Perception of Traits: Implicit Personality Theory of Self and Others

Sande, Goethals, and Radloff argued that people perceive themselves as having more varied traits than other people. Those authors suggested a multifaceted and adaptive perception of self. To confirm this hypothesis we investigated the differences in perception among self, a liked acquaintance and a disliked acquaintance. Subjects were 162 undergraduates in Japan. Analysis indicated that people perceived themselves having more and varied traits than did the acquaintance, especially the disliked one. This result also supported the idea that people believe they possess opposing pairs of traits.