Response Time as a Cue in Person Perception
The information conveyed by the delay preceding response of stimulus persons (SPs) to problem solutions offered by S was evaluated in terms of S‘s imputations of competence or compliance to the SP. It was observed that induction of a “set” in S in which one of the above traits was relevant resulted in S's preference for an SP whom he inferred to possess the relevant trait from SP‘s response time. It was also observed that the nature of these inferences varied with the difficulty of the problems for which SP's rapid or delayed responses were relevant.