Primacy effects in impression formation as a function of type of impression

Abstract

To determine if the different order effects in impression formation observed in studies of adjective description (primacy effects) and in a face-to-face study of interaction (recency effects) are a function of the types of impressions requested (likableness vs cooperativeness, respectively), an adjective description study was done in which Ss were asked to form both types of impressions. Using adjectives that were normatively equated with respect to degrees of likableness and cooperativeness, it was found that likableness impressions were governed by primacy to a significantly greater degree than cooperativeness impressions. © 1971, The Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.