Assessing the point at which averages are stable: A tool illustrated in the context of person perception

Author(s):  
Eric Hehman ◽  
Sally Y Xie ◽  
Eugene K Ofosu ◽  
Gabriel A Nespoli

Across many diverse areas of research, it is common to average a series of observations, and to use these averages in subsequent analyses. Research using this approach faces the challenge of knowing when these averages are stable. Meaning, to what extent do these averages change when additional observations are included? Using averages that are not stable introduces a great deal of error into any analysis. The current research develops a tool, implemented in R, to assess when averages are stable. Using a sequential sampling approach, it determines how many observations are needed before additional observations would no longer meaningfully change an average. The utility of this tool is illustrated in the context of impression formation, demonstrating that averages of some perceived traits (e.g., happy) stabilize with fewer observations than others (e.g., assertive). A tutorial regarding how to utilize this tool in researchers’ own data is provided.

2014 ◽  
Vol 136 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shengli Xu ◽  
Haitao Liu ◽  
Xiaofang Wang ◽  
Xiaomo Jiang

Surrogate models are widely used in simulation-based engineering design and optimization to save the computing cost. The choice of sampling approach has a great impact on the metamodel accuracy. This article presents a robust error-pursuing sequential sampling approach called cross-validation (CV)-Voronoi for global metamodeling. During the sampling process, CV-Voronoi uses Voronoi diagram to partition the design space into a set of Voronoi cells according to existing points. The error behavior of each cell is estimated by leave-one-out (LOO) cross-validation approach. Large prediction error indicates that the constructed metamodel in this Voronoi cell has not been fitted well and, thus, new points should be sampled in this cell. In order to rapidly improve the metamodel accuracy, the proposed approach samples a Voronoi cell with the largest error value, which is marked as a sensitive region. The sampling approach exploits locally by the identification of sensitive region and explores globally with the shift of sensitive region. Comparative results with several sequential sampling approaches have demonstrated that the proposed approach is simple, robust, and achieves the desired metamodel accuracy with fewer samples, that is needed in simulation-based engineering design problems.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sally Yan-Jun Xie

People form impressions of others from their faces, inferring character traits (e.g., friendly) along two broad, influential dimensions: Warmth and Competence. Although these two dimensions are presumed to be independent, research has yet to examine the generalizability of this model to cross-group impressions, despite extant evidence that Warmth and Competence are not independent for outgroup targets. This thesis explores this possibility by testing models of person perception for own-group and other-group perceptions, implementing confirmatory factor analysis in a structural equation modeling framework, and analyzing the underlying trait space using representational similarity analysis. I fit 402,473 ratings of 873 unique faces from 5,040 participants on 14 trait impressions to own-group and other-group models, exploring whether perceptions across race and gender are more unidimensional. Results indicate that current models of face perception fit poorly and are not universal as presumed: the space of trait impressions varies depending on targets’ race and gender. Keywords: person perception, impression formation, face perception, intergroup processes, social cognition


2012 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Furley ◽  
Matt Dicks ◽  
Daniel Memmert

In the present article, we investigate the effects of specific nonverbal behaviors signaling dominance and submissiveness on impression formation and outcome expectation in the soccer penalty kick situation. In Experiment 1, results indicated that penalty takers with dominant body language are perceived more positively by soccer goalkeepers and players and are expected to perform better than players with a submissive body language. This effect was similar for both video and point-light displays. Moreover, in contrast to previous studies, we found no effect of clothing (red vs. white) in the video condition. In Experiment 2, we used the implicit association test to demonstrate that dominant body language is implicitly associated with a positive soccer player schema whereas submissive body language is implicitly associated with a negative soccer player schema. The implications of our findings are discussed with reference to future implications for theory and research in the study of person perception in sport.


1984 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 29-35
Author(s):  
Michael P. O'Driscoll ◽  
Barry L. Richardson ◽  
Dianne B. Wuillemin

Thirty photographs depicting diverse emotional expressions were shown to a sample of Melanesian students who were assigned to either a face plus context or face alone condition. Significant differences between the two groups were obtained in a substantial proportion of cases on Schlosberg's Pleasant Unpleasant, and Attention – Rejection scales and the emotional expressions were judged to be appropriate to the context. These findings support the suggestion that the presence or absence of context is an important variable in the judgement of emotional expression and lend credence to the universal process theory.Research on perception of emotions has consistently illustrated that observers can accurately judge emotions in facial expressions (Ekman, Friesen, & Ellsworth, 1972; Izard, 1971) and that the face conveys important information about emotions being experienced (Ekman & Oster, 1979). In recent years, however, a question of interest has been the relative contributions of facial cues and contextual information to observers' overall judgements. This issue is important for theoretical and methodological reasons. From a theoretical viewpoint, unravelling the determinants of emotion perception would enhance our understanding of the processes of person perception and impression formation and would provide a framework for research on interpersonal communication. On methodological grounds, the researcher's approach to the face versus context issue can influence the type of research procedures used to analyse emotion perception. Specifically, much research in this field has been criticized for use of posed emotional expressions as stimuli for observers to evaluate. Spignesi and Shor (1981) have noted that only one of approximately 25 experimental studies has utilized facial expressions occurring spontaneously in real-life situations.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Fourakis ◽  
Jeremy Cone

A classic finding in the person perception literature is that information order is an important factor in the impressions we form of others. But how does order influence the formation of implicit evaluations? In three preregistered experiments including nearly 900 participants, we find evidence for a strong primacy effect even at the implicit level. This occurred on an affect misattribution procedure (Study 1), an evaluative priming task (Study 2), and an implicit association test (Study 3). These findings suggest that, just as explicit impressions are susceptible to primacy effects, so too are implicit ones. Implications for theories of evaluative conditioning and attitudes are discussed.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bastian Jaeger ◽  
Anthony M Evans ◽  
Marielle Stel ◽  
Ilja van Beest

Faces play a central role in person perception. People spontaneously judge others’ personality based on their facial appearance and these impressions guide many consequential decisions. Under what conditions do people rely on facial appearance? Here, we test whether reliance on facial appearance depends on the goal of impression formation (i.e., on which trait dimension targets are evaluated). Trait impressions are, to a large extent, based on the resemblance of facial cues to emotion expressions. As emotional expressiveness is a central component of sociability, we hypothesized that people would more readily perceive sociability in faces. Across three preregistered studies (N = 1,436), we find that facial appearance is indeed seen as more indicative of a person’s sociability than their morality or competence. We find the same pattern when examining the influence of facial cues on judgment and decision-making. People are more confident in the accuracy of their trait impressions when judging sociability (vs. morality or competence; Study 1, n = 527), they value information on the facial appearance of job candidates more when looking for a sociable (vs. moral or competent) employee (Study 2, n = 390), and they view reliance on facial appearance when making hiring decisions as more appropriate and more effective when looking for a sociable (vs. moral or competent) employee (Study 3, n = 519). Together, our results provide converging evidence that people view facial appearance as especially relevant for judging a person’s sociability.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix Kruse ◽  
Juliane Degner

Perceivers routinely draw inferences about others from their behavior in an attempt to make sense of the world. Previous research has established that spontaneous inferences include stable characteristics such as traits and a number of variable person-related concepts such as goals, intentions, and motivations. The current research investigated the occurrence of more general spontaneous state inferences. In a series of four preregistered studies (N = 883), we adapted two established experimental paradigms frequently used in spontaneous social inference research to the investigation of spontaneous trait and state inferences. In Studies 1 and 2, we observed evidence for the occurrence of spontaneous state inferences from state-implying statements. In Studies 3 and 4, we observed the simultaneous occurrence of spontaneous trait and state inferences from statements that allowed for both inferences. In a fifth study (N = 97), we provide evidence that people represent states and traits as functionally different: Participants judged the likelihood of behavioral repetition higher when the same behavior was related to a trait-inference than a state inference. The observation of multiple simultaneous spontaneous inferences in the current research suggests that further theory building regarding the underlying mechanisms and processes of spontaneous impression formation in person perception from behavior is warranted.


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