EXACT (EXACT)

Basic data for this project

Description

Judging the personality of other individuals is a very common phenomenon that has a number of far reaching consequences. The impression that someone, for instance, is conscientious and competent may lead to assigning this person a leading position. Similarly, if a person appears extraverted, then we may ask the person for a date. Given this ubiquitous nature of personality judgments, it is important to analyze the exact processes underlying them, to better understand when and why these judgments are accurate, and finally, to examine the conditions that can be implemented to enhance their accuracy. The EXACT project is concerned with the last issue. We hypothesize that when participants are given valid feedback and are motivated to relate this feedback to their earlier personality judgments (as is typically done in hindsight bias paradigms), this might initiate learning processes that enhance the accuracy of future personality judgments. We will test this hypothesis in four studies that apply hindsight-bias paradigms and that differ regarding (a) the judgments domain (other-perceptions of personality versus metaperceptions of the impressions evoked in others) and (b) the judgment context (static photo-based versus dynamic video-based). The overall increase of accuracy as well as individual differences in this increase will be further explained by three kinds of processes: (a) a more accurate perception of cue values, (b) a more consistent application of judgment policies across targets, and (c) a higher sensitivity for the validity of different cues.