The role of personal relevance in the formation of distinctiveness-based illusory correlations

The conditions underlying the formation of distinctiveness-based illusory correlations and the impact of such illusory correlations on behavior were investigated. Subjects read state-ments describing the distinctive (undesirable) and nondistinc-tive (desirable) attributes of two brands of pens. Fewer statements described one of the two brands, making that brand more distinctive. The proportion of desirable to undesirable state-ments describing the two brands of pens, though, was equaL A distinctiveness-based illusory correlation—an overestimation of the relative degree of co-occurrence between the distinctive (less frequently described) brand of pen and the distinctive (undesir-able) category of attributes—tended to beformed when the pen information had low personal relevance, but not high personal relevance, for subjects. Low personal relevance condition sub-jects were later more likely than high personal relevance condi