Judging personality from a brief sample of behaviour: detecting where others stand on trait continua
Trait inferences occur routinely and rapidly during social interaction, sometimes based on scant or fleeting information. In this research, participants (perceivers) made inferences of targets’ big-five traits after briefly watching or listening to an unfamiliar target (a third party) performing var...
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| Format: | Article |
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Wiley
2017
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/44304/ |
| _version_ | 1848796885373943808 |
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| author | Wu, Wenjie Sheppard, Elizabeth Mitchell, Peter |
| author_facet | Wu, Wenjie Sheppard, Elizabeth Mitchell, Peter |
| author_sort | Wu, Wenjie |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Trait inferences occur routinely and rapidly during social interaction, sometimes based on scant or fleeting information. In this research, participants (perceivers) made inferences of targets’ big-five traits after briefly watching or listening to an unfamiliar target (a third party) performing various mundane activities (telling a scripted joke or answering questions about him/herself or reading aloud a paragraph of promotional material). Across three studies, when perceivers judged targets to be either low or high in one or more dimensions of the big-five traits they tended to be correct, but they did not tend to be correct when they judged targets as average. Such inferences seemed to vary in effectiveness across different trait dimensions and depending on whether the target’s behavior was presented either in a video with audio, a silent video or just in an audio track – perceivers generally were less often correct when they judged targets as average in each of the big-five traits across various information channels (videos with audio, silent videos and audios). Study 3 replicated these findings in a different culture. We conclude with discussion of the scope and the adaptive value of this trait inferential ability. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:55:05Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-44304 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:55:05Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-443042020-05-04T19:02:14Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/44304/ Judging personality from a brief sample of behaviour: detecting where others stand on trait continua Wu, Wenjie Sheppard, Elizabeth Mitchell, Peter Trait inferences occur routinely and rapidly during social interaction, sometimes based on scant or fleeting information. In this research, participants (perceivers) made inferences of targets’ big-five traits after briefly watching or listening to an unfamiliar target (a third party) performing various mundane activities (telling a scripted joke or answering questions about him/herself or reading aloud a paragraph of promotional material). Across three studies, when perceivers judged targets to be either low or high in one or more dimensions of the big-five traits they tended to be correct, but they did not tend to be correct when they judged targets as average. Such inferences seemed to vary in effectiveness across different trait dimensions and depending on whether the target’s behavior was presented either in a video with audio, a silent video or just in an audio track – perceivers generally were less often correct when they judged targets as average in each of the big-five traits across various information channels (videos with audio, silent videos and audios). Study 3 replicated these findings in a different culture. We conclude with discussion of the scope and the adaptive value of this trait inferential ability. Wiley 2017-08-23 Article PeerReviewed Wu, Wenjie, Sheppard, Elizabeth and Mitchell, Peter (2017) Judging personality from a brief sample of behaviour: detecting where others stand on trait continua. European Journal of Personality, 31 (6). pp. 685-700. ISSN 1099-0984 trait inferences big-five traits zero-acquaintance thin slices of behavior http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/per.2116/full doi:10.1002/per.2116 doi:10.1002/per.2116 |
| spellingShingle | trait inferences big-five traits zero-acquaintance thin slices of behavior Wu, Wenjie Sheppard, Elizabeth Mitchell, Peter Judging personality from a brief sample of behaviour: detecting where others stand on trait continua |
| title | Judging personality from a brief sample of behaviour: detecting where others stand on trait continua |
| title_full | Judging personality from a brief sample of behaviour: detecting where others stand on trait continua |
| title_fullStr | Judging personality from a brief sample of behaviour: detecting where others stand on trait continua |
| title_full_unstemmed | Judging personality from a brief sample of behaviour: detecting where others stand on trait continua |
| title_short | Judging personality from a brief sample of behaviour: detecting where others stand on trait continua |
| title_sort | judging personality from a brief sample of behaviour: detecting where others stand on trait continua |
| topic | trait inferences big-five traits zero-acquaintance thin slices of behavior |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/44304/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/44304/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/44304/ |