TY  - GEN
A1  - Prager, Johannes
AV  - public
Y1  - 2022///
N2  - All three papers included in this thesis, rely on an exemplar trait-impression formation
paradigm (Asch, 1946), but throughout each paper different theoretically important
aspects of the sampling task are analyzed. Prager, Krueger and Fiedler (2018) elaborate
a possible solution to the "less-is-more" debate, that is the question whether more
information leads to more or less extreme judgments. The correlation between sample
size and how amplified judgments are depends crucially on how the respective sample
was stopped. When sample size was experimenter-determined (random), judgments
tended to be more conservative for small than for large samples. In contrast, judgments
on small samples were polarized for self-truncated sampling (i.e. when the judging
participants can themselves decide on when to stop the sampling sequence). Prager
and Fiedler (2021b) transferred the self-truncation principle to an inter-group context,
where impression targets were groups rather than individuals. By assessing perceived
within-group homogeneity in addition to the likeability judgment, we could demonstrate
that perceived homogeneity is part of the self-truncation principle: Early truncated
samples are not only more polarized but also more homogeneous than samples that
are expanded further. Given that out-groups are associated with smaller information
samples, these self-truncation effects might constitute a sufficient explanation of outgroup
homogeneity and out-group polarization.
In Prager et al. (2018) and Prager and Fiedler (2021a) we apply different versions
of a yoked controls design: Whereas a primary participant engages in self-truncated
sampling, a secondary yoked control receives exactly the same samples passively. This
procedure results in regression: Small samples are perceived less polarized for the yoked
control than for the primary self-truncating participant. This difference is an exclusive
result of different cognitive processing of the sampling input, since the yoked controls
design keeps the sampling input itself identical.
All three papers analyze the impact of diagnosticity: Especially negative and extreme
information is more diagnostic than positive and moderate input. Highly diagnostic
input results in earlier truncation and more polarized judgment. The diagnosticity
concept is further elaborated by considering multi-dimensional density in Prager
and Fiedler (2021b).
ID  - heidok31799
TI  - Information Sampling in Impression Formation Tasks
UR  - https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/31799/
ER  -