Individuation moderates impressions of conflicting categories for slower processors

We investigated individuation – attribute-based impressions associated with each unique individual rather than their categorical membership – as a moderator of impressions formed when slower versus faster processors encounter conflicting social category conjunctions. Descriptions of incongruent (e.g., female bricklayer), but not congruent category conjunctions (e.g., female nurse) were moderated by individuation in the application of emergent attributes (novel attributes associated exclusively with the category conjunction and not the constituents). However, this was only the case for slow processors. These findings suggest that the means by which slower processors relative to faster processors form impressions for poorly correlated category conjunctions vary systematically. Individuated impressions lead to emergent attribute application for perceivers with slower processing ability. We discuss the implications of these findings.