Adult age differences in impressio change processes.

Abstract

Three experiments examined the factors influencing impression change in young and older adults. In each study, Ss formed an impression of a fictitious target person and then read additional behavioral information that varied in its consistency with this initial impression. On the basis of previous work, older adults were expected to be less likely than younger adults to integrate new, inconsistent information in the schema-based memory representation, which would result in less impression change. No support for this prediction was found: instead, young and older adults varied in their weighting of different types of information (e.g., negative behaviors), which subsequently affected their impressions and memory for specific behavioral information. These results highlight the importance of considering the impact of age differences in implicit theories about behavior on social cognition.