Of Thoughts Unspoken Social Inference and the Self-Regulation of Behavior

• Published in: Journal of personality and social psychology Vol. 55; no. 5; pp. 685 - 694
• Main Authors: Gilbert, Daniel T, Krull, Douglas S, Pelham, Brett W
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Psychological Association 01-11-1988
• Subjects: Attitude Change; Behavior; Biological and medical sciences; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Human; Human Channel Capacity; Impression Formation; Personality; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Self-Management; Self-Regulation; Social interactions. Communication. Group processes; Social psychology; Social research; Human; Social behavior; Social perception; Social interaction; Self control; Inference; Self perception; Interpersonal relation; Judgment
• ISSN: 0022-3514; 1939-1315
• DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.55.5.685

How do attempts to regulate one's own behavior affect the inferences one draws about others? We suggest that perceivers draw dispositional inferences about targets (characterization) and then adjust those inferences with information about the constraints on the targets' behaviors (correction). Because correction is more effortful than characterization, perceivers who devote cognitive resources to the regulation of their own behavior should be able to characterize targets but unable to correct those characterizations. In Experiment 1, unregulated subjects incidentally ignored an irrelevant stimulus while they observed a target's behavior, whereas self-regulated subjects purposefully ignored the same irrelevant stimulus. In Experiment 2, unregulated subjects expressed their sincere affection toward a target, whereas self-regulated subjects expressed false affection. In both experiments, self-regulated subjects were less likely than unregulated subjects to correct their characterizations of the target. The results suggest that social interaction (which generally requires the self-regulation of ongoing behavior) may profoundly affect the way in which active perceivers process information about others.