This two experiment paper examined how a negative revelation disrupts dyads' shared impression of another person, and encourages impression revision by focusing conversation on negative, stigma-congruent information. In the first experiment, compared to nondisrupted dyads, disrupted dyads discussed congruent information longer, discussed how it fit their impressions, and questioned each other about it. Experiment 2 showed that, after disruption, dyads also increased focus on congruent information over time. Thus, discovering a previously unknown stigma focuses people's attention on information that is stereotypically associated with the stigma, and may reflect efforts to re-establish a coherent impression.

Back to publications