The Impact of Prior True or False Information on Personality Trait Judgment Accuracy

How does information about personality learned prior to an observation affect the accuracy of personality judgments? 151 judges were given true, false, or no information about a target’s personality and then watched a recorded interview and judged the Big Five personality traits. Compared to judges without prior information, judges given true information had greater distinctive accuracy, and judges given false information had lower distinctive accuracy and normativity. These results highlight the importance of using reliable and accurate sources of information when forming impressions of others.