A comparison of self-other agreement in personal values versus the Big Five personality traits

•A comparison of self-other agreement in personal values versus the Big Five.•Disattenuated correlations substantial and similar to that for personality traits.•In both the higher-order values and culture-specific value factors.•Suggesting that people can judge others’ values with some accuracy.•Other-ratings can be used to validate and complement self-report value measures.

Can we judge other people’s values accurately, or are values too subjective to assess? We compared self-other agreement in personal values with agreement in the Big Five personality traits. Self-other agreement in four higher-order values (median r = .47) and in six culture-specific value factors (median r = .50) was substantial and similar to that for the Big Five personality traits (median r = .51). When corrected for attenuation due to measurement error self-other agreement was high for all three scales (median rs > .65). The results suggest that people can assess values of others whom they know well with remarkable accuracy. Therefore, other-ratings of personal values can be used to validate and complement self-report value measures.