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The dispositional inference strikes back: situational focus and dispositional suppression in causal attribution
V Y Yzerbyt1, O Corneille, M Dumont
1Catholic University of Louvain at Louvain-la-Neuve. vincent.yzerbyt@psp.ucl.ac.be
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
|September 14, 2001
Summary
Suppressing initial judgments about people can lead to stronger, biased conclusions later. This dispositional rebound effect highlights two distinct processes in how we correct our first impressions.
Area of Science:
- Social Psychology
- Cognitive Psychology
- Attribution Theory
Background:
- Correction of initial judgments often involves considering situational factors.
- Previous research suggests that suppressing thoughts can lead to their resurgence (rebound effect).
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the dual processes involved in correcting dispositional inferences.
- To test the hypothesis that suppressing dispositional inferences leads to dispositional rebound.
Main Methods:
- Participants viewed videos of speakers under different conditions (free vs. forced speech).
- Subsequent attributional judgments were assessed.
- Experimental manipulations involved instructions to focus on situational constraints or suppress dispositional thoughts.
Main Results:
- Exposure to a forced speaker increased subsequent dispositional inferences about another individual.
- Higher reported suppression efforts correlated with greater dispositional rebound.
- Instructions to avoid thinking about speaker characteristics, but not focusing on situational constraints, induced dispositional rebound.
Conclusions:
- Correcting dispositional inferences involves distinct processes: examining situational constraints and suppressing initial judgments.
- Suppression of dispositional inferences can paradoxically strengthen them later, a phenomenon termed dispositional rebound.
- Understanding these dual processes is crucial for explaining subsequent attributional behavior.