Observational Goals and Behavior Unitization: A Reexamination

In two studies, we found that perceivers with different observational goals—learning an actor's task, forming an impression of her, or no specific goal—picked up qualitatively different information while viewing the actor's ongoing behavior. Because we used a between-subjects design and analysis, our results rule out a demand-characteristics interpretation that may explain a similar finding in earlier research. We also found that the explicit goal of learning a task or forming an impression (relative to having no specific goal) led to the selection of less information overall from the observed behavior. Finally, in contrast to previous work on this topic, we found that the goal of learning a task did not lead perceivers to select more information than did the goal of forming an impression. Implications of these findings and future research possibilities are discussed.