Abstract
Negative evaluations of unfamiliar others have been documented in personality pathology, but it remains unclear whether they reflect a broader perceiver tendency linked dimensionally to interpersonal dysfunction. In a community sample assessed in 2026 (N = 590; n = 226 with close-other reports), we measured a generalized bias toward evaluating unfamiliar others negatively across four standardized person-perception tasks combining personality ratings and adjective selections with vignette and video targets. Stronger negative evaluation bias was associated with greater interpersonal-problem severity when problems were reported by participants themselves (r = .14) and especially when reported by close others (r = .34). Exploratory analyses showed a self-reported shift toward high-agency problems but no corresponding close-other pattern or systematic association with communion. In secondary analyses, negative evaluation bias showed a positive but imprecise association with overall personality-functioning impairment and the expected pattern of lower self-certainty and, conditional on self-certainty, higher certainty about others. These findings support viewing negative evaluation bias as a broader perceiver-level correlate of interpersonal dysfunction, including difficulties apparent beyond the perceiver’s own perspective. Generalizability to more severe personality pathology remains to be established.