A Diagnostic Tool for Assessing the Relative Importance of Information in Impression Formation: Application in Order Effects

This paper describes a diagnostic tool for assessing relative impact weights of time-dependent information on an impression or judgment and illustrates its use in the area of order effects. A novel and somewhat counterintuitive finding, based on applying this tool, is that the bit of information associated with the greatest impact weight is not necessarily the bit of information associated with the greatest relative impact weight. At the heart of this tool is the ability to compute precisely the relative impact weights associated with each piece of information, which are, in general, different from the actual impact weights associated with each piece of information. This provides the opportunity to determine relative impact weights under various assumptions about, and theories of, or related to, impression formation. In turn, this diagnostic information may be used to deepen understanding of a particular theory or, perhaps, to propose or define new theory.