Personality moderators of interpersonal expectancy effects: Replication of Harris and Rosenthal (1986)

Abstract

Personality moderators of interpersonal expectancy effects were examined in a replication and extension of the findings of Harris and Rosenthal (1986). Twenty-eight undergraduates, assigned the role of “interviewer,” interacted with 89 undergraduates during several 15-min getting acquainted sessions. Interviewers had been led to believe that the subjects they were interviewing were extremely high, average, or extremely low with respect to shyness. Prior to the sessions, all subjects completed a battery of personality measures. Analyses suggested mixed support for an interviewer expectancy effect, with stronger bias effects being found for interviewers given Shy vs Average expectancies than for those given Not Shy vs Average expectancies. Greater bias effects were found for interviewers who scored higher on PRF Achievement, Order, self-rated expressiveness and lower on self-rated shyness. Interviewees who scored higher on Achievement, Dogmatism, Endurance, and Cognitive Structure showed significantly lower bias effects. These findings are interpreted as indicating the importance of the rigidity of cognitive schemas in determing whether or not an expectancy effect will occur.