Beyond the features: The role of consistency in impressions of trust
Author(s) / Creator(s)
Winkielman, Piotr
Nowak, Andrzej
Abstract / Description
: To be successful in social life, perceivers need to form impressions of other people's trustworthiness. Current models of this process emphasize the role of specific descriptive content–individual verbal and visual features determining trust impressions. In contrast, we describe three lines of our research showing that trust impressions also depend on consistency–a sense of fit–between features. The first line demonstrates that consistency of brief verbal characterizations increases trust judgments. The second line shows that trust judgments and behaviors are boosted by incidental consistency between the foreground and background of visual scenes. The third line observes that consistency between facial features enhances impressions of trustworthiness. In all these studies, consistency (measured via subjective ratings, reaction times, and physiological measures) positively and uniquely predicted trust judgments. Overall, our results, and related findings, show that trust impressions are not a simple sum of the contributing parts, but reflect a “gestalt.” We theoretically locate these findings in frameworks emphasizing the role of fluency, predictive coding, and coherence in social cognition.
Keyword(s)
consistency coherence impression of trust social cognitionPersistent Identifier
Date of first publication
2022-09-06
Journal title
Social Psychological Bulletin
Volume
17
Article number
Article e9233
Publisher
PsychOpen GOLD
Publication status
publishedVersion
Review status
peerReviewed
Is version of
Citation
Winkielman, P., & Nowak, A. (2022). Beyond the features: The role of consistency in impressions of trust. Social Psychological Bulletin, 17, Article e9233. https://doi.org/10.32872/spb.9233
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spb.v17.9233.pdfAdobe PDF - 246.93KBMD5: 4dfca8ae92d4d5e5bc947932ee04fe57
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Winkielman, Piotr
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Nowak, Andrzej
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PsychArchives acquisition timestamp2023-01-23T14:06:58Z
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Made available on2023-01-23T14:06:58Z
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Date of first publication2022-09-06
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Abstract / Description: To be successful in social life, perceivers need to form impressions of other people's trustworthiness. Current models of this process emphasize the role of specific descriptive content–individual verbal and visual features determining trust impressions. In contrast, we describe three lines of our research showing that trust impressions also depend on consistency–a sense of fit–between features. The first line demonstrates that consistency of brief verbal characterizations increases trust judgments. The second line shows that trust judgments and behaviors are boosted by incidental consistency between the foreground and background of visual scenes. The third line observes that consistency between facial features enhances impressions of trustworthiness. In all these studies, consistency (measured via subjective ratings, reaction times, and physiological measures) positively and uniquely predicted trust judgments. Overall, our results, and related findings, show that trust impressions are not a simple sum of the contributing parts, but reflect a “gestalt.” We theoretically locate these findings in frameworks emphasizing the role of fluency, predictive coding, and coherence in social cognition.en_US
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Publication statuspublishedVersion
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Review statuspeerReviewed
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CitationWinkielman, P., & Nowak, A. (2022). Beyond the features: The role of consistency in impressions of trust. Social Psychological Bulletin, 17, Article e9233. https://doi.org/10.32872/spb.9233en_US
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ISSN2569-653X
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Persistent Identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12034/8031
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Persistent Identifierhttps://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.12490
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Language of contenteng
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PublisherPsychOpen GOLD
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Is version ofhttps://doi.org/10.32872/spb.9233
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Keyword(s)consistencyen_US
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Keyword(s)coherenceen_US
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Keyword(s)impression of trusten_US
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Keyword(s)social cognitionen_US
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Dewey Decimal Classification number(s)150
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TitleBeyond the features: The role of consistency in impressions of trusten_US
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DRO typearticle
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Article numberArticle e9233
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Journal titleSocial Psychological Bulletin
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Volume17
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Visible tag(s)Version of Recorden_US