Incorporating if ... then ... personality signatures in person perception:: Beyond the person-situation dichotomy

Three studies investigated conditions in which perceivers view dispositions and situations as interactive, rather than independent, causal forces when making judgments about another's,personality. Study 1 showed that perceivers associated 5 common trait terms (e.g., friendly and shy) with characteristic if... then... (if situation a, then the person does x, but if situation b, then the person does y) personality signatures. Study 2 demonstrated that perceivers used information about a target's stable if... then... signature to infer the target's motives and traits; dispositional judgments were mediated by inferences about the target's motivations. Study 3 tested whether perceivers draw on if... then... signatures when making judgments about Big Five trait dimensions. Together, the findings indicate that perceivers take account of person-situation interactions (reflected in if... then... signatures) in everyday explanations of social behavior and personality dispositions. Boundary conditions are also discussed.