Date of Award
2023
Degree Type
Open Access Dissertation
Degree Name
Psychology, PhD
Program
School of Social Science, Politics, and Evaluation
Advisor/Supervisor/Committee Chair
Kathy Pezdek
Dissertation or Thesis Committee Member
Dan Reisberg
Dissertation or Thesis Committee Member
Lise Abrams
Dissertation or Thesis Committee Member
Bob Belli
Terms of Use & License Information
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Rights Information
© 2023 Tyler Shapland
Subject Categories
Cognitive Psychology
Abstract
Misinformation has become a common topic in everyday life, typically referring to inaccurate information within news stories or on social media. This research focuses on a different type of misinformation, how misinformation impacts an individual's personal information such as personality assessment scores. More specifically, can personality trait and state scores be suggestively influenced by false feedback? Similar to personality traits and states, previous false feedback literature has found that an individual’s self-reported confidence, self-esteem, and mood ratings can be suggestively influenced. In two preregistered experiments in this study, participants completed a personality assessment test, were exposed to false feedback about their responses, and 48-hours later completed the same assessment again. Three issues are addressed in this study: (a) whether self-reported personality traits and states can be suggestively influenced, (b) whether self-reported personality traits are suggestively influenced more than personality states, and (c) whether self-referentially positive information is more suggestively influenced than self-referentially negative information. Experiment 1 tested whether personality assessment scores could be suggestively influenced using the STAI (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Spielberger et al., 1970), an anxiety assessment scale. This hypothesis was supported, personality assessment scores were suggestively influenced by false feedback. Specifically, receiving false feedback about personality assessment ratings resulted in significantly increased, and decreased, STAI scores from Time 1 (T1) to Time 2 (T2). The magnitude of this change was not statistically significantly different between trait and state assessments. However, the magnitude of the change from T1 to T2 was greater when the false feedback was self-referentially positive than self-referentially negative. Experiment 2 tested whether these findings replicated with a scale that assesses a positive dimension of personality. Using the PANAS (Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, Watson et al., 1988), positive affect and negative affect were assessed. Positive affect scores were suggestively influenced, resulting in significantly increased, and decreased, positive affect scores from T1 to T2. However, negative affect scores only significantly decreased from T1 to T2; they did not significantly increase. Again, the magnitude of this change was not statistically significantly different between trait and state assessments but was greater when the false feedback was self-referentially positive than self-referentially negative. Taken together with previous false feedback research, these findings support the strength of the misinformation effect, revealing that misinformation can also affect self-reported personality assessment ratings.
ISBN
9798342762953
Recommended Citation
Shapland, Tyler. (2023). Misinformation Alters Personality Assessment Scores. CGU Theses & Dissertations, 881. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/881.
