SUMMARY
Personality – enduring traits describing how people tend to think and behave – often is described by the Big 5 model. Everything people do and think can be described as representing 1 of 5 more general traits. Though the Big 5 model has been posited to describe actual thought and behavior, the current work tested the hypothesis that personality ratings would fit the Big 5 model even when the target being rated does not have a personality in any meaningful sense. Supporting this hypothesis, the Big 5 model showed acceptable fit for describing a person (consistent with past work), but also a straight line drawn on paper, something that should not have personality in any meaningful sense. The Big 5 model thus does not necessarily describe actual thought and behavior but instead the structure of personality perception.