Valence and position of inconsistent information in impression formation

College students rated the character of a target person from mixed favorable and unfavorable information. One statement of opposite valence was inserted at the beginning, middle, or end of an otherwise univalent description. One rating was made at the time of stimulus presentation and another a week later. Negative information was more influential than positive in 4 of the 6 final ratings. Position of the incompatible statement had no significant effect but there was a consistent trend in the direction of primacy for both predominantly-positive and predominantly-negative descriptions.