We examined whether, even at zero acquaintance, observers accurately infer others’ social network positions—specifically, the number and patterning of social ties (e.g., brokerage—the extent to which a person bridges disconnected people) and the trait impressions that support this accuracy. We paired social network data (n = 272 professional school students), with naive observers’ (n = 301 undergraduates) judgments of facial images of each person within the network. Results revealed that observers’ judgments of targets’ number of friends were predicted by the actual number of people who considered the target a friend (in-degree centrality) and that perceived brokerage was significantly predicted by targets’ actual brokerage. Lens models revealed that targets’ perceived attractiveness, dominance, warmth, competence, and trustworthiness supported this accuracy, with attractiveness and warmth most associated with perceptions of popularity and brokerage. Overall, we demonstrate accuracy in naive observers’ judgments of social network position and the trait impressions supporting these inferences.

我们检查了即使是零相识的观察者，是否也能准确地推断出他人的社交网络位置，特别是社交联系的数量和模式（例如，经纪人，一个人与不相干的人之间建立桥梁的程度）以及支持这种准确性的特质印象。我们将社交网络数据（n = 272名职业学校学生）与幼稚的观察者（n= 301名本科生）对网络中每个人的面部图像的判断。结果表明，观察者对目标对象的朋友数量的判断是根据认为目标对象是朋友的实际人数（以度为中心）来预测的，而感知经纪人则是由目标对象的实际经纪人来显着预测的。Lens模型显示，目标的感知吸引力，支配性，热情，能力和可信赖性支持了这种准确性，而吸引力和热情与知名度和经纪人的感觉最相关。总体而言，我们证明了天真观察者对社交网络位置以及支持这些推论的特质印象的判断的准确性。