Critcher Clayton R, Dunning David, Rom Sarah C
Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley.
Department of Psychology, Cornell University.
J Pers Soc Psychol. 2015 Mar;108(3):400-16. doi: 10.1037/pspa0000019. Epub 2015 Feb 2.
Representations of the self and others include not only piecemeal traits but also causal trait theories-explanations for why a person's standing on 1 trait causes or is caused by standings on other traits (Studies 1a-1c). These causal theories help resolve the puzzle of egocentric pattern projection-the tendency for people to assume that traits correlate in the population in the same way they align in the self. Causal trait theories-created to explain trait co-occurrence in a single person-are exported to guide one's implicit personality theories about people in general (Study 2). Pattern projection was found to be largely egocentric (i.e., more strong guided by self- than by social perceptions) for 2 reasons. First, causal trait theories are more numerous for the self. When participants were prompted to generate causal trait theories about someone else, they pattern projected more from that person (Study 3). Second, causal trait theories about the self are more likely to draw on behavioral information from multiple contexts instead of merely seeking to explain why 2 traits co-occur in a single context. Causal trait theories based on trait-relevant behaviors from different contexts, instead of trait co-occurrence within a single context, produce more pattern projection (Study 4). Implications for self and social cognition are discussed.
自我和他人的表征不仅包括零碎的特质，还包括因果特质理论，即对一个人在某一特质上的表现为何会导致或由其他特质的表现所导致的解释（研究1a - 1c）。这些因果理论有助于解决自我中心模式投射的谜题，即人们倾向于认为特质在总体中的相关性与它们在自我中的排列方式相同。因果特质理论是为了解释单个人身上特质的共现而产生的，却被用于指导人们对一般人的隐含人格理论（研究2）。发现模式投射在很大程度上是以自我为中心的（即更多地受自我认知而非社会认知的强烈引导），原因有两个。首先，关于自我的因果特质理论更多。当参与者被促使生成关于他人的因果特质理论时，他们更多地从那个人身上进行模式投射（研究3）。其次，关于自我的因果特质理论更有可能借鉴来自多个情境的行为信息，而不仅仅是试图解释为什么两种特质在单一情境中共现。基于来自不同情境的与特质相关行为而非单一情境中特质共现的因果特质理论，会产生更多的模式投射（研究4）。文中还讨论了对自我和社会认知的启示。
