We explored the degree of consensus and accuracy in observers’ ratings of targets’ traits and autobiographical narratives. Targets narrated life high, low, and turning points and reported their personality traits. The conceptual content of these stories had previously been quantified. Here, groups of observers provided ratings of targets’ traits, knowability (how well the observer felt they ‘knew’ the target), and story conventionality, after reading each narrative. Observers exhibited consensus in perceptions of traits, knowability, and story conventionality. These ratings corresponded with targets’ self-ratings of traits, to a modest degree. The knowability of narrators did not moderate this relation, nor did key scene type. The conceptual content of targets’ narratives partially accounted for the relation between observer-reported and target-reported traits.

我们探讨了观察者对目标特征和自传叙事评分的共识度和准确性。目标讲述了生活的高，低和转折点，并报告了他们的性格特征。这些故事的概念性内容此前已被量化。在这里，观察者小组在阅读了每种叙述之后，提供了目标的特征，可知性（观察者感觉他们“了解”目标的程度）以及故事的惯常性等级。观察者表现出对特质，知识和故事传统的共识。这些等级在一定程度上与目标的性格自我评估相对应。叙述者的可知性并没有调节这种关系，关键场景类型也没有。