Social Relations Modeling of Interpersonal Accuracy

Interpersonal perception is a dyadic phenomenon with multiple perspectives; dyad members reciprocally perceive one another (perceptions), while also assessing how the other perceives them (meta-perceptions). Because accuracy is inherently dyadic, social relations modeling is appropriate for partitioning interpersonal perceptions into theoretically meaningful components called perceiver, target, and relationship. Estimation of accuracy should use only the relevant components when assessing if perceptions conform to a validity criterion. Moreover, interpersonal perception exists within a broader nomological network of perceptual phenomena. People assume that others’ traits are similar to their own traits (assumed similarity), and that others judge them as they judge others (assumed reciprocity). Each has implications for accuracy. Theoretical models are developed that specify the effect of perceivers’ assumptions about others (i.e., top-down processes), and the effect of others’ behaviors (i.e., bottom-up processes) on perceivers’ judgments of targets’ traits, and their impact on accuracy.

The Impact of Interpersonal Accuracy on Behavioral Outcomes

Interpersonal accuracy, the ability to correctly assess other people’s states or traits, has been studied for over 60 years, and many correlates have been uncovered. Furthermore, theorists routinely propose that having this kind of skill matters for social and workplace outcomes. However, much of the empirical work concerned with interpersonal accuracy does not directly address real-life outcomes for people who have, or lack, this skill. The present article summarizes literature pointing to behavioral correlates of interpersonal accuracy and illustrates when and why interpersonal accuracy is related to favorable interaction outcomes. There seems to be no specific behavior associated with high interpersonal accuracy. Instead, interpersonal accuracy seems to foster behavioral adaptability, the ability to change one’s behavior to match the expectations of the social interaction partner. This behavioral adaptability might be responsible for the positive interaction outcomes related to interpersonal accuracy. We illustrate the mechanism and boundary conditions underlying and framing how interpersonal accuracy affects interaction outcomes and discuss future directions in research on interpersonal accuracy.