The cognition-behavior link: Effects of activated trait categories on social behavior

Current models of the social cognition-behavior link assume that activating a trait category induces an expectancy about a target person and a specific behavior towards this person. 60 subjects participated in an experiment where 15 subjects were randomly assigned to the role of a target person. Each target interacted consecutively with three subjects whose category-dependent expectancy towards the target was varied. To activate different categories, subjects received attributes of a typical much less thanextravertmuch greater than, a typical much less thanintrovertmuch greater than or no information in the control condition. The analysis,of the interaction data confirmed the hypothesis. Subjects' behavior was significantly influenced by the prior activated category where two factors affected the quality of the behavior: (a) the content of the category and, (b) the consistency between subjects' expectancy and targets'. behavior. Theoretical implications of, the results are discussed.