Is Meta-Accuracy Consistent Across Levels of Acquaintanceship?

Abstract

Some people tend to be especially accurate about the personality impressions they make, but is meta-accuracy a consistent tendency that spans levels of acquaintanceship, or is it only observed within levels of acquaintanceship? Three studies suggested that meta-accuracy is consistent among close others but not across new acquaintances and close others. This pattern was observed for observable and unobservable traits and when accounting for people who made more consistent impressions on others (i.e., high consensus). Overall, meta-accuracy seems to be circumscribed within levels of acquaintanceship. The major implication of these results is that the mechanisms for meta-accuracy and the attributes of good meta-perceivers likely differ across levels of acquaintanceship.