ABSTRACT
As we negotiate our daily lives, opportunities are rife for the assessment and evaluation of others and the self. We often and seemingly effortlessly decide that “Judy is smart,” “Eric is annoying,” “Donald is hostile,” or “I'm not very athletic.” No doubt, a number of factors contribute to these types of judgments, including observed information, social stereotypes or other expectations, and contextually activated frames of reference. In this chapter, I will review evidence suggesting that these judgments may be made and can be interpreted in light of particular evaluative and comparative contexts—that is, information that is made accessible in the immediate judgment setting. I will examine— piecemeal—the features of contexts that have been shown empirically to produce either assimilation or contrast effects. In the next chapter, I will turn to a consideration of several models of social judgment that offer explanations for why these findings emerge.
