Interpersonal perception
Encyclopedia
Interpersonal perception is an area of research in social psychology which examines the beliefs that interacting people have about each other. This area differs from social cognition
and person perception by being interpersonal rather than intrapersonal, and thus requiring the interaction of at least two actual people.
These variables cannot be assessed in studies that ask people to form beliefs about fictitious targets.
's 2005 book Blink
and Nalini Ambady's "thin-slices" research, the discipline is still very young, having only been formally defined by David Kenny in 1994. The sparsity of research, in particular on the accuracy of first-impressions, means that social psychologists know a lot about what people think about others, but far less about whether they are right.
Many attribute this to a criticism that Cronbach
wrote in 1955 about how impression accuracy was calculated, which resulted in a 30-year hiatus in research. During that time, psychologists focused on consensus (whether A and B agree in their beliefs about C) rather than accuracy, although Kenny has argued that consensus is neither necessary nor sufficient for accuracy.
Today, the use of correlation
s instead of discrepancy scores to measure accuracy and the development of the Big Five model of personality
have overcome Cronbach's criticisms and led to a wave of new research . People more accurately perceive extraversion
and conscientiousness
in strangers than they do the other personality domains. A 5-second interaction tells you as much as 15 minutes on these domains, and video tells you more than audio alone.
Viewing peoples' personal websites or "online profiles" (as on MySpace
, Facebook
, or a dating website) can make people as knowledgeable about their conscientiousness and open-mindedness
as their long-term friends. The question of whether social-networking sites lead to accurate first-impressions has inspired Sam Gosling of the University of Texas at Austin and David Evans formerly of Classmates.com
to launch an ambitious project to measure the accuracy of first-impressions worldwide (YouJustGetMe.com).
Social cognition
Social cognition is the encoding, storage, retrieval, and processing, in the brain, of information relating to conspecifics, or members of the same species. At one time social cognition referred specifically to an approach to social psychology in which these processes were studied according to the...
and person perception by being interpersonal rather than intrapersonal, and thus requiring the interaction of at least two actual people.
Phenomena studied
- accuracy - the correctness of A's beliefs about B
- self-other agreement - whether A's beliefs about B matches B's beliefs about himself
- similarity - whether A's and B's beliefs match
- projectionPsychological projectionPsychological projection or projection bias is a psychological defense mechanism where a person subconsciously denies his or her own attributes, thoughts, and emotions, which are then ascribed to the outside world, usually to other people...
/assumed similarity - whether A's beliefs about B match A's beliefs about herself - reciprocity - the similarity of A's and B's beliefs about each other
- meta-accuracy - whether A knows how others see her
- assumed projection - whether A thinks others see her as she sees them
These variables cannot be assessed in studies that ask people to form beliefs about fictitious targets.
Research
Although interest in this area has grown rapidly with the publication of Malcolm GladwellMalcolm Gladwell
Malcolm Gladwell, CM is a Canadian journalist, bestselling author, and speaker. He is currently based in New York City and has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1996...
's 2005 book Blink
Blink (book)
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking is a 2005 book by Malcolm Gladwell. It presents in popular science format research from psychology and behavioral economics on the adaptive unconscious; mental processes that work rapidly and automatically from relatively little information...
and Nalini Ambady's "thin-slices" research, the discipline is still very young, having only been formally defined by David Kenny in 1994. The sparsity of research, in particular on the accuracy of first-impressions, means that social psychologists know a lot about what people think about others, but far less about whether they are right.
Many attribute this to a criticism that Cronbach
Lee Cronbach
Lee Joseph Cronbach was an American educational psychologist who made significant contributions to psychological testing and measurement. Born in Fresno, California, Cronbach was selected as a child to participate in Lewis Terman's long-term study of talented children...
wrote in 1955 about how impression accuracy was calculated, which resulted in a 30-year hiatus in research. During that time, psychologists focused on consensus (whether A and B agree in their beliefs about C) rather than accuracy, although Kenny has argued that consensus is neither necessary nor sufficient for accuracy.
Today, the use of correlation
Correlation
In statistics, dependence refers to any statistical relationship between two random variables or two sets of data. Correlation refers to any of a broad class of statistical relationships involving dependence....
s instead of discrepancy scores to measure accuracy and the development of the Big Five model of personality
Big Five personality traits
In contemporary psychology, the "Big Five" factors of personality are five broad domains or dimensions of personality which are used to describe human personality....
have overcome Cronbach's criticisms and led to a wave of new research . People more accurately perceive extraversion
Extraversion and introversion
The trait of extraversion-introversion is a central dimension of human personality theories.Extraverts tend to be gregarious, assertive, and interested in seeking out external stimulus. Introverts, in contrast, tend to be introspective, quiet and less sociable. They are not necessarily loners but...
and conscientiousness
Conscientiousness
Conscientiousness is the trait of being painstaking and careful, or the quality of acting according to the dictates of one's conscience. It includes such elements as self-discipline, carefulness, thoroughness, organization, deliberation , and need for achievement. It is an aspect of what has...
in strangers than they do the other personality domains. A 5-second interaction tells you as much as 15 minutes on these domains, and video tells you more than audio alone.
Viewing peoples' personal websites or "online profiles" (as on MySpace
MySpace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
, or a dating website) can make people as knowledgeable about their conscientiousness and open-mindedness
Openness to experience
Openness to experience is one of the domains which are used to describe human personality in the Five Factor Model Openness involves active imagination, aesthetic sensitivity, attentiveness to inner feelings, preference for variety, and intellectual curiosity. A great deal of psychometric research...
as their long-term friends. The question of whether social-networking sites lead to accurate first-impressions has inspired Sam Gosling of the University of Texas at Austin and David Evans formerly of Classmates.com
Classmates.com
Classmates.com is a social network service created in 1995 by Randy Conrads who founded Classmates Online, Inc.The social media website was originally designed to assist members in finding friends and acquaintances from kindergarten, primary school, high school, college, work and the United States...
to launch an ambitious project to measure the accuracy of first-impressions worldwide (YouJustGetMe.com).
External links
- YouJustGetMe.com, a project that attempts to measure the accuracy of first impressions