Search

In this study, we investigated the relationship of participants' observable attributes to measures of their personality and intelligence; we also studied the ways in which strangers formed their perception of participants' personalities and intelligence. Fifty pairs of intimate acquaintances were videotaped in a standard situation, were administered an intelligence test, and provided self-reports of their personality and descriptions of their partner's personality. In addition, various observable attributes (such as hair color, stature, physical mannerisms) of the targets were measured. Strangers watched the videotapes and rated either the observable attributes or the personality traits of the targets. The observable attributes were then correlated with the personality measures and the intelligence and trait inferences by strangers. Extraversion was the trait with the most external manifestations and the strongest match between cue utilization and cue validity. Intelligence was inferred from visual as well as from acoustic attributes, but only acoustic cues mediated the correlation between psychometric intelligence and perceptions of intelligence by strangers.

Following a general model of consensus in interpersonal perception (Kenny, 1991), we report evidence on four sources of consensus and self-other agreement: (a) meaning systems shared by observers, (b) extent of information on target behavior, (c) consistency of target behavior, and (d) non-behavioral information. We argue that these factors can be disentangled more precisely by analyzing ratings by strangers instead of ratings by acquaintances. We then focus on first impressions as a source of self-other agreement, and we report evidence that first impressions of actual persons are quite accurate for Extraversion and Conscientiousness.

Several studies have shown above-chance agreement of self-reports on extraversion and conscientiousness with ratings by strangers, indicating that ratings by strangers might be quite accurate. Because self-reports are a less-than-ideal criterion to evaluate the accuracy of stranger ratings, however, the present study compared them also with ratings by acquaintances and with targets' performance on an intelligence test. Ratings of extraversion, conscientiousness, and intelligence by strangers having been exposed to a videotape of targets were significantly related to self-reports of these traits as well as to ratings by acquaintances. Moreover, ratings of intelligence by strangers were related to targets' measured intelligence, provided that judges had been exposed to a sound film of the targets

This study investigated the cross-modal consistency of personality expression. Targets were videotaped while entering a room, walking around a table toward a chair, sitting down, and reading a standard text. Judges who had never seen the targets before were then presented: (a) the complete information (sound-film condition), (b) videotapes with the sound turned off (silent film condition), (c) stills of the targets (still condition), or (d) an audiotape of the targets' utterances (audiotape condition). The judges rated 45 physical attributes and 20 personality traits of each target. The judges in the silent film and the audiotape condition agreed substantially concerning the extraversion, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and culture of the targets, even if target age and sex were statistically controlled. This points to some cross-modal consistency of personality expression. Various co-occurrences between visible and audible attributes were found, accordingly.

Consensus between self-ratings and stranger ratings of personality traits was investigated. A sample of 100 adults was videotaped while entering and walking through a room, sitting down, looking into the camera, and reading a standard text. The targets then provided self-descriptions on 5 personality factors. A sample of 24 strangers who had never seen the targets before was given 1 of 4 types of information on the targets: (a) sound-film, (b) silent film, (c) still, or (d) audiotape. Strangers rated various physical attributes and 20 traits of each target. Level of information influenced the validity but not the reliability of the stranger ratings, which were most valid for extraversion and conscientiousness. Extraversion covaried most strongly with physical attributes, and implicit theories on the covariation of traits with physical attributes were more accurate for extraversion and conscientiousness than for agreeableness, emotional stability, and culture. If judges indicate their impressions of other people, their judgments usually correlate with the self-reports of the ratees. Moreover, the correlations between self-ratings and ratings by judges tend to be higher the more the judges know about the targets (Cloyd, 1977; Funder & Colvin, 1988; Norman & Goldberg, 1966; Paunonen, 1989). The highest correlations are usually found between self-reports and ratings by spouses. McCrae and Costa (1989) report correlations between self-ratings and spouse ratings from .53 to .60, whereas they report somewhat lower correlations, ranging from .32 to .54, between self-reports and ratings by a single peer. These findings indicate that (a) personality ratings reflect actual attributes of the target persons rather than illusions that exist only in the eye of the beholder, and (b) self-ratings and ratings by others agree more the more that both reflect shared information concerning the targets' personality. Consensus at Zero Acquaintance This raises the question of how much information is required in order that ratings by others possess some validity. We use the term valid to indicate that ratings by strangers or acquaintances correlate substantially with the targets' self-reports. At first glance, this is a curious usage of the idea of validity because self-reports are usually more suspect than observer ratings and are therefore frequently validated against observer ratings. But we have a special case here: Because the observers are strangers, the self-ratings are the more dependable measure of the actual personality of the ratees.