The canny social judge: Predicting others' attitudes from sparse information

Abstract

We demonstrate a phenomenon we term 'The Canny Social Judge.' Specifically, we demonstrate that individuals have a remarkable ability to predict the attitudes of others in a social group even though those attitudes were never shared. In Experiments 1 and 2, we document this phenomenon. In Experiment 3, we adopt an individual difference approach and find that empathic responding moderates this phenomenon - it is individuals who are good at empathic responding who appear particularly able to display the 'canny social judge' effect. In Experiment 4, using an experimental manipulation of empathy, we provide greater internal validity to our claim. Finally, in Experiment 5, we parse empathic processing into the component parts to delineate the process further. These data paint a picture of a highly socially aware organism. © 2014 Elsevier Inc.