Donald W Edlow’s research while affiliated with Yale University and other places

This experiment tested the interactive effects of the ease of denial of possession of a negative trait, and the social category of the stimulus person, upon attribution of the negative trait to others. Each subject was told that either: 1) he was very indecisive; 2) he was very indecisive, but the test might have been invalid; 3) he was very decisive. Subjects then rated a set of TAT stories, the author of which was either a student or a criminal. The two main hypotheses were supported; greater attribution of indecisiveness to the student occurred in conditions 1 and 3 than in condition 2. However, attribution of the negative trait to the criminal was less affected by the ease of denial of possession of the trait.