Why Are Self-Report and Behavioral Measures Weakly Correlated?

Junhua Dang; Kevin M King; Michael Inzlicht

doi:10.1016/j.tics.2020.01.007

Why Are Self-Report and Behavioral Measures Weakly Correlated?

Trends Cogn Sci. 2020 Apr;24(4):267-269. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2020.01.007. Epub 2020 Feb 17.

Authors

Junhua Dang¹, Kevin M King², Michael Inzlicht³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neuroscience, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden. Electronic address: [email protected].
² Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
³ Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada; Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.

Abstract

Accumulating evidence indicates weak correlations between self-report and behavioral measures of the same construct. We suggest that these weak correlations result from the poor reliability of many behavioral measures and the distinct response processes involved in the two measurement types. We also describe how researchers can benefit from appropriate use of these measures.

Keywords: between-person variability; jingle-jangle fallacy; reliability paradox.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Humans
Reproducibility of Results
Self Report*

Grants and funding

R01 DA047247/DA/NIDA NIH HHS/United States