Physical Constancy and Trait Attribution: Attenuation of the Primacy Effect
- 1 January 1979
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
- Vol. 5 (1) , 61-64
- https://doi.org/10.1177/014616727900500113
Abstract
Seventy-two high school students viewed videotapes in which a confederate's behavior appeared to change markedly over a nominal six-month period. Half the students also saw the confederate's physical appearance (clothes, hairstyle) change significantly. Students observing physical change described the confederate's personality in a manner congruent with the behavior changes observed; students in the physical constancy condition, however, were significantly less likely to revise their trait ascriptions. This finding is discussed in terms of Mischel's suggestion that physical constancy contributes to the persistence of trait attribution processes.Keywords
This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit:
- Physical Continuity and Trait Inference: A Test of Mischel's HypothesisPersonality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 1977
- A Theory of Cognitive DissonancePublished by Walter de Gruyter GmbH ,1957