Are person categories used when organizing information about unfamiliar sets of persons?

Sedikides, Constantine and Ostrom, Thomas (1988) Are person categories used when organizing information about unfamiliar sets of persons? Social Cognition, 6 (3), 252–267.

Record type: Article

Abstract

Previous research by T. M. Ostrom and J. B. Pryor (see record 1982-09822-001) questioned the validity of the assumption that perceivers spontaneously organize social information (e.g., traits, behaviors) into individualized person gestalts by examining how perceivers organize information in multiperson, multiattribute perceptual fields (e.g., a party, a group discussion, a criminal trial setting). They found that in such situations social information about unfamiliar others is not organized around persons. The present paper reports a meta-analysis of 44 person organization studies. The analysis led to a rejection of Ostrom and Pryor's earlier conclusions. Perceivers were found to have a significant (but not large) tendency toward organizing social information around person categories, supporting the assumption of the early impression-formation theorists.

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