Making a good impression: Exploring the process of impression validation

Existing research suggests that people perceive impressions based on individuating information as more valid than impressions based on categorical information. Although this is certainly true in many cases, this dissertation examines the conditions under which impressions based on categorical information can be perceived as more valid than impressions based on individuating information. This dissertation is focused on elucidating a process I term "impression validation". This process model assumes that when the type of information people use to form an impression (i.e., categorical or individuating) matches the type of information that they believe provides the most accurate information for forming an impression, impression certainty increases. In Experiment 1, when participants believed that utilizing individuating information was a more valid impression formation basis, they had greater levels of impression certainty when they perceived that they had relied on the target's behaviors as opposed to categorical information. In Experiment 2, perceptions of impression certainty were greatest when the type of information the participant ostensibly used was the same as the type of information the majority of other people used. The Experiment 2 results indicate that it is not always the case that individuating information is perceived as a more valid basis for impressions; it is possible to convince people that categorical information is a more valid basis for impressions. In Experiment 3, a less ambiguous form of "categorical" information was used (i.e., social category information) and similar results were obtained. Experiment 4 provided a more direct test of my impression validation model by manipulating the perceived accuracy of either the categorical information or the individuating information. In this experiment, participants showed greater impression certainty when they perceived that their impressions were based on the more valid information. Consistent with the proposed model, there is substantial support for the notion that people experience greater feelings of impression certainty when the information they believe that they used to form impressions matches the information that they believe allows them to form the most accurate impressions, even when perceivers used categorical information to form their impressions.