Confirmatory processes in attitude transmission: The role of shared reality

Abstract

In social communication, do message senders' expectations about message recipients play any role in the construction of social stereotypes? In particular, can senders' expectations about recipients' attitudes toward social groups initiate a confirmatory process whereby both senders and recipients come to hold the expected attitudes when there is no basis for them? In Study 1 senders composed messages biased in the direction of randomly assigned expectations about a recipient's attitudes toward students living on campus by selectively modifying items of gossip. Senders also subsequently reported attitudes biased in the direction of their messages. In Study 2 yoked participants read the origin..