Self-Gravity: Individuals Struggle to Change Their Perceived Personality in a First Impression by Ravin Alaei A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Psychology University of Toronto © Copyright by Ravin Alaei 2019 Self-Gravity: Individuals Struggle to Change their Perceived Personality in a First Impression Ravin Alaei Doctor of Philosophy Psychology University of Toronto 2019 Abstract People are motivated to change aspects of their personality traits and psychological research seems to document its regular occurrence. Nevertheless, most research has focused on whether people self-report that their personality traits have changed. Personality change is more than self- determined, however: People hope that changes to their personality are visible to others as well. Across seven studies, I therefore investigated whether people’s attempts to change their Big Five personality in a first impression are successful, focusing especially on extraversion. My work demonstrates that (i) individuals’ personality traits remain robustly visible in a first impression regardless of attempts to change, (ii) acting experience does not improve this ability, (iii) individuals’ traits can affect their evaluations more strongly than their attempts to change, and (iv) people attempting to change their personality in a first impression are largely unaware of how others truly judge them. This work therefore suggests that people struggle to control how their traits are perceived by others in a first impression. ii Acknowledgments Thank you to my supervisor, Nick Rule, for making me a better scientist and person. I am lucky to have received your mentorship and will carry your guidance with me. Thank you to my committee members, Jacob Hirsh and Geoff MacDonald, for dissecting my findings and for pushing me to think more deeply, as well as Erika Carlson, Norman Farb, and Judith Hall for their insightful feedback. I am also grateful for the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Department of Psychology for supporting my graduate work. Finally, thank you to my family and especially my mother—none of this would have been possible without their sacrifices. iii Table of Contents Acknowledgments .......................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................... iv List of Tables ................................................................................................................................ vii List of Appendices ......................................................................................................................... ix Chapter 1 General Introduction .......................................................................................................1 Density Distributions of Personality States ................................................................................1 Extraversion ................................................................................................................................3 Big Five Personality Traits .........................................................................................................5 Overview of Current Studies .......................................................................................................9 Chapter 2 Study 1: Extraversion State Change in Videos .............................................................10 Method ......................................................................................................................................10 5.1 Participants and Procedure .................................................................................................10 Results .......................................................................................................................................12 A Brief Discussion ....................................................................................................................15 Chapter 3 Study 2: Extraversion State Change in Still Frames .....................................................16 Method ......................................................................................................................................16 8.1 Participants and Procedure .................................................................................................16 Results .......................................................................................................................................16 A Brief Discussion ....................................................................................................................19 Chapter 4 Study 3: Actors Acting Extraverted ..............................................................................20 Method ......................................................................................................................................20 11.1 Participants and Procedure .................................................................................................20 Results .......................................................................................................................................21 A Brief Discussion ....................................................................................................................23 Chapter 5 Study 4: Cues to Extraversion .......................................................................................24 iv Method ......................................................................................................................................24 14.1 Procedure ...........................................................................................................................24 Results .......................................................................................................................................25 A Brief Discussion ....................................................................................................................28 Chapter 6 Study 5: Evaluations ......................................................................................................29 Method ......................................................................................................................................30 17.1 Participants and Procedure .................................................................................................30 Results .......................................................................................................................................30 18.1 Authenticity ........................................................................................................................30 18.2 Hireability ..........................................................................................................................33 18.3 Likeability ..........................................................................................................................38 A Brief Discussion ....................................................................................................................42 Chapter 7 Study 6: Natural Advantage ..........................................................................................43 Method ......................................................................................................................................44 20.1 Participants and Procedure .................................................................................................44 Results .......................................................................................................................................44 A Brief Discussion ....................................................................................................................52 Chapter 8 Study 7: Big Five Personality State Change in Videos .................................................53 Method ......................................................................................................................................54 23.1 Participants and Procedure .................................................................................................54 Results .......................................................................................................................................56 A Brief Discussion ....................................................................................................................65 Chapter 9 General Discussion ........................................................................................................67 Implications ...............................................................................................................................68 Limitations and Future Directions ............................................................................................70 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................72 v References ......................................................................................................................................73 Appendix A: Script Used in Study 1 ..............................................................................................85 Appendix B: Adjectives