Implicit Theories Of Personality: What They Are And What They Explain
Who has never made the wrong first impression about someone? Everyone, to a greater or lesser extent, judges others based on what they first see.
It is common that, if you see a beautiful person, you assume that he or she is also charismatic and warm, or if you see a person who wears horn-rimmed glasses, you assume that he or she will be intelligent and responsible.
Implicit theories of personality They relate to the way in which inferences are made about other people based on the little that is known about them. They are widely applied in everyday life and have profound repercussions on a social level.
Let’s look in more detail at its definition, what factors influence the formation of first impressions and what the implications are for society.
Implicit theories of personality are the biases that a person can make when forming impressions of other people they do not know, based on a limited amount of information.
Certain factors influence the way first impressions are generated about others such as the context, the prejudices that the individual himself has, in addition to the state of humor or the rumors that have spread about the prejudged person.
The first definition of this type of theories was given by Bruner and Tagiuri in 1954, defining them as the knowledge one has about a person and the way in which such knowledge is used to make inferences about their personality. However, among the first to address this concept is Solomon Ach, who, in the mid-1940s, carried out research to specify what factors influenced the formation of these first impressions.
General theories about this concept
There have been two theories that have tried to explain in more depth how and why people, when we see another individual with certain characteristics and traits, we generate inferences about your personality assuming their behavior and way of being.
This theory refers to the way how a new impression generated relates to what was already known about the person being judged
If positive traits have been seen in the person being judged, it is likely to be assumed that the rest of his or her traits are also desirable. On the other hand, if what was observed was negative, it will be assumed that the person will have mostly undesirable characteristics.
Attribution theory
This theory describes how people view traits assumed in other individuals as remaining stable over time. That is, it is seen as if the characteristics attributed to another person remain constant throughout the life of the other individual.
Within this theory there are two positions:
On the one hand, the entity theory, which maintains that personality traits are stable over time and situations and that assumptions can be made about the person’s behavior in general terms based on a reduced repertoire of their behaviors.
On the other hand is the incremental theory which maintains that traits are something more dynamic, variable over time.
Factors that influence implicit theories of personality
These are the elements that come into play in implicit theories of personality.
1. Core traits vs. peripheral features
When observing a person for the first time or receiving prior information about them, the traits seen are not equally taken into account. There are traits that stand out above others. Within the research carried out by Asch himself, this idea was fundamental.
The central features are those that exert greater prominence and strength in the formation of the impression while the peripherals are those that are not attributed as much importance, having less weight in the formation of the impression.
Asch was able to observe this through his research. In one of his studies, he asked participants to form an impression of a person described as ‘intelligent, skilled, hard-working, warm, energetic, practical and cautious’, while others were asked to form an impression of a person described as ‘intelligent, skilled, hard-working, cold, energetic, practical and cautious.
He saw that, despite only one trait being changed, the impressions the participants formed differed significantly. Furthermore, when he asked them to answer which traits seemed most notable to them, ‘warm’ and ‘cold’ stood out above the rest.
Also, he was able to observe that when a central trait seen as negative was placed, such as ‘cold’, its sign was imposed, even if the rest of the peripheral traits were positive.
2. Effect of observer traits
People attribute traits to ourselves The more importance we attribute to a certain trait about ourselves, the more likely we are to see it in others. Of course, the trait in question will vary depending on the person and the context plays an important role.
For example, if one considers oneself to be very extraverted, when meeting other extraverted people, the impression that will be generated of them will tend to be more positive. Also, if one sees himself as more reserved, when encountering people who are also unsociable he will see them as more desirable.
One of the explanations behind this phenomenon would be the perception of seeing people with characteristics similar to one’s own as members of the ingroup just as it happens when you see a person of the same ethnicity, culture or religion.
Considering them as part of the same group as a personality characteristic or trait tends to bias the first impression in positive terms.
3. Fill gaps
Sometimes, and as simple as it may seem, people, when we receive little information about others, proceed to ‘fill in the gaps’ about their personality, attributing to them features consistent with what has already been seen
4. Primacy effect
Greater weight is given to information that has been received first compared to that which has come later.
The first features observed will define the direction in which the printing is made causing them to be analyzed based on what has already been assumed first.
5. Mood
Humor can influence the way the first impression is made.
Being in a good mood helps you analyze the other person in a more comprehensive and holistic way taking into account all her features or trying to have as much information about her as possible.
On the other hand, if you are not having a good day, it is more common to opt for a strategy in which attention is focused on specific details and features.
Additionally, there is some congruence with the mood and impression that has been made. If you are in a bad mood, your first impression of another person is more likely to be negative.
Implications of this type of psychological theories
Implicit theories of personality imply many consequences at the social level, especially when others are misjudged. Also, it has been suggested that this type of way of generating impressions influences memory when remembering others, remembering, especially, the traits and behaviors seen in the person that are consistent with what the first impression was like generated.
They have been associated with the degree to which a given employee action is evaluated by supervisors. For example, if a worker has a notable trait that is positive for the organization, her boss assumes that he may have other positive traits and the first impression is generated based on that.
All this can be related to two phenomena.
First of all, we have the halo effect , which is the tendency to conclude that a person’s traits are all positive if they show a small number of them, or, conversely, if they only show a few negative ones, it is assumed that the rest will be as well. One could simplify this by categorizing people as undoubtedly good or undoubtedly bad based on a few seen behaviors.
In second place, Physical attractiveness often influences the way an impression is made If a person is beautiful, it is usually assumed that he or she will have socially desirable characteristics, while if a person is not, rather, attractive, it will be assumed that he or she has negative characteristics. This idea is popularly known, which is why there is the saying ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’.
