Journal of Personality and Social Psycholology, 1995 Jul;69(1):41-57

Transference in social perception: the role of chronic accessibility in significant-other representations.*

Andersen SM, Glassman NS, Chen S, Cole SW
Department of Psychology, New York University, New York 10003, USA.

Research has shown that the activation and application of a significant-other representation to a new person, or transference, occurs in everyday social perception (S. M. Andersen & A. Baum, 1994; S. M. Andersen & S. W. Cole, 1990). Using a combined idiographic and nomothetic experimental paradigm, two studies examined the role of chronic accessibility of significant-other representations in transference. After learning about 4 fictional people, 1 of whom resembled a significant other, participants' recognition memory was assessed. Both studies showed greater false-positive memory in the significant-other condition, relative to control, even in the absence of priming. Study 2 showed that although the effect was greater when the significant-other representation was concretely applicable to the target information, it occurred even when no such applicability was present. Results implicate the chronic accessibility of significant-other representations in transference.
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* Reproduced with permission of the APA - Jounal of Personality and Social Psychology