Main research questions

In our daily lives, we try to make sense of ourselves and the people around us, but how do we go about making judgments and are we right? The Self-Knowledge and Interpersonal Perception (SKIP) lab studies what we know about ourselves and others and how we form impressions of ourselves and others. Below are a few examples of our published works.

Do people know how they are perceived?

Do we know how other people perceive us? If not, how can we form more accurate perceptions? Do some people have better insight into the impressions they make than other people do? And is it good to be accurate about our reputation, or should we just assume the best?

Example Publications

*Elsaadawy, N., Carlson, E. N., Chung, J. M., & Connelly, B. S. (2023). How do people think about the impressions they make on others? The attitudes and substance of metaperceptions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 124(3), 640–658. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000433

Hater, L., *Elssadawy, N., Biesanz, J., Briel, S. M., Human, L., Niemery, L., Tissera, H., Back, M., & Carlson, E., (2023). Examining individual differences in meta-perceptive accuracy using the Social Meta-Accuracy Model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 125(5), 1119–1135. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/pspp0000479

*Elsaadawy, N., & Carlson, E. N. (2022). Do you make a better or worse impression than you think? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 123(6), 1407–1420. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000434

*Elsaadawy, N. & Carlson, E. N. (2021). Is meta-accuracy consistent across levels of acquaintanceship? Social Psychological and Personality Science, 13(1), 178-185. https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506211018151

*Elsaadawy, N., Carlson, E. N., & Human, L. (2021). Who influences meta-accuracy? It takes two to know the impressions we make. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 121(1), 201-214. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/pspp0000376

Tissera, H., Gazzard, L., Carlson, E. N., & Human, L. J. (2021). Social anxiety and liking: Towards understanding the role of metaperceptions in first impressions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 121(4), 948-968. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/pspp0000363

Carlson, E. N. (2016). Weighing the costs and benefits of knowing your reputation: Does meta-accuracy foster relationship quality? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 111(2), 250-264. doi:10.1037/pspp0000107

Carlson, E. N. (2016). Do psychologically adjusted individuals know what other people really think about them? The link between psychological adjustment and meta-accuracy. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 7(7), 717-725. doi:10.1177/1948550616646424

Do people know themselves?

When people describe themselves, are they accurate? People have some self-knowledge, but often times, other people know more about us than we do. The SKIP lab identifies blind spots in self-knowledge, explores why these blind spots exist, whether blind spots are adaptive, and how to shed light on blind spots when they are maladaptive.

Example Publications:

*Long, E., Carlson, E. N., & Human, L. (2023). Self as both target and judge: Who has an easier time knowing their own personality? Journal of Personality, 91(6), 1277-1293. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12806

*Pringle, V., Sun, J., & Carlson, E., (2023). What Is the moral person like? An examination of the shared and unique perspectives on moral character, Journal of Personality. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12902

*Pringle, V., Carlson, E. N., & Connelly, B. S. (2023). What’s “moral” in moral impressions? Exploring self-other agreement about the trait-specific component of moral impressions. Journal of Research in Personality. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2023.104362

*Barranti, M., Carlson, E. N., & Furr, R. M. (2016). Disagreement about moral character is linked to interpersonal costs. Social Psychological and Personality Science. PDF

Carlson, E. N., Vazire, S., & Oltmanns, T. F. (2013). Self-other knowledge asymmetries in personality pathology. Journal of Personality, 81, 155-170. PDF

Carlson, E. N. (2013). Overcoming barriers to self-knowledge: Mindfulness as a path to seeing yourself as you really are. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 8, 173-186. PDF

Gallrein, M. B., Carlson, E. N., Holstein, M., & Leising, D. (2013). You spy with your little eye: People are “blind” to some of the ways in which they are consensually seen by others. Journal of Research in Personality, 47, 464-471. PDF

Vazire, S., & Carlson, E. N. (2011). Others sometimes know us better than we know ourselves. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20, 104-108. PDF

Vazire, S., & Carlson, E. N. (2010). Self-knowledge of personality: Do people know themselves? Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 4, 605-620. PDF

Working models in person perception

We don’t enter social situations with a blank slate. Instead, we come to any given situation with a general sense of what people are like and how we think a social interaction will go. What are the models we bring, who has more positive or negative impressions, and how do we update these models over time?

Example Publications:

Bleckmann, E., Rau, R., Carlson, E., Wagner, J. (in press). I think you might like me: Emergence and change of meta-liking in initial social interactions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Carlson, E., *Elsaadawy, N., *Pringle, V. & Rau, R. (2023) Individual differences in dissimilation: Do some people make more distinctions among targets’ personalities than others? Journal of Personality. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12893

*Elsaadawy, N., Carlson, E., & *Pringle, V. (2023). Who will like Me? Individual differences in the sources of meta-liking judgments at zero-acquaintance. Journal of Research in Personality. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2023.104412

*Pringle, V., Carlson, E., & Rau, R. (2023). Self-knowledge of perceiver effects: Do people know how positively they tend to view targets relative to other people? Journal of Research in Personality. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2023.104413

Rau, R., Carlson, E. N., Dufner, M., Geukes, K., Kraft, L., Krause, S., Nikoleizig, L., Nestler, S., & Back, M. D. (2022). Positivity in peer perceptions over time: Personality explains variation at zero-acquaintance, popularity explains differential change. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 123(2), 423-443. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000407

How does positivity affect our perceptions of ourselves and others?

When we rate ourselves and others, we're partly providing our true judgements (I really do think I am extraverted and my friend is conscientious) but we're partly also revealing our attitudes (I feel positively towards myself and my friend, so I'm more likely to rate us both positively). How can we remove positivity from people's ratings to better understand their substantive beliefs?

Example publications:

*Elsaadawy, N., Carlson, E. N., Chung, J. M., & Connelly, B. S. (2023). How do people think about the impressions they make on others? The attitudes and substance of metaperceptions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 124(3), 640.