The goal of this research was to examine whether members of a stigmatized social category exhibit bias or enhanced accuracy in person perception during interpersonal interaction with out-group individuals. Tulane University students (N = 104) completed a set of measures to assess level of self-esteem and self-consciousness, as well as demographic information and personal characteristics, including smoking status. Based on smoking status, participants were divided into groups of four, representing one of three possible group compositions: all smokers, all nonsmokers, and two smokers with two nonsmokers. Participants interacted in dyads in a round-robin design, rated each other on evaluative items, and postdicted others' ratings of themselves (specific metaperceptions). Based on past research, smokers were expected to show less accuracy in their postdictions of how others view them when engaged in social interaction with nonsmokers. Using a social relations model framework, results provided some support for the hypotheses. Preliminary variance components analyses indicated that both perceiver and relationship variance components emerged as significant sources of variance in evaluations for nonsmokers and smokers across group compositions. In general, evaluations of others were driven by both response sets and unique interaction experiences. Perceiver variance was an important contributor to variance in metaperceptions for nonsmokers rating smokers, nonsmokers rating other nonsmokers, and smokers rating other smokers. Thus, in most situations, postdictions of others' ratings of the self were driven primarily by response set. When smokers were interacting with nonsmokers, however, none of the variance components was statistically significant. Thus, smokers' postdictions of how nonsmokers rated them were not particularly influenced by the smokers' response sets, consensual postdiction of nonsmokers' evaluations, or unique impressions that smokers formed of particular nonsmokers. Covariances and disattenuated correlations between variance components confirmed that smokers in mixed groups were less accurate in judging nonsmokers' evaluations of them, relative to metaperceptions that occurred among nonsmokers of smokers and in homogeneous group situations. In addition, self-esteem emerged as a potential moderator as it significantly predicted perceiver variance in metaperceptions for all conditions except smokers in the mixed group situation. Conclusions, statistical limitations, and implications for future research are discussed / acase@tulane.edu
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TULANE/oai:http://digitallibrary.tulane.edu/:tulane_25045 |
| Date | January 2004 |
| Contributors | Santuzzi, Alecia M (Author), Ruscher, Janet B (Thesis advisor) |
| Publisher | Tulane University |
| Source Sets | Tulane University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Access requires a license to the Dissertations and Theses (ProQuest) database., Copyright is in accordance with U.S. Copyright law |
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