SIMPA: Statement-to-Item Matching Personality Assessment from text

Automated text-based personality assessment (ATBPA) methods can analyze large amounts of text data and identify nuanced linguistic personality cues. However, current approaches lack the interpretability, explainability, and validity offered by standard questionnaire instruments. To address these weaknesses, we propose an approach that combines questionnaire-based and text-based approaches to personality assessment. Our Statement-to-Item Matching Personality Assessment (SIMPA) framework uses natural language processing methods to detect self-referencing descriptions of personality in a target’s text and utilizes these descriptions for personality assessment. The core of the framework is the notion of a trait-constrained semantic similarity between the target’s freely expressed statements and questionnaire items. The conceptual basis is provided by the realistic accuracy model (RAM), which describes the process of accurate personality judgments and which we extend with a feedback loop mechanism to improve the accuracy of judgments. We present a simple proof-of-concept implementation of SIMPA for ATBPA on the social media site Reddit. We show how the framework can be used directly for unsupervised estimation of a target’s Big 5 scores and indirectly to produce features for a supervised ATBPA model, demonstrating state-of-the-art results for the personality prediction task on Reddit.

The judgment of personality: An overview of current empirical research findings

This article presents an overview of the current state of knowledge in personality judgment research. We discuss accuracy and bias in personality judgments, including types of inter-rater agreement and elements of criteria used to determine levels of agreement and accuracy. We then address 1) the words and phrases that people use to describe one another and themselves, 2) research investigating judgments of targets by perceivers per trait, and 3) research investigating judgments of targets by perceivers on profiles or sets of traits. We also provide 4) an outlook regarding important research questions that remain unanswered in this field.

Toward an Integrative Approach to Personality Detection: Connecting Psychological and Artificial Intelligence Research.

Our first impressions of the people we meet are the subject of considerable interest, academic and non-academic. Such initial estimates of another’s personality (e.g., their sociality or agreeableness) are vital, since they enable us to predict the outcomes of interactions (e.g., can we trust them?). Nonverbal behaviors are a key medium through which personality is expressed and detected. The character and reliability of these expression and detection processes have been investigated within two major fields: Psychological research on personality judgments accuracy and Artificial Intelligence research on personality computing. Communication between these fields has, however, been infrequent. In the present perspective, we summarize the contributions and open questions of both fields and propose an integrative approach to combine their strengths and overcome their limitations. The integrated framework will enable novel research programs, such as (i), identifying which detection tasks better suit humans or computers, (ii), harmonizing the nonverbal features extracted by humans and computers, and (iii), integrating human and artificial agents in hybrid systems.

Social Responses to Expressive Suppression: The Role of Personality Judgments

Why do people who suppress their emotion-expressive behavior have difficulty forming close, supportive relationships? Previous studies have found that suppression disrupts the dynamics of social interactions and existing relationships. We evaluated a complementary hypothesis: that suppression functions as a behavioral cue leading others to form negative personality impressions of suppressors, even at zero-acquaintance. In 2 studies, participants reported personality judgments and other impressions of targets who either suppressed or expressed their emotion-expressive behavior in response to amusing or sad film clips. In findings replicated across studies, targets who suppressed either amusement or sadness were judged as less extraverted, less agreeable, and more interpersonally avoidant and anxious than targets who expressed emotions, and participants were less interested in affiliating with suppressors compared with expressers. Effects were amplified when targets suppressed amusement (compared with sadness) and when participants knew the emotional context (compared with when they did not) and, thus, could form expectations about what emotions targets should be showing. Extraversion and agreeableness judgments mediated the effect of suppression on participants’ disinterest in affiliating. In Study 2, which extended Study 1 in several ways, effects were pronounced for the enthusiasm aspect of extraversion and the compassion aspect of agreeableness. We also found evidence that judgments of suppressors do not simply fall between neutral and fully expressing targets; rather, judgments of suppressors are qualitatively different. We discuss implications for understanding the social consequences of emotion regulation—in particular, how beyond disrupting relationships, suppression may prevent some relationships from even forming in the first place.

EVALUATION OF THE ACCURACY OF PERSONALITY JUDGMENTS BASED ON WRITTEN VERBAL PRODUCTION

The process of personality judgment occurs in daily social interactions and represents an attempt to identify characteristics of someone else's personality, in the way to explain past and predict future behaviors. The results of this process have implications on future decisions and actions of people. This research aimed to examine the accuracy of non-expert ratings of Extraversion and Conscientiousness based on short written texts. The sample consisted of 215 participants (Mage = 28.58, SD = 10.30; 80.5% females). The exclusion criterion was that participants were psychologists or psychology students, i.e., individuals familiar with personality research and taxonomies. Participants rated Extraversion and Conscientiousness, based on the texts written by five different individuals. Criteria used to estimate the accuracy of judgments were the agreement between self-report measures on HEXACO PI-R from people who wrote the texts and ratings from participants, as well as the agreement between multiple raters. The results showed that there was a moderate self-other agreement for Extraversion and Conscientiousness. Also, the results showed that there was a high between-raters agreement for Extraversion and Conscientiousness. This study indicates that it is possible to judge one’s personality based on written verbal production, as well that raters tend to form similar impressions about the personality from written texts.

Contributions of Nonverbal Cues to the Accurate Judgment of Personality Traits

This chapter summarizes research on nonverbal expressions of behavior (nonverbal cues) and how they contribute to the accuracy of personality judgments. First, it presents a conceptual overview of relevant nonverbal cues in the domains of facial expressions, body language, paralanguage, and appearance as well as approaches to assess these cues on different levels of aggregation. It then summarizes research on the validity of nonverbal cues (what kind of nonverbal cues are good indicators of personality?) and the utilization of nonverbal cues (what kind of nonverbal cues lead to personality impressions?), resulting in a catalog of those cues that drive judgment accuracy for different traits. Finally, it discusses personal and situational characteristics that moderate the expression and utilization of nonverbal cues and give an outlook for future research.

I am physically and personality-wise warmer when wearing round eyeglasses: Shape priming influences personality judgments and estimated temperature

Shapes are considered to be related to different personality traits, and particularly, in terms of metaphorical associations, the round shape has been related to the warmth trait, and the square shape to the competence trait. The present study used a pre-post design to replicate these associations. Moreover, it was investigated whether round shapes enhanced the estimation of physical warmth as suggested by contemporary debates on cross-modal correspondences. The results indicated that the round shape increased the perception of warmth (p = .004) and the square shape enhanced the perception of competence (p = .025), which confirmed round-warm and square-competent associations. Furthermore, estimates of the room temperature were higher in the round condition, compared to the square condition (p = .023). The theoretical implications of these findings and directions for further research are discussed.

Lens and Dual Lens Models

This chapter presents variants of Brunswik’s lens model aimed to understand whether, when, and why trait judgments are more or less accurate. After outlining the basic concepts of lens models, it describes exemplary studies that have applied the lens model to unravel personality expression and impression formation processes that lead to more or less accurate judgments. Next, it gives an overview of factors that can influence the accuracy of trait judgments and explains these accuracy moderators within the lens model framework. It then describes an extension of the lens model, the dual lens model, that differentiates more controlled versus more automatic aspects on all levels of the lens model (i.e., personality self-concept, cues, personality judgments). It also briefly summarizes further extensions and highlights the lens model as a flexible tool to study cue processes underlying accuracy and related interpersonal perception phenomena. Finally, the chapter concludes by outlining suggestions for future lens model applications in accuracy research.

Trait Accuracy in the Workplace

The importance of accurate trait judgments about employees within organizational contexts is highlighted. More specifically, how the employees’ traits affect both positive and negative work outcomes is illustrated. Next, a description of how personality judgments are used to predict these outcomes both during the hiring process and throughout an employee’s tenure (e.g., performance evaluation, decisions about advancement, and formation of workgroups) is given. The remainder of the chapter focuses on the accurate assessment of the job candidate’s personality during the employment interview, with several points of discussion revolving around methods to improve trait judgments about prospective hires.