Testing Hypotheses about Other People

Abstract

Male and female participants formulated question-asking strategies to test hypotheses about the personalities of other people. For some participants, the hypothesis-testing task was defined explicitly as a falsification task (i.e., assessing the extent to which the hypothesis was not true). For other participants, the hypothesis-testing task was defined explicitly as a verification task (i.e., assessing the extent to which the hypothesis was true). Participants performed the falsification task by preferentially soliciting behavioral evidence that would disconfirm the hypothesis. Participants performed the verification task by preferentially soliciting behavioral evidence that would confirm the hypothesis. Implications for understanding hypothesis-testing processes are discussed.