Social Roles and Social Judgment: How an Impression Conveyed Influences an Impression Formed

Two studies examined the effect of enacting a social role on perceptions of a partner in a simulated interaction. Subjects were led to believe they were interacting with a partner whom they saw on a TV monitor (which actually showed a videotaped recording). Subjects evaluated the introversion/extraversion of their 'interaction partner. " Those instructed to enact an introvert role saw the partner as more extraverted than those who enacted an extravert role. Study 2 showed that, compared with a control group that did not enact a role, extraverts saw the person as more introverted (though not statistically significantly so), whereas introverts saw the person as more extraverted. Neither study found an effect of subjects' actual personality classification as introverts or extraverts. These findings have implications for the relative importance of temporary and chronic construct activation in social perception.