A three-way multidimensional scaling approach to the analysis of judgments about persons

Judgments about persons may depend on (1) how coherently person at-
tributes are linked within the stimulus person and (2) how strongly the given person
information activates a social stereotype. These factors may determine the number
of judgment dimensions, their salience and their relatedness. A three-way multi-
dimensional scaling model is presented that measures these parameters and their
change across stimulus persons or judgment conditions. The proposed approach in-
volves a formal modelling of information integration in the judgment process. An
application to experimental data shows the validity of the model.