Accuracy of National Stereotypes in Central Europe: Outgroups are not Better than Ingroup in considering Personality Traits of Real People

Abstract

In a study on national stereotypes in central Europe—composed of Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland and Slovakia—2241 participants rated their autostereotype (a typical representative of their own country) and heterostereotypes (typical representatives of the other countries) by using National Character Survey (NCS). Existing data from 17377 participants including self–reports or observer ratings on Revised NEO Personality Inventory and NCS were compared with the national autostereotypes and heterostereotypes. Although national autostereotypes converged with personality traits of real people in Poland and an adult subsample in the Czech Republic, national heterostereotypes did not correspond to personality traits of real people in any of the studied countries. National stereotypes were shared within as well as across countries. In heterostereotypes, raters from similar cultural backgrounds speaking similar languages agreed better as compared with raters from more distant cultures. Target country played a role in agreement of raters from different countries, showed in the highest convergence between autostereotypes and heterostereotypes of a typical German. Sharing of national stereotypes is influenced by political and economic significance of the target country. Although national autostereotypes clearly differentiated between typical representatives of central European countries, the comparison of personality profiles of their inhabitants showed remarkable resemblance. Copyright © 2013 European Association of Personality Psychology.

Keywords

national autostereotypes national heterostereotypes stereotype accuracy five-factor model

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Allik

, Mõttus

, & Realo

(2010). Does national character reflect mean personality traits when both are measured by the same instrument? Journal of Research in Personality, 44, 62–69.

Ashton

(2007). Self–reports and stereotypes: A comment on McCrae et al. European Journal of Personality, 21, 983–986.

Bobrownicka

(1995). Narkotyk mitu [A drug of myth]. Kraków, Poland: Universitas.

Boster

J. S.

, & Maltseva

(2006). A crystal seen from each of its vertices: European views of European national characters. Cross–Cultural Research, 40, 47–64.

Costa

P. T.

, & McCrae

R. R.

(1992). Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO–PI–R) and NEO Five–Factor Inventory (NEO–FFI) professional manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.

Costa

P. T.

, Terraciano

, & McCrae

(2001): Gender differences in personality traits across cultures: Robust and surprising findings. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81(2), 322–331.

Cronbach

L. J.

(1955). Process affecting scores on “understanding others” and “assumed similarity”. Psychological Bulletin, 52, 177–193.

Dolinski

(1996). The mystery of the Polish soul. B.W. Johnson's effect á rebours. European Journal of Social Psychology, 26, 1001–1005.

Fein

, & Spencer

(1997). Prejudice as self–image maintenance: Affirming the self through derogating others. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 31–44.

10.

Ferjenčík

(2006). Sémantické obrazy seba a typických príslušníkov vybraných národov u slovenských vysokoškolákov: Porovnanie v odstupe desiatich rokov [Semantic pictures of self and typical members of selected nations in Slovak university students: Comparison after ten years]. Československá psychologie, 50, 50–63.

11.

Funder

(1999). Personality judgment: A realistic approach to person perception. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

12.

Furr

R. M.

(2010). The double–entry intraclass correlation as an index of profile similarity: Meaning, limitations, and alternatives. Journal of Personality Assessment, 92, 1–15.

13.

Griffin

, & Gonzales

(1995). Correlational analysis of dyad–level data in the exchangeable case. Psychological Bulletin, 118, 430–439.

14.

Hřebíčková

(2004). NEO osobnostní inventář podle NEO–PI–R P.T. Costy a R.R. McCraee [NEO Personality Inventory according to P.T. Costa and R.R. McCrae]. Praha, Testcentrum.

15.

Hřebíčková

, & Kouřilová

(2012). Jak se vidíme, jak nás vidí a jací jsme: porovnání českého národního auto– a heterostereotypu s posuzováním reálných lidí v kontextu pětifaktorového modelu osobnosti [How do we see ourselves, how are we seen and how we are: Comparison of Czech national auto– and heterostereotypes with ratings of real people in context of five–factor model of personality]. Československá psychologie, 56, 1–18.

16.

Huntington

(1996). The clash of civilizations and the remaking of world order. New York, NY: Simon &Schuster.

17.

Konstabel

, Lönnqvist

J.–E.

, & Walkowitz

(2012). The ‘Short Five’ (S5): Measuring personality traits using comprehensive single items. European Journal of Personality, 26, 13–29.

18.

Kouřilová

, & Hřebíčková

(2011). Accuracy of Slovak national stereotypes: Result of judgment of intuition? Studia Psychologica, 53, 201–213.

19.

Krueger

J. I.

, & Wright

J. C.

(2006). How to measure national stereotypes? Science, 311, 776–779.

20.

Kwan

V. S. Y.

, John

O. P.

, Robins

R. W.

, & Kuang

L. L.

(2008). Conceptualizing and assessing self–enhancement bias: A componential approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 1062–1077.

21.

Madon

, Guyll

, Aboufadel

, Montiel

, Smith

, Palumbo

, & Jussim

(2001). Ethnic and national stereotypes: The Princeton trilogy revisited and revised. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 996–1010.

22.

McCrae

R. R.

(2002). NEO–PI–R data from 36 cultures. In Marsella

A. J.

, McCrae

R. R.

, & Allik

(Eds.), The five–factor model across cultures (pp. 53–78), New York, NY: Kluwer Academic Publishers/Plenum.

23.

McCrae

R. R.

(2008). A note on some measures of profile agreement. Journal of Personality Assessment, 90, 105–109.

24.

McCrae

R. R.

, Chan

, Jussim

, De Fruyt

, Lockenhoff

, De Bolle

, … Terracciano

(under review). The inaccuracy of national character stereotypes.

25.

McCrae

R. R.

, Terracciano

, Realo

, & Allik

(2007). Climatic warmth and national wealth: Some culture–level determinants of national character stereotypes. European Journal of Personality, 21(8), 953–976.

26.

McCrae

R. R.

, Terracciano

, & 78 members of the Personality Profiles of Cultures Project. (2005). Universal features of personality traits from the observer's perspective: Data from 50 cultures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 547–561.

27.

McCrae

R. R.

, Terracciano

, & 79 members of the Personality Profiles of Cultures Project. (2005). Personality profiles of cultures: Aggregate personality traits. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 407–425.

28.

McCrae

R. R.

, Zonderman

A. B.

, Costa

P. T.

, Bond

M. H.

, & Paunonen

S. V.

(1996). Evaluating replicability of factors in the Revised NEO Personality Inventory: Confirmatory factor analysis versus Procrustes rotation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 552–566.

29.

Operario

, & Fiske

S. T.

(2001). Stereotypes: Processes, structures, content, and context. In Brown

, & Gaertner

(Eds.), Blackwell handbook in social psychology (pp. 22–44, Vol. 4: Intergroup Processes). Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.

30.

Ostendorf

, & Angleitner

(2004). NEO–Persönlichkeittsinventar nach Costa und McCrae. Revidierte Fassung [NEO Personality Inventory according to Costa and McCrae. Revised], Göttingen, Germany: Hogrefe.

31.

Realo

, Allik

, Lonnqvist

J. E.

, Verkasalo

, Kwiatkowska

, Kööts

, … Renge

(2009). Mechanisms of the national character stereotype: How people in six neighboring countries of Russia describe themselves and the typical Russian. European Journal of Personality, 23, 229–249.

32.

Ronowicz

, (1995). Poland. A handbook in intercultural communication. Sydney: National Center for English Language Teaching and Research.

33.

Schmidt

D. P.

, Realo

, Voracek

, & Allik

(2008). Why can't a man be more like a woman? Sex differences in big five personality traits across 55 cultures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 168–182.

34.

Siuta

(2007). Inwentarz osobowości NEO–PI–R Paula T. Costy i Roberta McCrae. Aplikacija polska. Podręcznik [NEO Personality Inventory NEO–PI–R of Paul Costa and Robert McCrae. Polish version. Questionnaire]. Warszawa, Pracownia Testów Psychologicznych.

35.

Stone

(1990). Polish. In Comrie

(Ed.), The major languages of Eastern Europe (pp. 82–101). London: Routledge.

36.

Tajfel

, & Turner

J. C.

(1979). An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. In Austin

W. G.

, & Worchel

(Eds.), The social psychology of intergroup relations (pp. 33–47). Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole.

37.

Terracciano

, Abdel–Khalek

A. M.

, Ádám

, Adamovová

, Ahn

C. K.

, Ahn

H.–N.

, … McCrae

R. R.

(2005). National character does not reflect mean personality trait levels in 49 cultures. Science, 310, 96–100.

38.

Terracciano

, & McCrae

R. R.

(2007). Perceptions of Americans and the Iraq invasion: Implications for understanding national character stereotypes. Journal of Cross–Cultural Psychology, 38, 695–710.

39.

Wierzbicka

(1994). Emotion, language, and cultural scripts. In Markus

W. H.

, & Kitayama

I. S.

(Eds.), Emotion and culture. Washington, DS: APA.