INTERPERSONAL PERCEPTION AND METAPERCEPTION IN NONOVERLAPPING SOCIAL-GROUPS

Consensus, self-ether agreement, and meta-accuracy were studied within and across nonoverlapping social groups. Thirty-one target persons we re judged on the Big Five factors by 9 informants: 3 family members, 3 friends, and 3 coworkers. Although well acquainted within groups, inf ormants were unacquainted between groups. A social relations analysis conducted within each social group showed reliable consensus on the Bi g Five personality factors. A model specified to estimate the consiste ncy of a target person's effect on perceptions by others across social groups showed weaker agreement across groups. That is, targets were p erceived consensually within groups, but these consensual perceptions differed between groups. The data suggest that personality and identit y are context specific; however, there was some evidence of agreement in perceptions across groups.