Abstract

Social psychology is all about people’s influence on other people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, according to a classic definition (Allport, 1954). That influence depends on our impressions of those potentially influential others and how they relate to us: Who is that stranger, and why is he smiling at me? Are immigrants coming here to join our culture or to exploit it? Is my new friend a trustworthy expert about “how we do things around here?” Does that person of my dreams really share my dreams? Each of these influence situations depends on our interpretation of the other person’s predispositions.