Possession of Hostility and Accuracy of Perception of it in Others: A Cross-Sex Replication

Abstract

Replicating an earlier study with men, four groups of college women (hostile-insightful, hostile-noninsightful, friendly-insightful, friendly-noninsightful) were evaluated for accuracy of judgments of hostility regarding their dormitory sisters. The normalized mean ranking was the criterion, and the mean discrepancy between S's judgments of her peers and the group assigned value constituted her inaccuracy score.

Results duplicated the earlier study with the rank order from most to least accurate being friendly-insightful, friendly-noninsightful, hostile-insightful, and hostile-noninsightful. The chief factor was objective possession of hostility while insight and the self concept appeared to have little effect. Women appear to be more accurate in perception of other women than men are in perceiving other men.