Journal of Personality and Social Psycholology,  2000 Oct;79(4):546-62

The impact of past relationships on interpersonal behavior: behavioral confirmation in the social-cognitive process of transference.*

Berk MS, Andersen SM
Department of Psychology, New York University, New York 10003, USA.


This study extended research on transference in social perception (e.g., S. M. Andersen, I. Reznik, & L. M. Manzella, 1996) into the realm of social behavior by examining behavioral confirmation (e.g., M. Snyder, 1992) in transference. Each perceiver participated in a brief conversation with a naive target participant, who either did or did not appear to resemble the perceiver's own positively or negatively regarded significant other. Trained judges rated positive affect expressed in targets' behavior. As predicted, targets expressed more positive affect in their behavior when they allegedly resembled the perceiver's own positively versus negatively toned significant other, an effect not found in the control condition. This evidence demonstrates behavioral confirmation in transference, suggesting a means by which present relationships may resemble past ones.

*
Reproduced with permission of the APA - Jounal of Personality and Social Psychology