FORMING IMPRESSIONS FROM INCONGRUENT TRAITS

The factors that affect the ease with which impressions are formed from incongruent trait pairs are investigated. In Experiments 1 and 2, trait pairs that were both descriptively and evaluatively congruent, as well as ones that were only evaluatively congruent, were found to be more imaginable and to be perceived as more frequently co-occurring than incongruent trait pairs. In Experiment 3, response latency provided a converging measure of ease of imaginability. Experiment 4 examined written descriptions of targets described by these trait pairs, and found more attempts to integrate the congruent than the incongruent pairs. These findings are discussed in terms of the relation between laypersons' impressions of personality and formal personality assessment.