Do people know how others view them? An empirical and theoretical account

Meta-accuracy is the extent to which people know how others see them. Following D.A. Kenny and L. Albright (1987), we show how the social relations model (SRM) can be used to investigate meta-accuracy. The results from 8 SRM studies involving 569 subjects are reviewed. We argue that people determine...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPsychological bulletin Vol. 114; no. 1; p. 145
Main Authors Kenny, D A, DePaulo, B M
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.07.1993
Subjects
Humans
Interpersonal Relations
Personality
Self Concept
Social Perception
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Summary:Meta-accuracy is the extent to which people know how others see them. Following D.A. Kenny and L. Albright (1987), we show how the social relations model (SRM) can be used to investigate meta-accuracy. The results from 8 SRM studies involving 569 subjects are reviewed. We argue that people determine how others view them not from the feedback that they receive from others but from their own self-perceptions. Consistent with this argument are the findings that (a) people overestimate the degree of consistency in the ways that different targets view them and (b) people are better at understanding how others generally view them than how they are uniquely viewed by specific individuals.
ISSN:0033-2909
DOI:10.1037/0033-2909.114.1.145