Augmentation and discounting in impressions of targets described by third parties with ulterior motives

Abstract

Third parties are influential sources of information about other people, but their impact on audiences' impressions may depend on perceptions of their motives to provide the information. In two experiments we showed that when sources had a motive congruent with the target information they provided (i.e., negative information while having an obstructive motive and positive information with a facilitative motive) target impressions were less correspondent with the information (i.e., discounting). When sources had an incongruent motive (e. g., positive information while having an obstructive motive) target impressions were more correspondent with the information (i.e., augmentation). These effects were obtained with target information about likeability (Study 1) and competency (Study 2). Extending principles of attribution theory and ulterior motivation, these results show that inferences about one person can affect impressions of another one.