Which of the following is the best example of a correspondent inference?

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

To analyze the question, we first recall what a correspondent inference is: it is a judgment about a person’s disposition or character based on observing their stable behavior or actions in a particular situation.
Option A: 'Kim was told that Marty was a prankster.' This statement describes third-party information about Marty’s personality but does not show Kim making an inference about Marty based on his own observed behavior; instead, it relays someone else’s claim, which weakens its status as a direct correspondent inference.
Option B: 'Alex asked Mary out on a date and she said ‘yes.’' This is an interaction outcome, but it’s about Mary’s response to Alex rather than about inferring Mary’s character from someone’s behavior. It provides a dating result rather than evidence of a character judgment derived from observed behavior.
Option C: 'Nicholas watched someone slip and fall and decided that that person was clumsy.' This directly uses an observed behavior (the slip and fall) to infer a stable trait of the observed person (clumsiness). This matches the classic example of a correspondent inference, where a person’s action (slipping) is used to infer an enduring trait (being clumsy).
Option D: 'Jim was running late for a meeting because he got stuck in traffic, but he assumed his associate wouldn’t mind.' This shows a use of a social assumption regarding another person’s feelings or expectations, not a judgment about a person’s dispositional trait based on their own behavior. It focuses on situational attribution about Jim’s own lateness and his assumption about another’s reaction, rather than inferring a stable trait from observed behavior.
Overall, when evaluating which option best illustrates a correspondent inference, look for a scenario where an observer infers a stable characteristic of someone from that person’s (or someone else’s) observable behavior in a specific situation. Among the options, only C clearly demonstrates inferring a trait (clumsiness) from an observable behavior (slip and fall).

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Which of the following is the best example of a correspondent inference?

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