Misanthropic person memory

Three experiments examined memory for behaviors associated with attributional information. A baseline stablished in Experiment 1, using behaviors unaccompanied by attributions, indicated that expectancy-inconsistent behaviors were better ecalled than consistent ones. Experiment 2 linked these same behaviors to dispositional orsituational ttributions. After reconceptualizing the results, it was shown that negative dispositionally attributed behaviors and positive situationally attributed behaviors were best recalled, suggesting that here is a negativity bias in person memory for behaviors that are accompanied byattributions. Experiment 3,using a different procedure, served as a replication of this misanthropic memory effect and demonstrated that the effect was only slightly altered by reducing the processing time allocated for this task. The findings were discussed in terms of their implications for expectancy-driven information processing and also with regard to the types of impressions people may form from attributed behavioral information. The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.-- ( Mark Antony in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Act III, Scene ii) Research in person memory suggests that our expectancies influence what we remember about other people. In general, behaviors that are inconsistent with our expectancies are better remembered than consistent behaviors (Hastie, 198 l; Hasti