Comparison and expectancy processes in human judgment

This work explored a judgment model proposed by Manis and Paskewitz (1984a). The model suggests that prior experience with the members of a given category affects the assessment of other category members in 2 ways: (a) by providing a basis for comparison and (b) by leading the judge to expect that new exemplars will resemble those previously encountered. In 4 experiments, respondents judged the height of different people on the basis of full-length photographs. The height of the models in an induction series constituted the main independent variable. The effects of contrasting inductions (e.g., short vs. tall women) affected the judges' subsequent assessments in a test series. Both comparison and expectancy processes played a significant role, sometimes opposing one another and sometimes acting in parallel (i.e., supporting one another).