We are constantly forming impressions about those around us. Social interaction depends on our understanding of interpersonal behavior - assessing one another's personality, emotions, thoughts and feelings, attitudes, deceptiveness, group memberships, and other personal characteristics through facial expressions, body language, voice and spoken language. But how accurate are our impressions and when does such accuracy matter? How is accuracy achieved and are some of us more successful at achieving it than others? This comprehensive overview presents cutting-edge research on this fast-expanding field and will be essential reading for anyone interested in the psychology of interpersonal perception. A wide range of experts in the field explore topics including age and gender effects, psychopathology, culture and ethnicity, workplaces and leadership, clinicians' skills, empathy, meta-perception, and training people to be more accurate in their perceptions of others.

Part I. Domains of Accurate Interpersonal Perception: 1. Accurate interpersonal perception: many traditions, one topic Judith A. Hall, Marianne Schmid Mast and Tessa V. West; 2. Accuracy of judging emotions Tanja Bänziger; 3. Empathic accuracy: judging thoughts and feelings William Ickes; 4. Accuracy of distinguishing truth from lie Judee K. Burgoon and Norah E. Dunbar; 5. Accuracy of judging personality Mitja D. Back and Steffen Nestler; 6. Accuracy of perceiving social attributes Ravin Alaei and Nicholas O. Rule; 7. Accuracy of judging group attitudes Tessa V. West; 8. Metaperceptions: do people know how others perceive them? Erika N. Carlson and Maxwell Barranti; Part II. Correlates of Interpersonal Accuracy: 9. Accuracy in perceiving facial expressions of emotion in psychopathology Philip Griffiths and Chris Ashwin; 10. A lifespan developmental perspective on interpersonal accuracy Derek M. Isaacowitz, Ishabel M. Vicaria and Matthew W. E. Murry; 11. Situational influences on interpersonal accuracy Petra C. Schmid; 12. Training people to be interpersonally accurate Danielle Blanch-Hartigan, Susan A. Andrzejewski and Krista M. Hill; 13. Interpersonal accuracy in relation to the workplace, leadership, and hierarchy Marianne Schmid Mast and Ioana Latu; 14. Interpersonal accuracy in the clinical setting Mollie A. Ruben; 15. Gender differences in interpersonal accuracy Judith A. Hall, Sarah D. Gunnery, and Terrence G. Horgan; 16. Interpersonal accuracy in relation to culture and ethnicity Elizabeth Luckman and Hillary Anger Elfenbein; 17. Interpersonal accuracy: real and perceived links to prosocial behavior Sara D. Hodges and Adrienne A. P. Wise; Part III. Conclusions: 18. Is there a general skill in perceiving others accurately? R. Thomas Boone and Katja Schlegel; 19. What we know and the future of interpersonal accuracy research Nora A. Murphy.