title: Use of categorical and individuating information in making inferences about personality.
abstract: In three experiments, we explored the effects of categorical information (stereotypes) and case information (traits or behaviors) on judgments about an individual's characteristics. Subjects judged a target person's aggressiveness on the basis of a description containing both a broad social category and specific case information. In Experiment 1, the description included (a) a category that was either weakly or strongly related to aggressiveness and (b) a behavior that was unrelated, moderately diagnostic, or highly diagnostic of aggressiveness. Trait inferences were a function of both the stereotypic and the behavioral information. A single behavior was not sufficient to override the category effect. In Experiment 2, temporally consistent behaviors were presented as case information; under these conditions, category information had no effect on trait judgements. This finding was extended in Experiment 3 in which subjects predicted behaviors on the basis of the target person's sex and a moderately diagnostic trait.
authors.affiliation: University of Oregon.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Krueger
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rothbart
mesh_terms: D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology; D001519:Behavior; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010551:Personality; D012938:Social Perception; D013240:Stereotyping