Exemplar activation and interpersonal behavior

This study investigates the effects of exemplar activation on the verbal responses of participants. Two-hundred people were sent a clearly miss-addressed e-mail message. The name of the sender was manipulated so that he could have the same name as a famous positive exemplar or as a famous negative exemplar. Replies (15%) showed no effect on the number of responses. However, effects emerged on the content of the responses. Overall, participants were much more friendly when the sender had the same name as a positive exemplar. Thus, it is demonstrated that assimilation effects might occur when a social target shares some irrelevant feature (i.e., the name) with a famous exemplar. Results are consistent with recent models that underlie the importance of exemplar activation on social perception and behavior.