What defines Traits, Reputations, and Identity? Personality item content in multi-rater judgments

Abstract

Personality self- and informant-reports have been ascribed complementary value based on the asymmetric knowledge of the two perspectives. However, this study is the first to investigate what personality (item) content is reflected in the shared and unique components in multi-rater personality judgments. In two large data sets (Sample 1: 664 targets/1,615 informants; Sample 2: 478 targets/1,434 informants), we used latent variable models to separate judgments into variance that is shared across targets and informants (the Trait factor), unique to self-reports (Identity), and unique to informant-reports (Reputation). Then, we predicted the personality items’ loadings for each factor from the items’ content. This included items’ affective, behavioral, cognitive, or desire-related content, observability and evaluativeness, and centrality to identity or reputation. We found that Trait consensus was generally promoted by items reflecting observable, behavioral, but also affective content. Unique self-perceptions were captured especially by cognitions and non-observable content. Evaluativeness had inconsistent effects across samples. Similarly, unique informant-views reflected different content across samples. Both may depend on the types of informants or the available item sample. These insights build the foundation for leveraging the power of multi-rater perspectives on personality for advancing theory and measurement across different perspectives.