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This study examines how perceivers negotiate multiple, and sometimes incompatible, impression formation goals. Previous research typically presents perceivers with a single impression goal (e.g. accuracy, supporting preferred beliefs), and does not consider how perceivers juggle multiple goals. The processes of perceivers with multiple compatible goals should show uncomplicated impression formation processes, that is, strategic use of particular target attributes (e.g. negative) that suit their purposes. Perceivers with incompatible goals, in contrast, should be less selective, and form more complex impressions that reflect all types of attributes. In this experiment, perceivers with compatible goals paid less attention to target attributes, systematically biased their interpretation of those attributes, and ultimately formed less complex impressions than individuals with incompatible goals. How multiple impression goals are prioritized is discussed.
Coworkers cannot avoid the stigmatized person in the workplace ... and there is some necessity to get along for the sake of the job or company (Jones et al., 1984, p. 285).
An emerging view of perceivers as 'motivated tacticians' recognizes that perceivers juggle multiple goals simultaneously, and choose among available processing strategies to negotiate those goals (Fiske & Taylor, 1991). Thus, the perceiver sometimes adopts a strategy that potentially meets the most salient goal, and sometimes adopts a strategy designed to reach a compromise among various goals. For example, previous work on interdependence and impression formation (e.g. Devine, Sedikides, & Fuhrman, 1989; Fiske & Von Hendy, 1992; Neuberg & Fiske, 1987; Pendry & Macrae, 1994; Ruscher & Fiske, 1990) focused on perceivers' salient goal to be accurate about the person with whom they were interdependent. In these interdependent relationships, the appropriate processing strategy was to direct attention to target attributes that were incongruent with stereotypic expectations. Attention to category-incongruent attributes potentially enabled prediction by providing a more complete impression of the particular target, above and beyond the groups or categories to which he or she belonged. The prediction gained by the idiosyncratic, less category-based impression also potentially facilitated the achievement of the interdependence goals (e.g. a prize based on joint contributions). In these cases, the motivated tactician essentially recognized the costs of sterotyping and tried to avoid the pitfalls associated with that strategy.
If the interdependent perceiver did have multiple goals in these studies, those goals all converged...