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Psychology and Communication | 119

important. Most of us assume that the initial impression we make
on others will shape the course of our future relation with them
in crucial way. We also believe, that such impression may be quite
resistant to change over time and situation.
2. Whether the information is positive or negative in nature—we tend
to weigh negative information about others more heavily than posi-
tive information.
3. The extent to which the information describes behaviour or traits that
is unusual or extreme. The more unusual and extreme, the greater is
the weight placed on information and finally.
4. The sequence of input—information received first- is weighted more
heavily than information received later.

MOdElS OF IMpRESSION FORMATION

According to the Cognitive model, impression of others’ involves two major
components: concrete examples of behaviours that are consistent with a
given trait; and mental summaries that are abstracted from repeated obser-
vations of others’ behaviour. They are usually termed as abstractions. Some
models of information formation stress the role of behaviour exemplars. These
models suggest that, when we make judgments about others, we recall exam-
ples of their behaviour and base our judgments and our impressions based
on them. For example, you meet a person for the first time and he or she
smiles warmly at you and comes running to your help when you drop your
books—all these actions are examples of the trait of kindness, and hence we
include this trait of kindness in our first impression of this individual.
In contrast, other models stress the role of abstractions. Such views
suggest that, when we make judgments about others, we simply bring our
previously formed abstractions to mind and use these as the basis for our
impression and our decisions. A growing body of evidences suggests that,
both exemplar and mental abstraction play a role in impression formation.
In fact, it appears that the nature of impressions may shift as we gain increas-
ing experience with others. At first, our impression of someone we have just
met consists of largely of exemplars (concrete examples of behaviour they
have performed). Later, as our experience with this person increases our
impression comes to consist mainly of mental abstractions derived from the
many observations of the person’s behaviour.
The modern view of impression formation emphasizes the cognitive
basis of our mental pictures of other persons. While we seem to form impres-
sions of others in a rapid and seemingly effortless manner, recent research
suggests that in fact, these impressions emerge out of the operation of many

Bhatnagar_Chapter 06.indd 119 2011-06-23 7:56:43 PM
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