Some effects of deception and level of self-monitoring on planning and reacting to a self-presentation.

This experiment addressed issues in impression management. First, this study investigated whether type of impression intended (accurate or fabricated) and level of self-monitoring (high or low) affect the amount of information about a target person that individuals would acquire, at some cost to themselves, prior to interacting with that person. As predicted, high self-monitors planning a fabrication purchased more information than high self-monitors planning an accurate impression or low self-monitors planning either type of impression. In addition, reactions of both participants to the actor's performance were analyzed. Impression type affected both actors ' and targets ' reactions, whereas self-monitoring affected only the targets ' ratings. Erving Goffman, in his seminal work on impression management (19S9), has discussed how individuals present an impression of self that influences the definition of the situation that others come to formulate. It is in the various parties ' best interest to induce others to attribute qualities to them that are sup-portive of their own interaction goals. People can do this by expressing themselves in a manner that communicates impressions in-tended to lead others to support their plans voluntarily. The current experiment focuses on actors ' preparation for an upcoming en-counter and reactions to their performance. The experiment reported herein was conducted as part of a doctoral dissertation for the Department of