How do attempts to regulate one's own behavior affect the inferences one draws about others? We suggest that perceivers draw dispositional inferences about targets (characterization) and then adjust those inferences with information about the constraints on the targets' behaviors (correction). Because correction is more effortful than characterization, perceivers who devote cognitive resources to the regulation of their own behavior should be able to characterize targets but unable to correct

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... ose characterizations. In Experiment 1, unregulated subjects incidentally ignored an irrelevant stimulus while they observed a target's behavior, whereas self-regulated subjects purposefully ignored the same irrelevant stimulus. In Experiment 2, unregulated subjects expressed their sincere affection toward a target, whereas self-regulated subjects expressed false affection. In both experiments, self-regulated subjects were less likely than unregulated subjects to correct their characterizations of the target. The results suggest that social interaction (which generally requires the selfregulation of ongoing behavior) may profoundly affect the way in which active perceivers process information about others. Lying is not only excusable; it is not only innocent, and ins tinctive; it is, above all, necessary and unavoidable. Without the ameliorations that it offers life would become a mere syllogism, and hence too metallic to be borne. ( H. L. Mencken, 1924 , p. 277) What would social life be like if people invariably said what they meant and meant what they said? A mere syllogism indeed: tractable, uncomplicated, and obvious. However, social life is none of these things because people are in fact quite capable of crafting behaviors that are imperfect indexes of their inner beliefs. When people make polite conversation with a contemptible colleague, mask their desire for an attractive acquaintance, or feign interest in a friend's dreary problems, they are striking a thoughtful balance between the expression and inhibition of their true feelings. The self-regulation of overt behavior is the kingpin on which virtually all social interactions turn.