How Performance Expectations Arise from Sentiments

Recent studies in expectation formation processes have expanded the range of topics examined to include graduated expectations, expectation formation in nonstatus structures, and how structures based on sentiments organize interaction processes. Each of these research programs presumes that an actor receives information about self and other(s), filters this information through an evaluation process, and forms an expectation for future behavior of self and others. On the basis of this expectation, the actor is predisposed to accept influence, distribute chances to perform, and evaluate others' future actions. Most studies of state-organizing processes focus on behavior differences observable between actors with different patterns of expectations. Few studies attempt to measure expectations by asking actors about their expectations for self and for other. This paper reports on a series of studies that asked actors to report on each step in the expectation-formation process in an attempt to determine how sentiment structures, defined as patterns of liking and disliking, lead to performance expectations. These studies support a theoretical principle which asserts that actors process sentiment information to form performance beliefs. Those beliefs lead to expectations for future behavior and to behavioral manifestations of performance expectations similar to those based on status differences in groups.