Agreement on the Perception of Moral Character

This study tested for inter-judge agreement on moral character. a sample of students and community members rated their own moral character using a measure that tapped six moral character traits. friends,family members,and/or acquaintances rated these targets on the same traits. self/other and inter-informant agreement was found at the trait level for both a general character factor and for residual variance explained by individual moral character traits,as well as at the individual level (judges agreed on targets’ “moral character profiles”). observed inter-judge agreement constitutes evidence for the existence of moral character,and raises questions about the nature of moral character traits. © 2014 by the society for personality and social psychology,inc.