Psychologically Adjusted Persons Are Less Aware of How They Are Perceived by Others

Focusing on individual differences,we studied three influences on the accuracy of meta-perceptions of personality: (a) projection,that is,relying on one’s self-perception; (b) normative meta-insight,that is,relying on the perception of the typical person by others; and (c) distinctive meta-insight,that is,relying on others’ perception of one’s unique personality attributes. using a round-robin design,52 groups of four acquainted students described themselves,three acquaintances,and their meta-perceptions on the big-five factors of personality,and provided self-reports of psychological adjustment. projection,normative,and distinctive meta-insight contributed uniquely to meta-perception,yet qualified by systematic individual differences: psychologically adjusted meta-perceivers projected more and relied on distinctive meta-insight less. moreover,acquaintance raised projection. thus,psychologically adjusted meta-perceivers were less aware of discrepancies between their self-perceptions and their actual perceptions by others,and the better people knew another person,the more strongly they expected that this other person perceived them like they perceived themselves. © 2016,© 2016 by the society for personality and social psychology,inc.