The mote in thy brother's eye, and the beam in thine own: Predicting one's own and others' personality test scores

Abstract

This experiment was concerned with the similarity between subjects' ratings of themselves and others, and their scores on various psychological tests of personality, social skills and beliefs. The literature on the accuracy of self‐ratings, the acceptance of personality feedback, the accuracy of person perception and self‐other attributional errors was reviewed. Sixty‐three subjects estimated their own and a friend's score on five standard psychological tests. The results revealed that subjects were able to correctly estimate several of their own personality (extraversion, neuroticism, psychotism and self‐monitoring) and social anxiety scores, though they were able to correctly estimate only two scores of another person that they knew well (extraversion and neuroticism). They did however believe themselves to be significantly similar on all eight dimensions to their nominated friend, thereby showing attributional errors. The results are discussed in terms of person perception and attribution theory, and the significance of the results for psychological assessment are explored. Limitations in research of this kind are also considered.