Multivariate Analysis of Triadic Relationst.

To analyze variance in a triadic variable, Bond, Horn, and Kenny (1997) have proposed a Triadic Relations Model. Here we extend this model to analyze the covariances between triadic variables. A bivariate version of the Triadic Relations Model is specified, and estimation methods are presented. These can be used to decompose the covariance between two triadic variables into thirty-three covariance components. Interpretations and an example of this analysis are offered. Applications of this model and alternative techniques are noted.

Do we know how much people like one another?

Metaperception is a person's perception about a second person's perception of a third person. The purpose of this article is to examine the accuracy of metaperceptions of liking. A related question concerns whether the heuristics of balance, reciprocity, and agreement are used by perceivers when forming such judgments. The authors present analyses from 5 diverse research studies that used an adaptation of the social relations model for triads (C.F. Bond, E.M. Horn, & D.A. Kenny, in press). The results indicate that people know how much people like one another, even with small amounts of information. Although there is evidence for the use of heuristics, particularly reciprocity and agreement, accuracy is sometimes enhanced by using these heuristics.

Fishy-looking liars: deception judgment from expectancy violation.

To explain how people judge that others are lying, an expectancy-violation model is proposed. According to the model, deception is perceived from nonverbal behavior that violates normative expectation. To test the model, 3 experiments were conducted, 2 in the United States and 1 in India. In each experiment, people described acquaintances while exhibiting weird nonverbal behaviors, such as arm raising, head tilting, and staring. Other Ss watched the videotapes of the descriptions and made deception judgments. Consistent with the expectancy-violation model, both American undergraduates and Indian illiterates inferred deception from weird behaviors. Implications of the model are discussed.

Expressive and perceptual asymmetries of the resting face.

Lateral facial composites reveal the asymmetry of the resting face. In the current research, we created lateral composites of 30 resting faces, then had subjects compare the two composites of a face with a depiction of the whole face in either normal- or mirror-image. Results indicate that the side of the face in a subject's left visual hemi-space dominates facial recognition. The magnitude of this bias can be altered by priming tasks. It is a bias in facial perception, not memory.