ABSTRACT
The previous two chapters emphasized general principles and models regarding how contextual information affects social judgments. In this chapter, the initial focus is more specifically on the role of self in judging other people. That the self can be used as a referent for evaluating others is a theme that appears in a number of research literatures. Even Helson (1964), whose work emphasized sensory contributions to judgment, suggested that an individual's attitudes and beliefs can be included in her or his general “adaptation level,” affecting subsequent experience and judgment. Psychologists interested in attitudes and attitude scaling have also argued that one's own attitudes serve as anchors in the evaluation and perception of other attitude stances—a view expressed most clearly in Hovland and Sherif's (1952) social judgment theory (Hovland, Harvey, & Sherif, 1957; Sherif & Hovland, 1961) and in other judgment models (Eiser & Mower White, 1974; Eiser & Stroebe, 1972; Insko, Murashima, & Saiyadain, 1966; Judd & Harackiewicz, 1980; Lord, Ross, & Lepper, 1979; Upshaw, 1962, 1969; Zavalloni & Cook, 1965; see Eiser, 1990, for a review).
