Value and uncertainty as weighting factors in impression formation

An experiment was conducted to compare mathematical models describing how people combine information to form an impression of another person. Subjects rated how much they would like stimulus persons described by one or two adjectives. Subjects also reported their level of uncertainty about each evaluation. Models using the uncertainty measures to predict integration weights were no more successful than the equal weight averaging model. There was no evidence that extreme adjectives were given high weight. Information integration was best described by a model in which the more negative adjective in a pair is given more weight than the other adjective.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/25807/1/0000370.pd