We examined the accuracy of well-being judgments by strangers using Brunswik’s lens model. A sample of 200 college students (targets) reported their self-perception of well-being (life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect). The targets were photographed and videotaped during their self-introductions. Various physical, nonverbal, paralinguistic, and linguistic cues were measured or rated by cue coders from the photos and videotaped self-introductions. Strangers evaluated the targets’ well-being based on the videotaped self-introductions. We found significant correlations between self- and strangers’ reports of life satisfaction and positive affect but not negative affect. Loud voice and physical attractiveness mediated the correlation between self- and stranger-reports of life satisfaction. Loud voice mediated the correlation between self- and stranger reports of positive affect. These findings suggest that strangers can accurately evaluate someone’s life satisfaction and positive affect in brief self-introductions, and loud voice and physical attractiveness are the sources of the accurate well-being judgments.
AlbrightL.KennyD. A.MalloyT. E. (1988). Consensus in personality judgments at zero acquaintance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55(3), 387–395. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.55.3.387
2.
BernieriF. J.GillisJ. S.DavisJ. M.GraheJ. E. (1996). Dyad rapport and the accuracy of its judgment across situations: A lens model analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71(1), 110–129. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.71.1.110
BorkenauP.LieblerA. (1992). Trait inferences: Sources of validity at zero acquaintance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62(4), 645–657. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.62.4.645
BrodyN.EhrlichmanH. (1997). Personality psychology: The science of individuality. Prentice Hall.
7.
BrunswikE. (1956). Perception and the representative design of psychological experiments (2nd ed.). University of California Press.
8.
CunninghamM. R. (1988). What do you do when you’re happy or blue? Mood, expectancies and behavior interest. Motivation and Emotion, 12, 309–331. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00992357
DienerE.EmmonsR. A.LarsenR. J.GriffinS. (1985). The satisfaction with life scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49(1), 71–75. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa4901_13
11.
DienerE.FujitaF. (1995). Resources, personal strivings, and subjective well-being: A nomothetic and idiographic approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68(5), 926–935. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.68.5.926
12.
DienerE.SmithH.FujitaF. (1995). The personality structure of affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69(1), 130–141. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.69.1.130
13.
DienerE.WirtzD.TovW.Kim-PrietoC.ChoiD. W.OishiS.Biswas-DienerR. (2010). New well-being measures: Short scales to assess flourishing and positive and negative feelings. Social Indicators Research, 97, 143–156. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-009-9493-y
14.
DobewallH.RealoA.AllikJ.EskoT.MetspaluA. (2013). Self-other agreement in happiness and life-satisfaction: The role of personality traits. Social Indicators Research, 114, 479–492. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-012-0157-y
15.
FaulF.ErdfelderE.BuchnerA.LangA. G. (2009). Statistical power analyses using G* Power 3.1: Tests for correlation and regression analyses. Behavior Research Methods, 41(4), 1149–1160. https://doi.org/10.3758/BRM.41.4.1149
FunderD. C.SneedC. D. (1993). Behavioral manifestations of personality: An ecological approach to judgmental accuracy. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64(3), 479–490. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.64.3.479
18.
GardinerG.SauerbergerK.LeeD.FunderD. (2022). What happy people do: The behavioral correlates of happiness in everyday situations. Journal of Research in Personality, 99, 104236. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2022.104236
19.
GiffordR.NgC. F.WilkinsonM. (1985). Nonverbal cues in the employment interview: Links between applicant qualities and interviewer judgments. Journal of Applied Psychology, 70(4), 729–736. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.70.4.729
20.
GoslingS. D.KoS. J.MannarelliT.MorrisM. E. (2002). A room with a cue: Personality judgments based on offices and bedrooms. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82(3), 379–398. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.82.3.379
21.
HirschmüllerS.SchmukleS. C.KrauseS.BackM. D.EgloffB. (2018). Accuracy of self-esteem judgments at zero acquaintance. Journal of Personality, 86(2), 308–319. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12316
22.
KeltnerD.TracyJ.SauterD.CordanoD.McNeilG. (2016). Expression of emotion. In BarrettL. F.LewisM.Haviland-JonesJ. M. (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (4th ed., pp. 467–482). Guilford Press.
23.
LippaR. (1998). The nonverbal judgment and display of extraversion, masculinity, femininity, and gender diagnosticity: A lens model analysis. Journal of Research in Personality, 32(1), 80–107. https://doi.org/10.1006/jrpe.1997.2189
24.
LyubomirskyS.KingL.DienerE. (2005). The benefits of frequent positive affect: Does happiness lead to success?Psychological Bulletin, 131(6), 803–855. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.131.6.803
25.
LyubomirskyS.TkachC.DiMatteoM. R. (2006). What are the differences between happiness and self-esteem. Social Indicators Research, 78, 363–404. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-005-0213-y
26.
MatsumotoD.KeltnerD.ShiotaM. N.O’SullivanM.FrankM. (2008). Facial expressions of emotion. In LewisM.Haviland-JonesJ. M.BarrettL. F. (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (3rd ed., pp. 211–234). The Guilford Press.
27.
MuthénL. K.MuthénB. O. (1998–2015). Mplus user’s guide (7th ed.).
28.
NaumannL. P.VazireS.RentfrowP. J.GoslingS. D. (2009). Personality judgments based on physical appearance. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 35(12), 1661–1671. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167209346309
29.
NaveC. S.ShermanR. A.FunderD. C. (2008). Beyond self-report in the study of hedonic and eudaimonic well-being: Correlations with acquaintance reports, clinician judgments and directly observed social behavior. Journal of Research in Personality, 42(3), 643–659. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2007.09.001
30.
NestlerS.BackM. D. (2013). Applications and extensions of the lens model to understand interpersonal judgments at zero acquaintance. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 22(5), 374–379. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721413486148
31.
NestlerS.EgloffB.KüfnerA. C. P.BackM. D. (2012). An integrative lens model approach to bias and accuracy in human inferences: Hindsight effects and knowledge updating in personality judgments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 103(4), 689–717. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029461
PennebakerJ. W.BoydR. L.JordanK.BlackburnK. (2015). The development and psychometric properties of LIWC2015. University of Texas at Austin.
34.
ReynoldsD. J.Jr.GiffordR. (2001). The sounds and sights of intelligence: A lens model channel analysis. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27(2), 187–200. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167201272005
RubenM. A. (2016). Interpersonal accuracy in the clinical setting. In HallJ. A.Schmid MastM.WestT. V. (Eds.), The social psychology of perceiving others accurately (pp. 287–308). Cambridge University Press.
37.
SandvikE.DienerE.SeidlitzL. (1993). Subjective well-being: The convergence and stability of self-report and non-self-report measures. Journal of Personality, 61(3), 317–342. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.1993.tb00283.x
38.
SchererK. R.LondonH.WolfJ. (1973). The voice of confidence: Paralinguistic cues and audience evaluation. Journal of Research in Personality, 7(1), 31–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/0092-6566(73)90030-5
39.
SchkadeD. A.KahnemanD. (1998). Does living in California make people happy? A focusing illusion in judgments of life satisfaction. Psychological Science, 9(5), 340–346. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9280.00066
40.
Schmid MastM.LatuI. (2016). Interpersonal accuracy in relation to the workplace, leadership, and hierarchy. In HallJ. A.Schmid MastM.WestT. V. (Eds.), The social psychology of perceiving others accurately (pp. 270–286). Cambridge University Press.
41.
SchneiderL.SchimmackU. (2009). Self-informant agreement in well-being ratings: A meta-analysis. Social Indicators Research, 94, 363–376. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-009-9440-y
42.
SchneiderL.SchimmackU. (2010). Examining sources of self-informant agreement in life-satisfaction judgments. Journal of Research in Personality, 44(2), 207–212. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2010.01.004
43.
ShroutP. E.FleissJ. L. (1979). Intraclass correlations: Uses in assessing rater reliability. Psychological Bulletin, 86(2), 420–428. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.86.2.420
44.
SteelP.SchmidtJ.ShultzJ. (2008). Refining the relationship between personality and subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin, 134(1), 138–161. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.134.1.138
45.
SuhE.DienerE.OishiS.TriandisH. C. (1998). The shifting basis of life satisfaction judgments across cultures: Emotions versus norms. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(2), 482–493. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.74.2.482
46.
TsaiJ. L.KnutsonB.FungH. H. (2006). Cultural variation in affect valuation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90(2), 288–307. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.90.2.288
47.
UrhahneD.ZhuM. (2015). Accuracy of teachers’ judgments of students’ subjective well-being. Learning and Individual Differences, 43, 226–232. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2015.08.007
48.
WatsonD.HubbardB.WieseD. (2000). Self-other agreement in personality and affectivity: The role of acquaintanceship, trait visibility, and assumed similarity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78(3), 546–558. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.78.3.546
49.
YeagleyE.MorlingB.NelsonM. (2007). Nonverbal zero-acquaintance accuracy of self-esteem, social dominance orientation, and satisfaction with life. Journal of Research in Personality, 41(5), 1099–1106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2006.12.002
50.
ZuckermanM.LarranceD. T.SpiegelN. H.KlormanR. (1981). Controlling nonverbal cues: Facial expressions and tone of voice. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 17(5), 506–524. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-1031(81)90037-8
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
