The acceptance of personality evaluations: constraints on consistency motivations

One week subsequent to taking a projective test of personality, subjects high or low in chronic self-esteem rated the extent to which positively- or negatively-toned, bogus personality interpretations described their personalities. Half of these subjects were led to believe that the interpretations they received were based on their projective test responses. Remaining subjects rated the self-applicability of "sample" personality interpretations described as unrelated to their previous testing. Results indicated that both favorable and unfavorable interpretations purportedly based on projective test responses were regarded as accurate descriptions of subjects' personalities. However, "sample" interpretations unrelated to prior testing were accepted as significantly more accurate descriptions when consistent than when inconsistent with subjects' self-evaluations. The results are interpreted as illustrating the operation of constraints inherent in most personality assessment 'situations on self-consistency motivations.