1 Why You Should Give People the Benefit of the Doubt: Positive Characteristics Associated with Explicit Normative Knowledge 1 2 Double-check df in correlation table. Jennifer L. Hambleton, Barbara Wood-Roberts, Douglas E. Colman, and Tera D. Letzring Idaho State University, Department of Psychology 1 2 Background 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 People frequently make judgments about the personality traits of others, which can affect vital decisions and interactional outcomes. Judgmental accuracy fluctuates with differences in judges’ traits (Funder, 1995, 1999; Kolar, 1995; Letzring, 2008,2010; Vogt & Colvin, 2003), so it would be useful to increase our understanding of how characteristics of judges relate to their perceptions of others. More accurate judges may have traits that allow them to use different constructs and skills when assessing others’ personalities than do less accurate judges. Social intelligence (Conzelmann et al., 2013; Khilstrom & Cantor, 2000), which includes the ability to know which traits are typical in the “average” person, may relate to accuracy. Explicit normative knowledge (ENK) is knowledge about what the average person is like. Research is needed to elucidate characteristics of judges that are related to ENK to enhance our understanding of judgment accuracy. Figure 1. Visualization of the explicit normative knowledge computation process. BFI = Big Five Inventory, ENK = Explicit Normative Knowledge. Objective Figure 2. ENK scores by gender (females = 390, males = 177). To examine the relationships between characteristics of judges and their level of ENK. Predictions Females would have higher levels of ENK than males. Based on the consistent finding that females are more accurate judges than males (Hall, 1978, 1984; Kirkland et al., 2013; Letzring, 2010) and have higher levels of normative agreement (Chan et al., 2010) Life satisfaction, extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness would be positively related to ENK. Based on the finding that judges who are well-adjusted and have better psychological functioning tend to perceive others more normatively and favorably (Beer & Watson, 2008; Human & Biesanz, 2011; Letzring, 2008) Having an entity theory of intelligence would be positively related to ENK. Based on the finding that many beneficial judge characteristics are associated with judging others more in line with the average and favorably (Letzring, 2015) Perspective-taking ability would be positively correlated with ENK. Based on the finding that judges who have greater perspective-taking ability tend to score higher on person-perception (Bernstein & Davis, 1982). Results Variability of ENK was determined (M = .23, SD = .48) and a histogram revealed an approximately normal distribution. ENK was significantly positively related to agreeableness, conscientiousness, empathic concern, perspective-taking, and life satisfaction, and significantly negatively related to neuroticism and an incremental implicit theory of intelligence (see Table 1). An independent samples t-test revealed females had higher levels of ENK (M=0.28, SD=0.49) than males (M=0.14, SD=0.45), t(565) = 3.10, p = 0.002, d = 0.26, 95% CI [0.05, 0.22]. See Figure 2. Discussion Possessing explicit knowledge about what the average person is like, in terms of broad level personality traits, is an individual difference. Females tend to have higher levels of explicit normative knowledge than males. ENK is related to several favorable personality characteristics of judges. Thus, possessing this knowledge appears to be adaptive. The normative profile is highly favorable, so perceiving the average other in a highly favorable way also appears to be adaptive. . Table 1. Correlations between judge characteristics and ENK. Characteristic N Pearson's r p-value BFI 571 Extraversion .05 .23 Agreeableness .30 <.000** Openness -.03 .46 Neuroticism -.19 Conscientious .22 IRI 569 Empathic concern .20 Personal distress -.10 .02* Fantasy -.01 .85 Perspective-taking .17 Implicit Theory -.09 .03* Life Satisfaction .14 .001** Note: ** = p < .01, * = p < .05; IRI = Interpersonal Reactivity Index; BFI = Big Five Inventory References Beer, A., & Watson, D. (2008). Personality judgment at zero acquaintance: Agreement, assumed similarity, and implicit simplicity. Journal of Personality Assessment, 90(3), doi: / Bernstein, W. M., & Davis, M. H. (1982). Perspective-taking, self-conscious, and accuracy in person perception. Basic & Applied Social Psychology, 3(1), 1-19. Chan, M., Rogers, K. H., Parisotto, K. L., & Biesanz, J. C. 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Journal of Personality, 71(2), Methods Participants N = 571 (68.3% females; Mage = 28.6, SDage = 11.28; 78.1% Caucasian, 9.3% Hispanic, 4.2% Black/African American, 7.8% Other) University students (n = 287) and Amazon’s MTurk workers (n = 284) Measures Big Five Inventory (BFI; John, Naumann, & Soto, 2008): a 44-item measure that provides a score for each of the Big Five factors: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI; Davis, 1980): a 28-item measure with four sub-scales: Perspective-taking, Fantasy, Empathic Concern, and Personal Distress. Implicit Theory of Intelligence (Dweck, Chiu, & Hong, 1995): 3 items designed to assess one’s lay theory regarding the malleability of intelligence (i.e., entity vs. incremental) Satisfaction with Life (SWL; Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985): a 5-item scale that assesses global life satisfaction. Procedures Participants completed self-reports on all four measures; and provided ratings of what they thought the average person is like using the BFI. ENK was computed by determining the average self-ratings on the BFI across all participants, and correlating these with the average-person ratings of each participant (see Figure 1). For more information about the current study, please contact: or