Consensus and Self‐Other Agreement for Trait Inferences from Minimal Information

Following a general model of consensus in interpersonal perception (Kenny, 1991), we report evidence on four sources of consensus and self‐other agreement: (a) meaning systems shared by observers, (b) extent of information on target behavior, (c) consistency of target behavior, and (d) non‐behavioral information. We argue that these factors can be disentangled more precisely by analyzing ratings by strangers instead of ratings by acquaintances. We then focus on first impressions as a source of self‐other agreement, and we report evidence that first impressions of actual persons are quite accurate for Extraversion and Conscientiousness.