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

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.