OBSERVABLE ATTRIBUTES AS MANIFESTATIONS AND CUES OF PERSONALITY AND INTELLIGENCE

In this study, we investigated the relationship of participants' obser vable attributes to measures of their personality and intelligence; we also studied the ways in which strangers formed their perception of p articipants' personalities and intelligence. Fifty pairs of intimate a cquisitances were videotaped in a standard situation, were administere d an intelligence test, and provided self-reports of their personality and descriptions of their partner's personality. In addition, various observable attributes (such as hair color, stature, physical manneris ms) of the targets were measured. Strangers watched the videotaped and rated either the observable attributes or the personality traits of t he targets. The obsrvable attributes were then correlated with the per sonality measures and the intelligence and trait inferences by strange rs. Extraversion was the trait with the most external manifestations a nd the strongest match between cue utilization and cue validity. Intel ligence was inferred from visual as well as from acoustic attributes, but only acoustic cues mediated the correlation between psychometric i ntelligence and perceptions of intelligence by strangers.