Psychologically Adjusted Persons Are Less Aware of How They Are Perceived by Others
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
Published online on May 26, 2016
Abstract
Focusing on individual differences, we studied three influences on the accuracy of meta-perceptions of personality: (a) projection, that is, relying on one’s self-perception; (b) normative meta-insight, that is, relying on the perception of the typical person by others; and (c) distinctive meta-insight, that is, relying on others’ perception of one’s unique personality attributes. Using a round-robin design, 52 groups of four acquainted students described themselves, three acquaintances, and their meta-perceptions on the Big-Five factors of personality, and provided self-reports of psychological adjustment. Projection, normative, and distinctive meta-insight contributed uniquely to meta-perception, yet qualified by systematic individual differences: Psychologically adjusted meta-perceivers projected more and relied on distinctive meta-insight less. Moreover, acquaintance raised projection. Thus, psychologically adjusted meta-perceivers were less aware of discrepancies between their self-perceptions and their actual perceptions by others, and the better people knew another person, the more strongly they expected that this other person perceived them like they perceived themselves.