Perceiver effects as projective tests: What your perceptions of others say about you.
Abstract
In 3 studies, we document various properties of perceiver effects--or how an individual generally tends to describe other people in a population. First, we document that perceiver effects have consistent relationships with dispositional characteristics of the perceiver, ranging from self-reported personality traits and academic performance to well-being and measures of personality disorders, to how liked the person is by peers. Second, we document that the covariation in perceiver effects among trait dimensions can be adequately captured by a single factor consisting of how positively others are seen across a wide range of traits (e.g., how nice, interesting, trustworthy, happy, and stable others are generally seen). Third, we estimate the 1-year stability of perceiver effects and show that individual differences in the typical perception of others have a level of stability comparable to that of personality traits. The results provide compelling evidence that how individuals generally perceive others is a stable individual difference that reveals much about the perceiver's own personality.
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The informants' self-reports used as statistical controls help keep several potential informant-report confounds in check, including self-projection and differences in informants' general scale use.
“These controls help to keep several potential informant-report confounds in check, including self-projection (i.e., informants projecting their own attributes onto their acquaintance; Wood, Harms, & Vazire, 2010) and differences in informants' general scale use (e.g., acquiescence tendency, extreme scoring; Paulhus & Vazire, 2007).”
From Cultural norm fulfillment, interpersonal belonging, or getting ahead? A large-scale cross-cultural test of three perspectives on the function of self-esteem. (2015) · cites this paper as Wood, Harms, & Vazire, 2010
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Facebook Profiles Reflect Actual Personality, Not Self-Idealization
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Self-citationWho knows what about a person? The self–other knowledge asymmetry (SOKA) model.
Vazire, S. (2010) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0017908 · Cited by 1,080 · cited 2× · see citing works
“Participants also completed a number of other measures (see Vazire, 2006, 2010, for a full description).”
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Back, M. D., Küfner, A. C. P., Dufner, M., Gerlach, T. M., Rauthmann, J. F., & Denissen, J. J. A. (2013) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0034431 · Cited by 1,255 · see citing works
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Harms, P. D., Credé, M., Tynan, M., Leon, M., & Jeung, W. (2017) · The Leadership Quarterly · doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2016.10.006 · Cited by 558 · see citing works
Self-citationCarlson, E. N., Vazire, S., & Oltmanns, T. F. (2011) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0023781 · Cited by 222 · see citing works
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Vicarious life stories: Examining relations to personal life stories and well-being
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- Authors
- Wood, D., Harms, P., & Vazire, S.
- Affiliations
- Wake Forest University (US)
- Washington University in St. Louis (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
- Published
- 2010
- Volume
- 99
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 174-190
- ISSN
- 0022-3514 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1315
- OpenAlex
- W2103102047
- Cited by
- 184
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 22 · 2015: 19 · 2014: 12 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 13.74
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Lincoln (University of Nebraska) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Psychological Testing and Assessment
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Keywords
- perceiver effects, projective techniques, person perception, dispositional characteristics, personality traits, personality disorders, well-being, peer liking, trait covariation
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Female, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Male, Personal Satisfaction, Personality, Projection, Self Concept, Social Adjustment, Social Perception, Young Adult
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