Seizing and freezing” on a significant person schema: Need for closure and the transference effect in social judgment

For instance, early positive or negative information about a person (e.g., that she volunteered for work in a soup kitchen, that she helped a friend with her home-work, and that she gave up her seat in a bus for an elderly person) may activate the schema “kind, ” which then may drive further inferences that such a schema (one’s implicit theory of “kindness”) suggests. For instance, one may assume that the target is also friendly, likable, good natured, or generous even though no specific evidence for those characteristics was provided. Furthermore, the kindness schema may produce a schema-triggered affect (Fiske, 1982), and one might experience a positive senti-ment toward the target and be inclined to seek her company. Finally, applying the schema to the target person might reduce the perceiver’s sensitivity to subse-quent relevant, and potentially schema-inconsistent infor-mation (e.g., that the target does not like animals, has a wicked temper, and yells at her subordinates), and lend inordinate weight to the early, schema-generative infor-mation, resulting in impressional primacy effects (Asch, 1946; Kruglanski & Freund, 1983). In like manner, information that an individual is a member of a stereotyped group or a social category (e.g., related to gender, race, or age) may activate the concept (lay theory) associated with the category and give rise to a general impression of that person without Authors ’ Note: Correspondence should be addressed to Arie W