Examining individual differences in metaperceptive accuracy using the social meta-accuracy model.

To what extent do individuals differ in understanding how others see them and who is particularly good at it? Answering these questions about the "good metaperceiver" is relevant given the beneficial outcomes of meta-accuracy. However, there likely is more than one type of the good metaperceiver: One who knows the specific impressions they make more than others do (dyadic meta-accuracy) and one who knows their reputation more than others do (generalized meta-accuracy). To identify and understand these good metaperceivers, we introduce the social meta-accuracy model (SMAM) as a statistical and conceptual framework and apply the SMAM to four samples of first impression interactions. As part of our demonstration, we also investigated the routes to and the correlates of both types of good metaperceivers. Results from SMAM show that, overall, people were able to detect the unique and general first impressions they made, but there was little evidence for individual differences in dyadic meta-accuracy in a first impression. In contrast, there were substantial individual differences in generalized meta-accuracy, and this ability was largely explained by being transparent (i.e., good metaperceivers were seen as they saw themselves). We also observed some evidence that good generalized metaperceivers in a first impression tend to be extraverted and popular. This work demonstrated that the SMAM is a useful tool for identifying and understanding both types of good metaperceivers and paves the way for future work on individual differences in meta-accuracy in other contexts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Socioeconomic Status and Meta-Perceptions: How Markers of Culture and Rank Predict Beliefs About How Others See Us.

How does a person's socioeconomic status (SES) relate to how she thinks others see her? Seventeen studies (eight pre-registered; three reported in-text and 14 replications in supplemental online material [SOM], total N = 6,124) found that people with low SES believe others see them as colder and less competent than those with high SES. The SES difference in meta-perceptions was explained by people's self-regard and self-presentation expectations. Moreover, lower SES people's more negative meta-perceptions were not warranted: Those with lower SES were not seen more negatively, and were less accurate in guessing how others saw them. They also had important consequences: People with lower SES blamed themselves more for negative feedback about their warmth and competence. Internal meta-analyses suggested this effect was larger and more consistent for current socioeconomic rank than cultural background.

"Zooming" in on positive and accurate metaperceptions in first impressions: Examining the links with social anxiety and liking in online video interactions.

Many of us rely on online communication methods, such as videoconferencing, to connect with each other. However, less is known about how interpersonal processes unfold in this novel context. For example, do people believe others view them positively, displaying meta-positivity, and realize others' unique impression of them, displaying distinctive meta-accuracy, and do these processes have implications for liking in social interactions? And, do the same characteristics that predict lower meta-positivity and distinctive meta-accuracy in-person, such as being more socially anxious, predict similar difficulties in video interactions? We examined these questions in an online first impressions context using a videoconferencing platform, Zoom (N = 555; NDyads = 3,068), and compared them against an in-person sample (N = 305; NDyads = 1,683). People believed others saw them positively and understood others' unique impressions of them, displaying similar degrees of meta-positivity and distinctive meta-accuracy in video interactions as in in-person interactions. In both contexts, meta-positivity was related to liking others more, whereas distinctive meta-accuracy was related to being liked more by others. Further, social anxiety seemed to impair meta-positivity, which in turn contributed to why they liked others less in both contexts. In contrast to in-person interactions, social anxiety did not impair distinctive meta-accuracy in video interactions. Therefore, distinctive meta-accuracy did not account for the links between social anxiety and being liked in the video interaction context. Overall, metaperception processes generally operated very similarly online as in-person, though there were some noteworthy exceptions, in turn potentially bearing important implications for those with higher social anxiety. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Self as both target and judge: Who has an easier time knowing their own personality?

OBJECTIVE: The past two decades have established that people generally have insight into their personalities, but less is known about how and why self-knowledge might vary between individuals. Using the Realistic Accuracy Model as a framework, we investigate whether some people make better "targets" of self-perception by behaving more consistently in everyday life, and whether these differences have benefits for psychological adjustment. METHOD: Using data from the Electronically Activated Recorder (n = 286), we indexed self-knowledge as the link between self-reports of personality and actual daily behavior measured over 1 week. We then tested if consistency in daily behavior as well as psychological adjustment predicted stronger self-knowledge. RESULTS: We found that behaving more consistently in everyday life was associated with more accurate self-reports, but that psychological adjustment was not. CONCLUSIONS: Analogous to interpersonal perception, self-knowledge of personality might be affected by "target-side" factors, like the quality of information provided through one's behavior. However, unlike being a good target of interpersonal perception, self-knowledge does not seem to be related to psychological adjustment.

Do People Know How Their Romantic Partner Views Their Emotions? Evidence for Emotion Meta-Accuray and Links with Momentary Romantic Relationship Quality.

Do people know how their romantic partner (i.e., the perceiver) views the self's (i.e., the metaperceiver's) emotions, displaying emotion meta-accuracy? Is it relevant to relationship quality? Using a sample of romantic couples (Ncouples = 189), we found evidence for two types of emotion meta-accuracy across three different interactions: (a) normative emotion meta-accuracy, knowing perceivers' impressions of metaperceivers' emotions that are in line with how the average person may feel, and (b) distinctive emotion meta-accuracy, knowing perceivers' unique impression of metaperceivers' emotions. Furthermore, across interactions, normative emotion meta-accuracy was positively related to momentary relationship quality for metaperceivers and perceivers and this link was especially strong in the conflict interaction. Distinctive emotion meta-accuracy was negatively related to momentary relationship quality across interactions for perceivers and in the conflict interaction for metaperceivers. Overall, it may be adaptive for metaperceivers to accurately infer perceivers' normative impressions and to remain blissfully unaware of their unique impressions.

Social Media Use Predicts Greater Liking in In-Person Initial Interactions.

Does how people generally engage with their online social networks relate to offline initial social interactions? Using a large-scale study of first impressions (N = 806, Ndyad = 4,565), we examined how different indicators of social media use relate to the positivity of dyadic in-person first impressions, from the perspective of the participants and their interaction partners. Many forms of social media use (e.g., Instagram, Snapchat, passive) were associated with liking and being liked by others more, although some forms of use (e.g., Facebook, active) were not associated with liking others or being liked by others. Furthermore, most associations held controlling for extraversion and narcissism. Thus, while some social media use may be generally beneficial for offline social interactions, some may be unrelated, highlighting the idea that how, rather than how much, people use social media can play a role in their offline social interactions.

Intrapersonal Behavioral Coordination and Expressive Accuracy During First Impressions.

What factors influence how accurately we express our personalities? Here, we investigated the role of targets' nonverbal expressivity or the intrapersonal coordination between head and body movements. To do so, using a novel movement quantification method, we examined whether variability in a person's behavioral coordination was related to how accurately their personality was perceived by naive observers. Targets who exhibited greater variability in intrapersonal behavior coordination, indicating more expressive behavior, were perceived more accurately on high observability personality items, such as how energetic and helpful they are. Moreover, these associations held controlling for other indicators of overall movement, self- and perceiver-rated extroversion, as well as how engaging and likable targets were perceived to be. This provides preliminary evidence that variability in intrapersonal behavioral coordination may be a unique behavioral indicator of expressive accuracy, although further research that replicates these findings and examines the causal associations is needed.

What is the structure of perceiver effects? On the importance of global positivity and trait-specificity across personality domains and judgment contexts.

When judging others' personalities, perceivers differ in their general judgment tendencies. These perceiver effects partly reflect a response bias but are also stable and psychologically important individual differences. However, current insights into the basic structure of perceiver effects are ambiguous with previous research pointing to either a unidimensional structure (i.e., people see others as globally positive vs. negative) or a multidimensional structure (i.e., people see others as high or low on specific traits). Here we provide a large scale investigation of the structure of perceiver effects that spans more than 100,000 personality judgments across 10 studies in which a total of N = 2,199 perceivers judged others on several trait domains (i.e., the Big Five, agency & communion) and in different judgment contexts (i.e., level of involvement with targets, level of exposure to targets). Results suggest that perceiver effects are hierarchically structured such that they reflect both a global tendency to view others positively versus negativity and specific tendencies to view others as high or low with respect to trait content. The relative importance of these components varied considerably across trait domains and judgment contexts: Perceiver effects were more specific for traits higher in observability and lower in evaluativeness and in context with less personal involvement and higher exposure to targets. Overall, results provide strong evidence for the hierarchical structure of perceiver effects and suggest that their meaning systematically varies depending on trait domain and possibly the judgment context. Implications for theory and assessment are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Social anxiety and liking: Towards understanding the role of metaperceptions in first impressions.

A core component of social anxiety is the constant concern about what others think of the self. Could such metaperceptions-beliefs about how others view the self-play a role in relationship initiation attempts? In the present research, we examined whether metaperceptions may contribute to why people higher in social anxiety experience difficulties in initial interactions. In 2 first-impressions contexts, a platonic getting-acquainted context (Study 1: N = 544; 2,878 dyads) and a speed dating context (Study 2: N = 376; 4,797 dyads), we explored the roles of 2 components of metaperceptions: meta-positivity (i.e., believing interaction partners' perceptions of the self are in line with the socially desirable personality profile) and distinctive meta-accuracy (i.e., accurately recognizing interaction partners' unique perception of the self, controlling for meta-positivity). Results revealed that people higher in social anxiety were liked less by interaction partners across both contexts, a link that was partially accounted for by lower distinctive meta-accuracy displayed by those higher in social anxiety. Further, lower meta-positivity displayed by people higher in social anxiety also contributed to the links between greater social anxiety and being liked less in the platonic setting and liking others less in both contexts. In sum, metaperceptions may play an important role in shaping initial interactions, potentially helping to explain why people with greater social anxiety encounter difficulties forming new relationships. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Who influences meta-accuracy? It takes two to know the impressions we make.

People's beliefs about how other people perceive their personality tend to be fairly accurate, but how does accuracy arise? The current research answers this question by testing three potential sources of meta-accuracy: the person forming the metaperception (i.e., the metaperceiver), the person forming a judgment about the metaperceiver (i.e., the perceiver), and the unique relationship between the two individuals (i.e., the dyad). In three studies, participants interacted with new acquaintances one-on-one in a platonic (N = 547) or dating setting (N = 378), or in a platonic group setting over time (Time 1, N = 242; Time 2, N = 191). Metaperceivers tended to have the most robust influence on meta-accuracy, but perceivers and especially dyads influenced accuracy as well. This suggests there are "good" metaperceivers, perceivers, and dyads of meta-accuracy and that a more complete understanding of meta-accuracy must consider both members of an interaction. As a first step in understanding how both individuals influence accuracy, we tested the role of self-perception, specifically if some metaperceivers, perceivers, or dyads fostered accuracy because metaperceivers happened to be seen as they saw themselves. Perceivers largely fostered accuracy by seeing metaperceivers as they saw themselves but metaperceivers and dyads mostly fostered accuracy by other means. Potential contextual effects are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Blind at First Sight: The Role of Distinctively Accurate and Positive First Impressions in Romantic Interest.

Viewing other people with distinctive accuracy-the degree to which personality impressions correspond with targets' unique characteristics-often predicts positive interpersonal experiences, including liking and relationship satisfaction. Does this hold in the context of first dates, or might distinctive accuracy have negative links with romantic interest in such evaluative settings? We examined this question using two speed-dating samples (Sample 1: N = 172, N = 2,407 dyads; Sample 2: N = 397, N = 1,849 dyads). Not surprisingly, positive impressions of potential dating partners were strongly associated with greater romantic interest. In contrast, distinctively accurate impressions were associated with significantly less romantic interest. This association was even stronger for potential partners whose personalities were less romantically appealing, specifically, those lower in extraversion. In sum, on a first date, distinctive accuracy tends to be paired with lower romantic interest. The potential implications of distinctive accuracy for romantic interest and of romantic interest for distinctive accuracy are discussed.

Accuracy in Perceptions of Fundamental Social Motives: Comparisons to Perceptions of Big Five Traits and Associations With Friendship Quality.

Accurately perceiving others' personalities helps people to successfully navigate their social relationships. However, it is not yet clear whether people can accurately perceive one aspect of people's personalities that may be especially important to understand: motivations. Using the fundamental social motives framework, we examined the extent to which people accurately perceived a friend's motivations (vs. big five traits) and how this was related to friendship quality. A sample of friend dyads completed both self- and friend-assessments of the big five traits and the fundamental motives, and rated friendship quality. Perceivers accurately detected their friend's unique, self-reported ordering of motives (i.e., distinctive accuracy), though to a lesser extent than traits. However, accuracy for motives and traits was positively associated with greater friendship quality to a similar extent. Importantly, these associations emerged above and beyond tendencies to view others highly normatively, as socially desirable, and as similar to the self.

Physical and social warmth: Warmer daily body temperature is associated with greater feelings of social connection.

Growing evidence suggests that physical warmth and social warmth-feeling socially connected to others-are linked. In particular, thermoregulatory systems that maintain a relatively warm internal body temperature may also support feelings of social connection. However, it is unknown whether and how feelings of physical and social warmth fluctuate together across time in daily life. To this end, the current study examined tympanic temperature, a measure of internal body temperature, and feelings of social connection assessed multiple times a day over 1 week. Consistent with hypotheses, moment-to-moment changes in tympanic temperature covaried with feelings of social connection across assessments. Thus, warmer body temperatures, in the nonfebrile range, were associated with greater feelings of social connection, and cooler body temperatures were associated with lower feelings of social connection. These findings provide further evidence for the link between physical and social warmth and contribute to an understanding of the dynamic fluctuation of affective experience across time. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Do accurate personality impressions benefit early relationship development? The bidirectional associations between accuracy and liking.

Does forming accurate impressions benefit emerging relationships? In 2 longitudinal studies (Study 1: 235 participants, 534 dyads, 2 time points; Study 2: 122 participants, 3,023 dyads, 7 time points), we examined whether more accurate personality impressions among new acquaintances fostered greater liking over time for both the perceiver and target (accuracy fosters liking hypothesis). Further, we examined whether greater perceiver and target liking also fostered accuracy over time (liking fosters accuracy hypothesis). Overall, we found partial support for the accuracy fosters liking hypothesis: Greater accuracy (distinctive accuracy about a target's unique self-reported personality traits) fostered greater perceiver but not target liking over time. However, we did not find support for the liking fosters accuracy hypothesis, as neither perceiver nor target liking fostered greater accuracy over time. Going further, for the accuracy hypothesis, there was preliminary evidence that the strength of the associations depended on partner liking, such that accuracy was more beneficial for perceiver liking when target liking was high, and vice versa. These associations emerged above and beyond the strong, expected associations between liking and forming normative, positive personality impressions. In sum, these studies demonstrate that accurate personality impressions may indeed be adaptive, benefitting early relationship development, at least from the perspective of the perceiver. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Self-Expression While Drinking Alcohol: Alcohol Influences Personality Expression During First Impressions.

People are motivated to be perceived both positively and accurately and, therefore, approach social settings and adopt means that allow them to reach these goals. We investigated whether alcohol consumption helps or hinders the positivity and accuracy of social impressions using a thin-slicing paradigm to better understand the effects of alcohol in social settings and the influence of alcohol on self-expression. These possibilities were tested in a sample of 720 participants randomly assigned to consume an alcohol, placebo, or control beverage while engaged in conversation in three-person groups. We found support for the hypothesis that alcohol (compared with placebo or control) increased the positivity of observers' personality expression, but did not find support for the hypothesis that alcohol increased the accuracy of personality expression. These findings contribute to our understanding of the social consequences of alcohol consumption, shedding new light on the interpersonal benefits that alcohol can foster.

Attention promotes accurate impression formation.

OBJECTIVE: An ability to form accurate impressions of others is vital for adaptive social behavior in humans. Here, we examined if attending to persons more is associated with greater accuracy in personality impressions. METHOD: We asked 42 observers (36 females; mean age = 21 years, age range = 18-28; expected power = 0.96) to form personality impressions of unacquainted individuals (i.e., targets) from video interviews while their attentional behavior was assessed using eye tracking. We examined whether (a) attending more to targets benefited accuracy, (b) attending to specific body parts (e.g., face vs. body) drove this association, and (c) targets' ease of personality readability modulated these effects. RESULTS: Paying more attention to a target was associated with forming more accurate personality impressions. Attention to the whole person contributed to this effect, with this association occurring independently of targets' ease of readability. CONCLUSIONS: These findings show that attending more to a person is associated with increased accuracy and thus suggest that attention promotes social adaption by supporting accurate social perception.

Why are well-adjusted people seen more accurately? The role of personality-behavior congruence in naturalistic social settings.

Expressive accuracy, being viewed in line with one's unique, distinctive personality traits, is emerging as an important individual difference that is strongly linked to psychological well-being. Yet little is known about what underlies expressive accuracy and its associations with well-being. The current studies examined whether personality-behavior congruence, the tendency to behave in line with one's distinctive personality trait profile, contributes to the links between well-being and expressive accuracy with new acquaintances (Unique perceiver-target pairs: Study 1: N = 437; Study 2: N = 874), by assessing congruence in naturalistic situations, including in a series of getting-acquainted interactions (Study 1; Ntargets = 77; Mdn Interactions: 7) and social situations in daily life over a 2-week period (Study 2; Ntargets = 146; MdnAssessments: 49). Across studies, we found that greater well-being predicted greater congruence, in both naturalistic social interactions and in daily life, which in turn contributed to greater expressive accuracy in getting-acquainted interactions. Overall, the current studies demonstrate the important role that congruence plays in expressive accuracy, helping to explain why well-adjusted individuals are seen more accurately. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Cardiac vagal flexibility and accurate personality impressions: Examining a physiological correlate of the good judge.

OBJECTIVE: Research has long sought to identify which individuals are best at accurately perceiving others' personalities or are good judges, yet consistent predictors of this ability have been difficult to find. In the current studies, we revisit this question by examining a novel physiological correlate of social sensitivity, cardiac vagal flexibility, which reflects dynamic modulation of cardiac vagal control. METHOD: We examined whether greater cardiac vagal flexibility was associated with forming more accurate personality impressions, defined as viewing targets more in line with their distinctive self-reported profile of traits, in two studies, including a thin-slice video perceptions study (N = 109) and a dyadic interaction study (N = 175). RESULTS: Across studies, we found that individuals higher in vagal flexibility formed significantly more accurate first impressions of others' more observable personality traits (e.g., extraversion, creativity, warmth). These associations held while including a range of relevant covariates, including cardiac vagal tone, sympathetic activation, and gender. CONCLUSION: In sum, social sensitivity as indexed by cardiac vagal flexibility is linked to forming more accurate impressions of others' observable traits, shedding light on a characteristic that may help to identify the elusive good judge and providing insight into its neurobiological underpinnings.

Effects of oxytocin administration on receiving help.

Receiving help can be a "mixed blessing." Despite the many psychosocial benefits it can carry, it sometimes has negative psychological consequences, such as loss in self-esteem or enhanced guilt. It is, therefore, important to understand the factors that modify responses to receiving help from others. We explored the role of the hormone oxytocin (OT) on affective and social responses to receiving help, given the putative role of OT in social bonding and attunement. To this end, we manipulated whether help was received from a same-sex interaction partner (confederate) versus a control condition, crossed with a double-blind administration of intranasal OT (vs. placebo), and examined subjective and observer-rated participant responses to help. We observed significant interactions between OT and the help manipulation. In the placebo condition, receiving help from the interaction partner compared with the control condition had negative consequences, such that participants reported greater negative affect and came to view themselves and their interaction partners more negatively after interacting together on several tasks. What is important, however, is that OT administration buffered against these negative subjective responses to receiving help. Further, outside observers rated participants who received OT administration as expressing greater happiness and gratitude in response to help, relative to those who received placebo. In sum, in the context of receiving help from a stranger, oxytocin administration fostered more positive affective and social responses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Self-Expression on Social Media: Do Tweets Present Accurate and Positive Portraits of Impulsivity, Self-Esteem, and Attachment Style?

Self-expression values are at an all-time high, and people are increasingly relying upon social media platforms to express themselves positively and accurately. We examined whether self-expression on the social media platform Twitter elicits positive and accurate social perceptions. Eleven perceivers rated 128 individuals (targets; total dyadic impressions = 1,408) on their impulsivity, self-esteem, and attachment style, based solely on the information provided in targets' 10 most recent tweets. Targets were on average perceived normatively and with distinctive self-other agreement, indicating both positive and accurate social perceptions. There were also individual differences in how positively and accurately targets were perceived, which exploratory analyses indicated may be partially driven by differential word usage, such as the use of positive emotion words and self- versus other-focus. This study demonstrates that self-expression on social media can elicit both positive and accurate perceptions and begins to shed light on how to curate such perceptions.