Most people hold beliefs about personality characteristics typical of members of their own and ot... more Most people hold beliefs about personality characteristics typical of members of their own and others' cultures. These perceptions of national character may be generalizations from personal experience, stereotypes with a “kernel of truth,” or inaccurate stereotypes. We obtained national character ratings of 3989 people from 49 cultures and compared them with the average personality scores of culture members assessed by observer ratings and self-reports. National character ratings were reliable but did not converge with assessed traits. Perceptions of national character thus appear to be unfounded stereotypes that may serve the function of maintaining a national identity.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2000
The unidimensional model of acculturation posits that heritage and mainstream culture identificat... more The unidimensional model of acculturation posits that heritage and mainstream culture identifications have a strong inverse relation, whereas the bidimensional model posits that the 2 identifications are independent. The authors compared these models in 3 samples of ethnic Chinese (ns = 164, 150, and 204), 1 sample of non-Chinese East Asians (n = 70), and one diverse group of accultumting individuals (n = 140). Although the unidimensional measure showed a coherent pattern of external correlates, the bidimensional measure revealed independent dimensions corresponding to heritage and mainstream culture identification. These dimensions displayed patterns of noninverse correlations with personality, self-identity, and psychosocial adjustment. The authors conclude that the bidimensional model is a more valid and useful operationalization of acculturation. The culture in which people live plays an important role in shaping their sense of self. Indeed, one facet of people's selfidentity is that they belong to a certain cultural group. Thus, they have a sense of themselves as being, for example, Canadian, American, or Chinese. When an individual moves from one culture to another, many aspects of self-identity are modified to accommodate information about and experiences within the new culture. This process, generally referred to as acculturation, involves changes that take place as a result of continuous and direct contact between individuals having different cultural origins . Such changes may be observed in a number of different domains, including attitudes, behaviors, values, and sense of cultural identity. At a fundamental level, then, acculturation involves alterations in the individual's sense of self. An examination of the extant literature on the acculturation process reveals two predominant formulations, which we term the Studies 1 and 2 were part of a master's thesis conducted by Andrew G.
The literature on personality traits and defense mechanisms suggests individual differences in tw... more The literature on personality traits and defense mechanisms suggests individual differences in two self-favoring tendencies, which we label "egoistic bias" and "moralistic bias." The two biases are self-deceptive in nature and can be traced to two fundamental values, agency and communion, that impel two corresponding motives, nPower and nApproval. The two sequences of values, motives, and biases form two personality constellations, Alpha and Gamma. Associated with Alpha is an egoistic bias, a self-deceptive tendency to exaggerate one's social and intellectual status. This tendency leads to
We assessed the impact of two distinct forms of socially desirable responding-self-deceptive enha... more We assessed the impact of two distinct forms of socially desirable responding-self-deceptive enhancement and impression management-on sexuality self-reports (n = 504) under anonymous testing conditions. Results revealed significant positive relationships between self-deceptive enhancement and sexual adjustment variables for both sexes. Impression management was significantly negatively related to a number of intrapersonal (e.g., unrestricted sexual fantasies, sexual drive) and interpersonal (e.g., sexual experience, virginity status) sexual behaviors for females, and to unrestricted sexual attitudes and fantasies for males. We calculated correlations were first calculated between self-deceptive enhancement, impression management, and personality and conservatism scores. Self-deceptive enhancement and impression management were significantly associated with personality for males and females, and with conservatism for females only. When personality and conservatism variance were partialed out, associations between self-deceptive enhancement and sexuality variables were eliminated, but associations between impression management and sexuality measures remained significant. These findings highlight the importance of a two-factor approach to assessing socially desirable responding, and provide modest support for the view that response bias may intrude in self-report sex data, even under anonymous testing conditions.
The overclaiming technique is a novel assessment procedure that uses signal detection analysis to... more The overclaiming technique is a novel assessment procedure that uses signal detection analysis to generate indices of knowledge accuracy (OC-accuracy) and selfenhancement (OC-bias). The technique has previously shown robustness over varied knowledge domains as well as low reactivity across administration contexts. Here we compared the OC-accuracy index with multiple choice (MC) and short answer (SA) tests in assessing knowledge of introductory psychology topics in a sample of 108 undergraduates. Results indicated that OC-accuracy was (a) comparable to MC and SA in predicting overall course grades and (b) superior to SA tests in reliability achieved per unit administration time. By including the OC-bias index, the overclaiming method also adds a unique element to scholastic testing, namely, a measure of knowledge self-enhancement. The latter index was a negative predictor of overall course grade, suggesting a narcissistic self-destructiveness. Because the selfenhancement index adds no extra administration time to the knowledge measure, the overclaiming approach provides a more rich and efficient information source compared with traditional methods of scholastic assessment.
This research seeks to clarify the association between online trolling and sadistic personality, ... more This research seeks to clarify the association between online trolling and sadistic personality, and to provide evidence that the reward and rationalization processes at work in sadism are likewise manifest in online trolling. Online respondents (community adults and university students; total N = 1,715) completed self-report measures of personality and trolling behavior. They subsequently engaged in one of two judgment tasks. In Study 1, respondents viewed stimuli depicting scenes of emotional/physical suffering and provided ratings of (a) perceived pain intensity and (b) pleasure experienced while viewing the photos. In Study 2, the iTroll questionnaire was developed and validated. It was then administered alongside a moral judgment task. Across both studies, online trolling was strongly associated with a sadistic personality profile. Moreover, sadism and trolling predicted identical patterns of pleasure and harm minimization. The incremental contribution of sadism was sustained e...
Journal of personality and social psychology, Jan 2, 2017
Although all 3 of the Dark Triad members are predisposed to engage in exploitative interpersonal ... more Although all 3 of the Dark Triad members are predisposed to engage in exploitative interpersonal behavior, their motivations and tactics vary. Here we explore their distinctive dynamics with 5 behavioral studies of dishonesty (total N = 1,750). All 3 traits predicted cheating on a coin-flipping task when there was little risk of being caught (Study 1). Only psychopathy predicted cheating when punishment was a serious risk (Study 2). Machiavellian individuals also cheated under high risk-but only if they were ego-depleted (Study 3). Both psychopathy and Machiavellianism predicted cheating when it required an intentional lie (Study 4). Finally, those high in narcissism showed the highest levels of self-deceptive bias (Study 5). In sum, duplicitous behavior is far from uniform across the Dark Triad members. The frequency and nature of their dishonesty is moderated by 3 contextual factors: level of risk, ego depletion, and target of deception. This evidence for distinctive forms of dupl...
Personality and Individual Differences, Mar 1, 2008
... Malley, Yea-saying, nay-saying, and going to extremes: Black–white differences in responsesty... more ... Malley, Yea-saying, nay-saying, and going to extremes: Black–white differences in responsestyles, Public Opinion ... Chen et al., 1995 C. Chen, SY Lee and HW Stevenson, Response style and cross ... Heine et al., 1999 SJ Heine, DR Lehman, HR Markus and S. Kitayama, Is there ...
Previous work has demonstrated the importance of Osgood's three semantic dimensions (Evaluation, ... more Previous work has demonstrated the importance of Osgood's three semantic dimensions (Evaluation, Potency, Activity) in people's conceptions of various domains. To test the effects of arousal on how individuals use these dimensions, three studies were conducted. In each study, six stimuli from a particular domain were presented in pairs. Subjects rated how similar one stimulus was to the other, while being exposed to loud or soft white noise. In study one on the social domain, 28 male undergraduate students judged the similarities of six of their acquaintances; Li study two subjects rated similarities of university courses; and in study three they rated self-roles. The results showed that a high level of arousal induced by the loud noise acted to reduce subjects' cognitive complexity. For the social domains (acquaintances and self-roles), high arousal led to increased use of the "Like-Dislike" (Osgood's Evaluation) dimension. For the non-social domain (university courses), arousal enhanced the use of the arts versus science dimension. In all three studies, arousal inflated the importance of the primary dimension of judgment. Arousal enhanced the importance of evaluation only in domains where evaluation was the primary dimension to begin with, i.e., the two social domains. The reduction of complexity under stress is viewed as an adaptive mechanism suggesting that given an affective threat, a normally open-minded person may exhibit simplistic thinking based primarily on evaluative consideration. (Author/NRB)
... these sets / reviews seven measures of the major response set, social desirability, and descr... more ... these sets / reviews seven measures of the major response set, social desirability, and describes the advantages and disadvantages of each|Edwards Social Desirability Scale / Marlowe-CrowneSocial Desirability Scale / MMPI [Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory] Lie ...
The so-called devil effect leads people to believe that folks who are undesirable in one way are ... more The so-called devil effect leads people to believe that folks who are undesirable in one way are likely undesirable in all ways (Thorndike, 1920). In reality, personalities can be socially aversive in a variety of distinct ways (Hogan & Hogan, 1997; Kowalski, 2001; Ziegler-Hill & Marcus, in press). My students and I have dedicated much effort toward differentiating and organizing an array of so-called dark personalities-those characterized by socially offensive traits falling in the normal or "everyday" range. Rather than being incarcerated or under clinical supervision, such individuals manage to survive, and even flourish, in everyday society. Our original article on dark personalities (Paulhus & Williams, 2002) has garnered wide attention, with the number of citations now exceeding 700-and accelerating. At this point, it is time to update the wider community on the state of the topic, including our 1 current position on key issues. In our initial effort to taxonomize socially aversive personalities, we found that three of them were prominent in both the theoretical and empirical literatures. This Dark Triad consists of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and (subclinical) psychopathy (Paulhus & Williams, 2002). Recently, a fourth trait has been added to that rosternamely, "everyday sadism." Hence the new moniker,
Most people hold beliefs about personality characteristics typical of members of their own and ot... more Most people hold beliefs about personality characteristics typical of members of their own and others' cultures. These perceptions of national character may be generalizations from personal experience, stereotypes with a “kernel of truth,” or inaccurate stereotypes. We obtained national character ratings of 3989 people from 49 cultures and compared them with the average personality scores of culture members assessed by observer ratings and self-reports. National character ratings were reliable but did not converge with assessed traits. Perceptions of national character thus appear to be unfounded stereotypes that may serve the function of maintaining a national identity.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2000
The unidimensional model of acculturation posits that heritage and mainstream culture identificat... more The unidimensional model of acculturation posits that heritage and mainstream culture identifications have a strong inverse relation, whereas the bidimensional model posits that the 2 identifications are independent. The authors compared these models in 3 samples of ethnic Chinese (ns = 164, 150, and 204), 1 sample of non-Chinese East Asians (n = 70), and one diverse group of accultumting individuals (n = 140). Although the unidimensional measure showed a coherent pattern of external correlates, the bidimensional measure revealed independent dimensions corresponding to heritage and mainstream culture identification. These dimensions displayed patterns of noninverse correlations with personality, self-identity, and psychosocial adjustment. The authors conclude that the bidimensional model is a more valid and useful operationalization of acculturation. The culture in which people live plays an important role in shaping their sense of self. Indeed, one facet of people's selfidentity is that they belong to a certain cultural group. Thus, they have a sense of themselves as being, for example, Canadian, American, or Chinese. When an individual moves from one culture to another, many aspects of self-identity are modified to accommodate information about and experiences within the new culture. This process, generally referred to as acculturation, involves changes that take place as a result of continuous and direct contact between individuals having different cultural origins . Such changes may be observed in a number of different domains, including attitudes, behaviors, values, and sense of cultural identity. At a fundamental level, then, acculturation involves alterations in the individual's sense of self. An examination of the extant literature on the acculturation process reveals two predominant formulations, which we term the Studies 1 and 2 were part of a master's thesis conducted by Andrew G.
The literature on personality traits and defense mechanisms suggests individual differences in tw... more The literature on personality traits and defense mechanisms suggests individual differences in two self-favoring tendencies, which we label "egoistic bias" and "moralistic bias." The two biases are self-deceptive in nature and can be traced to two fundamental values, agency and communion, that impel two corresponding motives, nPower and nApproval. The two sequences of values, motives, and biases form two personality constellations, Alpha and Gamma. Associated with Alpha is an egoistic bias, a self-deceptive tendency to exaggerate one's social and intellectual status. This tendency leads to
We assessed the impact of two distinct forms of socially desirable responding-self-deceptive enha... more We assessed the impact of two distinct forms of socially desirable responding-self-deceptive enhancement and impression management-on sexuality self-reports (n = 504) under anonymous testing conditions. Results revealed significant positive relationships between self-deceptive enhancement and sexual adjustment variables for both sexes. Impression management was significantly negatively related to a number of intrapersonal (e.g., unrestricted sexual fantasies, sexual drive) and interpersonal (e.g., sexual experience, virginity status) sexual behaviors for females, and to unrestricted sexual attitudes and fantasies for males. We calculated correlations were first calculated between self-deceptive enhancement, impression management, and personality and conservatism scores. Self-deceptive enhancement and impression management were significantly associated with personality for males and females, and with conservatism for females only. When personality and conservatism variance were partialed out, associations between self-deceptive enhancement and sexuality variables were eliminated, but associations between impression management and sexuality measures remained significant. These findings highlight the importance of a two-factor approach to assessing socially desirable responding, and provide modest support for the view that response bias may intrude in self-report sex data, even under anonymous testing conditions.
The overclaiming technique is a novel assessment procedure that uses signal detection analysis to... more The overclaiming technique is a novel assessment procedure that uses signal detection analysis to generate indices of knowledge accuracy (OC-accuracy) and selfenhancement (OC-bias). The technique has previously shown robustness over varied knowledge domains as well as low reactivity across administration contexts. Here we compared the OC-accuracy index with multiple choice (MC) and short answer (SA) tests in assessing knowledge of introductory psychology topics in a sample of 108 undergraduates. Results indicated that OC-accuracy was (a) comparable to MC and SA in predicting overall course grades and (b) superior to SA tests in reliability achieved per unit administration time. By including the OC-bias index, the overclaiming method also adds a unique element to scholastic testing, namely, a measure of knowledge self-enhancement. The latter index was a negative predictor of overall course grade, suggesting a narcissistic self-destructiveness. Because the selfenhancement index adds no extra administration time to the knowledge measure, the overclaiming approach provides a more rich and efficient information source compared with traditional methods of scholastic assessment.
This research seeks to clarify the association between online trolling and sadistic personality, ... more This research seeks to clarify the association between online trolling and sadistic personality, and to provide evidence that the reward and rationalization processes at work in sadism are likewise manifest in online trolling. Online respondents (community adults and university students; total N = 1,715) completed self-report measures of personality and trolling behavior. They subsequently engaged in one of two judgment tasks. In Study 1, respondents viewed stimuli depicting scenes of emotional/physical suffering and provided ratings of (a) perceived pain intensity and (b) pleasure experienced while viewing the photos. In Study 2, the iTroll questionnaire was developed and validated. It was then administered alongside a moral judgment task. Across both studies, online trolling was strongly associated with a sadistic personality profile. Moreover, sadism and trolling predicted identical patterns of pleasure and harm minimization. The incremental contribution of sadism was sustained e...
Journal of personality and social psychology, Jan 2, 2017
Although all 3 of the Dark Triad members are predisposed to engage in exploitative interpersonal ... more Although all 3 of the Dark Triad members are predisposed to engage in exploitative interpersonal behavior, their motivations and tactics vary. Here we explore their distinctive dynamics with 5 behavioral studies of dishonesty (total N = 1,750). All 3 traits predicted cheating on a coin-flipping task when there was little risk of being caught (Study 1). Only psychopathy predicted cheating when punishment was a serious risk (Study 2). Machiavellian individuals also cheated under high risk-but only if they were ego-depleted (Study 3). Both psychopathy and Machiavellianism predicted cheating when it required an intentional lie (Study 4). Finally, those high in narcissism showed the highest levels of self-deceptive bias (Study 5). In sum, duplicitous behavior is far from uniform across the Dark Triad members. The frequency and nature of their dishonesty is moderated by 3 contextual factors: level of risk, ego depletion, and target of deception. This evidence for distinctive forms of dupl...
Personality and Individual Differences, Mar 1, 2008
... Malley, Yea-saying, nay-saying, and going to extremes: Black–white differences in responsesty... more ... Malley, Yea-saying, nay-saying, and going to extremes: Black–white differences in responsestyles, Public Opinion ... Chen et al., 1995 C. Chen, SY Lee and HW Stevenson, Response style and cross ... Heine et al., 1999 SJ Heine, DR Lehman, HR Markus and S. Kitayama, Is there ...
Previous work has demonstrated the importance of Osgood's three semantic dimensions (Evaluation, ... more Previous work has demonstrated the importance of Osgood's three semantic dimensions (Evaluation, Potency, Activity) in people's conceptions of various domains. To test the effects of arousal on how individuals use these dimensions, three studies were conducted. In each study, six stimuli from a particular domain were presented in pairs. Subjects rated how similar one stimulus was to the other, while being exposed to loud or soft white noise. In study one on the social domain, 28 male undergraduate students judged the similarities of six of their acquaintances; Li study two subjects rated similarities of university courses; and in study three they rated self-roles. The results showed that a high level of arousal induced by the loud noise acted to reduce subjects' cognitive complexity. For the social domains (acquaintances and self-roles), high arousal led to increased use of the "Like-Dislike" (Osgood's Evaluation) dimension. For the non-social domain (university courses), arousal enhanced the use of the arts versus science dimension. In all three studies, arousal inflated the importance of the primary dimension of judgment. Arousal enhanced the importance of evaluation only in domains where evaluation was the primary dimension to begin with, i.e., the two social domains. The reduction of complexity under stress is viewed as an adaptive mechanism suggesting that given an affective threat, a normally open-minded person may exhibit simplistic thinking based primarily on evaluative consideration. (Author/NRB)
... these sets / reviews seven measures of the major response set, social desirability, and descr... more ... these sets / reviews seven measures of the major response set, social desirability, and describes the advantages and disadvantages of each|Edwards Social Desirability Scale / Marlowe-CrowneSocial Desirability Scale / MMPI [Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory] Lie ...
The so-called devil effect leads people to believe that folks who are undesirable in one way are ... more The so-called devil effect leads people to believe that folks who are undesirable in one way are likely undesirable in all ways (Thorndike, 1920). In reality, personalities can be socially aversive in a variety of distinct ways (Hogan & Hogan, 1997; Kowalski, 2001; Ziegler-Hill & Marcus, in press). My students and I have dedicated much effort toward differentiating and organizing an array of so-called dark personalities-those characterized by socially offensive traits falling in the normal or "everyday" range. Rather than being incarcerated or under clinical supervision, such individuals manage to survive, and even flourish, in everyday society. Our original article on dark personalities (Paulhus & Williams, 2002) has garnered wide attention, with the number of citations now exceeding 700-and accelerating. At this point, it is time to update the wider community on the state of the topic, including our 1 current position on key issues. In our initial effort to taxonomize socially aversive personalities, we found that three of them were prominent in both the theoretical and empirical literatures. This Dark Triad consists of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and (subclinical) psychopathy (Paulhus & Williams, 2002). Recently, a fourth trait has been added to that rosternamely, "everyday sadism." Hence the new moniker,
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