Effects of communication, information overlap, and behavioral consistency on consensus in social perception

Three experiments (N = 69, 162, and 201, respectively) were conducted to test the mathematically derived predictions of the Weighted Average Model (D. A. Kenny, 1991) of consensus in interpersonal perception. Study 1 estimated the effect of perceiver communication. Study 2 estimated the effects of communication and stimulus overlap, and Study 3 estimated the effects of communication, overlap, and target consistency on consensus. The strongest consensus was found when perceivers communicated about highly overlapping information about targets who were cross-situationally consistent. Conversely, the lowest level of consensus was observed when perceivers did not communicate and had nonoverlapping information about targets who were cross-situationally inconsistent. Both stimulus variables (overlap and consistency) and an interpersonal variable (communication) affected consensus as predicted by the Weighted Average Model.