First Impressions and Expectancies

It was hypothesized that (a) impressions of a stranger as bad and potent would result in greater expectation of harm and less expectation of benefits than good and impotent impressions, and (b) disconfirmation of these expectations would result in changes in level of expressed attractiveness. Forty female introductory psychology students participated in an initial investigation, and 20 male introductory psychology students participated in a second study: both were impression formation tasks using a semantic differential instrument in which Ss were asked to estimate in percent the probability of receiving either benefits (extra experimental credit points) or harm (electrical shock). The hypotheses were supported at P < .05 level of significance. It was concluded that minimal initial information can lead to attributions of benevolent or malevolent intentionality which lead perceivers to make differential predictions of behavior.