Impression formation in triads

Three linear and two non‐compensatory models of impression formation in the small group were compared for predictive power. When groups evaluated persons with affectively consistent attributed personality traits, the group impression was most accurately predicted from a simple averaging of each member's initial impression. Group impressions of persons with affectively incongruent personality profiles were best predicted by a weighted averaging model, with weights derived from individual member's proportion of total utterances in task control areas.