Trait attribution: Evaluation, description and attitude extremity

✍ Scribed by Joop van der Pligt; Colin Taylor

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1984
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 753 KB
• Volume: 14
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0046-2772
• DOI: 10.1002/ejsp.2420140208

✦ Synopsis

This study examines the importance of evaluation and description in attributional inference. Sets of trait attributes were selected to remove the usual confounding o f descriptive and evaluative aspects of trait attribution. Results demonstrated that both evaluative and descriptive aspects play an important role in attributional inference. Furthermore, results suggest that extremity of own attitude leads to an increasing influence of evaluative factors in the ascription of personality traits. When subjects were forced to choose between evaluative congruity and descriptive consistency, more extreme subjects tended to ignore the descriptive properties of the trait attributes. This finding suggests that more extreme subjects' trait inferences primarily reflect their evaluation of the target. Implications of these findings for attributional inference research are discussed.