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Who likes extraverts? Re-examining motivational tradeoff effects in social perception
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Description: Recent research has shown that there are large individual differences in impression formation, but they remain poorly understood. One line of research has tried to explain these differences through the lens of motivational tradeoffs: Perceivers form more positive impressions of targets who appear more likely to address their needs. For example, a perceiver with a strong affiliation motive might prefer extraverted-looking others. As the existing evidence for this hypothesis is mixed, we conducted two preregistered replications of three studies. Using the original stimuli and study design (Study 1, n = 273) and two additional stimulus sets and an improved study design (Study 2, n = 367), we do not find that individual differences in (a) affiliative needs, (b) pathogen concern, or (c) sociosexual orientation predict preferences for extraverted-looking others. Bayesian analyses supported this conclusion. Our findings highlight the need for additional research to understand how individual differences shape social perception.