Individuating Rather Than Group Information Dominates Evaluations of Members From Newly Learned Social Groups

Influential models of person perception posit that group-based information holds more influence than individuating information in impression formation. Presumably, this is due to the spontaneous and effortless activation of group versus individual-specific information. Consistent with the cognitive miser metaphor, this advantage should be exacerbated when forming more automatic evaluations about others. Challenging these assumptions, Navon and Bar-Anan (2023, JESP) reported that evaluative impressions rely more on individuating than group information when making impressions about members of newly learned social groups. Furthermore, this advantage was reported on both self-report and indirect measures tapping into more automatic evaluations. In the present research, we identify several limitations in that previous research and examine the dominance question in two experiments (Ns = 605; 657) employing a stronger design, improved structural fit between measures, and more robust analytical tests. We found a clear advantage of individuating information on both types of measures. This finding was observed despite the use of a very perceptually salient cue signaling group membership (i.e., skin tone) and impression formation instructions aimed at group rather than individuating impressions. Implications for dominant theories of person perception are discussed, as well as methodological implications for the study of more versus less automatic evaluations.