Perceived Weirdness: A Multitrait-Multisource Study of Self and Other Normality Evaluations

Abstract

Research in personality and organizational psychology has begun to investigate a novel evaluative trait known as perceived normality, defined as an overall perception that one is normal (vs. strange or weird). The current work evaluates a brief measure of this trait (i.e., a “weirdness scale”), extending past work by assessing both self-reports and peer reports of these normality evaluations. Results confirm the measurement equivalence of self- and peer-reports of perceived weirdness, and discriminant validity of self- and peer-reports of perceived weirdness from Big Five traits. A multitrait-multisource analysis further reveals that trait loadings are larger than self-report and peer-report method loadings for the measure of perceived weirdness. Implications for measurement of self-perceptions and social perceptions of weirdness/normality are discussed.