Meta-perception for pathological personality traits: do we know when others think that we are difficult?

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Clinical Psychology

Background:

• The self enables reflection on behavior and social perception.
• Impaired self-awareness is noted in personality disorders, affecting recognition of behavioral impact and social standing.
• Previous research shows modest agreement between self and peer reports on personality traits.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether individuals are aware of discrepancies between their self-perception and how peers perceive them.
• To determine if this awareness of peer perception influences the expression or impact of personality traits.

Main Methods:

• Collected self-report and peer-report data on pathological personality traits from individuals in close-knit groups (military training).
• Analyzed the predictive power of expected peer scores on actual peer reports, beyond self-report data.
• Examined how agreement or disagreement with expected peer assessments (e.g., narcissism) relates to actual peer-rated traits.

Main Results:

• Expected peer scores significantly predicted peer report variability, indicating incremental knowledge of social perception beyond self-report.
• Individuals possess knowledge of others' views, but it is not typically reflected in standard self-report measures.
• Participants expecting peer-identified narcissism who agreed with the assessment were viewed as less narcissistic by peers compared to those who denied it.

Conclusions:

• Individuals have a degree of insight into their social standing, which is not always apparent in self-assessments.
• Awareness of how one is viewed by others can potentially moderate the negative impressions associated with personality disorder traits.
• This suggests that insight into social perception plays a role in mitigating the impact of pathological personality traits.