Through the looking glass clearly: accuracy and assumed similarity in well-adjusted individuals' first impressions

Do well-adjusted individuals have particularly accurate insight into what others are like or are they biased, primarily seeing their own characteristics in others? In the current studies, the authors examined how psychologically adjusted individuals tend to see new acquaintances, directly comparing their levels of distinctive accuracy (accurately perceiving others' unique characteristics), normative accuracy (perceiving others as similar to the average person), and assumed similarity (perceiving others as similar to the self). Across two interactive, round-robin studies, well-adjusted individuals, compared with less adjusted individuals, did not perceive new acquaintances' unique characteristics more accurately but did perceive new acquaintances, on average, as similar to the average person, reflecting an accurate understanding of what people generally tend to be like. Furthermore, well-adjusted individuals had a biased tendency to perceive their own unique characteristics in others. Of note, both pre-existing perceiver adjustment and target-specific liking independently predicted greater accuracy and assumed similarity in first impressions. In sum, well-adjusted individuals see through the looking glass clearly: although they erroneously see others as possessing their own unique characteristics, they accurately understand what others generally tend to be like.     

Consensus and Self-Other Agreement for Trait Inferences from Minimal Information

ABSTRACT Following a general model of consensus in interpersonal perception (Kenny, 1991), we report evidence on four sources of consensus and self-other agreement: (a) meaning systems shared by observers, (b) extent of information on target behavior, (c) consistency of target behavior, and (d) non-behavioral information. We argue that these factors can be disentangled more precisely by analyzing ratings by strangers instead of ratings by acquaintances. We then focus on first impressions as a source of self-other agreement, and we report evidence that first impressions of actual persons are quite accurate for Extraversion and Conscientiousness.     

Suppression and Repression to Discrepant Self-Other Ratings: Relations with Thought Control and Cardiovascular Reactivity

ABSTRACT Individual differences in self-other disagreement may lap phenomena that have been notoriously difficult to assess. For example, subjects who believe they possess a trait while their acquaintances disagree may be exhibiting suppression. Further, subjects who deny a trait while acquaintances believe it is present may be displaying repression. In the first study, both subjects and their closest friends rated the subject's hostility level. Suppressors and repressors were expected to exhibit enhanced thought control, and indeed these individuals were more able not to think about white bears when instructed to do so than individuals for whom there was high hostility agreement. However, this was also true for those with low hostility agreement. Only suppressors demonstrated blood-pressure hyperreactivity to a hostility-provoking task as expected; this finding was replicated in a second study employing a different, multi-item measure of hostility, as well as a marker of low Agreeableness.     

Information quantity and quality affect the realistic accuracy of personality judgment

Triads of unacquainted college students interacted in 1 of 5 experimental conditions that manipulated information quantity (amount of information) and information quality (relevance of information to personality), and they then made judgments of each others' personalities. To determine accuracy, the authors compared the ratings of each judge to a broad-based accuracy criterion composed of personality ratings from 3 types of knowledgeable informants (the self, real-life acquaintances, and clinician-interviewers). Results supported the hypothesis that information quantity and quality would be positively related to objective knowledge about the targets and realistic accuracy. Interjudge consensus and self-other agreement followed a similar pattern. These findings are consistent with expectations based on models of the process of accurate judgment (D. C. Funder, 1995, 1999) and consensus (D. A. Kenny, 1994).     

Why are moderators of self-other agreement difficult to establish?

Agreement between the self and other rated personality profiles was studied in two samples involving 11,096 speakers of two languages, Dutch and Estonian, who completed two different personality questionnaires, the NEO-PI-3 and HEXACO-PI-R. An outstanding agreement was achieved in the most occasions: in only 4–6% of dyadic pairs was the correlation between two randomly paired profiles higher than the actually observed correlation between true pairs. As in previous studies, we found that age and sex of participants and length of acquaintance had no significant effect on the level of self-other agreement. However, intimate knowledge helped married and unmarried couples in both samples be more accurate in their personality judgments; family members, in turn, had knowledge that made them more accurate than two people who were just acquaintances or friends. We believe that these outcomes can be explained by the contention that the judgment of another’s personality is a relatively simple task, which is accomplishable for most people most of the time. In other words, because judging another person’s personality is an easy task, we are not able to determine “good targets,” “good judges,” or “good traits.” Perhaps it is only “good information” which determines the closeness of the target-judge relationship, and which has a small but reliable impact on the level of self-other agreement. This explains why it is so difficult to find individual differences in the ability to judge another person’s personality.     

Social comparison and adjustment to breast cancer: an experimental examination of upward affiliation and downward evaluation.

In a study designed to evaluate the divergence of social comparison activities under health threat, breast cancer patients (n = 94) were assigned randomly to listen to an audiotaped interview in which the target's psychological adjustment and disease prognosis were manipulated to reflect good, poor, and unspecified psychological and physical health status. Results supported hypotheses regarding downward self-evaluative and upward affiliative comparison activity, as well as predictions regarding the influences of comparison dimension. With regard to desire for affiliation, participants demonstrated a greater desire for information and emotional support from the well-adjusted target than from the poorly adjusted target. Self-evaluation of adjustment and prognosis varied as a function of target characteristics, although a pervasive tendency toward downward comparison in self-evaluation also was noted.     

The effects of culture and gender on perceived self-other similarity in personality

Gender and culture may influence individuals’ perceptions of their similarity to others. 391,454 individuals from 20 countries rated their own personality traits and the personality traits they attribute to other people in general. A multilevel analysis on distinctive profile similarity (Furr, 2008) demonstrated that both gender and culture play a role in perceived self-other similarity. Specifically, women and those from highly collectivistic cultures saw themselves as more similar to others. Country-level analysis based on self-other similarity correlations (e.g., Srivastava, Guglielmo, & Beer, 2010) within each country revealed that cultural assertiveness uniquely predicted this assumed similarity. The findings shed light on how people construe themselves in relation to others and contribute to the understanding of personality within cultural contexts.     

自我-他人重叠影响疼痛共情的ERP研究

为探究自我-他人重叠影响疼痛共情的神经机制,记录并分析被试在高、中、低重叠程度条件下共情判断的脑电活动。发现在早期N2上,重叠程度三水平间差异显著,表现为密友＜熟人＜陌生人（密友与熟人差异边缘显著）;在晚期P3上,疼痛条件下重叠程度间呈显著差异,密友比熟人、陌生人显著要大;在LPP上疼痛条件诱发更大波幅。表明早期阶段（N2）区分不同重叠程度,可能是对威胁性刺激的检测阶段,自我-他人重叠程度影响共情加工晚期阶段（P3）的社会认知评价加工。     

自我-他人重叠影响疼痛共情的ERP研究

为探究自我-他人重叠影响疼痛共情的神经机制,记录并分析被试在高、中、低重叠程度条件下共情判断的脑电活动。发现在早期N2上,重叠程度三水平间差异显著,表现为密友＜熟人＜陌生人（密友与熟人差异边缘显著）;在晚期P3上,疼痛条件下重叠程度间呈显著差异,密友比熟人、陌生人显著要大;在LPP上疼痛条件诱发更大波幅。表明早期阶段（N2）区分不同重叠程度,可能是对威胁性刺激的检测阶段,自我-他人重叠程度影响共情加工晚期阶段（P3）的社会认知评价加工。     

Self-other rating agreement and leader-member exchange (LMX): a quasi-replication

Data from a sample of 83 elected community leaders and 391 direct-report staff (resulting in 333 useable leader-member dyads) were reanalyzed to test relations between self-other rating agreement of servant leadership and member-reported leader-member exchange (LMX). Polynomial regression analysis indicated that the self-other rating agreement model was not statistically significant. Instead, all of the variance in member-reported LMX was accounted for by the others' ratings component alone.     

Self-other rating agreement and leader-member exchange (LMX)

Data from a sample of 83 elected community leaders and 391 direct-report staffers (resulting in 306 useable leader-member dyads) were used to test relations between self-other rating agreement of leadership and member-reported leader-member exchange (LMX). Results of polynomial regression analysis indicated that the self-other rating agreement model was not significantly related to member-reported LMX. Instead, virtually all of the variance in member-reported LMX was accounted for by others' ratings.     

You probably think this paper's about you: narcissists' perceptions of their personality and reputation

Do narcissists have insight into the negative aspects of their personality and reputation? Using both clinical and subclinical measures of narcissism, the authors examined others' perceptions, self-perceptions, and meta-perceptions of narcissists across a wide range of traits for a new acquaintance and close other (Study 1), longitudinally with a group of new acquaintances (Study 2), and among coworkers (Study 3). Results bring 3 surprising conclusions about narcissists: (a) they understand that others see them less positively than they see themselves (i.e., their meta-perceptions are less biased than are their self-perceptions), (b) they have some insight into the fact that they make positive first impressions that deteriorate over time, and (c) they have insight into their narcissistic personality (e.g., they describe themselves as arrogant). These findings shed light on some of the psychological mechanisms underlying narcissism.     

孤独症个体的记忆与自我知识

本文从语义记忆-情景记忆角度综合了孤独症的记忆研究,探讨了孤独症个体的记忆特性。研究结果表明,孤独症个体的情景记忆(episodic memory)存在选择性损伤,特别是高机能孤独症个体的情景记忆测验的成绩会依材料的呈现方式和意义相关程度等表现出不同程度的损伤。同时,他们的语义记忆(semantic memory)相对完好,但和正常对照组语义记忆成绩之间的差异会随材料的性质而变化,这种差异并不显著。根据自我知识的存储方式以及孤独症的记忆特性,孤独症个体情景记忆中的自我知识丧失,语义记忆中所存储的自我知识则保存完好。孤独症个体虽然不能回忆与个人特质有关的个人行为,但是能回忆基于这些行为的关于自我的概括性知识。孤独症个体理解别人心理的能力严重受损,然而他们反映自己心理特性和状态的能力保持完好。     

Predictors of volitional personality change in younger and older adults: Response surface analyses signify the complementary perspectives of the self and knowledgeable others

Goals to change personality traits have been linked to self-rated Big Five traits. Extending previous research, we investigated the associations between change goals and diverse personality characteristics (e.g., self-esteem), other-rated Big Five traits, and self-other agreement in an age-heterogeneous sample (N = 378). Results replicated previous associations of change goals with age and self-rated traits. Additionally, change goals were stronger when others rated a person’s traits as low and when self-other agreement about traits was greater for extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Associations of additional personality characteristics with change goals diminished when we controlled for the Big Five traits. We conclude that goals to change personality traits primarily reflect the perspective of the self and, for some traits, of knowledgeable others.     

姓名对个体心理与行为的实际影响：证据和理论

姓名不仅会影响他人的印象与评价, 还可能会影响个体实际的心理与行为。近几十年来, 心理学家在决策、成就、健康、人格四个领域开展了大量实证研究来考察姓氏或名字对个体的实际影响。姓名的多个维度(如独特性、性别倾向、含义效价、温暖-能力维度等)在不同程度上可以预测这些领域的心理与行为(包括职业决策/生活决策/经济决策、职业成就/学业成就、生理健康/心理健康/犯罪行为、人格特质/心理需要/面孔特征等)。但是, 现有研究证据比较混杂, 理论解释有待完善。未来研究应全面考虑姓名维度, 重点解决可重复性、因果关系、心理机制、跨文化普遍性等问题, 努力构建更系统、更包容的理论来解释姓名的心理与行为效应。     

Friends and strangers: acquaintanceship, agreement, and the accuracy of personality judgment

We examined the effect of acquaintanceship on interjudge agreement in personality ratings. Approximately 150 undergraduates described their own personalities using the Q-sort. They were also described by two close acquaintances and by two "strangers" who knew them only via a single, spontaneous interaction viewed on videotape. The effect of acquaintanceship was powerful: Judgments by close acquaintances agreed with each other and with subjects' self-judgments much better than did judgments by strangers, even though strangers' judgments agreed with each other and with subjects' self-judgments beyond a chance level. This result implies that agreement among acquaintances' judgments must derive at least partly from experience with and observation of the person who is judged. The same traits that yielded better agreement among acquaintances also yielded better agreement among strangers and tended to be rated higher in subjective visibility, suggesting that people are intuitively knowledgeable about the traits they can judge with more and less agreement.     

First-Name Desirability and Adjustment: Self-Satisfaction, Others' Ratings, and Family Background

The association between undesirable first names and poor psychological adjustment has been studied by several investigators. However, it is not clear if self-ratings, commonness, or others' ratings of name desirability are most important in this relationship. In addition, family background might influence both psychological adjustment and first names. In a sample of undergraduates and their same-sex siblings ( n = 294), self-satisfaction with first names predicted adjustment more consistently than did name commonness and others' ratings of name desirability. Using a paired-siblings design to control for family background, the sibling with higher scores on adjustment was also more satisfied with his or her name and received higher name desirability ratings from others. Results are discussed in terms of identity and the looking-glass self.     

"How long will I suffer?" versus "How long will you suffer?" A self-other effect in affective forecasting

This research presents evidence that people predict longer durations of negative affect for others than for themselves. It is argued that this self-other effect is based on the asymmetric availability of knowledge about psychological strategies that reduce negative affective experiences. Specifically, because people have available knowledge about their own coping strategies, they use this information when making predictions about their affect. The lack of information about others' coping strategies leads to longer predictions of affect duration for others, creating the self-other effect. A series of studies demonstrated this self-other effect, its source, and its boundary conditions. Specifically, the self-other effect occurred for negative but not for positive events, it was stronger when participants predicted affect duration for unfamiliar others than when participants predicted affect duration for familiar others, and the impact of the self versus other focus on affective forecasts was mediated by the availability of knowledge about coping strategies. In addition, alternative explanations for the self-other effect were ruled out. The implications for biases in affective forecasting are discussed.     

An other perspective on personality: meta-analytic integration of observers' accuracy and predictive validity

The bulk of personality research has been built from self-report measures of personality. However, collecting personality ratings from other-raters, such as family, friends, and even strangers, is a dramatically underutilized method that allows better explanation and prediction of personality's role in many domains of psychology. Drawing hypotheses from D. C. Funder's (1995) realistic accuracy model about trait and information moderators of accuracy, we offer 3 meta-analyses to help researchers and applied psychologists understand and interpret both consistencies and unique insights afforded by other-ratings of personality. These meta-analyses integrate findings based on 44,178 target individuals rated across 263 independent samples. Each meta-analysis assessed the accuracy of observer ratings, as indexed by interrater consensus/reliability (Study 1), self-other correlations (Study 2), and predictions of behavior (Study 3). The results show that although increased frequency of interacting with targets does improve accuracy in rating personality, informants' interpersonal intimacy with the target is necessary for substantial increases in other-rating accuracy. Interpersonal intimacy improved accuracy especially for traits low in visibility (e.g., Emotional Stability) but only minimally for traits high in evaluativeness (e.g., Agreeableness). In addition, observer ratings were strong predictors of behaviors. When the criterion was academic achievement or job performance, other-ratings yielded predictive validities substantially greater than and incremental to self-ratings. These findings indicate that extraordinary value can gained by using other-reports to measure personality, and these findings provide guidelines toward enriching personality theory. Various subfields of psychology in which personality variables are systematically assessed and utilized in research and practice can benefit tremendously from use of others' ratings to measure personality variables.