Mixed impressions: Reactions of strangers to people with pathological personality traits

This study builds on previous work investigating reactions to people with pathological personality traits based on thin slices of behavior (Oltmanns, Friedman, Fiedler, & Turkheimer, 2004). Verbal and nonverbal aspects of the signal were separated and examined in a new sample of 150 target individuals (military recruits). Ratings were made after viewing or listening to a 30 s excerpt from an interview that had been conducted with each target person. Undergraduate students (408 total) served as raters in one of the following conditions: transcript, sound only, picture only, or full channel (sound and picture). In all conditions, people with higher scores on histrionic and narcissistic personality traits were rated in a more positive manner, and those with higher scores on schizoid and avoidant personality traits were rated more negatively. The consistency of ratings based on diVerent sources indicates that important and somewhat redundant cues are available in both verbal and nonverbal channels. Initial reactions to people with pathological personality traits are inXuenced by both verbal and nonverbal cues. © 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. This research was supported in part by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH51187). * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (J.N.W. Friedman), [email protected] (T.F. Oltmanns), [email protected] (E. Turkheimer). 0092-6566/$ see front matter © 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2005.01.005 396 J.N.W. Friedman et al. / Journal of Research in Personality 40 (2006) 395–410