Uncertainty Orientation and Person Perception: Individual Differences in Categorization

Individual differences in the structure of subjects' person categories were investigated in relation to ”uncertainty orientation”—a variable that is related to people's relative interest in either maximizing information gain (uncertainty-oriented people) or maintaining clarity (certainty-oriented people). Two tasks, based on research by Cantor and Mischel (1979), were completed by 133 subjects. In one, the subjects were to classify specific person categories under four general ”superordinate” person category headings, and in the other, they were asked to list trait adjectives describing members of each of four specific person categories. The results extend Cantor and Mischel's research by demonstrating a ”trade-off” between differentiation of categories and the richness of categories at the individual level. In addition, both studies yielded support for specific hypotheses. In the first task, certainty-oriented subjects listed fewer person categories under the higher-order superordinate category headings (p < .001), and demonstrated less overlap across these superordinate categories (p < .02) than did uncertainty-oriented subjects. Similarly, for the second task, certainty-oriented subjects listed fewer trait adjectives to describe specific person categories (suggesting less richness, p < .05); subsequently, fewer traits were common to more than one category for certainty-oriented subjects (suggesting greater differentiation, p < .08) than was true for uncertainty-oriented subjects. The significance of these findings for uncertainty orientation, and possible implications for stereotyping and information seeking, are discussed.