Impressions from events*

Collection and analyses of U.S. data were supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant No. 1‐R01‐MH29978–01‐SSR. Analyses of Belfast data were supported by National Science Foundation Grant No. SES‐8122089. The author wishes to thank Christine P. Averett, David R. Heise, Bernadette P. Smith, Richard Sands, Beverly A. Wiggins and Dennis Willigan for extensive work on study design, data collection and processing. J. Miller McPherson and David R. Heise provided helpful comments on the manuscript.

Abstract

A large study of event stimuli developed new equations for describing how people react to events. Exploratory work found several new interaction terms affecting the impression formation process. To demonstrate the generality of the impression formation process across subject populations and study procedures, the results from the current study were compared to four others: two earlier studies on U.S. college undergraduates, a study of Belfast, Northern Ireland, high school students, and an Arabic study of well‐educated Egyptians and Lebanese. Striking similarities in evaluation dynamics appeared in all studies. All English‐speakers had similar potency and activity dynamics, while the Arabic study showed subtantial differences in the processing of these dimensions.

Keywords:

• Impressions
• Affect
• Semantic Differential
• Cross‐Cultural

Notes

Collection and analyses of U.S. data were supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant No. 1‐R01‐MH29978–01‐SSR. Analyses of Belfast data were supported by National Science Foundation Grant No. SES‐8122089. The author wishes to thank Christine P. Averett, David R. Heise, Bernadette P. Smith, Richard Sands, Beverly A. Wiggins and Dennis Willigan for extensive work on study design, data collection and processing. J. Miller McPherson and David R. Heise provided helpful comments on the manuscript.