Mental Construal Processes: The Inclusion/Exclusion Model: Norbert Schwarz and Herbert Bless

T he terms assimilation and contrast describe the direction of contextualinfluences on evaluative judgment. Researchers speak of “assimilation” or“carry-over” effects whenever judgments are positively correlated with the valence of the context information, that is, when positive contextual information results in a more positive evaluation or negative contextual information results in a more negative evaluation. Conversely, they speak of “contrast” or “backfire” effects whenever judgments are negatively correlated with the valence of the context information, that is, when positive contextual information results in a more negative evaluation or negative contextual information results in a more positive evaluation. The sources of these effects are as varied as the sources of information that can serve as input into evaluative judgment.