Do People Know How They Behave? Self-Reported Act Frequencies Compared With On-Line Codings by Observers

Behavioral acts constitute he building blocks of interpersonal perception and the basis for inferences about personality traits. How reliably can observers code the acts individuals perform in a specific situation? How valid are retrospective s lf-reports of these acts? Participants interacted in a group-discussion task and then reported their act frequencies, which were later coded by observers from videotapes. For each act, observer-observer ag eement, self-observer agreement, and self-enhance-ment bias were examined. Findings how that (a) agreement varied greatly across acts; (b) much of this variation was predictable from properties of the acts (observability, base rate, desirability, Big Five domain); (c) on average, self-reports were positively distorted; and (d) this was particularly true for narcissistic individuals. Discussion focuses on implications for research on acts, traits, social perception, and the act frequency approach. "You interrupted my mother at least three times this morn-ing " exclaims Roger. "That's not true, " responds Julia, " I only interrupted her once! " And so the discussion continues. Disagreements about who did and did not do what are common-place in social interactions. When such disagreements arise