Holoien Deborah Son, Fiske Susan T
Princeton University.
J Exp Soc Psychol. 2013 Jan;49(1):33-41. doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2012.09.001.
The compensation effect demonstrates a negative relationship between the dimensions of warmth and competence in impression formation in comparative contexts. However, does compensation between warmth and competence extend to impression management? Two studies examined whether people actively downplay their warmth in order to appear competent and downplay their competence in order to appear warm. In Studies 1a and 1b, participants selected words pretested to be high or low in warmth and competence to include in an e-mail message to people they wanted to impress. As predicted, participants downplayed their competence when they wanted to appear warm (Study 1a) and downplayed their warmth when they wanted to appear competent (Study 1b). In Studies 2a and 2b, compensation also occurred when participants introduced themselves to another person, as evidenced by the questions they selected to answer about themselves, their self-reported goals, and their open-ended introductions. Compensation occurred uniquely between warmth and competence and not for other dimensions, such as healthiness (Study 2a) and political interest (Study 2b), which suggests that the compensation effect extends beyond a mere zero-sum exchange between dimensions.
补偿效应表明，在比较情境下的印象形成过程中，热情和能力这两个维度之间存在负相关关系。然而，热情与能力之间的补偿是否也适用于印象管理呢？两项研究探讨了人们是否会为了显得有能力而主动淡化自己的热情，以及为了显得热情而淡化自己的能力。在研究1a和1b中，参与者从预先测试过的、在热情和能力方面程度高低不同的词汇中进行选择，将其纳入一封电子邮件中，发给他们想要留下深刻印象的人。正如预测的那样，当参与者想要显得热情时，他们会淡化自己的能力（研究1a）；而当他们想要显得有能力时，会淡化自己的热情（研究1b）。在研究2a和2b中，当参与者向另一个人做自我介绍时，补偿现象也会出现，这从他们选择回答的关于自己的问题、自我报告的目标以及开放式自我介绍中可以得到证明。补偿只发生在热情和能力之间，而在其他维度上则不会发生，比如健康（研究2a）和政治兴趣（研究2b），这表明补偿效应不仅仅是维度之间简单的零和交换。
