Ability, Assertiveness, Morality, and Friendliness? A Retrospective Validation of the Facet Model of Social Evaluation

Five adversarial models (the DPM, BRM, DCM, SCM, and ABC) used a plethora of items to measure social-evaluative dimensions and facets between 2002 and 2023. This challenges their negotiated integration of agency and competence into vertical social evaluation with the facets of ability and assertiveness, and their integration of communality and warmth into a horizontal dimension with the facets of morality and friendliness. In seven studies (N = 4,577), we examined the perceived similarities and covariation between all, and 20 prevalent, positive items. Cluster analyses clearly separated both the Big Two and the four facets. In our factor analyses, both models fit the data well but the Facet model did not fit better than the Big Two model. These results retrospectively validate the integration negotiated by the adversarial models, and thereby simplify reading the pre-2024 literature on people’s impressions of the self, other individuals, and groups of people.