Cited by 1,550Social and Intergroup PsychologyCategorization, perception, and languageDecision-Making and Behavioral Economics

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Negativity and extremity biases in impression formation: A review of explanations.

Skowronski, John J., Carlston, Donal E.·1989·Psychological Bulletin

DOI 10.1037/0033-2909.105.1.131

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Abstract

Mise au point sur les explications de certains biais lies aux recherches sur la formation des impressions, et presentation d'un modele fonde sur des indices de categorisation du stimulus pour rendre compte de tels biais

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Crossref · 10.1037/0033-2909.105.1.131

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BackgroundInfluential
My Relationship is Better than- and Not as Bad as--Yours is: The Perception of Superiority in Close Relationships
Lange, P. A. M. V., & Rusbult, C. E. (1995) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167295211005 · Cited by 153
Predicting young adults' health risk behavior.
Gibbons, F. X., & Gerrard, M. (1995) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037//0022-3514.69.3.505 · Cited by 564
The neural dynamics of updating person impressions
Mende‐Siedlecki, P., Cai, Y., & Todorov, A. T. (2012) · Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience · doi:10.1093/scan/nss040 · Cited by 148
“Social psychology affords us a host of predictions regarding how person perception can be affected by such a turn of events (Reeder and Brewer, 1979; Fiske, 1980; Reeder and Spores, 1983; Skowronski and Carlston, 1987, 1989).”
How Do Politicians Attribute Bureaucratic Responsibility for Performance? Negativity Bias and Interest Group Advocacy
Nielsen, P. A., & Moynihan, D. P. (2016) · Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory · doi:10.1093/jopart/muw060 · Cited by 161
Dispositional attribution: Multiple inferences about motive-related traits.
Reeder, G. D., Vonk, R., Ronk, M. J., Ham, J. R. C., & Lawrence, M. (2004) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.86.4.530 · Cited by 158
“A consequence of these trait– behavior expectations is that immoral behavior can be highly diagnostic of the target’s dispositional qualities (Reeder, 1993; Skowronski & Carlston, 1989 ) and situational forces surrounding the behavior are more or less irrelevant.”
Background
Social value orientation and intelligence: A test of the goal prescribes rationality principle
Lange, P. A. M. V., & Liebrand, W. B. G. (1991) · European Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1002/ejsp.2420210402 · Cited by 149
Prevalence estimates and adolescent risk behavior: Cross-cultural differences in social influence.
Gibbons, F. X., Helweg‐Larsen, M., & Gerrard, M. (1995) · Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.1037//0021-9010.80.1.107 · Cited by 147
Word-of-Mouth as Self-EnhancementPreprint
Wojnicki, A. C., & Godes, D. (2006) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.908999 · Cited by 147
Mnemic neglect: Selective amnesia of one’s faults
Sedikides, C., Green, J. D., Saunders, J., Skowronski, J. J., & Zengel, B. U. (2016) · European Review of Social Psychology · doi:10.1080/10463283.2016.1183913 · Cited by 144
“Negative information attracts more attention (Fiske, 1980; Pratto & John, 1991) and is accorded greater weight (Baumeister, Bratslavsky, Finkenauer, & Vohs, 2001; Skowronski & Carlston, 1989) than positive information.”
BackgroundSelf-citation
Training Lie Detectors to Use Nonverbal Cues Instead of Global Heuristics
Fiedler, K., & WALKA, I. (1993) · Human Communication Research · doi:10.1111/j.1468-2958.1993.tb00321.x · Cited by 142
Repage: REPutation and ImAGE Among Limited Autonomous Partners
Sabater, J., Paolucci, M., & Conte, R. (2006) · RePEc: Research Papers in Economics · Cited by 144
Linking Product Development Outcomes to Market Valuation of the Firm: The Case of the U.S. Pharmaceutical Industry*
Sharma, A., & Lacey, N. (2004) · Journal of Product Innovation Management · doi:10.1111/j.0737-6782.2004.00084.x · Cited by 143
Beliefs about bad people are volatile
Siegel, J. Z., Mathys, C. D., Rutledge, R. B., & Crockett, M. J. (2018) · Nature Human Behaviour · doi:10.1038/s41562-018-0425-1 · Cited by 145
Expectation-outcome consistency and hindsight bias
Schkade, D. A., & Kilbourne, L. M. (1991) · Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes · doi:10.1016/0749-5978(91)90044-t · Cited by 143
Linking versus thinking: Evidence for the different associative and attributional bases of spontaneous trait transference and spontaneous trait inference.
Carlston, D. E., & Skowronski, J. J. (2005) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.89.6.884 · Cited by 141
“…theories suggest that attributions made from negative behaviors, which are relatively uncommon and non-normative, should tend to be stronger than those made from positive behaviors, which are more common and consequently, less diagnostic (Reeder & Brewer, 1979; Skowronski & Carlston, 1987, 1989).”
BackgroundSelf-citation
Perceived Diversity and Team Functioning
Hentschel, T., Shemla, M., Wegge, J., & Kearney, E. (2013) · Small Group Research · doi:10.1177/1046496412470725 · Cited by 114
“For example, it has been found that people usually weigh negative information more heavily than positive information (e.g., Rozin & Royzman, 2001; Skowronski & Carlston, 1989).”
BackgroundMethod
Do Attitudes Toward Specific Supreme Court Decisions Matter? The Impact of Webster and Texas v. Johnson on Public Confidence in the Supreme Court
Grosskopf, A., & Mondak, J. J. (1998) · Political Research Quarterly · doi:10.1177/106591299805100304 · Cited by 140
A review of possible effects of cognitive biases on interpretation of rule-based machine learning models
Kliegr, T., Bahník, Š., & Fürnkranz, J. (2021) · Artificial Intelligence · doi:10.1016/j.artint.2021.103458 · Cited by 139
“Information with negative valence is given more attention partly because people seek diagnostic information, and negative information is more diagnostic [151].”
Background
The ingroup overexclusion effect: Impact of valence and confirmation on stereotypical information search
Leyens, J., & Yzerbyt, V. Y. (1992) · European Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1002/ejsp.2420220604 · Cited by 139
The SAGE Handbook of Applied Memory
Perfect, T. J., & Lindsay, D. S. (2014) · SAGE Publications Ltd eBooks · doi:10.4135/9781446294703 · Cited by 153

Authors: Skowronski, J. J., & Carlston, D. E.
Affiliations: The Ohio State University Newark (US)
ORCID: Skowronski, John J.
Venue: Psychological Bulletin
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Published: 1989
Volume: 105
Issue: 1
Pages: 131-142
ISSN: 0033-2909 (ISSN-L)
1939-1455
DOI: 10.1037/0033-2909.105.1.131
OpenAlex: W1981706854
Cited by: 1,550
References: 98
Citations by year: 2026: 39 · 2025: 49 · 2024: 46 · 2023: 61 · 2022: 43 · 2021: 73 · 2020: 90 · 2019: 84 · 2018: 64 · 2017: 72 · 2016: 56 · 2015: 58 · 2014: 68 · 2013: 70 · 2012: 51
FWCI: 48.95
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: closed
Locations: Psychological Bulletin (publishedVersion)
Topics: Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Categorization, perception, and language
Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › General Decision Sciences › Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
Keywords: negativity bias, impression formation, stimulus classification, social perception

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Negativity and extremity biases in impression formation: A review of explanations.

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