On Thinking First and Responding Fast: Flexibility in Social Inference Processes

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Abstract
Numerous models of the social inference process have been proposed, but research has not specifically investigated the order in which dispositional and situational information is considered. A paradigm was developed to investigate when people think dispositionally and when they think situationally. Three investigations assessed perceivers' reaction times to answer dispositional, situational, and behavior interpretation questions about an individual behaving in an anxious or a sad manner. Participants were instructed to diagnose either the individual's disposition (dispositional-focus condition) or the individual's situation (situational-focus condition). The results indicate that perceivers are flexible in their inference processes in that they are able to draw either dispositional or situational inferences initially. Implications are discussed.

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