Judging personal values and personality traits: Accuracy and its relation to visibility

Abstract Personality judgment research typically focuses on traits, and visibility of traits often predicts judgmental accuracy. However, visibility and accuracy of values are not well-explored. It was predicted that visibility and accuracy would be positively related, and values would be judged more accurately than traits. In groups of 3 acquaintances, 204 undergraduates completed self-report measures of traits and values, and other-reports of acquaintances. A separate sample of 247 participants assessed visibility. Values were rated as more visible than traits, but traits were judged more accurately than values. Correlations between visibility and item-level accuracy for both values and traits were small and non-significant. The ease with which people think values and traits can be judged may differ from the accuracy of judgments.