TY - JOUR
T1 - Do People Know What They’re Like in the Moment?
AU - Sun, Jessie
AU - Vazire, Simine
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2019.
PY - 2019/3/1
Y1 - 2019/3/1
N2 - Knowing yourself requires knowing not only what you are like in general (trait self-knowledge) but also how your personality fluctuates from moment to moment (state self-knowledge). We examined this latter form of self-knowledge. Participants (248 people; 2,938 observations) wore the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR), an unobtrusive audio recorder, and completed experience-sampling self-reports of their personality states four times each day for 1 week. We estimated state self-knowledge by comparing self-reported personality states with consensual observer ratings of personality states coded from the EAR files, which formed the criterion for what participants were “actually” like in the moment. People had self-insight into their momentary extraversion, conscientiousness, and likely neuroticism, suggesting that people can accurately detect fluctuations in some aspects of their personality. However, the evidence for self-insight was weaker for agreeableness. This apparent self-ignorance may be partly responsible for interpersonal problems and for blind spots in trait self-knowledge.
AB - Knowing yourself requires knowing not only what you are like in general (trait self-knowledge) but also how your personality fluctuates from moment to moment (state self-knowledge). We examined this latter form of self-knowledge. Participants (248 people; 2,938 observations) wore the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR), an unobtrusive audio recorder, and completed experience-sampling self-reports of their personality states four times each day for 1 week. We estimated state self-knowledge by comparing self-reported personality states with consensual observer ratings of personality states coded from the EAR files, which formed the criterion for what participants were “actually” like in the moment. People had self-insight into their momentary extraversion, conscientiousness, and likely neuroticism, suggesting that people can accurately detect fluctuations in some aspects of their personality. However, the evidence for self-insight was weaker for agreeableness. This apparent self-ignorance may be partly responsible for interpersonal problems and for blind spots in trait self-knowledge.
KW - experience-sampling method
KW - naturalistic observation
KW - open data
KW - open materials
KW - personality states
KW - self-knowledge
KW - social behavior
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85060674212&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0956797618818476
DO - 10.1177/0956797618818476
M3 - Article
C2 - 30653411
AN - SCOPUS:85060674212
SN - 0956-7976
VL - 30
SP - 405
EP - 414
JO - Psychological Science
JF - Psychological Science
IS - 3
ER -