Impression Formation: The Influence of Perceived Psychological Distance upon the Manifestation of Babyface Overgeneralization Effect
Impression Formation: The Influence of Perceived Psychological Distance upon the Manifestation of Babyface Overgeneralization Effect

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of this research was to study the influence of the construal level, induced by perceived psychological distance, on the impression formed about persons with infant‑like facial features. The study is based on the assumptions of the impression formation continuum model (Fiske şi Neuberg, 1990) and proposes to view the babyface overgeneralization effect through the glasses of a relatively new theory. According to the Construal Level Theory (Trope şi Liberman, 2010), it was expected that in a high level construal situation, the influence of facial stimuli would gain weight, thus the babyface overgeneralization effect would manifest vividly. On the other hand, a low‑level construal would lead to the inhibition of this overgeneralization effect manifestation. 196 participants responded to an online questionnaire, where they had to express their impression about the level of naïvety, honesty and warmth of a target‑person, presented through a photo and a descriptive text.The manipulated variables are: nature of facial stimuli (infantile/mature), temporal distance (low/high/unspecified) and target gender (feminine / masculine). The results show interesting signs of influence that the psychological distance has on the manifestation of babyface stereotype, even though they do not confirm all the hypotheses of the study. It is registered a tendency of improvement for the babyface stereotype manifestation in the high temporal distance condition, as well as a inhibition of this stereotype in the low temporal distance condition. Other observed effects, as the ones generated by the gender of the target, are discussed.

• Details
• Contents