PERSONALITY IMPRESSION FORMATION AS A FUNCTION OF RELATEDNESS OF INFORMATION AND LENGTH OF SET

80 female undergraduates judged the likableness of persons described by sets of sentences which varied in the degree of relatedness (R) and length (L) of set. 1/2 of the Ss judged sets based on negatively evaluated sentences and 1/2 based on positively evaluated sentences. The main effects of both the R and the L manipulations were highly reliable for both positive and negative materials. The judgments of low related sets were consistently more polarized or extreme than those associated with high related sets. Similarly, an increase in the length of the set was associated with an increase in the polarity of the judgment obtained. Implications of these results for pooling models are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1969 American Psychological Association.