Impression perseverance. Once one has observed an actor’s behavior or outcome and come up with a dispositional attribution, it can be difficult to alter one’s hypothesis about that actor, even if one were to become privy to new information that challenged or invalidated the old information (Lord, Lepper, & Ross, 1979; Ross, Lepper, & Hubbard, 1975). There is evidence for a broad range of cognitive processes that would conspire to sustain initial impressions (Ross & Lepper, 1980). Subsequent acts are likely to be construed in terms that render them consistent with initial attributions; and
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Confirmation bias.
