| Abstract: | In an experiment designed to test the effects of role assignment and verbal interaction on accuracy and overconfidence in interpersonal judgment, subjects estimated the questionnaire responses of a randomly assigned partner and assessed their confidence in each estimate. Ninety-five subjects were assigned to one of four conditions in a 2 (role vs. no-role) by 2 (verbal interaction vs. no-interaction) design. Results indicated that accuracy was positively related to the weight subjects gave to their own responses in estimating the other person's responses, and both role assignment and verbal interaction caused subjects to give less weight to their own responses. Because they gave less weight to their own responses, subjects in the role conditions were less accurate than those in the no-role conditions, and this reduction in accuracy resulted in greater overconfidence and worse calibration. Practical implications of these results are discussed. |
