The Process of Becoming Suspicious of Ulterior Motives

Abstract

We examined the process of becoming suspicious and discovering ulterior motives. Participants read about a likable behavior, then sequentially received ten cues about potential ulterior motives of the actor. Participants were asked to think aloud while they were reading. Their thoughts were coded. We expected that the general impression of the actor would gradually become more negative, whereas suspicion would first increase and later decrease, concomitant with increased certainty that ulterior motives were indeed involved. Confirming our hypotheses, we found a linear effect for general impression and a quadratic effect for suspicion. Discussion focuses on the development of suspicion as a process and on the relevance of our findings to other settings in which multiple hypotheses are entertained.