The Artists' Memo:Let me state for the record that this is my first video project ever, and certainly the first that required me to edit content to create short clips. I edited over 36 minutes of material so this in itself was a great feat! There are very rough transitions, and because I only filmed the screen for one of the participants, sometimes it is difficult to determine which photo they are discussing. Most of the clips start out by showing the participant, but at the end beginning with the girl who says "Partier, knows large groups of people..." the participants are describing the girl in the halloween costume. The pictures that were presented in the powerpoint are placed in the bottom part of this blog.
I adapted a model of Willis and Todorov's 2006 study in which they found that students who were shown pictures of strangers made quick judgments on various measures and that their responses were highly correlated. This phenomenon that we can find the same personality traits by just looking at a person are due to the fact that we are influenced in subtle ways by aspects of peoples appearance. Similarly, the indirect cues such as the setting/environment or props can also affect our judgments (Gosling et al., 2002). I wanted to integrate these two concepts into a similar experiment.
In order to demonstrate this concept that people make snap judgments of personality based on a quick perception, I asked 5 people to observe several photographs and to talk about their impressions of them. I asked leading questions in order for them to elaborate, and also as a way to compare answers on specific aspects of personality. Because I wanted to shape the participants' observations to be more correlational, I picked pictures that were purposefully designed to instill certain images or messages. For example, in one picture a girl is pictured with her dog. In another, the same girl is shown at a party wearing provocative dress and holding the infamous red cup. The participants made completely different assumptions about the same girl because of the setting and indirect cues present in the photograph.
Although many of them felt resisitance because of the social desirability bias, many of them made the same assumptions about people. For example, in the first photograph, 3 people used the exact term "emo" in describing the girls' personality. Also, when asked who they thought a girl (again, the same party/cute dog girl) voted for in the last election all of their answers shifted from McCain when she was pictured with the dog, and for Obama when she was depicted at a party. Similarly, the boy in the hat was described as someone who was funny and used his comedy to fulfill his need to be the center of attention by a few participants, but the same boy when dressed in a sweater was described as someone who was proud and possibly conceited.
References:
Willis, J. & Todorov, A. (2006). First impressions: Making up your mind after a 100-ms exposure to a face. Psychological Science, 17, 592-598.
Gosling, S., Ko, S., Mannarelli, T. & Morris, M. (2002). A room with a cue: Personality judgments based on offices and bedrooms. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 379-398.
2 comments:
I really liked this idea and had thought of doing something along the same lines as this, but I like yours much better! I ended up watching the video clip before I read your blog which actually helped me see that I do the exact same thing. I am aware that I make snap judgments all the time but they are so second nature that I barely even notice that I make them. Based on small superficial cues, which the person her/himself are probably not even aware of, I make quick, easy judgments about them--and apparently, as I learned tonight, I place them into a group in my head of other people that I feel as if they resemble, in other words I compartmentalize them and group them with like others.
I really enjoyed reading your Demonstrate a Concept and it definitely made me realize some things about myself that I was not aware of (i.e. the grouping individuals based on peripheral cues).
I loved this! Especially how you had two pictures of the same girl but in very different clothing and settings. Did any of your participants recognize her as the same girl?
Your demonstration is just another reason why first impressions can be rather frustrating! I can imagine very different people liking or disliking me depending on whether I'm wearing my summer camp clothes, my Sunday church clothes, or my school clothes--even just the two kinds of swimsuits (i.e., one-piece or bikini) that I'd wear during the summer. And the ease and speed to which your participants made judgments also shows how some judgments are made completely on dress and appearance and prior experience with other individuals. It shows how we can be chameleons of sorts. :)
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