You spy with your little eye: People are “blind” to some of the ways in which they are consensually seen by others

• Blind spots are characteristics that only others consensually attribute to us.
• We found evidence for a normative blind spot (characterizing the average target).
• And evidence for distinctive blind spots (characterizing particular targets).
• The average person is unaware of some aspects of his or her reputation.
• The effect size is substantial, compared to other effects in person perception.

In personality research, the term “blind spot” (Luft & Ingham, 1955) denotes personality characteristics that people are not aware of, but that are consensually attributed to them by others. Our investigation revealed evidence for (a) a normative blind-spot (i.e., characterizing the average target) and (b) distinctive blind-spots (i.e., characterizing specific targets). The latter finding implies that the average person is not aware of some of the ways in which he or she is uniquely, but consensually, perceived by other people. The respective effect size is substantial, as compared with other effects in the field of person perception (e.g., consensus). Future research should investigate how people may benefit from the knowledge that others – and only others – have about them.