Most people can correctly assess their own personalities: Study

It's widely assumed that people have rose-tinted glasses on when they consider their own personality, according to a recent study, that's not entirely true. The research suggests that when it comes to self-assessment, people have a pretty good grip on their own personalities.

As part of this research, Brian Connelly, lead author of the study, conducted a large-scale meta-analysis of 160 independent studies to see whether self-enhancement exists in personality assessments. The findings of the study were published in the Journal of Psychological Science.

The team of researchers found strong support that self-reporting is indeed accurate, and those findings held across the big five personality traits (openness to experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism). One trait that did show some evidence of self-enhancement was a specific aspect of openness, however, Connelly notes the effect was small.

In other words, our perception of our own personality matches that of our peers. "We make personality judgments of ourselves and others all the time, and a popular notion is that self-reports are more positively biased ... but we find little support for that in the literature," Connelly said.

"People are generally attuned to the impressions they convey. Some people may stray toward self-enhancement, or in the opposite direction with self-effacement, but there are social costs associated with both that makes the general trend for people to be accurate," Connelly added.

Having a good handle on self and peer perceptions of personality is important in understanding how people function, says Connelly. While much of his research deals with how people function at work and in school, he says these perceptions can help us better navigate all social situations.