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Social Cognition, Vol 5, No 1,1987, pp I 25
ILLUSORY CORRELATION IN THE
PERCEPTION OF INDIVIDUALS
AND GROUPS
DAVID M. SANBONMATSU AND STEVEN |. SHERMAN Indiana i niversit)
DAVID L HAMILTONi niversit) ol California at Santa Barbara
In the present study, we investigated the impa< t ol target salience on the formation
ot illusor\ correlations in both individuals and groups. I leightening the salience ol group target was found to in< rease the degree ol perceived association between
that salient group and an infrequent (and thus distinctive) ategorv ol behaviors. Heightening the salience of indiv idual target, on the other hand, increased the degree to which the salient individual perceived as adopting a frequent < ategor\ ot behaviors. It suggested that these findings reflect qualitative differences
in the ways in which information about groups and individuals initialK encoded organized. Specifically, it proposed that impressions ol individuals made
"on line" and that illusory orrelations about indiv iduals reflect impression-based judgments. Illusory correlations about groups, on the other hand, proposed to
reflect memory-based judgments. The nature ot the initial processing likeK to
determine the relation that an observer perceives between salient target v\m\ distmc tive type ot behav ior.
Prior research has shown that observers frequently err in their estima
tion of the level oi covariation between social events (cf. Crocker, 1 C*S 1 ;
Jennings, Amabile, & Ross, 1982; Nisbett & Ross, L980; Trolier & Hamilton, 1986). Perceivers sometimes overestimate the degree to which two events are associated, or they perceive an association that
was not present in the information
on which the judgment was based
(Chapman, 1967; Chapman & Chapman, 1967; Hamilton, Dugan, &
I his research was supported by Grant No. MM 40058 from the National Institute et Mental Health We thank lulie Held and \eret Heed for their assistance in conducting
the experiment We also thank I hem Srull and anonymous tor their very helpful comments Requests tor reprints should be
sent to Steven I Sherman, Depart
ment ot Psychology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 4740S.
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1 SANBONMATSU, SHERMAN, AND HAMILTON
holier, 1985; Hamilton & Gilford, 1976; Hamilton & Rose, 1980; Jenkins & Ward, 1965; McArthur & Friedman, 1980; Spears, van der
Plight, & Eiser, 1985a, 1985b; Tversky & Kahneman, 1973). Chapman
(...