Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-669899f699-tpknm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-05T10:09:39.857Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

8 - Metaperceptions

Do people know how others perceive them?

from Part I - Domains of accurate interpersonal perception

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 April 2016

By
Erika N. Carlson  and
Maxwell Barranti
Edited by
Judith A. Hall ,
Marianne Schmid Mast  and
Tessa V. West
Judith A. Hall
Affiliation:
Northeastern University, Boston
Marianne Schmid Mast
Affiliation:
Université de Lausanne, Switzerland
Tessa V. West
Affiliation:
New York University
Get access

Summary

Abstract

Metaperceptions, or beliefs about how other people perceive the self, are the implicit maps people use to navigate complex social environments. Are metaperceptions accurate? The answer to this question is complex and depends on several factors, such as how insight is measured, the attribute in question, and the social context. We first review several ways in which the accuracy of metaperceptions is typically conceptualized and measured. We then summarize for which attributes (e.g., intelligent, likeable) and in which contexts (e.g., among friends or coworkers) metaperceptions are accurate as well as for whom (e.g., personality traits, status) and in which situations. Next, we consider the process of metaperception and which sources of information lead people to form accurate beliefs about how others perceive them. Finally, we discuss future directions that may shed more light on when people know how others experience them and how to potentially improve this type of insight.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Social Psychology of Perceiving Others Accurately , pp. 165 - 182
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2016

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Albright, L., & Malloy, T. E. (1999). Self-observation of social behavior in metaperception. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 726–734.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ames, D. R. (2004). Strategies for social inference: A similarity contingency model of projection and stereotyping in attribute prevalence estimates. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87, 573–585.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Andersen, S. M. Glassman, N. S. & Gold, D. A. (1998). Mental representations of the self, significant others, and nonsignificant others: Structure and processing of private and public aspects. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 845–861.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bem, D. J. (1967). Self-perception: An alternative interpretation of cognitive dissonance phenomena. Psychological Review, 74, 183–200.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Biesanz, J. C., West, S. G., & Millevoi, A. (2007). What do you learn about someone over time? The relationship between length of acquaintance and consensus and self-other agreement in judgments of personality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 119–135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blumberg, H. H. (1972). Communication of interpersonal evaluations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 23, 157–162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boyes, A. D., & Fletcher, G. J. O. (2007). Metaperceptions of bias in intimate relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 286–306.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cameron, J. J., & Vorauer, J. D. (2008). Feeling transparent: On metaperceptions and miscommunications. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2, 1093–1108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, J. D., & Fehr, B. (1990). Self-esteem and perceptions of conveyed impressions: Is negative affectivity associated with greater realism? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 122–133.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carlson, E. N., & Furr, R. M. (2009). Differential meta-accuracy: People understand the different impressions they make. Psychological Science, 20, 1033–1039.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carlson, E. N., & Furr, R. M. (2013). Resolution for meta-accuracy: Should people trust their beliefs about how others see them? Social Psychological and Personality Science, 4, 419–426.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carlson, E. N., Furr, R. M., & Vazire, S. (2010). Do we know the first impressions we make? Evidence for idiographic meta-accuracy and calibration of first impressions. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 1, 94–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carlson, E. N., & Kenny, D. A. (2012). Meta-accuracy: Do we know how others see us? In Vazire, S. & Wilson, T. D. (Eds.), Handbook of self-knowledge (pp. 242–257). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Carlson, E. N., & Oltmanns, T. F. (2015). The role of metaperception in personality disorders: Do people with personality problems know how others experience their personality? Journal of Personality Disorders, 29, 449–467.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carlson, E. N., Vazire, S., & Furr, R. M. (2011). Meta-insight: Do people really know how others see them? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101, 831–846.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carlson, E. N., Vazire, S., & Oltmanns, T. F. (2011). You probably think this paper’s about you: Narcissists’ perceptions of their personality and reputation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101, 185–201.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carter, T. J., & Dunning, D. (2008). Faulty self-assessment: Why evaluating one’s own competence is an intrinsically difficult task. Social & Personality Psychology Compass, 2, 346–360.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christensen, P. N., Stein, M. B., & Means-Christensen, A. (2003). Social anxiety and interpersonal perception: A social relations model analysis. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 41, 1355–1371.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DePaulo, B. M., & Bell, K. L. (1996). Truth and investment: Lies are told to those who care. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 703–716.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Elfenbein, H. A., Eisenkraft, N., & Ding, W. W. (2009). Do we know who values us? Dyadic meta-accuracy in the perception of professional relationships. Psychological Science, 20, 1081–1083.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Felson, R. B., & Reed, M. D. (1986). Reference groups and self-appraisals of academic ability and performance. Social Psychology Quarterly, 49, 103–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fiske, S. T. (1993). Controlling other people: The impact of power on stereotyping. American Psychologist, 48, 621–628.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Frey, F. E., & Tropp, L. R. (2006). Being seen as individuals versus as group members: Extending research on metaperception to intergroup contexts. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 10, 265–280.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Funder, D. C., Kolar, D. C., & Blackman, M. C. (1995). Agreement among judges of personality: Interpersonal relations, similarity, and acquaintanceship. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 656–672.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Funder, D. C., & Sneed, C. D. (1993). Behavioral manifestations of personality: An ecological approach to judgmental accuracy. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 479–490.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Furr, R. M., & Funder, D. C. (2004). Situational similarity and behavioral consistency: Subjective, objective, variable-centered, and person-centered approaches. Journal of Research in Personality, 38, 421–447.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gagne, F. M., & Lydon, J. E. (2004). Bias and accuracy in close relationships: An integrative review. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 8, 322–338.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gallrein, M. B., Carlson, E. N., Holstein, M., & Leising, D. (2013). You spy with your little eye: People are “blind” to some of the ways in which they are consensually seen by others. Journal of Research in Personality, 47, 464–471.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garcia, S. M. (2002). Power and the illusion of transparency in negotiations. Journal of Business and Psychology, 17, 133–144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilovich, T., Savitsky, K., & Medvec, V. H. (1998). The illusion of transparency: Biased assessments of others’ ability to read one’s emotional states. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 332–346.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gosling, S. D., Pete, O. P., Craik, K. H., & Robins, R. W. (1998). Do people know how they behave? Self-reported act frequencies compared with on-line codings by observers. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1337–1349.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hall, J. A., Murphy, N. A., & Schmid Mast, M. (2007). Nonverbal self-accuracy in interpersonal interaction. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33, 1675–1685.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Herbert, B. G., & Vorauer, J. D. (2003). Seeing through the screen: Is evaluative feedback communicated more effectively in face-to-face or computer mediated exchanges? Computers in Human Behavior, 19, 25–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaplan, S. A., Santuzzi, A. M., & Ruscher, J. B. (2009). Elaborative metaperceptions in outcome-dependent situations: The diluted relationship between default self-perceptions and metaperceptions. Social Cognition, 27, 601–614.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kashdan, T. B., & Savostyanova, A. A. (2011). Capturing the biases of socially anxious people by addressing partner effects and situational parameters. Behavior Therapy, 42, 211–223.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kenny, D. A. (1994). Interpersonal perception: A social relations analysis. New York: Guilford Press.Google ScholarPubMed
Kenny, D. A., & Acitelli, L. K. (2001). Accuracy and bias in the perception of the partner in a close relationship. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 439–448.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kenny, D. A., & DePaulo, B. M. (1993). Do people know how others view them? An empirical and theoretical account. Psychological Bulletin, 114, 145–161.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kwang, T., & Swann, W. B. (2010). Do people embrace praise even when they feel unworthy? A review of critical tests of self-enhancement versus self-verification. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 14, 263–280.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leary, M. R. (2005). Sociometer theory and the pursuit of relational value: Getting to the root of self-esteem. European Review of Social Psychology, 16, 75–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leising, D., Rehbein, D., & Sporberg, D. (2006). Does a fish see the water in which it swims? A study of the ability to correctly judge one’s own interpersonal behavior. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 25, 963–974.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lemay, E. P., & Dudley, K. L. (2009). Implications of reflected appraisals of interpersonal insecurity for suspicion and power. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 35, 1672–1686.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lemay, E. P., & Dudley, K. L. (2011). Caution: fragile! Regulating the interpersonal security of chronically insecure partners. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100, 681–702.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Levesque, M. J. (1997). Meta-accuracy among acquainted individuals: A social relations analysis of interpersonal perception and metaperception. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 66–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lieberman, M. D., & Rosenthal, R. (2001). Why introverts can’t always tell who likes them: Multitasking and nonverbal decoding. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 294–310.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lukowitsky, M. R., & Pincus, A. L. (2013). Interpersonal perception of pathological narcissism: A social relations analysis. Journal of Personality Assessment, 95, 261–273.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Malle, B. F., & Pearce, G. E. (2001). Attention to behavioral events during interaction: Two actor–observer gaps and three attempts to close them. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 278–294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malloy, T. E., Albright, L., Diaz-Loving, R., Dong, Q., & Lee, Y. T. (2004). Agreement in personality judgments within and between nonoverlapping social groups in collectivist cultures. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30, 106–117.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Malloy, T. E., Albright, L., Kenny, D. A, Agatstein, F., & Winquist, L. (1997). Interpersonal perception and metaperception in nonoverlapping social groups. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 390–398.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Malloy, T. E., & Janowski, C. (1992). Perceptions and metaperceptions of leadership: Components, accuracy, and dispositional correlates. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 18, 700–708.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, S., & Malloy, T. E. (2003). Interpersonal behavior, perception, and affect in status-discrepant dyads: Social interaction of gay and heterosexual men. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 4, 121–135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murray, S. L., Holmes, J. G., & Griffin, D. W. (2000). Self-esteem and the quest for felt security: How perceived regard regulates attachment processes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 478–498.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Murray, S. L., Holmes, J. G., Griffin, D. W., Bellavia, G., & Rose, P. (2001). The mismeasure of love: How self-doubt contaminates relationship beliefs. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 423–436.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murray, S. L., Holmes, J. G., MacDonald, G., & Ellsworth, P. C. (1998). Through the looking glass darkly? When self-doubts turn into relationship insecurities. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 1459–1480.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oltmanns, T. F., Gleason, M. E. J., Klonsky, E. D., & Turkheimer, E. (2005). Meta-perception for pathological personality traits: Do we know when others think that we are difficult? Consciousness and Cognition: An International Journal, 14, 739–751.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Patterson, M. L. (1995). Invited article: A parallel process model of nonverbal communication. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 19, 3–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petees, E. E., & Nisbett, R. E. (1972). The actor and the observer: Divergent perceptions of the causes of behavior. In Petees, E. E., Kanouse, D. E., Kelley, H. H., Nisbett, R. E., Valins, S., & Weiner, B. (Eds.), Attribution: Perceiving the causes of behavior (pp. 79–94). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Preuss, G. S., & Alicke, M. D. (2009). Everybody loves me: Self-evaluations and metaperceptions of dating popularity. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 35, 937–950.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schlenker, B. R., & Weigold, M. F. (1992). Interpersonal processes involving impression regulation and management. Annual Review of Psychology, 43, 133–168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sedikides, C. (2007). Self-enhancement and self-protection: Powerful, pancultural, and functional. Hellenic Journal of Psychology, 4, 1–13.Google Scholar
Shechtman, Z., & Kenny, D. A. (1994). Metaperception accuracy: An Israeli study. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 15, 451–465.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sherman, R. C., End, C., Kraan, E., Cole, A., Campbell, J., Klausner, J., & Birchmeier, Z. (2001). Metaperception in cyberspace. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 4, 123–129.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shrauger, J. S., & Schoeneman, T. J. (1979). Symbolic interactionist view of self-concept: Through the looking glass darkly. Psychological Bulletin, 86, 549–573.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snodgrass, S. E. (1992). Further effects of role versus gender on interpersonal sensitivity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62, 154–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snodgrass, S. E., Hecht, M. A., & Ploutz-Snyder, R. (1998). Interpersonal sensitivity: Expressivity or perceptivity? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 238–249.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Srivastava, S., Guglielmo, S., & Beer, J. S. (2010). Perceiving others’ personalities: Examining the dimensionality, assumed similarity to the self, and stability of perceiver effects. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98, 520–534.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stopfer, J. M., Egloff, B., Nestler, S., & Back, M. D. (2014). Personality expression and impression formation in online social networks: An integrative approach to understanding the processes of accuracy, impression management and meta‐accuracy. European Journal of Personality, 28, 73–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swann, W. B. (1990). To be adored or to be known: The interplay of self-enhancement and self-verification. In Sorrentino, R. M. & Higgins, E. T. (Eds.), Motivation and cognition (Vol. 2, pp. 408–448). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Swann, W. B., Stein-Seroussi, A., & McNulty, S. E. (1992). Outcasts in a white-lie society: The enigmatic worlds of people with negative self-conceptions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62, 618–624.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vazire, S. (2010). Who knows what about a person? The self–other knowledge asymmetry (SOKA) model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98, 281–300.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vazire, S., & Carlson, E. N. (2010). Self‐knowledge of personality: Do people know themselves? Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 4, 605–620.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vazire, S., & Mehl, M. R. (2008). Knowing me, knowing you: The accuracy and unique predictive validity of self-ratings and other-ratings of daily behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 1202–1216.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vorauer, J. D. (2006). An information search model of evaluative concerns in intergroup interaction. Psychological Review, 113, 862–886.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vorauer, J. D., Hunter, A. J., Main, K. J., & Roy, S. A. (2000). Meta-stereotype activation: Evidence from indirect measures for specific evaluative concerns experienced by members of dominant groups in intergroup interaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 690–707.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vorauer, J. D., & Kumhyr, S. M. (2001). Is this about you or me? Self-versus other-directed judgments and feelings in response to intergroup interaction. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 706–719.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vorauer, J. D., Main, K. J., & O’Connell, G. B. (1998). How do individuals expect to be viewed by members of lower status groups? Content and implications of meta-stereotypes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 917–937.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
West, T. V., & Kenny, D. A. (2011). The truth and bias model of judgment. Psychological Review, 118, 357–378.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wood, D., Harms, P., & Vazire, S. (2010). Perceiver effects as projective tests: What your perceptions of others say about you. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99, 174–190.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×