Prediction of Self Perception based on Dominance and Trustworthiness by using Reverse Correlation.

Abstract

Humans perceive the world by making impressions and inferences about themselves and others, often called social perception (SP). Additionally, the way people perceive themselves is called the self-image, which is a part of, and in interaction with, SP. Both SP and self-image have been investigated in previous studies, but the methods that were used felt short for several reasons. The relative new method called ‘reverse correlation’ (RC) compensates for these shortcomings and is therefore used and tested for these concepts in this study. This study investigates to what extent placement of the self within a group, based on dominance and trustworthiness, can be predicted by the mental representation of the self-image, using RC. There are two major purposes in this study: (1) to investigate if RC is a valid method to visualize self-image and (2) to demonstrate if RC is adequate to predict self-perception. In the first experiment, fifty-one participants made a mental representation of their self-image, called a classification image (CI), with the help of RC. Subsequently, they ranked themselves on a dominance and a trustworthiness scale. In the second experiment, thirty independent raters ranked the classification images on a dominance and trustworthiness scale. The rating scores of the participants and the independent raters were investigated for correlation. Subsequently, if a correlation was found, a prediction of the selfperception could be made. However, this study found no correlation between the self-judgment scores of the participants and the ratings of the independent raters. This leads to the conclusion that with RC as it is used in this study, no valid self-image could be made based on dominance and trustworthiness. Also, the placement of oneself within a group based on dominance and trustworthiness could not be predicted with RC the way it is used in this study.