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Pretend you are standing in line at the grocery store and the person in front of you strikes up a friendly conversation and enjoy conversing for several minutes. your impression at this point is that the person is very nice. just as they are saying goodbye, they hand you their business card and tell you that they sell insurance so you should call them if you are ever in need of any. now, you are not so sure that this person is nice. this illustrates:

O Discounting
O Augmenting
O The false consensus effect
O Self-serving bias

User PeteC
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Final answer:

The change in impression after the grocery store conversation represents discounting, where the business card revelation diminishes the sincerity of the initial friendly interaction. The correct option for this situation is Discounting.

Step-by-step explanation:

The scenario described involves the psychological concept of discounting. This term refers to the process where a new piece of information diminishes the importance of what was known previously. When the person in the grocery store hands over their business card for insurance and mentions you should call them if ever in need, the friendly interaction appears in a different light. Rather than a mere social interaction, it seems to possibly have an underlying motive of business interest. This leads to the reassessment of the person's niceness, as your initial impression of a friendly conversation gets discounted by the subsequent revelation of a potential sales pitch.

In psychological terms, discounting can also be related to the concept of the foot-in-the-door technique, where a person agrees to a small favor only to be later asked for a larger one. In the grocery store scenario, the interaction starts as a friendly chat, which is a small social favor, opening the door for the potential larger favor of you becoming their customer. However, discounting, in this case, is the most specific term to describe how your initial positive impression is reduced due to the sudden shift from social interaction to a business offer.

The correct option for this situation is Discounting.

User Himani Agrawal
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