., 1 21 Williams, C. J ., 80
Williams, D. R., 178 Williams, K., 303 Williams, K. D., 177, 303, 312 Willis, H., 79, 91-2 Wills, T. A., 238, 241, 268, 275, 278, 289, 305 Wilson, T. D., 42, 44, 51 Winter, J. P., 313 Wirt, R., 184 Witcher, B. S., 240 Wojciszke, B., 117 Wolfe, C., 184 Wolff, J. A., 4, 17 Wolosin, R. J., 244 Wood, J. V., 277, 278, 305 Wood, W., 3, 18, 26, 27, 28, 59, 74, 89 Wright, S. C., 191 Wurf, E., 22 Wyer, R. S., 247 Wyer, R. S. Jr., 152 Yang, H.-C., 317, 319, 320 Ybema, J. F., 278 Yee, P. H. N., 185 Yen, J., 307 Yi, Y., 17, 18, 20, 21 Young, H., 176 Young, L. V., 106 Yu, Y., 178 Yzerbyt, V. Y., 141 , 157 Zabbini, S., 117 Zajonc, R. B., 312 Zaller, L., 40, 51 Zanna, M. P., 38, 41, 44, 46, 49, 57, 60, 62, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 81, 83, 85, 87, 92, 93, 118 Zarate, M. A., 190 Zerbst, J., 278 Zhang, S., 278 Zigler, E., 222 Zimmerman, R. S., 3 Zuckerman, M., 238, 242
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Subject Index
abnormal conditions focus theory, 226 accentuation theory, 121 action control, 21 action explanations s e e goal-based explanations affective component of attitudes, measurement, 72, 74-5, 94-5 applications, 91, 92, 93-4 assessment, 82-5 attitude embeddedness, 89 attitude inconsistency, 88-9, 91 attitudinal ambivalence, 85-8 breadth of use, 79 cognitive component separation, 80-2 ease of completion, 78 evaluative implications of terms, 84-5 idiosyncratic responses, 78, 94-5 quantitative analysis, 76 affective states, proactive social comparison, 275-7 affiliation, group entitativity, 150-1 affiliative comparison activity, 279 aging, proactive social comparison, 291-3 ambivalence, and attitudes see attitudinal ambivalence anti-Semitism, 178, 185 anticipated regret, 22, 24 attitude-behavior relations attitudinal ambivalence, 40, 53-5, 57-9, 62 open-ended assessment, 92-3 attitude-behavior theory, 1, 2-3 attitude components, 71-2
affective see affective component of attitudes closed-ended measures, 72, 73, 94-5 assessing salient component, 82-3, 84 component separation, 80 content analyses, 77 cultural specificity, 79 evaluative implications of terms, 84 time-specificity, 80 validity, 76 cognitive see cognitive component of attitudes open-ended measures, 72-6, 94-5 assessing salient component, 82-5 attitude inconsistency, 88-9, 91 benefits, 76-85 breadth of use, 79-80 component separation, 80-2 conceptual framework, 73-4 content analyses, 76-7 cultural breadth, 79 ease of completion, 78 evaluative implications of terms, 84-5 idiosyncratic responses, 78, 94-5 quantitative analyses, 76-7 reliability, 76 time-specificity, 80 validity, 76 stereotypes see stereotypes attitude embeddedness, open-ended measures, 89, 90-1, 93-4
342 attitude inconsistency, open-ended 01easures, 88-9, 90-1, 93-4 attitude-intention relations attitudinal a01bivalence, 53-7, 58-9, 62 intention-behavior gap, 19-20, 21 attitude properties a01bivalence see attitudinal a01bivalence closed-ended 01easures, 93-4, 95 open-ended 01easures, 85-9, 90-4, 95 attitudinal a01bivalence, 37-9 a01bivalence judg01ent content, 44-5 attitude extre01ity, 59 attitude-behavior relations, 53-5, 57-9, 62 attitude-intention relations, 53-7, 58-9, 62 belief-based 01easures, 43-4, 46-7 consequences, 50-63, 64 definitions, 38, 39-41 direct 01easures, 41-2, 46 elicitors, 47-50, 64 future research, 63-4 Griffin formula, 45 indirect 01easures, 41-2, 43, 46 infor01ation processing, 61-2, 63 interco01ponent, 86, 87-8 intraco01ponent, 85-7 DJeasure01ent, 41-7, 57, 63-4, 85-8, �1. 93-4 open-ended 01easures, 85-8, 90-1 , 93-4 operative indices of attitude strength, 43 overall evaluation 01easures, 43 pliability, 59-61, 63 split se01antic differential 01easures, 43, 46, 47, 49-50, 57 te01poral stability, 5�2, 63 attributions, 201, 202 and folk psychology, 225 integrating goal-based explanations, 225-8, 231 prejudice see attributions to prejudice self-evaluation, 238 see also self-serving bias attributions to prejudice, 167, 168 attributional a01biguity, 175-7, 181 attributional di01ensions, 169-75 color-blind policies, 191
SUBJEcr INDEX
consequences of recognizing prejudice, 178--83 controllability, 173-5 coping with pain of devaluation, 183-91, 193 discounting hypothesis, 170, 172, 179-82 discri01ination experience severity, 169 do01inant ideologies, 1�1 external locus, 170-1, 172 future research, 191-2 internal locus, 17�2 legiti01ate prejudices, 190 local relevance, 168, 173, 193 D1ini01ization, 1 76 Rejection-Identification Model, 184-91 self-protective consequences, 170-3, 1�3, 192-3 social i01plications, 177 social 01obility, 189, 190 stability, 172-3 total relevance, 168--77 aug01entation principle, 130 auto01atic activation effect, 53 auto01aticity, predicting behavior, 25, 26--7 balance theory, relationships, 240 behaviors a01bivalence towards, 40 see also attitudinal a01bivalence and intention see intention-behavior relations open-ended 01easures, 92-3 belief-based 01easures, attitudinal a01bivalence, 43-4, 46-7 beliefs a01bivalence, 40 folk psychology, 224, 225 goal-based explanations, 224, 225 open-ended 01easures of attitude, 75-6 assessing salient co01ponent, 82-3 attitude e01beddedness, 89 attitudinal co01ponent separation, 80-2 attitudinal inconsistency, 89 behavior prediction, 91 breadth of use, 79, 80 content analysis, 77 ease of co01pletion, 78 idiosyncratic responses, 78
343
SUBJECT INDEX
quantitative analysis, 76-7 time-specificity, 80 belongingness group entitativity, 150 and relationships-as-bound model, 240 brainstorming group see group brainstorming individual, 301, 303�, 316-17, 320 category-based expectancies, 226 causal chains, goal-based explanations,
221-2 causal questions, goal-based explanations, 217-21, 225, 230 causation in the law theory, 204-5 cause explanations, folk psychology, 225
class discrimination, attributional ambiguity, 176-7 closed-ended measures, attitude componen�, 72, 7� 94-5 a�ing salient component, 82-3, 84 component separation, 80 content analyses, 77 cultural specificity, 79 evaluative implications of terms, 84 time-specificity, 80 validity, 76 cognition attitudes see cognitive component of attitudes attitudinal ambivalence, 61-2, 63 group type differentiation, 146-9 intention-behavior relations, 20-� 24 perceived group entitativity, 151-5,
162 self-categorization theory, 12� shifting standards model, � social/cognitive influence model of group brainstorming, 311-21 see also beliefs; stereotypes cognitive component of attitudes, measures, 72, 75-6, 94-5 affective component separation, ll>-2 applications, 91, 92, 9� assessment, 82-5 attitude embeddedness, 89 attitude inconsistency, 88-9, 91 attitudinal ambivalence, 85-8 breadth of use, 79 content analysis, 77
ease of completion, 78 evaluative implications of terms, 84-5 idiosyncratic responses, 78, 94-5 quantitative analysis, 76-7 collective responsibility, 159-61, 162-3 color-blind policies, 191 communal orientation, and self-serving bias, 260 communal-exchange relationships, 240 comparison activity group brainstorming, 304-10 proactive see social comparison, proactive stereotyping see stereotypes competing goals, goal-based explanations, 208-9 competing intentions, and behavior, 23 computer-based brainstorming, 302, 304,
313-15, 316-17 conflicting goals, goal-based explanations, 208-9 conflicting intentions, and behavior, 23,
24 context, stereotypes in, 10� parallel-constraint satisfaction, 104-5,
124-30, 131 self-categorization,
104-5, 119-24,
131 shifting standards,
104-18, 120-4, 125-30, 131 social identity theory, 119, 120-1, 124 control issues intention-behavior relations, 9-11 proactive social comparisons, 278-9 controllability attributions to prejudice, 173-5 goal-based explanations, 214-17, 225 coping, proactive, 268-9, 273 correspondent inference theory, 226 covariational information, 202, 226-8,
231 creative problem solving (CPS), 300 culture-specificity, attitudinal measures,
79 desires folk psychology, 224, 225 goal-based explanations, 224, 225 disadvantaged groups, perceived discrimination see attributions to prejudice
344 discounting theory attributions to prejudice, 170, 172, 1 79-82 goal-based actions, 209--1 0, 225 discrimination, perceived see attributions to prejudice dispositional inferences, 202 dyads, relational closeness see relationship closeness electronic group brainstorming, 302, 304, 313-15, 316-17 emotions see affective component of attitudes; affective states entitativity of groups, perceived, 139-42, 161-3 antecedents, 142-51, 162 collective responsibility, 1 59--61, 162-3 consequences, 15 1--61, 162-3 cues to, 142-3, 162 definitions, 141 functions, 15�1 future research, 163 group types, 143-50, 162 integrative processing, 151-5, 162 intimacy groups, 143, 144, 150 judgment polarization, 155-7, 162 meaning for groups, 149-50 perception of group members, 157-9, 163 social categories, 143, 144, 150 spontaneous group typology, 145-9, 162 task-oriented groups, 143, 144, 150 equifinality theory, 203-4, 205, 216-17, 222 ethnic groups perceived discrimination see racial discrimination, attributions to prejudice stereotyping see racial stereotypes evaluation apprehension, group brainstorming, 302, 303, 31 1-12, 313, 314 evaluative language open-ended measures of attitudes, 84--5 shifting standards, 1 16, 1 23, 131 expectancy behaviors, shifting standards, 1 17-18
SUBJECT INDEX
expectancy-value models, attitude measures, 73-4 expectations, behavioral, 12 explanation theory, 202 attribution, 202, 225-8 goal-based see goal-based explanations facilitators, group brainstorming, 313, 315 folk psychology, and explanations, 224-5, 229 gay men, attributions to prejudice, 178, 185 gender differences, self-serving bias, 250, 251, 259 gender discrimination, attributions to prejudice attributional ambiguity, 176-7 consequences of recognizing prejudice, 178--80 controllability, 173-4 coping with pain of devaluation, 184, 185, 187 discounting hypothesis, 172, 180 discrimination experience severity, 169 locus of attribution, 171-2 Rejection-Identification Model, 185, 186--7 stability, 172-3 gender stereotypes, shifting standards contextual variations, 1 13-18 parallel-constraint satisfaction model, 126 shifting judgment standards, 105-13 goal achievement automaticity, 25 group entitativity, 150-1 implementation intentions, 16, 23, 24 proactive social comparisons, 2� 1 goal-based explanations, 201-3 causal chains, 221-2 causal questions, 217-21, 225, 230 causation criteria, 222-4 causation in the law, 204--5 competing goals, 208--9 conjunctions, 207-8, 212, 213 controllability, 214-17, 225 and covariational theories, 202, 226-8, 231 difficult actions, 209-10, 212
345
SUBJECT INDEX
equUinality, 203-4,205, 216-17,222 explainer's responses, 229 explanation criteria, 222-4 extreme actions, 209-12,214, 215, 216, 228 and folk psychology, 224-5, 229 implications, 228-30 and inductive attribution models, 225-8, 231 informativene� of, 212, 213, 214, 218, 219-20, 223- 4 intentional action theory, 203-4, 205-6, 224-5 knowledge structures, 206-9, 224, 226-7 legal implications, 230 measures of explanations, 212-14, 230 necessity of, 212, 213, 223 pragmatic infiuences, 212-14 probability of, 212, 213, 214, 215, 223 relevance of, 212 theories of, 203-7 group attitudes see intergroup attitudes group brainstorming, 299-301 electronic, 302, 304, 313-15, 316-17 evaluation apprehension, 302, 303, 311-12, 313, 314 facilitators, 313,315 future research, 320-1 group size, 301, 314-15 incubation effect, 317, 320 memory instructions, 317, 319, 320 motivation, 303, 308, 309, 310, 311-13, 314-15, 317 production blocking, 303-4, 309-10, 311-12, 314 production gains, 307-8, 315-20 production losses, 301-4, 305-6, 310, 311-15,320 social comparison processes, 304-10, 312 social loafing effect, 303, 313,314 sociallcognitive infiuence model, 311-12, 320-1 cognitive component, 315-20 social component, 312-15 writing-based, 317, 319 group discrimination see attributions to prejudice group identification, attributions to prejudice, 184-91, 192-3
group membership, proactive social
comparison, 280 group stereotypes see gender stereotypes; racial stereotypes groupness see entitativity of groups, perceived habit, and intention, 26, 27-8 health-related behavior attitudinal ambivalence attitude-behavior relations, 54, 58-9 attitude-intention relations, 55-6, 57,58-9 elicitors, 47-9 measurement, 42, 44, 45 pliability, 60-1 temporal stability, 52 and intention, 7, 8 anticipated regret, 22 attitudinal ambivalence, 55-6, 57, 58-9 conflicting intentions, 23 control issues, 9-10 implementation intentions, 13-14, 15,16,23 self-schemas, 22 temporalstability, 17, 18 proactive social comparisons, 291-3 idea generation see group brainstorming identity group entitativity, 150 Rejection-Identification Model, 184-91 implementation intentions, 12-16, 23, 24 impression formation, 151-5 inductive attribution models, 201, 202 integrating goal-based explanations, 225-8, 231 inference trials, 158-9 information processing attitudinal ambivalence, 61-2, 63 group entitativity, 151-5, 162 ingroup-outgroup attitudes see intergroup attitudes integrative processing, group entitativity, 151-5, 162 intention-behavior relations, 1-2 gap between, 3-5 action control, 21
346 intention-behavior relations, gap between (cont.) alternative governors of behavior, 24-9 anticipated regret, 22, 24 attitudinal control, 19-20, 21 automaticity, 25, 26-7 behavior type, 9-1 1 , 24 cognitive variables, 20-3, 24 conflicting intentions, 23, 24 control issues, 9-1 1 degree of intention formation, 18-19, 21, 24 expectations, 12 factors determining, 9-24 habit, 26, 27-8 implementation intentions, 12-16, 23, 24 intention accessibility, 20 intention certainty, 20 intention type, 12-16, 24 measurement artifacts, 5 moderator analyses, 28-9 normative control, 19-20, 21 past behavior, 25-6, 27-9 personality variables, 20-1, 24 reasons for, 5-9 self-schemas, 22, 24 temporal stability, 17-18, 24 models, 2-3 intentional action theory, 202-4, 205-6 and folk psychology, 224-5 interdependence theory, 240 intergroup attitudes attributions to prejudice, 168-77, 188-9 group entitativity, 163 open-ended measures, 74, 75-6 applications, 90-2 assessing salient component, 83-4 attitude embeddedness, 89, 90-1 attitude inconsistency, 88-9, 90-1 attitudinal ambivalence, 85-8, 90-1 attitudinal component separation, 81-2 content analysis, 77 cultural breadth, 79 ease of completion, 78 evaluative implications of terms, 84-5 quantitative analysis, 77
SUBJECT INDEX
time-specificity, 80 stereotypes in context, 103-4 parallel-constraint satisfaction, 104-5, 124-30, 131 self-categorization, 104-5, 119-24, 131 shifting standards, 104-18, 120-4, 125-30, 131 social identity theory, 119, 120-1 , 124 interpersonal theory of actions, 202 intimacy groups, entitativity, 143, 144, 150 Jewish people, attributions to prejudice, 178, 185 judgments ambivalence, content of, 44-5 group entitativity integrative processing, 154-5 polarization, 155-7, 162 shifting standards see shifting standards model knowledge structures, goal-based explanations, 206-9, 224, 226-7 labels, intergroup attitudes, 77 legal implications, causal questions, 230 lesbians, attributions to prejudice, 178 measurement artifacts, 5 men perceived discrimination see gender discrimination. attributions to prejudice self-serving bias, 250, 251, 259 stereotyping see gender stereotypes meta-judgmental measures, 93, 94 moderator analyses, intention-behavior, 28-9 moods attitude measures see affective component of attitudes proactive social comparisons, 275-7 motivation behavioral intention as index of, 2 group brainstorming, 303, 308, 309, 310, 31 1-13, 314-15, 317 group entitativity, 150-1 self-categorization theory. 123-4
347
SUBJECT INDEX
shifting standards, 123-4 social loafing effect, 303, 313,
314
normatively controlled intentions,
19-20,
21 norms, shifting standards model,
113
objective rating scales, context effects,
105-6 open-ended measures of attitudes applications, 90-4 attitude components, 72-85 attitude structure, 85-9, 90-4 outgroup-ingroup attitudes see intergroup attitudes
protective motivatioo theory, intention behavior relations, L 2-3, 7-8, 14 racial discrimination, attributions to prejudice attributional ambiguity, 176-7, 181 consequences of recognizing prejudice,
178, 181-2 controllability, 173-4 coping with pain of devaluation, 184,
186 discounting hypothesis, 181-2 discrimination experience severity, 169 prejudice legitimacy, 190 Rejection-Identification �odel, 184,
186, 190-1 parallel-<:<>nstraint satisfaction model (�S�� 104-5, 124-30, 131 perceived behavioral control (PBC), 1 1 perceived discrimination see attributions to prejudice perceived entitativity see entitativity of groups, perceived percentage variance, interpretation, 4-5 personal causality theory, 203-4 personality variables attitudinal ambivalence, 49-50 intention-behavior relations, 20-L 24 planned behavior theory, L 2-3 control issues, 11 degree of intention formation, 19 implementation intentions, 14 reasons for gap with intentions, 8 temporal stability, 17 prejudice see attributions to prejudice privileged groups, attributions to prejudice, 167, 168-9, 193 attributional ambiguity, 177 consequences of recognizing prejudice,
179, 182, 183
controllability, 173-5 discrimination experience severity, 169 dominant ideologies, 190, 191 Rejection-Identification �odel, 187 social implications, 177 stability, 172-3 proactive social comparison see social comparison, proactive production blocking, group brainstorming, 303-4, 309-10,
311-12. 314
self-protective consequences, 180-2 stability, 172-3 racial stereotypes, shifting standards,
112, 113, 114, 116-17, 130 reason explanations, folk psychology, 225 reasoned action theory, l, 2-3, 17 regret, anticipated, 22, 24 Rejection-Identification Mode� 184-91 relationship closeness, and self-serving bias (SSB), 237-9 anticipated interaction, 248-50 attributional expectancies, 253-7, 258 attributional reciprocity, 254-7, 258-9 cognitive explanations, 242, 243 communal orientation, 260 expectancy violation, 254-7, 258 gender differences, 250, 251, 259 interdependent outcomes tasks, 242,
243-5, 259�
mechanisms of SSB reduction, 248-52 motivational explanations, 242-3 participant selection, 248-50 partner impressions, 251-2, 258 reasons forSSB augmentation, 253-7 reasons for SSB reduction, 253-7, �
relationship closeness induction task,
249 relationships-as-bound hypothesis,
240, 245-52, 257-8 relationships-as-enabler hypothesis,
240-1, 245-8, 257-8, 259 relativistic attribution measures, 243,
259 research issues, 242-3
348 relationship closeness, and self-serving bias (SSB) (cont.) social value orientation, 260 task importance, 2�5 relationship closeness induction task (RCIT), 249 relationships-as-bound hypothesis, 240, 245-52, 257-8 relationships-as-enabler hypothesis, 240-1, 245-8, 257-8, 259 responsibility, collective, 159-61 , 162-3 savings-in-relearning paradigm, 158 schematics, intention-behavior relations, 22, 24 self-categorization theory (SCf), 104-5, 1 19-24, 131 self-concept, and social comparison, 274-5 self-concept enhancing tactician (SCENT) model, 240 self -enhancement, 238, 239 and relationship closeness see selfserving bias self-evaluation maintenance model, 240 self-identity, group entitativity, 150 self-protection attributions to prejudice, 170-3, 180-3, 192-3 relationships-as-enabler hypothesis, 241 self-regulation, 268 proactive comparisons experienced targets, 272-3 functions, 273-4, 288, 289-90 proactive coping, 268-9, 273 self-schemas, intention-behavior relations, 22, 24 self-serving bias (SSB), and relationship closeness, 237-9 anticipated interaction, 248-50 attributional expectancies, 253-7, 258 attributional reciprocity, 254-7, 258-9 cognitive explanations, 242, 243 communal orientation, 260 expectancy violation, 254-7, 258 gender differences, 250, 251, 259 interdependent outcomes tasks, 242, 243-5, 259-60 mechanisms of SSB reduction, 248-52 motivational explanations, 242-3
SUBJECT INDEX
participant selection, 248-50 partner impressions, 251-2, 258 reasons for SSB augmentation, 253-7 reasons for SSB reduction, 25�7, 258-60 relationship closeness induction task, 249 relationships-as-bound hypothesis, 240, 245-52, 257-8 relationships-as-enabler hypothesis, 240-1, 245-8, 257-8, 259 relativistic attribution measures, 243, 259 research issues, 242-3 social value orientation, 260 task importance, 244-5 sexism see gender discrimination sexual orientation, attributions to prejudice, 178, 185 shifting standards model (SSM), 104-6, 131 category combinations, 114 confirmatory standards, 117 contextual variations, 11�18 expectancy behaviors, 117-18 ingroup/outgroup status, 115-16 norms, 113 and parallel-constraint satisfaction, 125-30 and self-categorization, 120-4 setting judgment standards, 116-18 shifting judgment standards, 1()(r13, 128-30 subjective language, 116 trait concepts, 1 14, 1 1 7-18, 126-8 social categories, group entitativity, 143, 144, 150 social/cognitive influence model, group brainstorming, 31 1-12, 320-1 cognitive component, 315-20 social component, 312-15 social comparison convergence effect, 305, �9 downward, 277-80, 282, 285-8, 289 group brainstorming, 306, 30S-9, 312 group brainstorming, 304-10, 312 proactive, 267-8 affiliative, 279 and aging, 291-3 coping, 268-9, 273 downward, 277-80, 282, 285-8, 289
SUBJECT INDEX
experienced targets, 272-3 future outcome evaluation, 281 future research, 289-93 health-related behavior, 291-3 for inspiration, 283-5 mood effects, 275-7 for performance improvement, 282,
285--8,289
for performance prediction, 282-3 personal control over outcomes, 278-9 personal trajectory anticipation, 279 reactive distinguished, 269-77, 280 self-eoncept implications, 274-5 self-regulatory functions, 273-4, 288, 289-90 shared group membership, 280 study of self-regulation, 289-90 temporal framework, 269-72, � upward, 277--80, 282-7,288 stereotyping see stereotypes and task performance, 305-6, 307-8, 309-10,312 upward, 277--80, 282-7, 288 group brainstorming, 307-10 social identity group entitativity, 150 Rejection-Identification Model, 184-91 social identity theory (SIT), 119, U0-1, 124 group entitativity, 150 Rejection-Identification Model, 188-91 social loafing, brainstorming, 303, 313, 314 social mobility, attributions to prejudice, 189, 190 social perception, groups see entitativity of groups, perceived social value orientation, and self-serving bias, 260 split semantic differential measures, 43, 46, 47, 49-50, 57 state orientation, intention-behavior relations, 21 statistical analyses, intention-behavior correlations, 4-6, 14 stereotypes closed-ended measures of attitude, 77, 83, 84
349 in context, 103-4 parallel-eonstraint satisfaction, 104-5, 124-30, 131 self-categorization, 104-5, 1 19-24, 131 shifting standards, 104-18, 120-4, 125-30, 131 social identity, 119, 120-1, 124 and group entitativity, 163 open-ended measures of attitude, 74, 75-6 assesing s salient component, 83-4 attitude embeddedness, 89 attitude inconsistency, 88-9 attitudinal ambivalence, 87--8 attitudinal component separation, 81-2 content analysis, 77 ease of completion, 78 evaluative implications of terms, 84-5 stigmatized groups, perceived discrimination see attributions to prejudice subjective rating scales, context effects, 10� symbolic beliefs, open-ended measures of attitude, 75�, 77, 81-2, 89 system evaluation, social comparisons, 281
system justification, social comparisons, 281 task-Qriented groups, entitativity, 143, 144, 150 temporal framework, social comparisons, 269-72 temporal stability attitudinal ambivalence, 50-2, 63 intention-behavior relations, 17-18, 24 transference trials, 158, 159 women perceived discrimination see gender discrimination, att.ributions to prejudice self-serving bias, 250, 251, 259 stereotyping see gender stereotypes
