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Evaluative judgments are based on evaluative information: Evidence against meaning change in evaluative context
1Department of Psychology, Northern Illinois University, 60115, DeKalb, Illinois.
Memory & Cognition
|February 3, 2011
Summary
Context effects in person perception are driven by evaluative meaning, not denotative changes. Trait adjective evaluations are influenced by overall sentiment, not specific word meanings.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Social Psychology
- Cognitive Psychology
Background:
- Trait adjectives possess both evaluative (good/bad) and denotative (descriptive) meanings.
- Contextual information influences how individuals evaluate personality traits, a phenomenon known as context effect.
- The role of denotative meaning shifts in mediating these context effects remains a theoretical debate.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether changes in the denotative meaning of trait adjectives underlie evaluative context effects in person perception.
- To determine the relative contributions of evaluative versus denotative meaning in shaping trait judgments within a social context.
Main Methods:
- Two experiments were conducted using trait adjectives in varying contexts.
- Experiment 1 examined context effects on quantitative denotation ratings, assessing the role of evaluative halo effects.
- Experiment 2 manipulated the denotative relatedness between context and test traits to observe effects on evaluation.
Main Results:
- Context effects on trait denotation ratings were largely explained by evaluative halo effects.
- Increasing denotative relatedness between context and test traits did not amplify the context effect.
- Only the evaluative meaning of context traits significantly influenced the evaluation of the target trait.
Conclusions:
- Denotative meaning changes do not appear to mediate context effects in person perception.
- The evaluative meaning of trait adjectives is the primary driver of context effects in person perception.
- Social judgments of individuals are predominantly based on the overall evaluative tone of descriptive traits.
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