Accuracy Of Personality Judgments Research Articles

Elusive specific variance: A marginal effect on the accuracy of personality judgment

It has become popular to demonstrate that the specific variance can make a substantial contribution to accurate personality judgements. This study challenges the main assumption that transformation of manifest scores into residual scores is capable of separating the specific from the common variance. Based on two large samples (N = 11,086), in which participants and their well-acquainted observers completed either the NEO-PI-3 or the HEXACO-PI-R personality inventory, we demonstrated that the residual scores still contain a substantial amount of the common variance, which inflates correlations with criterion variables. An alternative method using multiple regression showed that different forms of residual scores have a modest incremental improvement of explained variance beyond the effects of the common variance contained in the manifest scores. On average, the specific variance improves the self-other agreement less than 4 % consequently having a marginal effect on accurate personality judgments.

#Insta personality: Personality expression in Instagram accounts, impression formation, and accuracy of personality judgments at zero acquaintance.

This study examined personality expression, impression formation, and the consensus and accuracy of zero-acquaintance personality judgments that were based on people's Instagram accounts. Self- and informant reports of the Big Five personality traits, self-esteem, and narcissism were collected for 102 Instagram users. Screenshots were taken of Instagram users' profiles, including up to the 102 latest available Instagram posts. A number of Instagram cues were objectively retrieved, counted, and rated by independent trained cue coders from the screenshots. 100 unacquainted observers then judged the Big Five traits, self-esteem, and narcissism on the basis of Instagram screenshots only. We identified Instagram account characteristics that were associated with users' personality traits (measured with self-reports, informant reports, and self-informant composites) and observers' zero-acquaintance personality judgments. Personality judgments that were based on Instagram accounts demonstrated consensus and significantly converged with Instagram users' Big Five traits, self-esteem, and narcissism across all three personality criteria. Averaged-observer accuracy correlations for self-informant composite scores ranged from r=.44 (p < .001) for extraversion to r=.25 (p=.013) for conscientiousness. Our findings provide insight into cue processes of online self-portrayal and impression formation on Instagram and the level of zero-acquaintance accuracy.

A primer on studying effects of relationship duration in dyadic research: Contrasting cross-sectional and longitudinal approaches

There has been increasing interest in the analysis of dyadic data. While there is ongoing progress in the development of statistically fine-grained methods to model complex dyadic data, many studies examine relationship duration in dyads using cross-sectional data (e.g., when testing the effects of acquaintanceship on the accuracy of personality judgments). We discuss the theoretical and methodological implications of analyzing and interpreting time-based variables in dyadic research on basis of the cross-sectional and longitudinal design approaches. We give examples from the literature on romantic relationships and interpersonal perception. Finally, we derive recommendations on addressing questions of time-based indexes in dyadic research and discuss advantages and disadvantages of each approach.

Validation of a performance measure of broad interpersonal accuracy

Accurately reading others’ emotions, personality, intentions etc. (interpersonal accuracy, IPA) is crucial to successful interpersonal interactions. However, most existing tests to measure IPA focus on people’s ability to recognize emotions and do not specifically target the workplace. The newly developed WIPS (Workplace Interpersonal Perception Skill) test assesses multiple aspects of interpersonal accuracy using brief video segments for which test-takers are asked to assess personality, intentions, future social behavior, thoughts, situational affect and social attributes of the targets in the video. Different criteria such as actual behavior shown were used to establish the correct answers in multiple-choice questions. Seven studies that subsequently tested the psychometric properties of a large item pool in English, French, and German are presented. The WIPS is unidimensional, shows acceptable internal consistency, and correlates in expected ways with emotion recognition, personality judgment accuracy, and a variety of other measures. Higher WIPS scores also predicted membership as well as leadership in student groups (e.g., in volunteer and music-oriented groups). These results contribute to the integration of various research strands under the broader IPA construct. The WIPS also complements existing, more specific tests and represents a useful tool for research and practice in the organizational field and beyond.

Accuracy in Judging Others' Personalities: The Role of Emotion Recognition, Emotion Understanding, and Trait Emotional Intelligence.

The ability to accurately judge others’ personality and the ability to accurately recognize others’ emotions are both part of the broader construct of interpersonal accuracy (IPA). However, little research has examined the association between these two IPA domains. Little is also known about the relationship between personality judgment accuracy and other socio-emotional skills and traits. In the present study, 121 participants judged eight traits (Big Five, intelligence, cooperativeness, and empathy) in each of 30 targets who were presented either in a photograph, a muted video, or a video with sound. The videos were 30 second excerpts from negotiations that the targets had engaged in. Participants also completed standard tests of emotion recognition ability, emotion understanding, and trait emotional intelligence. Results showed that personality judgment accuracy, when indexed as trait accuracy and distinctive profile accuracy, positively correlated with emotion recognition ability and was unrelated to emotion understanding and trait emotional intelligence. Female participants were more accurate in judging targets’ personality than men. These results provide support for IPA as a set of correlated domain-specific skills and encourage further research on personality judgment accuracy as a meaningful individual difference variable.

Effects of escalated exposure to information on accuracy of personality judgment

In an investigation of the effects of increasing exposure to information on accuracy of personality trait judgments, judges rated a single target on three successive occasions, each of which involved the introduction of a novel piece of personal information. Varying the order in which types of information were presented allowed us to jointly examine the effects of information quality and quantity on accuracy in personality judgment. We found that (a) in general, more information led to higher accuracy, (b) some types of information led to greater gains in distinctive or normative accuracy, and (c) introduction of lower quality information did not negatively affect accuracy.

From photograph to face-to-face: Brief interactions change person and personality judgments

Research into ‘first impressions’ frequently uses photographs of faces as representations of unknown others. This is the methodological solution to concerns about standardisation, sample size and experimental control. However, there is little work investigating the robustness of these first impressions through to first interactions. A sample of 97 pairs of stranger participants (N = 194) completed personality measures (Big Five and Triarchic Model of Psychopathy), made personality and social judgments of a photograph of the face of their to-be partner, then engaged in 5 min (maximum) of unstructured interaction with their partner and then made their judgments again. The behaviour of the participants in the interaction was coded using 76 criteria by 13 trained coders. Results showed that, judgments made before and after interaction were correlated, but different. Personality judgment accuracy at Time 1 was poor overall but improved at Time 2 participants for Neuroticism, Extraversion and psychopathic Boldness. Coded behaviours related to ‘engagement’ were those that influenced the person judgments the most, and these were related to Extraversion, Agreeableness and Boldness of participants. Overall, the results of this study show that first impressions of personality change from photographs to face-to-face interaction. Person judgment research should be aware of the extent to which judgments of photographs relate to first interaction.

The Effect of Information Quantity on Distinctive Accuracy and Normativity of Personality Trait Judgments

Information quantity is an important moderator of personality judgment accuracy. Some evidence suggests that the amount of available information is positively related to accuracy. The current study utilized the social accuracy model to investigate the effects of differences in thin slices of information quantity on the distinctive accuracy and normativity of personality trait judgments. It was hypothesized that distinctive accuracy and normativity would increase as information quantity increased. Participants were 431 individuals who participated in an online study that varied the length of stimulus target observations (30 seconds, 1 minute, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes), after which judges rated targets using other–report measures of the Big Five personality traits. For all traits combined, significant levels of accuracy were found for all observation lengths, but distinctive accuracy and normativity did not increase as video length increased. Findings varied for individual traits. For distinctive accuracy, there was a linear increase with information quantity for Extraversion and a non–linear relationship for Conscientiousness, while there was a linear decrease for Openness. For normativity, there was a linear increase with information quantity for Agreeableness and a non–linear relationship for Conscientiousness. There are important differences in how observation length affects distinctive accuracy and normativity for different personality traits. © 2019 European Association of Personality Psychology

Recognising faces but not traits: Accurate personality judgment from faces is unrelated to superior face memory

It is suggested that accurate personality judgments of faces are driven by a morphological ‘kernel of truth’ from face shape. We hypothesised that this relationship could lead to those with better face identification ability being better at personality judgments. We investigated the relationship between face memory, face matching, Big Five personality traits, and accuracy in recognising Big Five personality traits from 50 photographs of unknown faces. In our sample (n = 792) there was overall good (but varying) face memory and personality judgment accuracy. However, there was convincing evidence that these two skills do not correlate (all r < 0.06). We also replicate the known relationship between extraversion and face memory ability in the largest sample to date.

Getting to know you: Associations between judge and target personality with personality judgment accuracy during a dyadic social interaction task

This research investigates the association between judge's and target's personality and personality judgment accuracy. Participants (N = 466) completed personality testing, a social interaction task with a partner, and then rated their partner's personality. Participants initially interacted together for 3 min and then in 1 of 3 interaction conditions (interpersonal closeness, competition, cooperation) for 45 min. Personality judgment accuracy was quantified by the convergence between self-reported and rater-reported personality at each time point. We evaluated the association between information quantity (i.e., time), information quality (i.e., social context), and personality on accuracy. Results indicate a) accuracy improved over time, b) participants in the interpersonal closeness condition were most accurate, and c) judge's agreeableness was positively associated and target's extraversion was negatively associated with accuracy. Findings indicate information quantity and quality influence how personality-relevant information is acquired from other people and some personality traits are associated with personality judgment accuracy.

Sympathy in business card exchange: The accuracy of personality judgment in business card exchange settings

Sympathy in business card exchange: The accuracy of personality judgment in business card exchange settings

Exploring adult Playfulness: Examining the accuracy of personality judgments at zero-acquaintance and an LIWC analysis of textual information

Playfulness is an individual difference variable that allows people to (re)frame a situation in a way that it is experienced as entertaining, intellectually stimulating, and/or personally interesting. We examined the interpersonal perception of playfulness at zero-acquaintance. One-hundred forty-four participants wrote short self-descriptions which were (1) used by unacquainted judges to infer the author’s playfulness and (2) linguistically analyzed using the LIWC methodology. Lens model analyses revealed that playfulness finds its expression through language and that observers utilized linguistic cues to accurately judge playfulness in terms of self-other agreement (0.21–0.37) and consensus (0.31–0.44). The findings add knowledge regarding the interpersonal perception of playfulness, its linguistic expressions, and the applicability of the LIWC paradigm outside broad personality traits.

The Almost Unbearable Lightness of Personality.

Researchers seem to believe that accepting the reality of personality traits inevitably leads to a dogma about the incredible complexity of these traits and their judgment. This article challenges this thesis and its assertion that the accuracy of personality judgment can only be achieved when a "good target" or a "good trait" is being judged using "good information," and when a "good judge" makes the judgment. It is argued that because trait dimensions are universally applicable to all persons, there is no stable ranking of good targets. The independence of major personality dimensions is incompatible with the distinction between good and bad traits. There seems to be no privileged source of information because information is everywhere, and its retrieval requires unsophisticated skills. Because of the simplicity of the task, it is usually impossible to determine who a good judge is. A new thesis of simplicity is proposed as a guide through equally plausible personality theories.

Using Cross-Classified Structural Equation Models to Examine the Accuracy of Personality Judgments.

Whether, when, and why perceivers are able to accurately infer the personality traits of other individuals is a key topic in psychological science. Studies examining this question typically ask a number of perceivers to judge a number of targets with regard to a specific trait. The resulting data are then analyzed by averaging the judgments across perceivers or by computing the respective statistic for each single perceiver. Here, we discuss the limitations of the average-perceiver and single-perceiver approaches. Furthermore, we argue that and illustrate how cross-classified structural equation models can be used for the flexible analysis of accuracy data.

Nonverbal Decoding on Facebook: Applying the IPT-15 and the SSI to Personality Judgments

This study uses the lens model paradigm to explore whether two interpersonal sensitivity tests [i.e., Interpersonal Perception Task (IPT-15), Social Skills Inventory (SSI)] are associated with the accuracy of personality judgments made from Facebook (FB) profile pages. Target participants’ (N = 100) personality, self-monitoring, and FB honesty were self-reported, and the FB profile of each target was downloaded. Observers (N = 35) completed the IPT-15 and SSI and then estimated each profile owner’s personality from the profile pages. Observers’ scores on the IPT-15 were positively associated with the accuracy of estimates of targets’ extraversion and neuroticism. Observers’ SSI-ES scores were positively associated with the accuracy of estimates of targets’ agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness. Characteristics of targets, such as self-monitoring, FB honesty, and overall FB use, also affected the accuracy of estimates. Results demonstrate that offline measures of sensitivity are associated with the accuracy of online personality judgments.

Observer judgmental accuracy of personality: Benefits related to being a good (normative) judge

The current study tested the hypothesis that accuracy of personality judgment would be positively related to beneficial life outcomes. 189 participants observed targets across 5 dyadic interactions and made judgments of the 10 targets on the Big Five traits. Self and acquaintance ratings were used as the accuracy criteria. Normative accuracy for all traits was related to agreeableness, and normative accuracy for some traits was positively related to interpersonal control, interpersonal support, positive affect, and life satisfaction. Distinctive accuracy was not related to beneficial outcomes. These results imply that normative accuracy based on observation is associated with beneficial outcomes, whereas distinctive accuracy is not.

Comparative Personality Judgments: Replication and Extension of Robust Findings in Personality Perception Using an Alternative Method

The scientific study of accuracy in personality judgment typically involves the utilization of rating scales to make absolute decisions about a target individual. Although this method has many merits, it restricts some experimental options and is further removed from ecological validity than one would desire. These studies represent an attempt to develop an alternative methodology for the study of personality judgment—specifically for use in explorations of judgment process. A series of photo sets containing pictures of 3 individuals, each representing a different level of a specific personality trait, was created. The participant's task was to select high and low scorers on a dimension from the photos. Study 1 demonstrates that people can select targets with extreme scores from a photo lineup at a rate better than chance across several personality dimensions. Study 2 shows that this ability has some degree of temporal consistency. Study 3 represents an improvement on the general method via enhanced criteria for stimulus selection, incorporating both self and peer reports.

The Accuracy of Personality Judgment: The Effects of Trait Properties

The properties of traits are important moderator variables which influence the accuracy of personality judgment. The previous researches have showed that the higher observability the traits are, the easier be judged, and the higher accuracy and agreement they have. The evaluativeness of traits interfere the accuracy of self-perception. Comparing with the neutral traits, the self-other agreement of evaluativeness traits is lower; Comparing with unambiguous traits, the self-peer inter-judgment agreement is lower in ambiguous traits, and this is reducing with the increasing of traits ambiguous gradually. Furthermore, the properties of traits often interact on the accuracy of personality judgment with other factors, such as acquaintanceship. When examining the effects of traits properties on the personality judgment accuracy, we must take the ecological validity of experimental research into account, as well as integrate it with the matching of trait properties, types and contents of traits, the individual differences, and the cultural differences and so on.

An Examination of Information Quality as a Moderator of Accurate Personality Judgment

Information quality is an important moderator of the accuracy of personality judgment, and this article describes research focusing on how specific kinds of information are related to accuracy. In this study, 228 participants (159 female, 69 male; mean age = 23.43; 86.4% Caucasian) in unacquainted dyads were assigned to discuss thoughts and feelings, discuss behaviors, or engage in behaviors. Interactions lasted 25-30 min, and participants provided ratings of their partners and themselves following the interaction on the Big Five traits, ego-control, and ego-resiliency. Next, the amount of different types of information made available by each participant was objectively coded. The accuracy criterion, composed of self- and acquaintance ratings, was used to assess distinctive and normative accuracy using the Social Accuracy Model. Participants in the discussion conditions achieved higher distinctive accuracy than participants who engaged in behaviors, but normative accuracy did not differ across conditions. Information about specific behaviors and general behaviors were among the most consistent predictors of higher distinctive accuracy. Normative accuracy was more likely to decrease than increase when higher-quality information was available. Verbal information about behaviors is the most useful for learning about how people are unique.

Applications and Extensions of the Lens Model to Understand Interpersonal Judgments at Zero Acquaintance

The present article reviews current research on the application and extension of the lens model to interpersonal judgments. We first explain how the basic lens model can be used to describe the processes underlying the accuracy of personality judgments at zero acquaintance. Then we outline how this model can be differentiated by assimilating it with research on intuitive and reflective personality judgments, implicit and explicit personality tests, and more or less controlled behavior. We continue by integrating the research on the lens model with research on judgmental errors and knowledge updating. Finally, we describe extensions of the lens model to other interpersonal phenomena at zero acquaintance, such as metaaccuracy and liking. Overall, this review shows that the lens model is a persuasive and flexible framework that can be used to understand interpersonal judgments.