ABSTRACT
Extremely positive as well as extremely negative information both should carry extra weight. An extremely negative cue, such as possessing only a high school diploma, would especially distinguish that unfortunate applicant and would carry enormous weight in evaluating the person as a potential research assistant. Under the general hypothesis that informativeness produces differential impact, negative and extreme information should attract both attention and weight. Weight reflects the amount of information obtained from a cue relative to the other cues present. Weight varies depending on the context of a particular impression. The predicted preferential weighting for negative and for extreme cues was the major effect in the likability analyses. To return to attribute effects on attention and weight, the current discussion focuses on aspects of attributes that are independent of context—specifically, the evaluative scale value of an attribute can be broken down into valence.
