Abstracts Psychology

The effects of chronic accuracy goals on social judgment : the case of causal uncertainty

by Jill A. Jacobson

Causal uncertainty refers to uncertainty about one's ability to understand the causes of social events (Weary & Edwards, 1994, 1996). Weary and Edwards' (1996) postulated that the adoption of an accuracy goal is part of the causal uncertainty construct's motive structure. This hypothesis was derived from the observation that the action plans typically employed by individuals whose causal uncertainty beliefs have been activated involve the effortful seeking and processing of information. However, Chaiken, Liberman, and Eagly (1989) contend that such systematic processing also can be the result of other motivations such defense or impression motivation. Thus, this evidence that causal uncertainty belief activation is linked to accuracy concerns is indirect. The goal of the current studies was to more directly establish that accuracy is part of the causal uncertainty motive structure, and the following results were obtained. Compared to low causally uncertain individuals, high causally uncertain participants whose causal uncertainty beliefs were activated were shown to expend as much effort in an impression formation task as individuals who were explicitly assigned an accuracy goal. They also were more easily primed with an accuracy goal, but exhibited less effortful information seeking and processing when primed with an impression goal. Finally, the accuracy motivation associated with causal uncertainty beliefs not only led to greater processing of social information, but this systematic processing also made chronic causally uncertain people less likely to engage in stereotyping.