William Swann
William B. Swann Jr. is the co-author, with Mark Snyder, of the 1978 studies on hypothesis testing in social interaction. In four investigations, participants chose interview questions to test whether a target person was an extravert or an introvert.
Who they are
Swann is a social psychologist. This site records him as co-author of the 1978 paper and as the researcher associated with the identity fusion framework, covered under Identity Fusion. No further biographical detail has been verified for this page, so it does not give dates, positions or institutions.
Key papers
- Snyder, M., & Swann, W. B. (1978). Hypothesis-testing processes in social interaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36(11), 1202-1212. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.36.11.1202
Key ideas
In the 1978 paper, female undergraduates were told that a target person was either an extravert or an introvert and then chose the questions they would ask in an upcoming interview. The abstract reports that they planned to test the label by preferentially searching for behavioural evidence that would confirm it, and that the question-selection strategies shaped the interactions so that the targets displayed behaviour confirming the label they had been given. The authors also offer a theoretical analysis of the processes behind the confirmation-seeking search and its interpersonal consequences.
The work extends the number-rule research of Peter Wason into conversation, where the questions are part of the situation being tested. It is discussed on this site under Confirmatory Hypothesis Testing.
Sources
- Snyder, M., & Swann, W. B. (1978). Hypothesis-testing processes in social interaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36(11), 1202-1212. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.36.11.1202