title: Do people know how they behave? Self-reported act frequencies compared with on-line codings by observers.
abstract: Behavioral acts constitute the building blocks of interpersonal perception and the basis for inferences about personality traits. How reliably can observers code the acts individuals perform in a specific situation? How valid are retrospective self-reports of these acts? Participants interacted in a group-discussion task and then reported their act frequencies, which were later coded by observers from videotapes. For each act, observer-observer agreement, self-observer agreement, and self-enhancement bias were examined. Findings show that (a) agreement varied greatly across acts; (b) much of this variation was predictable from properties of the acts (observability, base rate, desirability, Big Five domain); (c) on average, self-reports were positively distorted; and (d) this was particularly true for narcissistic individuals. Discussion focuses on implications for research on acts, traits, social perception, and the act frequency approach.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, USA. samiam@uclink.berkeley.edu
authors.forename: S D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Gosling
authors.forename: O P
authors.initials: OP
authors.lastname: John
authors.forename: K H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Craik
authors.forename: R W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Robins
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D005260:Female; D006126:Group Processes; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009289:Narcissism; D015588:Observer Variation; D010551:Personality; D011287:Prejudice; D012649:Self Concept; D012919:Social Behavior; D012928:Social Desirability; D014743:Videotape Recording