The Freezing and Unfreezing of Impressional Primacy

Abstract

Three constructive replications were executed to test the hypotheses that primary effects in impression formation are more pronounced when the individual feels (1) high versus low need for cognitive structure and (2) low versus high fear of invalidity. The experiments differed partially among themselves in the particular operational definitions of the structure and validity needs. In the first experiment need for structure was manipulated via demands for unidimensional (hence, global and undifferentiated) versus multidimensional judgments; and the fear of invalidity, via potential costs to the target person of subject's judgmental mistake. In the second experiment fear of invalidity was manipulated as in the first experiment and need for structure, via degrees of time pressure. In the third experiment need for structure was manipulated as in the first experiment and fear of invalidity, via degrees of evaluation apprehension. The research hypotheses were strongly confirmed in all three experiments. These results crossvalidate the findings of Kruglanski and Freund (1983) in which need for structure was operationalized via time pressure, and fear of invalidity, via evaluation apprehension.