Blind Spots and Bright Spots in Self-Knowledge

Washington University, Saint Louis MO

Investigators

Abstract

The aim of this proposal is to examine what people do and do not know about themselves. Self-views are central to people's daily lives, influencing their subjective experience and playing an important role in shaping their behavior, their environments, and others' reactions to them. This project is designed to explain and predict how self-knowledge differs from other-knowledge. By identifying ways in which self- and other-knowledge may differ, the project will yield a better understanding of the unique strengths and weaknesses of self-knowledge. The Self-Other Knowledge Asymmetry (SOKA) model contends that self-knowledge should be high for characteristics that are relatively neutral (i.e., not desirable or undesirable; e.g., talkative, assertive), but low for characteristics that are highly evaluative (e.g., funny, selfish). Furthermore, other people (e.g., coworkers, friends) should be in a better position than the self to judge these evaluative characteristics. The proposed study will test this idea by focusing on real-world behavior and examine whether people are aware of their own desirable, neutral, and undesirable behaviors. There are several unique strengths of the proposed study. First, it will make use of the latest technological advances to measure participants' real-world behavior. Measures of everyday behavior can be obtained accurately and efficiently using the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR; Mehl, et al. 2001). The EAR consists of a small, pocket-sized digital audio recorder worn by participants that periodically records snippets of their speech and ambient sounds. These recordings are then carefully coded for behaviors relevant to the study. Second, both self-perceptions of behavior from participants and perceptions of participants' behavior from four people who know them well (i.e., informants) will be assessed. This research will inform social psychological work on the self, illuminating the processes that contribute to accuracy and bias in self-perception. Identifying the potential blind spots in self-perception can reveal how self-knowledge can be improved, a central goal of psychological inquiry and practice. This research will have important practical implications for anyone relying on self-reports to measure behavior (e.g., employers). This grant would also help promote the involvement of underrepresented groups in scientific research by supporting a research team from a wide variety of backgrounds, including a graduate student who is a first-generation college graduate. In addition, this research is likely to be of significant interest to a wider public including laypersons and clinicians.