Navigating Minds: Perceiving Self-Awareness In Others

Authors:

Abstract: People frequently evaluate a variety of characteristics in others, such as competence, morality, and sociability. In the current research, we examine whether, and when, people evaluate how self-aware a target person is (i.e., whether the target seems to be aware of what others think of them or not). In contrast to evaluating many other traits, evaluating self-awareness requires modeling the target’s mind (in order to discern what the target thinks others think of them). Thus, we propose that observers will be most likely to spontaneously evaluate a target’s self-awareness when the observer is prompted to undergo a more careful attribution process—namely, when observers are surprised by the target’s behavior, and/or when observers evaluate the target negatively on other attributes or behaviors. Our findings contribute to literature on interpersonal judgment and impression management by illuminating a novel and important dimension of person perception.

Track: DEC

Keywords: self-awareness, interpersonal judgment, impression management