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Attribution Theory00:56

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Behavior is a product of both the situation (e.g., cultural influences, social roles, and the presence of bystanders) and of the person (e.g., personality characteristics). Subfields of psychology tend to focus on one influence or behavior over others. Situationism is the view that our behavior and actions are determined by our immediate environment and surroundings. In contrast, dispositionism holds that our behavior is determined by internal factors (Heider, 1958). An internal factor is an...
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 20, 2026

Behavioral Phenotyping of Murine Disease Models with the Integrated Behavioral Station INBEST
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Spontaneous Trait Inferences From Behavior: A Systematic Meta-Analysis.

Antonia Bott1, Larissa Brockmann1, Ivo Denneberg1

  • 1Universität Hamburg, Germany.

Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin
|June 25, 2022
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

People automatically infer personality traits from behavior, a phenomenon known as spontaneous trait inference (STI). This meta-analysis confirms STI is a robust effect, influenced by memory paradigms but not culture.

Keywords:
impression formationmeta-analysisperson perceptionspontaneous trait inferences

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Area of Science:

  • Social Psychology
  • Cognitive Psychology

Background:

  • Individuals frequently form personality impressions from observed behaviors.
  • Spontaneous trait inference (STI) is a well-documented cognitive process.
  • Decades of research exist on STI, necessitating a comprehensive synthesis.

Approach:

  • A systematic meta-analysis was conducted on 86 publications.
  • Data from 13,630 participants were aggregated.
  • Effect sizes and moderators were statistically analyzed.

Key Points:

  • The average STI effect size was moderate to large (dz = 0.59), with significant heterogeneity.
  • Long-term memory paradigms yielded larger STI effects than working memory paradigms.
  • STI effects demonstrated robustness across methodological variations and publication bias concerns.

Conclusions:

  • Spontaneous trait inference is a reliable psychological phenomenon.
  • Memory processes significantly influence the strength of STI.
  • Cultural background did not moderate STI effects, contrary to hypotheses.