Trait Relevance and the Differential Predictability of Behavior

A prominent theory in contemporary personality involves the hypothesis that the accuracy of predicting a person's trait behavior is in part a function of the relevance of that trait to that person Empirical tests of this hypothesis have operationalized trait relevance with measures of behavior consistency, trait importance, behavior observability, and behavior frequency These variables were evaluated in this study for their relations with conventional measures of trait constructs Multivariate analyses using a number of behavior domains supported the conclusion that the underlying relations between trait relevance and trait level variables are quadratic (U or inverted‐U) in form, a finding that has notable implications for the use of those variables as moderators of behavior predictability Contrary findings in the literature are acknowledged and are interpreted with reference to statistical artifacts