While people themselves were the most accurate about the majority of their abilities, their verbal and spatial intelligence were only estimable by informants or strangers, respectively

Hofer, Gabriela, Laura Langmann, Roman Burkart, and Aljoscha Neubauer. 2021. “Who Knows What We Are Good At? Unique Insights of the Self, Knowledgeable Informants, and Strangers into a Person’s Abilities.” PsyArXiv. October 21. doi:10.31234/osf.io/u73xf

Abstract: Who is the best judge of a person’s abilities—the person, a knowledgeable informant or strangers just met in a 3-min speed date? To test this, we collected ability measures as well as self-, informant- and stranger-estimates of verbal, numerical and spatial intelligence, creativity, and intra- and interpersonal emotional competence from 175 young adults. While people themselves were the most accurate about the majority of their abilities, their verbal and spatial intelligence were only estimable by informants or strangers, respectively. These differences in accuracy were not accompanied by differences in the domains’ relevance to people’s self-worth or observability to strangers. These results indicate self-other knowledge asymmetries for abilities but raise questions about the reasons behind these asymmetries.