Judging a book by its cover: Cultural differences in inference of the inner state based on the outward appearance.

The world can be represented by two layers of information: How it appears on the outside () and what it is on the inside (). To what extent an outward appearance is assumed to reflect the inner state is fundamental to social inference and judgments. Conceptualizing inference in terms of the relationship between the outward appearance and the inner state generates an integrative interpretation for a wide range of phenomena.