The role of self-reports in culture and personality research: It is too early to give up on self-reports

Abstract

Heine, Buchtel, and Norenzayan [Heine, S., Buchtel, E. E., & Norenzayan, A. (2008). What do cross-national comparisons of personality traits tells us? The case of conscientiousness. Psychological Science, 19, 309–313] have recently cast serious doubt on the validity of national means of self-reported conscientiousness. Extending Heine et al.’s work, we examined the validity of self-reported Big Five personality traits as well as life satisfaction and self-esteem, using weighted regression. Consistent with Heine et al., self-reported conscientiousness showed a severe lack of validity. However, self-reported agreeableness, neuroticism, self-esteem, and life satisfaction showed predictable associations with the criterion variables. It appears, therefore, premature to dismiss self-reports of personality traits and well-being as meaningless. Accordingly, it is important to examine the validity of self-reported personality, self-esteem, and life satisfaction using nationally representative samples in order to clarify which variables are vulnerable to the reference-group effect and other self-reporting biases.