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

In person, online, and up close: the cross‐contextual consistency of expressive accuracy

“…Past work has found that targets can indeed enhance accuracy through numerous stages of RAM. For example, several characteristics that likely promote cue relevance are linked to greater expressive accuracy, including greater personalitybehaviour congruence (Human et al, 2014(Human et al, , 2019, greater personality consistency (Baird, Le, & Lucas, 2006;Bem & Allen, 1974;Biesanz, West, & Graziano, 1998;Biesanz & West, 2000;Cheek, 1982;Kenrick & Stringfield, 1980;Zuckerman, Bernieri, Koestner, & Rosenthal, 1989;Zuckerman et al, 1988; but see Chaplin & Goldberg, 1984;Paunonen & Jackson, 1985), providing others with high-quality verbal information, such as discussing thoughts and feelings (Andersen, 1984;Letzring & Human, 2014), and greater self-knowledge (Cheek, 1982). Similarly, characteristics and behaviours that likely influence cue availability have also been linked to greater accuracy, such as extraversion (Colvin, 1993b) and speaking more in getting-acquainted situations (Human et al, 2014).…”

“…However, there is some indirect support, as there is evidence for consistency in the predictors of expressive accuracy across contexts. Specifically, psychological adjustment has been linked to greater expressive accuracy in first impressions (Human et al, 2014(Human et al, , 2019Human & Biesanz, 2011a) and longer-term relationships (Colvin, 1993a(Colvin, , 1993b. Extraversion has also been associated with greater judgeability in both first impressions (Ambady et al, 1995) and close relationships (Colvin, 1993b).…”

“…In particular, past work suggests that psychological adjustment fosters expressive accuracy in first impressions because well-adjusted people provide cues that are more relevant to their personalities (Human et al, 2014(Human et al, , 2019. For example, people high in adjustment are argued to exhibit more consistent personality expression (Campbell, Assanand, & Paula, 2003;Donahue, Robins, Roberts, & John, 1993; but see Baird et al, 2006;Magee, Buchtel, Human, Murray, & Biesanz, 2018) and tend to behave more in line with their distinctive patterning of traits, both in lab interactions with new acquaintances (Human et al, 2014(Human et al, , 2019 and in daily life (Human et al, 2019). This latter finding suggests that personality-behaviour congruence may also explain why well-adjusted people are seen more accurately by close others.…”

“…In line with recommendations (Biesanz, 2010;Biesanz & West, 2000;Furr, 2008) and past work (e.g. Human et al, 2014Human et al, , 2019Human & Biesanz, 2011a), the distinctive accuracy criterion was centred within item (i.e. we subtracted the mean self-report on each item).…”

Attention promotes accurate impression formation

“…Indeed, the process of accurate impression formation is argued to be multiplicative in nature (Funder, ), such that cue detection facilitates accuracy only if the earlier stages, such as the provision of relevant cues, are successfully achieved. Targets tend to differ quite substantially in their personality judgeability or readability , or how accurately they are generally perceived (see Colvin, , ; Funder, ; Human & Biesanz, ), in part because some targets tend to provide more relevant personality cues than others (Human et al, ; Human, Mignault, Biesanz & Rogers, ). This suggests that greater attention to a target may be especially, or only, beneficial to accuracy if the target is generally more readable (Rogers & Biesanz, ; Zaki, Bolger, & Ochsner, ).…”