Rights statement: The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 49 (6), 2013, © ELSEVIER.
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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Rich contexts do not always enrich the accuracy of personality judgements
AU - Wall, Helen
AU - J. Taylor, Paul
AU - Dixon, John
AU - Conchie, Stacey
AU - Ellis, David
N1 - The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 49 (6), 2013, © ELSEVIER.
PY - 2013/11
Y1 - 2013/11
N2 - We test the common assumption that information ‘rich’ contexts lead to more accurate personality judgments than information ‘lean’ contexts. Pairs of unacquainted students rendered judgments of one another's personalities after interacting in one of three, increasingly rich, contexts: Internet ‘chat’, telephone, or face-to-face. Accuracy was assessed by correlating participants' judgments with a measure of targets' personalities that averaged self and informant ratings. As predicted, the visible traits of extraversion and conscientiousness were judged more accurately than the less visible traits of neuroticism and openness. However, judgment accuracy also depended on context. Judgments of extraversion and neuroticism improved as context richness increased (i.e., from Internet ‘chat’ to face-to-face), whereas judgments of conscientiousness and openness improved as context richness decreased (i.e., from face-to-face to Internet ‘chat’). Our findings suggest that context richness shapes not only the availability of personality cues but also the relevance of cues in any given context.
AB - We test the common assumption that information ‘rich’ contexts lead to more accurate personality judgments than information ‘lean’ contexts. Pairs of unacquainted students rendered judgments of one another's personalities after interacting in one of three, increasingly rich, contexts: Internet ‘chat’, telephone, or face-to-face. Accuracy was assessed by correlating participants' judgments with a measure of targets' personalities that averaged self and informant ratings. As predicted, the visible traits of extraversion and conscientiousness were judged more accurately than the less visible traits of neuroticism and openness. However, judgment accuracy also depended on context. Judgments of extraversion and neuroticism improved as context richness increased (i.e., from Internet ‘chat’ to face-to-face), whereas judgments of conscientiousness and openness improved as context richness decreased (i.e., from face-to-face to Internet ‘chat’). Our findings suggest that context richness shapes not only the availability of personality cues but also the relevance of cues in any given context.
KW - Personality judgment
KW - Trait visibility
KW - Accuracy
KW - Context richness
KW - Cue availability
KW - First impression
U2 - 10.1016/j.jesp.2013.05.010
DO - 10.1016/j.jesp.2013.05.010
M3 - Journal article
VL - 49
SP - 1190
EP - 1195
JO - Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
JF - Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
SN - 0022-1031
IS - 6
ER -