The Other Person, Similar To Me: Particularities of Intragroup Perception of Young Men and Women with Different Levels of Negative Personality Traits

The purpose of the study was to determine how the personal valence of perceived object and his/her similarities with the subject of perception mediate each other in the process of social perception, and which of these factors is stronger. We hypothesized that the subjective and objective similarity with the perceived objects can distort the attitude towards the "good" and "bad" Others in such a way that the personal similarity with the "bad" objects will contribute to more positive, and the personal contrast with the "good" objects - to more negative attitude towards them. The study involved 414 students of different specialties from 18 to 24 years old, including 86 male (21%). Participants were asked to answer the questions of the Short Dark Triad Scale (SD3), then to watch an interview with "the same as they are" student. The interviewee was a young actor or actress who answered the questions of the same SD3 in one case as a "bad" (i.e. absolutely dark-triadic) person, and in the other case - in exactly opposite way. After the interview, respondents answered the questions about the interviewee, assessing his/her appearance, the similarity with their own characters, and also expressing attitudes towards him/her using the Attitude Scale comprising cognitive, emotional and behavioral assessment. To eliminate the interference of intersex perception phenomena, females watched an interview with a young girl, and males - with a young man. The joint effects of the object's personal valence and the subjective/objective similarity with the object were investigated in relation to cognitive, emotional and behavioral assessments of the perceived Other. It was found that personal similarity was a significant factor in shaping attitudes. In case when this similarity is realized and ascertained by the subject, its influence on the attitude towards the Other becomes decisive: objectively negative, but perceived as "similar to me" person, begins to be rated more highly than objectively positive, but "not similar to me" one. The objective personal similarity, not brought to the consciousness, does not give such a distinct inversion of the attitude to the "good" and "bad" person. Increased severity of dark-triadic features of the subject can lead to a convergence of his/her assessments of the "good" and "bad" person. This convergence is clearly manifested in the cognitive attitude in both male and female samples, and in the female sample it also affects the emotional and behavioral attitudes. The discovered estimated convergence in male sample is ensured by improving the attitude towards the "bad" man, and in female sample - by worsening the attitude towards the "good" woman. On the contrast levels of subjective similarity with the object, as well as on the contrast (low and high) levels of psychopathy in female sample, the most radical (divergent) assessments of the "good" and "bad" person were observed.

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