From Goals to Traits: A Pre-Registered Replication Study of Dunlop, McCoy, and Staben (2017)

The present manuscript aims to test the primary hypothesis of Dunlop, McCoy, and Staben’s (2017) study that perceivers are able to accurately form impressions of broad personality traits from reading a target’s set of personal strivings. For increased reliability, the pre-registered N = 250 perceivers rated the traits of 167 sets of strivings (each perceiver rating an average of 10 targets; each target rated by 17 perceivers) using a randomized subsection of the 44-item BFI. The present study replicated Dunlop and colleagues’ findings, which carries two implications. One: that brief descriptions of what one typically tries to accomplish each day are an additional valid source of information from which we can perceive an individual’s personality. Two: accuracy in personality perception can cross two distinct personality domains, which have been largely taxonomized and researched separately.