Research on social inferences demonstrates that when
thinking about minds similar to our own, we anchor and
adjust away from ourselves (Tamir & Mitchell, 2013).
However, research on relational self theory (Andersen &
Chen, 2002) suggests the possibility of using knowledge
about others as an anchor when they are more similar to a
target than ourselves. We investigated whether social
inferences are made on the basis of significant other
knowledge through an anchor and adjustment process, and
whether this ability would be reduced under load. Participants
answered questions about their likes and habits, as well as the
likes and habits of a significant other, a target similar to their
significant other, and a yoked control. We found that
differences between the significant other and similar target
were related to participants’ reaction time, and found the
opposite effect for self and target differences, suggesting
anchoring and adjustment from the significant other rather
than the self. However, inferences about the others tended to
be more similar to the self under load, suggesting that the self
serves as the primary source of information about others.