Abstract

Previous research has shown that people make spontaneous trait and goal inferences about human behavior, but research has yet to describe the relationships among these and other social judgments (e.g., about intentionality or beliefs). Moreover, previous research on social inferences has been limited to written text stimuli even though in real life people most commonly gain knowledge of behaviors through direct observation or conversation. This dissertation makes two contributions: It compares the timing and order of multiple spontaneous social judgments (about intentionality, goals, beliefs, and traits) using a common reaction time methodology, and it improves the generalizability of findings by using text, audio, and video presentations of stimulus behaviors. Undergraduate student participants (N = 106) encountered thirty-six behaviors by reading about them (Study 1), hearing descriptions of them (Study 2), or watching videos of these behaviors (Study 3). Immediately after observing each behavior, participants were asked an unanticipated question about the behavior (Was it intentional? Did it reveal a goal? Did it reveal a belief? Did it reveal a trait?) Patterns of Yes- and No-answers to the various questions as well as response latencies of these answers provided the two main dependent measures. The results showed that people more readily affirmed intentionality and goal judgments relative to trait and belief judgments, and the response latencies were also substantially shorter for intentionality and goal judgments. These results held equally in all three studies, hence for all three presentation modes. A fourth study examined response latencies when participants were instructed to actively attempt a particular inference (e.g., finding the person's goal). Results showed the same pattern of greater readiness and speed of goal inferences. As a whole, these findings serve as a first step toward a model of simultaneous inferences in social perception.