The Big Five personality traits and earnings: A meta-analysis

The past two decades have witnessed increased interest in the relationship between personality and labor market outcomes, as well as the emergence of the Five-Factor Model as the key reference framework for the study of personality. In this paper, we provide the first meta-analytical review of the empirical literature on the association between personal earnings and the Big Five personality traits. The analysis combines the results of 62 peer-reviewed articles published from 2001–2020, from which we retrieved 896 partial effect sizes. Overall, the primary literature provides robust support for a positive association between personal earnings and the traits of Openness, Conscientiousness, and Extraversion, while simultaneously revealing a negative and significant association between earnings and the traits of Agreeableness and Neuroticism. We find no evidence of a substantial publication bias. Meta-regression estimates suggest that Openness and Conscientiousness are positively associated with earnings even when primary researchers control for individual cognitive abilities and educational attainments. Similarly, the studies that include labor market control variables exhibit weaker associations between earnings and Extraversion and Agreeableness. The results of the primary studies seem unaffected by the time at which the Big Five are measured, as well as by the scale and number of inventory items. Meta-regression estimates suggest that the results of the primary literature are not stable across cultures and gender, and that the ranking and academic field of the journal matter.     

Social status and personality traits

We provide direct evidence on the relationship between social status and personality traits. Using survey data from the 2006–2012 waves of the US Health and Retirement Study, we show that self-perceived social status is associated with all the “Big Five” personality traits, after controlling for observable characteristics that arguably reflect one’s actual status. We also construct an objective status measure that in turn is associated with personality traits. Objectively measured status is positively but not highly correlated with its subjective counterpart. When incorporated in a regression specification, it still leaves room for significant correlations between personality traits and status perception: traits such as openness, conscientiousness and extraversion predict a higher self-positioning on the social ladder, while agreeableness and neuroticism predict a lower one.     

Life satisfaction,income and personality

We use personality traits to better understand the relationship between income and life satisfaction. Personality traits mediate the effect of income on life satisfaction. The effect of neuroticism, which measures sensitivity to threat and punishment, is strong in both the British Household Panel Survey and the German Socioeconomic Panel. Neuroticism increases the usually observed concavity of the relationship: individuals with a higher neuroticism score enjoy extra income more than those with a lower score if they are poorer, and enjoy extra income less if they are richer. When the interaction between income and neuroticism is introduced, income does not have a significant effect on its own. To interpret the results, we present a simple model based on Prospect Theory, where we assume that: (i) life satisfaction is dependent on the gap between aspired and realized income, and this is modulated by neuroticism and (ii) income increases in aspirations with a slope less than unity, so that the gap between aspired and realized income increases with aspirations. From the estimation of this model we argue that poorer individuals tend to over-shoot in their aspirations, while the rich tend to under-shoot. The estimation of the model also shows a substantial effect of traits on income.     

Influence of personality traits on Facebook engagement and their effects on socialization behavior and satisfaction with university life

Several factors influence Facebook users’ engagement. This study investigates the correlations between Facebook engagement and users’ personality traits. This study also analyses the impact of Facebook engagement on students’ socialization behavior and their satisfaction with their university life. A dataset of 994 Malaysian students was collected and used for analysis. The outcome of the analysis illustrates that students’ personality traits have a positive influence on Facebook engagement. Subsequently, Facebook engagement was found to have an influence over students’ socialization behavior and their satisfaction with university life. The results can be used by educators as a guide for their curriculum development, i.e., consideration of wider usage of Facebook in conducting courses.     

Review of the effects of Five Factor Model personality traits on network structures and perceptions of structure

We review recent research on Five Factor Model personality and social network analysis to assess how structures develop and are perceived. Extraversion and agreeableness relate consistently to personal but not workplace networks. Extraverts are more likely to seek connections, whereas agreeable individuals receive connections from others. Openness predicts network diversity and is marginally related to position when groups pursue collective goals. Conscientiousness is associated with maintaining certain personal relationships, but is strongly related to central positions in workplace networks. Neuroticism has no consistent relationship with network size or composition, and is differentially related to network positions, depending on the context.     

Involuntary job loss and changes in personality traits

Economists consider personality traits to be stable, particularly throughout adulthood. However, evidence from psychological studies suggests that the stability assumption may not always be valid, as personality traits can respond to certain life events. Our paper analyzes whether and to what extent personality traits are malleable over a time span of eight years for a sample of working individuals. Furthermore, we specifically look at changes in personality traits after a major adverse life event: involuntary job loss. We use data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) from 2004 to 2014 – a period over which individuals’ Big Five personality inventory was measured three times. Our dataset allows us to exploit detailed employment information, particularly reasons for job termination and unemployment spells. We focus solely on plant closures as a reason for job termination. Job loss due to plant closure is widely used as a relatively exogenous event to identify causal effects. Our results suggest that personality traits are indeed malleable during adulthood. Although the Big Five measures are relatively stable within the overall population of workers, we find an increase in openness, that is, the willingness to seek new experiences, for the average displaced worker. This increase, however, is fully driven by individuals with high educational attainment and by those who find a new job immediately after dismissal. The other dimensions of the Big Five personality inventory remain nearly unchanged after an involuntary job loss. Our findings hold for a number of robustness checks and are supported by the results of a falsification test using a placebo treatment.     

The performance of performance indicators in the arts

The introduction of performance indicators into the field of the arts and culture has been fraught with difficulties. It is the premise of this article that many of those difficulties can be traced to tensions arising out of the actual uses of performance indicators in the arts. Based on concrete examples of the use of performance indicators, the author examines four different functions—affecting behavior, evaluating behavior, monitoring behavior, and inferring behavior—and explores some of the issues arising from each one.     

The stability of personality traits in adolescence and young adulthood

Models of economic decision-making usually assume that personality is stable over time. We assess the validity of this assumption over an eight-year time frame in adolescence and young adulthood using nationally representative panel data from Australia. Our study shows that unconditional mean-level changes in personality traits are small—with the exception of conscientiousness which increases by 0.38 SD—because most individuals do not change their scores in a statistically reliable way during adolescence and young adulthood, or changes occur in equal proportions in opposite directions. Controlling for systematic panel attrition and multiple hypothesis testing, we demonstrate that personality traits do not systematically respond to the majority of common one-off family-, income-, and health-related shocks. However, a small number of life events—marriage, family members detained in jail, leaving the workforce and long-term health problems—are associated with subsequent changes in personality. In particular, youth who experience long-term health problems including bodily pain increase their external locus of control by 0.5–0.9 SD, an economically meaningful change when expressed in terms of hourly wage penalty.     

Big Five Personality Traits and Ambiguity Management in Career Decision-Making

Although ambiguity aversion has been found to impede the process and outcome of career decision-making, knowledge regarding the association between personality characteristics and ambiguity aversion is limited. Thus, the author examined the prediction of the Big Five personality traits for ambiguity aversion and the mediation of tolerance and confidence in ambiguity management. The results obtained with a U.S. sample (N = 239) revealed the following: (a) neuroticism positively predicted ambiguity aversion; (b) extraversion did not predict ambiguity aversion; (c) agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness negatively predicted ambiguity aversion; and (d) confidence in ambiguity management mediated the relationships between agreeableness, neuroticism, and openness and ambiguity aversion. These findings highlight the differential roles of the Big Five personality traits in ambiguity management and the importance of confidence in ambiguity management. The theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed along with the study's limitations and suggestions for future research.     

Evidence of Big Five and Aggressive Personalities in Gait Biomechanics

Behavioral observation techniques which relate action to personality have long been neglected (Furr and Funder in Handbook of research methods in personality psychology, The Guilford Press, New York, 2007) and, when employed, often use human judges to code behavior. In the current study we used an alternative to human coding (biomechanical research techniques) to investigate how personality traits are manifest in gait. We used motion capture technology to record 29 participants walking on a treadmill at their natural speed. We analyzed their thorax and pelvis movements, as well as speed of gait. Participants completed personality questionnaires, including a Big Five measure and a trait aggression questionnaire. We found that gait related to several of our personality measures. The magnitude of upper body movement, lower body movement, and walking speed, were related to Big Five personality traits and aggression. Here, we present evidence that some gait measures can relate to Big Five and aggressive personalities. We know of no other examples of research where gait has been shown to correlate with self-reported measures of personality and suggest that more research should be conducted between largely automatic movement and personality.     

Non-erotic thoughts: content and relation to sexual functioning and sexual satisfaction

We examined the possible range of content of non-erotic thoughts experienced during typical sexual activities with a partner. Undergraduate men (n = 47) and women (n = 50) were administered a measure of non-erotic thought content, frequency, and anxiety, along with measures of sexual attitude, satisfaction, and functioning. Men were more likely to report performance-related thoughts, and women were more likely to report thoughts about body image. However, men and women were equally likely to report thoughts about the external consequences of the activity (e.g., pregnancy, being caught) and the emotional consequences of the activity (e.g., morality, implications of the activity for the relationship). Women reported that their thoughts occurred more frequently and caused more anxiety. Greater thought frequency and greater anxiety over thoughts were associated with poorer sexual functioning for both men and women. For women, greater frequency of and anxiety evoked by thoughts was associated with lower sexual satisfaction. These data provide modest support for cognitive-behavioral models of sexual dysfunction and indicate the importance of both examining a broad range of non-erotic thought content and taking gender into account when applying these models to understanding and treating sexual difficulties.     

Alcohol expectancies in relation to personality and aggression among juvenile delinquents in Northern Russia

The relationships between alcohol expectancies, level of alcohol use, alcohol-related problems, aggression, and personality factors in 198 Russian male juvenile delinquents were assessed. A clustering procedure was used in order to establish main patterns of alcohol expectancies, yielding three major clusters. Level of alcohol use, alcohol-related problems, aggression, and personality factors were compared across the identified clusters. It was established that juvenile delinquents with a high level of positive alcohol expectancies and aggression represented a risk-group for higher involvement in drinking behavior as well as problem drinking, which in turn are related to specific personality traits. Implications of these findings for alcohol prevention among the youth are discussed.     

Measure for measure: evaluating performance and the arts organisation

This paper discusses the cultural policy and impacts of the application of performance indicators to subsidised arts organisations in Britain. The context of this study is the increased accountability and measurement of the outputs of arts organisations by government funding agencies, and the related drive for improved productivity and efficiency. In an extension of performance measurement regimes in ‘public good’ provision, and the arguments concerning economic importance of the cultural industries, the performing arts occupy an uncomfortable place as a pre-industrial activity being subjected to notions of economic efficiency. This discussion concerns the focus for analysis of the measurements used – the three-Es of economy, efficiency and effectiveness - and the rationale underlying their imposition. The outputs and performance indicators of the major subsidised arts organisations are then presented, based on a ten year time series, revealing declining audiences and production, but increasing ticket prices and expenditure, which arguably undermines the performing arts ‘merit good’ status.     

Challenges in research on preferences and personality traits: Measurement,stability, and inference

This paper reviews several traditions in economic research on preferences as well as research on personality traits in personality psychology and lists challenges in both fields. We discuss challenges regarding the measurement of preferences and personality traits, challenges regarding the stability of preferences and traits, and challenges when inferring causality. Additionally, we highlight areas in which we see potential benefits from taking into account methodological approaches or insights from the respective other discipline.     

Big Five Personality Factors Among Men With a Sexual Interest in Children

Men with a sexual interest in children or adolescents have been described as less extraverted, conscientious, and emotionally stable than controls. Yet, such studies have mostly been conducted in forensic institutions. To test whether such findings generalize to community samples, we assessed personality profiles of 123 German-speaking men with and 89 men without pedohebephilia online, using the Big Five Inventory-25. Our results indicate that men with pedophilia or hebephilia are less emotionally stable and extraverted but more conscientious than controls. We discuss study limitations and potential causes for differences in personality among community samples of men with and without pedohebephilia.     

Depression, marital satisfaction, and marital and personality measures of sex roles*

The present study examined the relationship between depression, marital satisfaction, and marital and personality measures of sex roles. Subjects included 50 couples in which the woman was clinically depressed (and of which 26 were maritally distressed), and 24 nondepressed, nondistressed control couples. Results indicated that compared to nondepressed couples, husbands and wives in relationships in which the wife was depressed showed greater inequality in decision making and dissatisfaction with the distribution of decision making and household tasks; wives additionally indicated greater dissatisfaction with distribution of childrearing responsibilities. The relationship between marital roles and depression was largely mediated by the impact of marital distress in the clinic couples. In addition, depressed wives were less masculine than nondepressed wives, and women with high levels of masculinity reported less depression than women with low levels.     

The Relationship Between Aggression and the Big Five Personality Factors in Predicting Academic Success

The focus of this study was to determine whether aggression adds incremental validity above and beyond the Big Five personality factors in predicting grades. An archival data analysis was used in this study. The data consisted of a sample of eighth grade students. The students completed the Personal Style Inventory Adolescent (PSI-A), which is a 120-item survey instrument designed to measure the Big Five personality factors and aggression. Results indicated that aggression does add incremental validity above and beyond the Big Five. The results also indicated that the Big Five were significantly correlated with academic performance. When aggression was added into the statistical model, conscientiousness, openness and aggression were significantly correlated with grades.     

Mindfulness moderates the relation between trauma and anxiety symptoms in college students

Objective: To explore the relations between trauma exposure and anxiety and depression among college students, and to determine whether trait mindfulness may moderate these relations. Participants: Self-report survey data from 2,336 college sophomores were drawn from a larger university-wide study (“Spit for Science”). Methods: We constructed multiple linear regression models using past-year trauma exposure, trait mindfulness, and their multiplicative interaction to predict current anxiety and depressive symptom severity, while controlling for covariates. Results: Mindfulness was associated with lower levels of depression and anxiety symptom severity. Trauma was a significant predictor of anxiety, but not depression, and high levels of mindfulness attenuated the association between trauma exposure and higher anxiety symptom severity. Conclusions: These results have implications for the treatment and prevention of anxiety among trauma-exposed college students and provide a basis for further research into the mechanisms through which mindfulness may facilitate positive mental health.     

The interrelationships of self-monitoring factors,personality traits,and nonverbal social skills

Following recent developments concerning individual differences in nonverbal social skills, the present study examined the inter-relationships of several standardized measures of nonverbal skills and personality. Particular attention was given to the concept of self-monitoring, thought to be a skill central to social interaction. Based on previous research which suggested that self-monitoring, as measured by the Self-Monitoring Scale (SMS), is a multidimensional construct, it was hypothesized that self-monitoring may actually be comprised of a number of more basic social skills. Correlations between standardized measures of basic social skills and three factors obtained from factor analysis of the SMS (Briggs, Cheek, & Buss, 1980) supported this conception. The elements of self-monitoring appear to be “charisma,” “performance,” and “social sensitivity.”