title: Social curiosity and interpersonal perception: a judge x trait interaction.
abstract: The present study examined the impact of social curiosity on the utilization of social information and the accuracy of personality judgments. In total, 182 individuals who never met each other before were asked to interact for 10 minutes and afterwards to evaluate the personality (Big Five) of their interaction partner. High socially curious judges were more accurate in evaluating the degree of Extraversion and Openness of their interaction partners. Interestingly, high and low curious judges differed significantly in the utilization of verbal and nonverbal cues displayed by their interaction partner. Specifically, high socially curious judges more often used valid cues for inferring Extraversion and Openness. No differences in interpersonal accuracy and cue utilization were found for Neuroticism, Conscientiousness, and Agreeableness. The results suggest that high socially curious individuals are more accurate in judging visible traits and that this higher accuracy is grounded in a more comprehensive utilization of valid cues.
authors.affiliation: University of Konstanz, Department of Psychology, Psychological Assessment & Health Psychology, PO Box 47, 78457 Konstanz, Germany. freda-marie.hartung@uni-konstanz.de
authors.forename: Freda-Marie
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Hartung
authors.forename: Britta
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Renner
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005106:Exploratory Behavior; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010552:Personality Assessment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult