A Comparison of Four Information Processing Models of Leadership and Social Perceptions

Abstract

This study examined the validity of four alternative information processing models which specify how interaction behavior related to social perceptions in a small group problem-solving experiment. Results indicated that leadership and social power perceptions were based on relative, as opposed to absolute, frequency of behaviors and that this relationship was eliminated when behavior conflicted with experimenter provided behavioral norms. Limited support was found for the expectations that leadership perceptions depended on the prototypicality of behavior and on how well behaviors matched the interdependence requirements of experimental tasks. Results further suggested that raters' causal ascriptions to ratees may have been derived from leadership perceptions rather than being crucial in forming leadership perceptions, which supports a categorization model of leadership.