ArticlePublisher preview available

Who knows what about a person? The Self-Other Knowledge Asymmetry (SOKA) Model

Authors:
Simine Vazire at University of California, Davis
Simine Vazire
Read publisher preview
Download citation
To read the full-text of this research, you can request a copy directly from the author.

Abstract

This article tests a new model for predicting which aspects of personality are best judged by the self and which are best judged by others. Previous research suggests an asymmetry in the accuracy of personality judgments: Some aspects of personality are known better to the self than others and vice versa. According to the self-other knowledge asymmetry (SOKA) model presented here, the self should be more accurate than others for traits low in observability (e.g., neuroticism), whereas others should be more accurate than the self for traits high in evaluativeness (e.g., intellect). In the present study, 165 participants provided self-ratings and were rated by 4 friends and up to 4 strangers in a round-robin design. Participants then completed a battery of behavioral tests from which criterion measures were derived. Consistent with SOKA model predictions, the self was the best judge of neuroticism-related traits, friends were the best judges of intellect-related traits, and people of all perspectives were equally good at judging extraversion-related traits. The theoretical and practical value of articulating this asymmetry is discussed.
A preview of this full-text is provided by American Psychological Association.
Learn more
Content available from Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
This content is subject to copyright. Terms and conditions apply.
PERSONALITY PROCESSES AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
Who Knows What About a Person? The Self–Other Knowledge
Asymmetry (SOKA) Model
Simine Vazire
Washington University in St. Louis
This article tests a new model for predicting which aspects of personality are best judged by the self and
which are best judged by others. Previous research suggests an asymmetry in the accuracy of personality
judgments: Some aspects of personality are known better to the self than others and vice versa. According
to the self–other knowledge asymmetry (SOKA) model presented here, the self should be more accurate
than others for traits low in observability (e.g., neuroticism), whereas others should be more accurate than
the self for traits high in evaluativeness (e.g., intellect). In the present study, 165 participants provided
self-ratings and were rated by 4 friends and up to 4 strangers in a round-robin design. Participants then
completed a battery of behavioral tests from which criterion measures were derived. Consistent with
SOKA model predictions, the self was the best judge of neuroticism-related traits, friends were the best
judges of intellect-related traits, and people of all perspectives were equally good at judging extraversion-
related traits. The theoretical and practical value of articulating this asymmetry is discussed.
Keywords: self-knowledge, accuracy, personality judgment, behavior, peer ratings
[The observer] sometimes reaches truths about people’s character and
destiny which they themselves are very far from divining. (Santayana,
1905/1980, p. 154)
Why do others sometimes know things about us that we don’t
know about ourselves? We are far from perfectly accurate about
ourselves, and, as Santayana (1905/1980) observed, outsiders are
often at least as good as the self at describing what a person is like
(Kolar, Funder, & Colvin, 1996; Vazire & Mehl, 2008). These
findings violate the commonsense conviction that nobody knows
you better than you do (Pronin, Kruger, Savitsky, & Ross, 2001;
Vazire & Mehl, 2008) and challenge philosophical accounts of the
privileged position of the self with respect to knowing what a
person is like (e.g., Augustine and Descartes). As accurate as
self-perceptions can be, the self’s position as the “best expert” on
what a person is like is on shaky empirical ground. However, the
data accumulated to date do not explain why others sometimes
know us better than we know ourselves, or in what domains this is
likely to occur. The goal of this article is to present a model of self-
and other-knowledge that begins to address these issues and to test
this model empirically.
It is by now evident that neither perspective—the self or oth-
ers—is unequivocally the best perspective from which to judge
personality. Self-ratings of personality predict behavior and im-
portant outcomes to an impressive degree (Funder & Colvin, 1991;
Mehl, Gosling, & Pennebaker, 2006; Ozer & Benet-Martı´nez,
2006; Paunonen & Ashton, 2001; Roberts, Kuncel, Shiner, Caspi,
& Goldberg, 2007), and self-perceptions must undeniably play an
important role in any conception of personality (McAdams, 1995).
However, the last 2 decades have also seen a wealth of empirical
demonstrations of the self’s surprisingly limited insight into ev-
erything from mental and emotional states (Bargh & Chartrand,
1999; Bargh & Williams, 2006; Wilson, 2002; Wilson & Dunn,
2004; Wilson & Gilbert, 2003; see also Haybron, 2007, for an
interesting theoretical argument) to preferences (Eastwick &
Finkel, 2008), motives (Schultheiss, Jones, Davis, & Kley, 2008;
Schultheiss, Wirth, et al., 2008), and behavior (Epley & Dunning,
2006; Gosling, John, Craik, & Robins, 1998; Robins & John,
1997a; Vazire & Mehl, 2008). Furthermore, an equally compelling
empirical case can be made for the validity of informant reports
(Fiedler, Oltmanns, & Turkheimer, 2004; Hofstee, 1994; John &
Robins, 1994; Kolar et al., 1996; Levesque & Kenny, 1993;
Portions of this research were supported by National Science Founda-
tion Grant 0422924 to Sam Gosling.
Thanks to Sam Gosling for financial support and for his invaluable input
on this project. Thanks to Erika Carlson, John Doris, Matthias Mehl, and
Tom Oltmanns for comments on earlier drafts of this article. Thanks to
Oliver John for his input on the SOKA model and to Dave Kenny for his
help with the social relations model analyses. Thanks to Natasha Botello,
Cindy Chung, Hani Freeman, Pranj Mehta, Christina Baquero, Natalie
Morgan, Heather Harrison, Allison Connelly, Samantha Beard, Ashley
Smith, Vanessa Martinez, and Ashish Chavda for their help with data
collection. Thanks to the dozens of research assistants at the University of
Texas who helped with the codings and ratings.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Simine
Vazire, Department of Psychology, Washington University in St. Louis,
One Brookings Drive, Campus Box 1125, St. Louis, MO 63130. E-mail:
svazire@artsci.wustl.edu
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2010, Vol. 98, No. 2, 281–300
© 2010 American Psychological Association 0022-3514/10/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0017908
281
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
... These factors include relevance, availability, detection and utilization of behavioural cues, based on the idea that accuracy in personality judgement is a joint product of the target's attributes and behaviour, as well as the judge's observations and insight. Relatedly, the self-other knowledge asymmetry model (SOKA; Vazire, 2010) postulates that the self-ratings may be more accurate than observer ratings for assessing comparatively less visible and less evaluative traits, whereas observer reports can be more accurate for assessing highly observable and evaluative traits. ...
... ASSESSING THE DARK PERSONALITY TRAITS WITH OBSERVER REPORTS: A META-ANALYSIS OF INTER-RATER AGREEMENT ON THE DARK TRIAD AND DARK TETRAD TRAITS we considered it a large magnitude association. Thus, the correlations obtained between self and observer could indicate that the assessments given by observers will closely match the targets' perceptions of their own personality (Jones & Paulhus, 2014;Luan et al., 2019;Malesza & Kaczmarek, 2020;Vazire, 2010). In line with the studies of Malesza and Kaczmarek (2020) and Mischel (1968), these results provide support for the convergence between self-reports and observer reports because, for all three traits, the correlations exceed the 0.30 validity cutoff. ...
... Furthermore, the former meta-analysis found that the accuracy of observerreported personality traits varied depending on the trait being assessed. For example, observers were found to be more accurate in assessing extraversion and openness to experience, but less accurate in assessing neuroticism and agreeableness, arguing that observer reports might be more useful for highly observable traits (Luan et al., 2019;Vazire, 2010). ...
Assessing the dark personality traits with observer reports: A meta-analysis of inter-rater agreement on the Dark Triad and Dark Tetrad traits
Article
  • Oct 2024
Assessing dark personality traits with self-reports may be hampered by biases such as socially desirable responding. To address this, observer reports could be an effective complement or alternative to self-reports. This meta-analysis aimed to investigate the correlations of observer reports of the Dark Triad and Dark Tetrad traits with these traits' self-reports. A comprehensive search in PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus and PsycINFO yielded 24 studies that met the inclusion criteria (with 32 effect sizes) and included the assessment of at least one of the dark traits. Results showed positive self-observer correlations of medium-high magnitude for psychopathy (r = 0.47) and of medium magnitude for narcissism and Machiavellianism (respectively, r = 0.44 and 0.41). In addition, for Machiavellianism and psychopathy, it was shown that the better acquainted the observer and the observed, the higher the self-observer correlations. For sadism, no results could be obtained because only one study included the assessment of this trait. This is the first meta-analysis of inter-rater agreement in assessing the Dark Tetrad. The findings suggest that observer reports could be a supplement or even be alternatives to self-reports when assessing the Dark Tetrad traits.
View
... Similarly, supervisor, peer, and direct reports' ratings may each reflect, to some unknown degree, a view that is shared by raters, while also reflecting, again to an unknown degree, a view that is unique to the individual rater. The notion that different groups are privy to both unique and common information about an individual is not new and aligns well with personality measurement research where asymmetry in the accuracy of personality judgments has been reported (Vazire, 2010). Hence, whether estimated as a single omnibus score or differentiated by rater group, standard aggregated scoring method (i.e., SAM) likely confounds what is common and unique to each rater. ...
... Interestingly, both studies revealed that the relative magnitudes of the factors' variances varied across constructs. This is consistent with previous findings that self-other agreement and interjudge consensus (as operationalized in terms of correlations across focal participants) vary across traits (e.g., Fleenor et al., 1996Fleenor et al., , 2010Funder, 1995;Furr et al., 2007;Helzer et al., 2014;Vazire, 2010). ...
... In this study, we focused on four diverse competencies and two criteria (performance and derailment); however, the utility of TRI/LARI-based scores might vary from one construct to another, based upon factors such as observability and desirability (Vazire, 2010). Future research should evaluate such possibilities by evaluating the utility of the TRI/LARI-based scoring of multirater assessments across an even wider range of constructs and criteria. ...
Evaluating a Novel Method of Scoring Multirater Assessments of Leader Competencies
Article
Full-text available
  • Oct 2024
In leadership development, 360 assessments are multirater instruments in which leaders rate themselves on leadership competencies and are assessed by several raters (e.g., peers, direct reports, bosses). Such assessment methods afford valuable opportunities for both leaders and practitioners alike; however, they also present thorny challenges, including those related to scoring. We propose a Latent Approximation Method (LAM) for scoring 360s that is based on recent modeling advances for multirater data and provide a preliminary empirical evaluation of that method. To an international sample of nearly 17,000 leaders and nearly 150,000 raters, we applied LAM scoring to a 360 measure of several leadership competencies. We examined associations among LAM scores, explored associations between LAM scores and standard averaged scores, and evaluated the incremental predictive utility that LAM scores bring (beyond standard scores) to the prediction of criterion variables. Replicating across subsamples, results revealed considerable overlap between LAM scores and standard scores. Moreover, LAM scores provided significant but small incremental predictive power over Standard Averaging Method scores. These results indicate limited value of LAM scoring for practitioners, and we discuss the implications of these findings for both research and applications using 360 assessments.
View
... Self-reported personality assessments, though widely used, have well-documented biases and limitationssuch as social desirability bias 31 , response styles 32 , lack of self-awareness 33 , and intentional distortion (faking) 34 that can compromise their validity. Voice-based assessments may help mitigate some of these issues by analysing behavioural expressions of personality through speech patterns, potentially capturing objective acoustic and linguistic features that are less susceptible to conscious manipulation 35 . ...
Speech-based personality prediction using deep learning with acoustic and linguistic embeddings
Article
Full-text available
  • Dec 2024
This study introduces a novel method for predicting the Big Five personality traits through the analysis of speech samples, advancing the field of computational personality assessment. We collected data from 2045 participants who completed a self-reported Big Five personality questionnaire and provided free-form speech samples by introducing themselves without constraints on content. Using pre-trained convolutional neural networks and transformer-based models, we extracted embeddings representing both acoustic features (e.g., tone, pitch, rhythm) and linguistic content from the speech samples. These embeddings were combined and input into gradient boosted tree models to predict personality traits. Our results indicate that personality traits can be effectively predicted from speech, with correlation coefficients between predicted scores and self-reported scores ranging from 0.26 (extraversion) to 0.39 (neuroticism), and from 0.39 to 0.60 for disattenuated correlations. Intraclass correlations show moderate to high consistency in our model’s predictions. This approach captures the subtle ways in which personality traits are expressed through both how people speak and what they say. Our findings underscore the potential of voice-based assessments as a complementary tool in psychological research, providing new insights into the connection between speech and personality.
View
... Further, it may be the case that romantic partners possess intimate and unique knowledge of one another above and beyond what can be captured via self-reports, and it might be misleading to consider correlations between self-reports to be indicative of actual similarity. Indeed, the Self-Other Knowledge Asymmetry model suggests that self-reports need not be the "golden standard" but are instead just one of many perceptions of a person, each with its own unique perspectives and biases (Vazire, 2010). Meta-analyses have demonstrated that informant-reports were strong predictors of both work and academic performances (Connelly & Ones, 2010;Oh et al., 2011), and another primary study have shown a predictive advantage of informant-reports over self-reports in predicting work performance from acquaintances across different contexts (Connelly & Hülsheger, 2012). ...
Assortative Mating Patterns Based on Longitudinal Trajectories of Personality Traits and Relationship-Specific Characteristics
Article
  • Nov 2024
This research examined potential matching patterns between romantic partners in Big Five personality traits and relationship-specific characteristics such as attachment orientations, caregiving systems, conflict resolution, partner responsiveness, and trust. We analyzed two existing longitudinal studies that had complementary samples: 184 couples who had dated for less than one year and 168 married or cohabiting couples across the first two years of parenthood. We found evidence for assortative mating across various relationship-specific characteristics both at baseline and longitudinally, which were often stronger in magnitude than assortment based on Big Five traits. However, couples often perceived each other to be more similar than their actual similarity indicated. Further, there was little evidence to support the benefits of between-partner similarity for relationship quality after controlling for actor and partner effects of both partners’ score levels on each construct. We highlighted the importance of including personality assessments beyond one-time, self-reported measures of Big Five traits in investigating assortative mating processes.
View
... Indeed, studies show that CT can alter one's identity and sense of self (Ogden et al., 2006;Beydoun and Mehling, 2023 for review) by disrupting neural circuits and internal working models linked to interoception and emotional regulation (Oldroyd et al., 2019;Ireton et al., 2024). These disruptions in the internal working models and alterations in brain development can impede the ability to accurately discern sensations that shape emotions and thoughts (Vazire, 2010;Ireton et al., 2024). A recent meta-analysis found how chronically unmet needs in childhood led to defective or maladaptive schemata in adulthood (Bishop et al., 2022). ...
Meditation and interoception: a conceptual framework for the narrative and experiential self
Article
Full-text available
  • Oct 2024
The concept of the self is complex and there is no consensus on what the self is. However, there are emerging patterns in the literature that point to two different selves, the narrative and experiential self. The narrative self refers to a conceptual or representational knowledge of the self that extends across time and manifests in self-reflection and personality assessments. The experiential self refers to first-person perception, moment-to-moment awareness, embodiment, and a sense of agency. These two selves are reliably linked to two distinct neural circuits, the default mode network (DMN) and the insula and salience network (SN). One of the consistent themes in the meditative and mindfulness literature is a change in the perspective of the self. In this paper, I will review how meditation alters those neural circuits providing a plausible mechanism that can explain the changes in the self. I also propose a rudimentary conceptual framework to account for some of the mixed results found throughout meditation literature.
View
View
View
Personality and Meat Consumption Among Romantic Partners in Daily Life
Article
  • Nov 2024
Objective Eating is often a social activity that can be influenced by others, particularly in close relationships when dietary preferences reflect underlying value differences. We sought to examine the personality traits of meat‐eating couples who differ in their preferences for meat. Method We recruited Swiss romantic couples in which one partner typically consumed more meat than the other ( N = 272, couples = 136). At baseline, participants completed survey measures of self‐ and informant‐rated personality traits at the domain (e.g., agreeableness) and aspect level (e.g., compassion) and meat consumption. Participants then completed 28 daily meal surveys about their meat consumption. Results Among high‐meat eating partners, those higher in openness/intellect and compassion ate less meat. Additionally, higher intellect among low‐meat eating partners predicted lower meat consumption among high‐meat eating partners. Conclusions These findings replicate evidence that personality plays an important role in meat‐eating and extend this evidence to meat consumption in a relational context.
View
Personality trait change during adolescence as a predictor of later substance use, depressive symptoms, and perceived maturity
Article
  • Nov 2024
Adolescence is considered a critical period for understanding how individuals develop their self-concepts and personality dispositions, with the assumption that these changes presage important life outcomes. However, this tenet has been infrequently tested; few studies have included rigorous, frequent assessment of personality traits during adolescence, particularly from multiple rater perspectives. The current study utilizes data from the Oregon Youth Substance Use Project (OYSUP; N = 951), which followed students throughout their school years into early adulthood. Student- and teacher-reports of the Big Five personality traits were assessed yearly from grades 7 to 10, as well as drug use, well-being, and maturity outcomes later in emerging adulthood. Using latent growth curve models and true intraindividual change score models, results indicated that youth exhibited relative stability but significant trait changes on multiple domains during adolescence. Moreover, individual differences in these changes predicted likelihood for drug use and depressive symptoms later, as well as the students’ perceptions of their status as being developed adults, even when accounting for initial trait levels. Findings differed somewhat between youth- and teacher-reports of personality, with both demonstrating value for predicting young adult outcomes, indicating multiple perspectives of personality development are important.
View
Volitional Trait Change in Selection: It's About Time, but Also Degree and Perspective
Article
  • Nov 2024
Volitional trait change—the idea that people can willfully change their personality—marks an important advancement for personality science beyond historic views of traits as relatively immutable. We applaud Dupré and Wille's (2024) extension and application of how volitional trait change could impact personnel selection. In this response, we aim to contribute to this discussion by focusing on three critical considerations for the applicability of PDGs to personnel selection—time (how quickly traits can change), degree (how much traits can change), and perspective (who perceives trait change). We concur that personality development has untapped potential in personnel selection and offer suggestions and caveats for how organizations might best realize it. We are excited about a new frontier in extending personality development to organizational settings and are optimistic that doing so would appreciably benefit employees, organizations, and the selection literature.
View
Self–Other Agreement in Personality and Affectivity: The Role of Acquaintanceship, Trait Visibility, and Assumed Similarity
Article
Full-text available
  • Mar 2000
Self- and other-ratings on the Big Five and a comprehensive inventory of trait affect were obtained from 74 married couples, 136 dating couples, and 279 friendship dyads. With the exception of Surprise, all scales showed significant self–other agreement in all 3 samples, thereby establishing their convergent validity. Consistent with the trait visibility effect, however, the Big Five consistently yielded higher agreement correlations than did the affectivity scales. Conversely, the affective traits consistently showed stronger evidence of assumed similarity (i.e., the tendency for judges to rate others as similar to themselves) than did the Big Five. Cross-sample comparisons indicated that agreement was significantly higher in the married sample than in the other 2 groups; however, analyses of 3 potential moderators in the dating and friendship samples failed to identify the source of this acquaintanceship effect.
View
Accuracy and Bias in Self-Perception: Individual Differences in Self-Enhancement and the Role of Narcissism
Article
Full-text available
  • Jan 1994
Accuracy and bias in self-perceptions of performance were studied in a managerial group-discussion task. Ss ranked their own performance and were ranked by the 5 other group members and by 11 assessment staff members. Although the self-perceptions showed convergent validity with the staff criterion, Ss were less accurate when judging themselves than when judging their peers. On average, Ss evaluated their performance slightly more positively than their performance was evaluated by either the peers or the staff; however, this general self-enhancement effect was dwarfed by substantial individual differences, which ranged from self-enhancement to self-diminishment bias and were strongly related to four measures of narcissism. Discussion focuses on issues in assessing the accuracy of self-perceptions and the implications of the findings for individual differences in self-perception bias and the role of narcissism.
View
Big Five Factors and Facets and the Prediction of Behavior
Article
Full-text available
  • Sep 2001
The authors compared the Big 5 factors of personality with the facets or traits of personality that constitute those factors on their ability to predict 40 behavior criteria. Both the broad factors and the narrow facets predicted substantial numbers of criteria, but the latter did noticeably better in that regard, even when the number of facet predictors was limited to the number of factor predictors. Moreover, the criterion variance accounted for by the personality facets often included large portions not predicted by the personality factors. The narrow facets, therefore, were able to substantially increase the maximum prediction achieved by the broad factors. The results of this study are interpreted as supporting a more detailed approach to personality assessment, one that goes beyond the measurement of the Big 5 factors alone.
View
The Statistical Analysis of Data From Small Groups
Article
Full-text available
  • Jul 2002
The authors elaborate the complications and the opportunities inherent in the statistical analysis of small-group data. They begin by discussing nonindependence of group members’ scores and then consider standard methods for the analysis of small-group data and determine that these methods do not take into account this nonindependence. A new method is proposed that uses multilevel modeling and allows for negative nonindependence and mutual influence. Finally, the complications of interactions, different group sizes, and differential effects are considered. The authors strongly urge that the analysis model of data from small-group studies should mirror the psychological processes that generate those data.
View
Do People Know How They Behave? Self-Reported Act Frequencies Compared With On-Line Codings by Observers
Article
Full-text available
  • May 1998
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.
View
View
Big Five Factors and Faces and the Prediction of Behavior
Article
  • Oct 2001
  • J PERS SOC PSYCHOL
The authors compared the Big 5 factors of personality with the facets or traits of personality that constitute those factors on their ability to predict 40 behavior criteria. Both the broad factors and the narrow facets predicted substantial numbers of criteria, but the latter did noticeably better in that regard, even when the number of facet predictors was limited to the number of factor predictors. Moreover, the criterion variance accounted for by the personality facets often included large portions not predicted by the personality factors. The narrow facets, therefore, were able to substantially increase the maximum prediction achieved by the broad factors. The results of this study are interpreted as supporting a more detailed approach to personality assessment, one that goes beyond the measurement of the Big 5 factors alone.
View
View
View
View