Accuracy in interpersonal perception: A social relations analysis.

Abstract

For the past 30 years, the study ofaccuracy in person perception has been a neglected topic in social and personality psychology. Research in this area was stopped by a critique of global accuracy scores by Cronbach and Gage. They argued that accuracy should be measured in terms of components. Currently, interest in the topic of accuracy is rekindling. This interest is motivated, in part, by a reaction to the bias literature. We argue that modern accuracy research should (a) focus on measuring when and how people are accurate and not on who is accurate, (b) use each person as both judge and target, and (c) partition accuracy into components. The social relations model (Kenny & La Voie, 1984) can be used as a paradigm to meet these requirements. According to this model, there are four types of accuracy, only two of which are generally conceptually interesting. The first, cared individual accuracy, measures the degree to which people's judgments of an individual correspond to how that individual tends to behave across interaction partners. The second, called dyadic accuracy, measures the degree to which people can uniquely judge how a specific individual will behave with them. We present an example that shows high levels of individual accuracy and lower levels ofdyadic accuracy. The topic of accuracy in interpersonal perception is a fundamental issue in social and personality psychology. In this article, we present a new and integrative approach. We begin with a historical review of the topic and the Cronbach and Gage critique of global accuracy scores. We then propose that accuracy research should be nomothetic, interpersonal, and componential. Finally, we show how the social relations model fulfills these requirements and so provides a methodology to study interpersonal accuracy.