tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/personality-traits-31677/articlesPersonality traits – The Conversation2024-02-27T23:22:27Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2241472024-02-27T23:22:27Z2024-02-27T23:22:27ZWar in Ukraine affected wellbeing worldwide, but people’s speed of recovery depended on their personality<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578119/original/file-20240227-26-lc1e5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=240%2C457%2C4935%2C2855&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/woman-with-head-resting-on-hand-Pe4gh8a8mBY">Nicklas Hammann/Unsplash</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The war in Ukraine has had impacts around the world. <a href="https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/ripple-effects-russia-ukraine-war-test-global-economies">Supply chains</a> have been disrupted, the <a href="https://news.un.org/pages/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GCRG_2nd-Brief_Jun8_2022_FINAL.pdf?utm_source=United+Nations&utm_medium=Brief&utm_campaign=Global+Crisis+Response">cost of living</a> has soared and we’ve seen the <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/hk/en/73141-ukraine-fastest-growing-refugee-crisis-in-europe-since-wwii.html">fastest-growing refugee crisis since World War II</a>. All of these are in addition to the devastating humanitarian and economic impacts within Ukraine.</p>
<p>Our international team was conducting a global study on wellbeing in the lead up to and after the Russian invasion. This provided a unique opportunity to examine the psychological impact of the outbreak of war. </p>
<p>As we explain in a new study published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-44693-6">Nature Communications</a>, we learned the toll on people’s wellbeing was evident across nations, not just <a href="https://ijmhs.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13033-023-00598-3">in Ukraine</a>. These effects appear to have been temporary – at least for the average person.</p>
<p>But people with certain psychological vulnerabilities struggled to recover from the shock of the war.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/food-shortages-millions-of-refugees-and-global-price-spikes-the-knock-on-effects-of-russias-ukraine-invasion-180559">Food shortages, millions of refugees, and global price spikes: the knock-on effects of Russia’s Ukraine invasion</a>
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<h2>Tracking wellbeing during the outbreak of war</h2>
<p>People who took part in our study completed a rigorous “<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2773515/">experience-sampling</a>” protocol. Specifically, we asked them to report their momentary wellbeing four times per day for a whole month. </p>
<p>Data collection began in October 2021 and continued throughout 2022. So we had been tracking wellbeing around the world during the weeks surrounding the outbreak of war in February 2022. </p>
<p>We also collected measures of personality, along with various sociodemographic variables (including age, gender, political views). This enabled us to assess whether different people responded differently to the crisis. We could also compare these effects across countries. </p>
<p>Our analyses focused primarily on 1,341 participants living in 17 European countries, excluding Ukraine itself (44,894 experience-sampling reports in total). We also expanded these analyses to capture the experiences of 1,735 people living in 43 countries around the world (54,851 experience-sampling reports) – including in Australia.</p>
<h2>A global dip in wellbeing</h2>
<p>On February 24 2022, the day Russia invaded Ukraine, there was a sharp decline in wellbeing around the world. There was no decline in the month leading up to the outbreak of war, suggesting the change in wellbeing was not already occurring for some other reason. </p>
<p>However, there was a gradual increase in wellbeing during the month <em>after</em> the Russian invasion, suggestive of a “return to baseline” effect. Such effects are commonly reported in psychological research: situations and events that impact our wellbeing often (<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237535630_Adaptation_and_the_Set-Point_Model_of_Subjective_Well-BeingDoes_Happiness_Change_After_Major_Life_Events">though not always</a>) do so <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/7062343_Beyond_the_Hedonic_Treadmill_Revising_the_Adaptation_Theory_of_Well-Being">temporarily</a>.</p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, people in Europe experienced a sharper dip in wellbeing compared to people living elsewhere around the world. Presumably the war was much more salient for those closest to the conflict, compared to those living on an entirely different continent. </p>
<p>Interestingly, day-to-day fluctuations in wellbeing mirrored the salience of the war on social media as events unfolded. Specifically, wellbeing was lower on days when there were more tweets mentioning Ukraine on Twitter/X. </p>
<p>Our results indicate that, on average, it took around two months for people to return to their baseline levels of wellbeing after the invasion.</p>
<h2>Different people, different recoveries</h2>
<p>There are <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31944795/">strong links</a> between our wellbeing and our individual personalities. </p>
<p>However, the dip in wellbeing following the Russian invasion was fairly uniform across individuals. None of the individual factors assessed in our study, including personality and sociodemographic factors, predicted people’s response to the outbreak of war.</p>
<p>On the other hand, personality did play a role in how quickly people recovered. Individual differences in people’s recovery were linked to a personality trait called “stability”. Stability is a broad dimension of personality that combines low neuroticism with high agreeableness and conscientiousness (three traits from the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/big-five">Big Five</a> personality framework). </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ukraine-war-conflict-related-ptsd-is-putting-strain-on-an-already-underfunded-mental-health-system-199629">Ukraine war: conflict-related PTSD is putting strain on an already underfunded mental health system</a>
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<p>Stability is so named because it reflects the stability of one’s overall psychological functioning. This can be illustrated by breaking stability down into its three components: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>low neuroticism describes <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2212154120">emotional stability</a>. People low in this trait experience less intense negative emotions such as anxiety, fear or anger, in response to negative events</p></li>
<li><p>high agreeableness describes <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-63285-010">social stability</a>. People high in this trait are generally more cooperative, kind, and motivated to maintain social harmony</p></li>
<li><p>high conscientiousness describes <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2023.112331">motivational stability</a>. People high in this trait show more effective patterns of goal-directed self-regulation. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>So, our data show that people with less stable personalities fared worse in terms of recovering from the impact the war in Ukraine had on wellbeing. </p>
<p>In a supplementary analysis, we found the effect of stability was driven specifically by neuroticism and agreeableness. The fact that people higher in neuroticism recovered more slowly accords with a wealth of research linking this trait with <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10573882/">coping difficulties</a> and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5428182/">poor mental health</a>. </p>
<p>These effects of personality on recovery were stronger than those of sociodemographic factors, such as age, gender or political views, which were not statistically significant.</p>
<p>Overall, our findings suggest that people with certain psychological vulnerabilities will often struggle to recover from the shock of global events such as the outbreak of war in Ukraine.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224147/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Luke Smillie does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The toll of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on people’s wellbeing was felt worldwide. The effects were temporary for most. But those high on certain psychological traits struggled for longer.Luke Smillie, Professor in Personality Psychology, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1987552023-02-16T02:39:26Z2023-02-16T02:39:26ZWhat kinds of people ‘catfish’? Study finds they have higher psychopathy, sadism, and narcissism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509098/original/file-20230209-28-nbas4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5310%2C3537&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Online dating has revolutionised romance, creating more opportunities to meet potential partners than ever before.</p>
<p>However, alongside the benefits is the risk of abuse, harassment, and exploitation. In late January this year, the Australian government convened a <a href="https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/department/media/news/government-convenes-national-roundtable-online-dating-safety">national roundtable on online dating</a> to explore what could be done to improve safety. </p>
<p><a href="https://minister.infrastructure.gov.au/rowland/media-release/albanese-government-convenes-national-roundtable-online-dating-safety?_ga=2.175973863.4162575.1675400995-1565035519.1675400995">Alarming figures</a> compiled by the Australian Institute of Criminology showed three out of four Australian dating app users who responded to the survey had experienced sexual violence on dating apps in the last five years.</p>
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<p>One such harm is “<a href="https://www.esafety.gov.au/young-people/catfishing">catfishing</a>” – when someone creates, or steals, an identity with the purpose of deceiving and exploiting others.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2022.107599">study</a> by myself and Cassandra Lauder at Federation University, we wanted to find out what psychological traits were common among people who conduct behaviours associated with catfishing. We surveyed the perpetration of catfishing behaviours in nearly 700 adults. </p>
<p>We found a cluster of psychological traits that are associated with catfishing – known as the “dark tetrad” of personality. This includes psychopathy, sadism, narcissism, and Machiavellianism. </p>
<p>So what are these traits, and how can you spot a potential romance scam?</p>
<h2>What’s catfishing again?</h2>
<p>What differentiates catfishing from phishing and other online scams is the lengths the catfisher will go to to deceive and exploit their targets. Often, this includes establishing long-term relationships – with <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/insight/article/catfishing-my-relationship-of-12-years-was-all-a-lie/fw28o2lcf">some accounts of these relationships lasting over a decade</a>. </p>
<p>For many of these scams, the goal is often financial exploitation. According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), in 2019 Australians reported just under 4,000 romance scams, costing Australians <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/romance-scammers-move-to-new-apps-costing-aussies-more-than-286-million">over A$28 million</a>. In 2021, that number was <a href="https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/scam-statistics?scamid=13&date=2021">just over $56 million</a>. </p>
<p>However, not all catfishing scams involve financial exploitation. In some cases, there may appear to be no real reason why the victim-survivor was psychologically exploited and manipulated – a form researchers have termed <a href="https://theconversation.com/its-not-about-money-we-asked-catfish-why-they-trick-people-online-100381">social catfishing</a>. </p>
<p>The experience of catfishing can cause significant <a href="https://bulliesout.com/need-support/catfishing/#:%7E:text=Being%20catfished%20can%20cause%20mental,catfisher%20will%20expose%20them%20publicly.">psychological and financial</a> damage to the victim-survivor.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-not-about-money-we-asked-catfish-why-they-trick-people-online-100381">It's not about money: we asked catfish why they trick people online</a>
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<h2>The ‘dark tetrad’</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2022.107599">our study</a>, we recruited a sample of 664 participants (55.8% men, 40.3% women, 3.9% other/missing) via social media. We asked participants to indicate how often they perpetrated a range of catfishing-related behaviours. This included “I orchestrate online scams” and “I present inaccurate personal information online in order to attract friends or romantic partners”. </p>
<p>We also assessed participants on a range of personality traits commonly associated with antisocial behaviour, known as the “<a href="https://myfamilypsychologist.com/the-truth-about-the-dark-tetrad/">dark tetrad</a>” of personality.</p>
<p>This included</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/basics/narcissism">narcissism</a> (self-grandiosity, entitlement)</li>
<li><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/basics/psychopathy">psychopathy</a> (callousness, low empathy)</li>
<li><a href="https://psyche.co/ideas/ever-taken-pleasure-in-anothers-pain-thats-everyday-sadism">everyday sadism</a> (enjoying harming others)</li>
<li>and <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/machiavellians-gulling-the-rubes/201509/meet-the-machiavellians">Machiavellianism</a> (strategic and calculating).</li>
</ul>
<p>We found people who perpetrated catfishing behaviours had higher psychopathy, higher sadism, and higher narcissism. Sadism in particular was a very strong predictor of catfishing behaviours.</p>
<p>We also found that men were more likely than women to catfish. </p>
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<p>It’s worth noting that in this research, participants filled out the survey themselves, meaning the data are what we call “self-reported” in research. As we asked people if they performed socially undesirable behaviours such as interpersonal manipulation, exploitation, and deception, a key issue is that people may not be entirely honest when responding to the survey. This could lead to bias in the data.</p>
<p>We addressed this by measuring participants’ “<a href="https://www.scribbr.com/research-bias/social-desirability-bias/">social desirability</a>” – the degree to which a person conceals their true self to look good to others. We used this measure in all of our findings to reduce some of this potential bias.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/its-not-about-money-we-asked-catfish-why-they-trick-people-online-100381">Previous research</a> found those who catfished cited motivations such as loneliness, dissatisfaction with physical appearance, identity exploration, and escapism. </p>
<p>Knowing why people might catfish could be empowering for catfishing victim-survivors. Although the above motives may certainly still play a part, our findings add to the story.</p>
<h2>6 signs of a potential romance scam</h2>
<p>We found people who perpetrate catfishing behaviours are more likely to be callous, egotistical, lack empathy, and – importantly – enjoy harming other people. This suggests that not all catfishers are necessarily indifferent to the harm they could cause. Indeed for some, harm could be the goal. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-psychopaths-to-everyday-sadists-why-do-humans-harm-the-harmless-144017">From psychopaths to 'everyday sadists': why do humans harm the harmless?</a>
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<p>There are other practical ways to identify a possible online romance scam. I have been researching antisocial online behaviours for almost a decade. Drawing on The <a href="https://www.psychiatrypodcast.com/psychiatry-psychotherapy-podcast/episode-160-the-psychology-behind-catfishing">Psychiatry Podcast</a>, and in collaboration with the Cyberpsychology and Healthy Interpersonal Processes Lab at Federation University, here are six signs of a potential catfishing scenario:</p>
<ol>
<li><p><strong>They contact you first.</strong>
It’s unusual for the victim-survivor to have made the initial contact. Typically, the catfisher will make the first contact. </p></li>
<li><p><strong>They are too good to be true.</strong>
Great profile? Check. Good looking? Check. Maybe even educated and rich? Check. The catfisher wants to look good and lure you in.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Love bombing.</strong>
Prepare yourself for the pedestal you are about to be put on. The catfisher will shower you with compliments and protestations of love. It’s hard not to be flattered by this amount of attention. You may also find terms of endearment are common – saves the catfisher having to remember all those different names.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>They never call.</strong>
There’s always something that will get in the way of phone calls, video calls, and meetings.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Strange communication.</strong>
There may be typos, delayed or vague responses. Something about this communication feels a bit off.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>They ask for money.</strong>
Money isn’t always the goal of the catfisher. But any of the signs above combined with asking for money should be a red flag. Don’t make any decisions before talking to someone – a trusted friend or family member. Often, people on the outside have a clearer view of the situation than those who are involved.</p></li>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Evita March does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>People who catfish tend to score highly in the ‘dark tetrad’ personality traits.Evita March, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Federation University AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1962952022-12-15T19:07:37Z2022-12-15T19:07:37ZYour tendency to overindulge these holidays could relate to your ‘eating personality’. Which type are you?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500896/original/file-20221214-17-kq7mqq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=55%2C33%2C7293%2C4241&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/santa-claus-having-delicious-snack-600w-2063217185.jpg">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Holidays are a time when lots of us tend to overindulge in food and drink, and many people <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejm200003233421206">gain weight</a>. Once gained, weight is difficult to lose, and it is likely that much of the holiday weight gain will <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMc1602012">stay with us</a>.</p>
<p>Overindulgence might happen for some people around relaxed and positive family gatherings, especially if COVID has limited travel and family occasions in recent years. For others, holiday gatherings hold the potential for conflict and emotional challenges and that can lead to having more to eat and drink. For some people it will be a sad and lonely period, without family or significant others around, and food might seem comforting. </p>
<p>Holiday gatherings are typically social, featuring foods that are delicious, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5687574/">energy-dense</a> and plentiful. It can be challenging to resist the temptations on offer. Yet some people overindulge, but others do not. Why? </p>
<p>Research tells us how different “eating personalities” influence our tendency to overdo it at the festive buffet. </p>
<h2>Eating personalities</h2>
<p>The various combinations of our eating behaviours (our usual ways of behaving and thinking about food) interact with each other as “eating personalities”. </p>
<p>Technically, eating personalities (or <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28043857/">eating phenotypes</a>) refer to habitual patterns of eating behaviours and thoughts that are the result of <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5994376/">interactions</a> between our genetic makeup, individual characteristics and the environment. </p>
<p>Eating personalities affect how we eat (such as how fast), what we eat (healthy or unhealthy foods), how much we eat in different situations, and importantly, why we overeat. Eating personalities are apparent <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8740295/">even in infants</a> and continue to evolve and change over our lifetime. They also inform how we select specific <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4267530">weight-loss strategies</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500895/original/file-20221214-22-srnvx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="cutting turkey at the table" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500895/original/file-20221214-22-srnvx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500895/original/file-20221214-22-srnvx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500895/original/file-20221214-22-srnvx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500895/original/file-20221214-22-srnvx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500895/original/file-20221214-22-srnvx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500895/original/file-20221214-22-srnvx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500895/original/file-20221214-22-srnvx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">For some it’s the pudding, for others it’s the turkey that’s hard to turn down.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://images.pexels.com/photos/5848011/pexels-photo-5848011.jpeg?auto=compress&cs=tinysrgb&w=1260&h=750&dpr=2">Pexels</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>Our eating personalities could include: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>how we respond to prompts for overeating, such as the presence of tempting foods or drinks at a buffet lunch, and whether we sometimes lose control </p></li>
<li><p>how desirable or appealing or rewarding we find different foods or drinks. It might be a glossy chocolate cake for one person but crispy roast potatoes for another</p></li>
<li><p>whether we notice and respond to internal signals of fullness</p></li>
<li><p>our tendency to serve large portions and eat until the plate is clean</p></li>
<li><p>whether we are able to wait until we start feeling hungry again to begin eating, rather than being guided by the clock or a tempting snack</p></li>
<li><p>our capacity to stick to longer-term goals in the presence of tempting foods or drinks</p></li>
<li><p>how fast we eat and whether we tend to maintain this pace or slow down during the course of eating</p></li>
<li><p>whether we are “<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6137864/">emotional eaters</a>” who eat when we feel down or to celebrate success.</p></li>
</ul>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/mukbang-eatwithme-and-eating-disorders-on-tiktok-why-online-food-consumption-videos-could-fuel-food-fixations-194809">Mukbang, #EatWithMe and eating disorders on TikTok: why online food consumption videos could fuel food fixations</a>
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<h2>5 ideas for eating according to your personality</h2>
<p>Research <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2792381">published</a> this year, based on a randomised clinical trial with 217 adults, indicates that knowing your eating personality can help identify strategies to manage food intakes and weight. A second recent <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4267530">study of 165</a> people supports these findings. </p>
<p>Matching strategies to your particular eating personality traits could help you manage or avoid overindulgence. </p>
<p><strong>1. The overeater</strong></p>
<p>If eating when you’re not actually hungry is a component of your eating personality, improving awareness of hunger versus other triggers for eating <a href="https://uhs.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/wellness-hungersatietyscale.pdf">when you feel full</a>, and developing skills in responding to these cues before deciding to eat, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031938420303322">could help</a>. </p>
<p><strong>2. The food admirer and impulsive eater</strong></p>
<p>If high attraction to food is a factor, and you have difficulty resisting, acknowledging the attractiveness of food cues and practising using avoidance, distraction or resistance strategies <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031938420303322#bib0175">may be effective</a>.</p>
<p><strong>3. The emotional eater</strong></p>
<p>People who recognise they eat for emotional reasons might try <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/weight-loss/in-depth/weight-loss/art-20047342">other strategies</a> such as mindfulness, walking or listening to music to work through their feelings. </p>
<p><strong>4. The plate cleaner</strong></p>
<p>If resisting food is hard once it’s on your plate, choosing <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6088523/#:%7E:text=Offering%20large%20portions%20of%20high,and%20ultimately%20positive%20energy%20balance.">smaller portions</a> could help, along with developing awareness of fullness cues, or selecting some food but saving some for later in a separate location. Some young children do this naturally, spreading holiday chocolates or treats over days or weeks. </p>
<p><strong>5. The speed eater</strong></p>
<p>If eating quickly means you tend to eat too much, pay greater attention to your <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24388483/">eating speed</a> during the meal and attempt to slow down by interspersing eating with other things like chatting or drinking water.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500889/original/file-20221214-14-lmxifa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="gingerbread men falling out of a bowl" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500889/original/file-20221214-14-lmxifa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500889/original/file-20221214-14-lmxifa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500889/original/file-20221214-14-lmxifa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500889/original/file-20221214-14-lmxifa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500889/original/file-20221214-14-lmxifa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500889/original/file-20221214-14-lmxifa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500889/original/file-20221214-14-lmxifa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Eating patterns and responses are highly individualised.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1575993051801-d5a7940d78a2?ixlib=rb-4.0.3&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=872&q=80">Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/when-i-work-with-people-with-eating-disorders-i-see-many-rules-around-good-and-bad-foods-but-eating-is-never-that-simple-188803">When I work with people with eating disorders, I see many rules around 'good' and 'bad' foods – but eating is never that simple</a>
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<h2>Acknowledging the challenges</h2>
<p>It is a common experience to have tried, and sometimes failed, to temper food intakes during holiday periods and celebrations. </p>
<p>Food is a central part of holiday celebrations – it provides social and cultural connection, and is a source of enjoyment. However, if avoiding overindulgence is a priority for your <a href="https://theconversation.com/im-not-overweight-so-why-do-i-need-to-eat-healthy-foods-90436">health and wellbeing</a>, it is worth exploring your eating personality. This is a path to a better understanding of overindulgence, and possibly to strategies for moderating what you eat and how much, during the holiday period and beyond. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/step-away-from-the-table-why-you-keep-eating-when-youre-full-170649">Step away from the table – why you keep eating when you're full</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196295/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Georgie Russell is affiliated with the Nutrition Society of Australia and the Australian and New Zealand Obesity Society. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alan Russell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Do you feel the need to clean your plate? Does a bowl of salty chips seem completely irresistible? Understanding your ‘eating personality’ could stop you eating or drinking too much these holidays.Georgie Russell, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN), Deakin UniversityAlan Russell, Emeritus Professor of Education, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1908582022-10-27T11:52:44Z2022-10-27T11:52:44ZDeprivation in childhood linked to impulsive behaviour in adulthood – new study<p>Inflation is running high around the globe, largely fuelled by Russia’s <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/cost-of-living-crisis-how-the-war-in-ukraine-is-eroding-living-standards-in-the-uk-12568365">war in Ukraine</a> and the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/uk/advisor/energy/cost-of-living-crisis/">COVID pandemic</a>. As a result, many households are having to choose between eating and heating.</p>
<p>Deprivation has a terrible immediate effect on children – as anyone who has experienced real hunger knows – but it can also affect things like impulsive behaviour in later life.</p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S096969891300115X">Trait impulsivity</a>”, the preference for immediate gratification, has been linked to spending more on food, especially unhealthy, highly calorific food. Studies have shown that children who experience poverty and <a href="https://www.fao.org/hunger/en/">food insecurity</a> tend to have a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jada.2007.08.007">higher body-mass index as adults</a> than those who do not. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-12872-4">study</a> published in Scientific Reports earlier this year, my colleagues and I showed that children who experience deprivation make more impulsive choices than children who don’t. </p>
<p>We studied 146 children, with an average age of eight, living in some of the most deprived areas of England and compared them with children living in some of the most affluent neighbourhoods. </p>
<p>Children were given a choice between taking home a small amount of money (for example, £1) or getting £10 a week, or even more a year later. How long a person is willing to wait for the larger amount of money can be used to calculate a “discount rate” that shows how much the waiting time reduces the value of the money. </p>
<p>An impulsive person might prefer £1 now because the value of £10 in six months is “discounted” to less than £1 right now. This means that, for them, the £10, is discounted by £9 over the six-month wait. </p>
<p>A less impulsive person might be willing to wait six months for £10, but not wait for a whole year for £15. This means that, for them, the value of the £15 is discounted by £5 over the additional six-month wait. This discount rate is a measure of how impulsive someone is. </p>
<p>The results showed that children living in the most deprived areas had significantly higher discount rates than children living in the least deprived areas, regardless of age or intelligence, indicating that deprivation was the causal factor in the children’s choice. </p>
<h2>A stable trait</h2>
<p>This preference for immediate outcomes is a stable personality trait that remains constant throughout a person’s life. </p>
<p>In our <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.220102">most recent study</a>, published by <a href="https://royalsociety.org/about-us/">the Royal Society</a>, we investigated impulsivity in over 1,000 older adults aged between 50 and 90. We found that older adults, living in the most deprived areas, show the same preference for smaller-sooner financial outcomes as the children in our first study. </p>
<p>We also found that a person’s job predicted the choices they made. Adults working in technical or routine occupations, such as mechanics or cleaners, chose to receive smaller amounts of money than wait for larger amounts compared with people in professional occupations, such as engineers or scientists. </p>
<p>These findings are concerning because impulsivity doesn’t just predict obesity. These findings tell us a lot about why people living in poorer areas tend to be unhealthier than people living in wealthy areas. </p>
<p>People who experience deprivation as children are more likely to choose to do things that, although they might be pleasurable in the short term, are unhealthy in the long run. This includes overeating, taking drugs, smoking cigarettes and gambling. </p>
<p>We know too, that impulsivity can help to explain why some people go on to become addicts, while other people can avoid some of the more harmful effects of drugs and alcohol.</p>
<p>Deprivation is one of many factors that can lead to impulsive behaviour throughout a person’s lifetime. Genetics also plays a role in impulsivity. Policymakers can’t do anything about a person’s genes but they can influence the nation’s long-term mental and physical health by minimising child poverty. Failing to do so will have long-term implications for the children living through today’s cost of living crisis.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190858/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Tunney receives funding from the Academic Forum for the Study of Gambling. </span></em></p>Deprivation in childhood is a strong predictor of obesity, gambling, smoking and addiction in adulthood.Richard Tunney, Professor of Psychology, Aston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1885322022-08-24T22:45:49Z2022-08-24T22:45:49ZDoes a sibling’s gender influence our own personality? A major new study answers an age-old question<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480678/original/file-20220823-632-lq8kfh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C8%2C5590%2C3715&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Our siblings play a central role in our childhoods, so it stands to reason they influence our personality in the long term. In particular, researchers have long been interested in how growing up with a sister compared to a brother might influence who we become as adults. </p>
<p>How do children interact with their sister or brother? How do parents behave differently towards their children of different genders, and how does that interaction influence the children? </p>
<p>Past theories have made quite different predictions: siblings of the opposite gender may plausibly result in either <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/2786054">gender-stereotypical personalities</a> (a girl may take on a more feminine role to differentiate herself from her brother) or <a href="https://doi.org/10.9783/9781512800807">less gender stereotypical personalities</a> (a girl may take on more masculine traits because she imitates her brother).</p>
<p>In fact, psychological research has been exploring these differences for over half a century. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.02.037">In some studies</a>, siblings of the opposite sex seemed to be more gender-conforming. Girls with brothers later become more “typically female” and boys with sisters more “typically male”.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/h0030055">Other studies find the exact opposite</a>, however. Opposite gender siblings developed in typically gender-conforming ways. To resolve these contradictions, we wanted to test the effect of sibling gender on personality in a rigorous and comprehensive way.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480681/original/file-20220823-16-4ll79p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480681/original/file-20220823-16-4ll79p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480681/original/file-20220823-16-4ll79p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480681/original/file-20220823-16-4ll79p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480681/original/file-20220823-16-4ll79p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480681/original/file-20220823-16-4ll79p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480681/original/file-20220823-16-4ll79p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Like brother, like sister? Researchers have differed on the likely influence of an opposite gender sibling on personality.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span>
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<h2>Using big data</h2>
<p>In our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976221094630">new study</a> we focused on the relationships between children and their next older or younger sibling. We compiled a unique data set by combining 12 large representative surveys covering nine countries across four continents (US, UK, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, Mexico, China and Indonesia).</p>
<p>This resulted in a data set of more than 85,000 people – many times the sample sizes used in previous studies.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/when-do-children-develop-their-gender-identity-56480">When do children develop their gender identity?</a>
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<p>We also investigated many more personality traits than previous studies have. This included the traits that have been most widely studied in other research, and which have been shown to be important predictors of people’s decisions and choices.</p>
<p>The “big five” of these traits are: openness to experiences, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. The other traits examined were: risk tolerance, trust, patience and “locus of control” (the degree to which people believe they have control over their lives).</p>
<p>We also created an index describing to what extent people have a typically female personality. This allowed us to test comprehensively whether growing up with an opposite gender sibling leads to a more or less gender-stereotypical personality.</p>
<h2>Sibling gender and life experience</h2>
<p>This study is not only innovative in its use of a large data set, but it also applies a consistent method to identify any causal effects of a sibling’s gender on personality traits. </p>
<p>To estimate credible causal effects, we make use of an interesting fact of nature: once parents decide to have another child it is essentially random whether they have a girl or boy. In this “natural experiment” some people are therefore “randomly assigned” a younger sister or brother. </p>
<p>This allows us to estimate the causal effect of sibling gender on personality by comparing the average personality of people who grew up with a sister as their next youngest sibling with those who grew up with a next younger brother. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/are-your-squabbling-kids-driving-you-mad-the-good-bad-news-is-sibling-rivalry-is-developmentally-normal-186300">Are your squabbling kids driving you mad? The good/bad news is, sibling rivalry is 'developmentally normal'</a>
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<h2>Brothers and sisters</h2>
<p>Our results suggest sibling gender has no effect on personality. For all nine personality traits and the summary index, we find people who have a next younger sister display, on average, the same personality traits as people who have a next younger brother. </p>
<p>We also see no difference in personality between people who have a next older sister and people who have a next older brother. Because we have data on more than 85,000 people, these results are estimated with great precision.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/when-parents-play-favourites-what-happens-to-the-kids-110019">When parents play favourites, what happens to the kids?</a>
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<p>The results help refute the idea that brothers or sisters cause each other to develop “feminine” or “masculine” personality traits over the long term.</p>
<p>However, the results don’t mean sibling gender has no long-term effect at all. Other studies that applied a similar methodological approach have shown that women with brothers in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2019.02.009">US</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00148-021-00830-9">Denmark</a> earn less. And a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjt011">study of Asian populations</a> has found women with younger sisters marry earlier and women with older sisters marry later. </p>
<p>So, there seem to be interesting sibling dynamics related to gender – but personality is probably not part of the explanation for those effects.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188532/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>During this research project, Thomas Dudek received funding from QuakeCoRE, a New Zealand Tertiary Education Commission-funded Centre. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anne Ardila Brenøe and Jan Feld do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Researchers have long differed on whether growing up with a sister or brother influences who we become as adults. New research using big data aims to finally settle the argument.Jan Feld, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of WellingtonAnne Ardila Brenøe, Assistant Professor of Economics, University of ZurichThomas Dudek, Postdoctoral Researcher, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of WellingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1681942021-09-21T02:29:36Z2021-09-21T02:29:36ZPersonality traits may drive our ideas about fairness and sharing<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422063/original/file-20210920-23-71epr8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=2%2C2%2C1595%2C1061&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Disputes over fairness can create conflict. Families squabble over inheritances, societies polarise around the question of how to distribute wealth fairly, and nations become mired in territorial quarrels. </p>
<p>Many of these disputes stem from different perspectives people have on fairness. In new research, we found people’s ideas about fairness may stem from their personality traits.</p>
<h2>No universal rule for sharing</h2>
<p>Many disputes over fairness stem from the fact there isn’t a single universal moral solution to sharing a resource. Instead, there are several commonly used and widely acceptable moral stances, or norms.</p>
<p>Consider dividing an inheritance among siblings. Under the “norm of equality”, the inheritance should be split equally among them, regardless of any other information.</p>
<p>By the “equity norm”, however, a sibling in dire economic need should receive a larger share. By the “indirect reciprocity norm”, a sibling who has done more to take care of their parents while they were ill deserves a greater portion of the inheritance.</p>
<p>Individuals may disagree in good faith about which of these norms should guide the division of the inheritance.</p>
<h2>More than selfishness</h2>
<p>Previous research has shown that, in situations where multiple norms can be applied, individuals gravitate toward norms that best <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.2112">serve their economic interests</a>. </p>
<p>But is this the whole story? Do people just select norms to serve their momentary interest? Or might they also have stable preferences for particular norms, even when they have no personal stake? </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-do-children-think-of-economic-inequality-we-did-an-experiment-to-find-out-163262">What do children think of economic inequality? We did an experiment to find out</a>
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<p>In our work at the Decision Neuroscience Lab at the University of Melbourne, we shed light on these issues in two new studies. In the first, we developed a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-74975-0">new way to measure the relative importance individuals give to different fairness norms</a>. In the second, we <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506211038295">related these measures to personality traits</a>.</p>
<h2>The ten-dollar question</h2>
<p>To measure the importance individuals assign to different norms, we asked participants to make moral judgements of how people chose to share $10 in a simple game. Our participants rated different sharing behaviours on a scale from “morally good” to “morally bad”. </p>
<p>The participants showed prominent differences in how they judged different sharing behaviours. Most participants judged even-handed sharing (dividing the $10 equally) as more moral than more generous sharing (giving away more than they kept), but some did the opposite. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422067/original/file-20210920-25-140xtq0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422067/original/file-20210920-25-140xtq0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422067/original/file-20210920-25-140xtq0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422067/original/file-20210920-25-140xtq0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422067/original/file-20210920-25-140xtq0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422067/original/file-20210920-25-140xtq0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422067/original/file-20210920-25-140xtq0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">When judging the morality of another person choice to split $10 dollars with a third party, people’s responses correlated with personality.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Some participants were quite harsh in their judgements of low sharing (such as keeping $9 and giving only $1 to one’s partner), whereas others were more accepting of such behaviours. </p>
<p>To describe these differences, we mathematically derived a set of scores for each individual, where each score reflected the importance they place on a different fairness norm.</p>
<h2>Why should personality matter?</h2>
<p>Personality traits describe characteristics of individuals that are relatively stable over time, and also persist across situations. In our research, we looked at the set of personality traits described by the Big Five framework which include: extraversion, agreeableness, openness to experience, conscientiousness, and negative emotionality.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/psychology-by-numbers-a-brief-history-of-personality-tests-53927">Psychology by numbers: a brief history of personality tests</a>
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<p>In some situations, most individuals behave in a similar way regardless of their personality. Almost everyone is likely to agree it is morally wrong to murder an innocent person. </p>
<p>In other situations, there will be individual differences in behaviour that do not systematically relate to personality differences. Residents of an apartment building will reliably press different buttons in the lift, but each person’s choice is determined by where they live. </p>
<p>However, many situations produce individual differences in behaviour that reveal people’s personalities — such as how they respond differently to stress, good news, a major life change, and so on. So, why might judging the behaviour of others be one of these situations?</p>
<p>First, there are robust individual differences in the importance people assign to fairness norms in moral judgements. Second, previous research has demonstrated that agreeableness in particular <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000217">predicts adherence to fairness norms</a> in several sharing situations. </p>
<p>Agreeableness is thought to capture kindness, politeness and compassion when dealing with others. How agreeableness is connected to fairness-related moral judgements of other people has not been studied before. </p>
<p>One might expect a kind, polite and compassionate person to be more forgiving and tolerant when judging others. On the other hand, agreeableness predicts higher adherence to fairness norms, so perhaps a polite and compassionate person would be highly sensitive to perceived unfairness, and thus judge the perpetrator of the unfairness more harshly. We hypothesised the latter to be the case.</p>
<h2>How do personality traits relate to importance people assign to fairness norms?</h2>
<p>For our second study, we measured agreeableness alongside other personality traits (including extraversion, conscientiousness, negative emotionality, and openness) using a reliable and well-validated questionnaire. We then examined associations these personality traits had with moral judgements in our sharing game. </p>
<p>Our findings supported the idea that agreeable individuals would judge abuses of fairness norms more harshly – and provided no support for the idea that agreeable people would be forgiving and tolerant when judging others that abuse fairness norms. Agreeable people may still be more forgiving when they are affected by norm abuses themselves, but do not seem to be forgiving on other people’s behalf. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422069/original/file-20210920-28-rs5qw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422069/original/file-20210920-28-rs5qw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422069/original/file-20210920-28-rs5qw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422069/original/file-20210920-28-rs5qw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422069/original/file-20210920-28-rs5qw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422069/original/file-20210920-28-rs5qw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422069/original/file-20210920-28-rs5qw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People who score highly for agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness and extraversion tended to judge the decisions of others more harshly.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We found people who scored highly on the traits of conscientiousness, openness and extraversion also made harsher judgements. These findings were somewhat surprising to us, so we recommend future studies to further investigate why this is the case. </p>
<p>Do conscientious people have a stricter understanding of fairness norms, or are they more diligent when rating the behaviour of others? Are extraverts more sensitive to abuse of some moral norms because they are more sensitive to social rewards and punishments than introverts? Do highly open people have a more confident understanding of moral situations? Further research is needed to get to the bottom of these questions.</p>
<h2>More tolerance for moral plurality</h2>
<p>What do these findings mean for conflicts around fairness that we encounter in our everyday lives? At least some of these conflicts likely occur because of differences in the importance individuals assign to different fairness norms. </p>
<p>Revealing these differences cannot settle disputes, but it may help us better understand moral plurality, and have a more tolerant approach to differences in perspective when negotiating fairness in our everyday lives.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-and-you-how-your-personality-affects-how-you-cope-and-what-you-can-do-about-it-134037">Coronavirus and you: how your personality affects how you cope and what you can do about it</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168194/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The research described in this article was supported by an Australian Research Council grant (ARC DP160103353) to Stefan Bode.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Feuerriegel and Luke Smillie do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There are many ways to decide what’s ‘fair’ in a given situation. Which one you prefer may depend on what kind of person you are.Milan Andrejević, PhD Candidate in Psychology, The University of MelbourneDaniel Feuerriegel, Research Fellow In Psychology, The University of MelbourneLuke Smillie, Associate Professor in Personality Psychology, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1510282021-01-17T19:00:56Z2021-01-17T19:00:56ZTo get ahead as an introvert, act like an extravert. It’s not as hard as you think<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373525/original/file-20201208-23-uivl3q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C179%2C5000%2C3106&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Leadership is a <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1991-98084-000">human universal</a>. It can even be seen in other species, which suggests it may be an <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982209014122">evolutionarily ancient process</a>.</p>
<p>A common personality trait of “natural” leaders is a higher than average level of extraversion. <a href="https://bit.ly/3lmDU8x">Research</a> consistently shows extraverts, compared with introverts, are more likely to be regarded as leaders by others, and more likely to obtain leadership roles.</p>
<p>We decided to run an <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1048984320301016?casa_token=vYmUwedymd0AAAAA:pomxJ2WhUGOzkjF1BmDBHbn8uRydmf_IktPW9EP9Sy6lSjWKaIIC-uw_I6XGE0ocrRa6fGR4-NA">experiment</a> to see if we could turn the leadership tables around by getting introverts to act like extraverts. We also wanted to find out how acting like an extravert makes introverts feel about themselves.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1048984320301016?casa_token=vYmUwedymd0AAAAA:pomxJ2WhUGOzkjF1BmDBHbn8uRydmf_IktPW9EP9Sy6lSjWKaIIC-uw_I6XGE0ocrRa6fGR4-NA">results show</a> that introverts who act like extraverts are indeed viewed by others as having more leadership potential. We also found no evidence of psychological costs for introverts.</p>
<h2>What we know about extraversion and leadership</h2>
<p>Before we get to the specifics of our research, let’s briefly recap the basic science of extraversion and leadership.</p>
<p>Extraversion is a continuum that measures the degree to which someone is enthusiastic, assertive and seeks out social interaction. It is typically included as part of the <a href="http://psych.colorado.edu/%7Ecarey/courses/psyc5112/readings/psnbig5_mccrae03.pdf">five-factor model</a> of personality.</p>
<p>The other dimensions – or traits – in the five-factor model include openness (being intellectually curious and creative), conscientiousness (being orderly and industrious), agreeableness (being compassionate and polite), and neuroticism (being sensitive to experiencing negative emotions like anxiety, depression, and anger).</p>
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<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378986/original/file-20210115-19-af5ymn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The big five personality traits." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378986/original/file-20210115-19-af5ymn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378986/original/file-20210115-19-af5ymn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378986/original/file-20210115-19-af5ymn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378986/original/file-20210115-19-af5ymn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378986/original/file-20210115-19-af5ymn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378986/original/file-20210115-19-af5ymn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378986/original/file-20210115-19-af5ymn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The big five personality traits.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<hr>
<p>Extraversion has biological roots and is heritable. In others words, part of the reason we find differences in levels of extraversion between people is because there are <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3319035/#:%7E:text=Additive%20genetic%20influence%20(A)%20describes,epistasis%20(across%20locus%20interaction).">genetic differences</a> between people that partially determine our personality. Our genes even predict the likelihood we will occupy a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1048984312000811">leadership position</a>.</p>
<p>We also know that extraverts have a more <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0301051118303636?casa_token=g2pNDT-jg9sAAAAA:WojAwdNGxrL99-DHINi2FW4AGk0ERAodmbTiSS2vZVI8B2o4Xv9eEJJQGiMPlWKOfQX792h9PBQ">sensitive dopamine system</a> in their brain. They are wired to find rewards more enticing. They crave social interaction and the <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2002-01515-015">attention that comes with it</a>. This fact may partially explain why extraverts are <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2019-46137-001.html">more motivated</a> to obtain leadership roles, given leadership is an inherently social process.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-hard-to-find-a-humble-ceo-heres-why-81951">It's hard to find a humble CEO. Here's why</a>
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</em>
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<h2>How we did our experiment</h2>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1048984320301016?casa_token=vYmUwedymd0AAAAA:pomxJ2WhUGOzkjF1BmDBHbn8uRydmf_IktPW9EP9Sy6lSjWKaIIC-uw_I6XGE0ocrRa6fGR4-NA">experiment</a> consisted of 601 participants randomly divided into 166 leaderless groups of typically four people. </p>
<p>We asked these groups to complete a 20-minute joint problem-solving activity (prioritising items needed to survive on the Moon). Participants were not told the purpose of the experiment.</p>
<p>We then split the groups into three “experimental conditions”.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378703/original/file-20210114-21-si0gxi.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378703/original/file-20210114-21-si0gxi.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378703/original/file-20210114-21-si0gxi.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378703/original/file-20210114-21-si0gxi.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378703/original/file-20210114-21-si0gxi.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378703/original/file-20210114-21-si0gxi.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378703/original/file-20210114-21-si0gxi.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>In the first (consisting of 53 groups) we randomly selected one person per group to act energetic, talkative, enthusiastic, bold, active, assertive and sociable – in other words, extraverted. These instructions were not known to other group members.</p>
<p>In the second (55 groups), the randomly chosen group member was secretly instructed to act quiet, reserved, lethargic, passive, compliant and unadventurous – in other words, introverted.</p>
<p>The third was our control condition with 58 groups, where no individual instructions were given. </p>
<p>At the of end the activity, participants rated the leadership quality of other group members (and themselves). They also rated how they felt.</p>
<p>We controlled for age, gender and other <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/basics/big-5-personality-traits">personality traits</a> using a standard personality test. This ensured we isolated the true effect of extraverted and introverted behaviour.</p>
<h2>Acting like an extravert works</h2>
<p>The first part of our results were unsurprising. Compared with participants in the control condition, those instructed to act extraverted were rated by others as having more leadership potential. Those instructed to act introverted were rated lower.</p>
<p>What was notable is that these ratings did not depend on “trait extraversion”. In other words, when instructed to act extraverted, both introverts and extraverts were rated higher on their leadership potential compared with an equivalently extraverted person in the control condition.</p>
<p>Equally, we found the participants instructed to act introverted were rated lower on their leadership potential compared with control participants. </p>
<p>But what was particularly interesting was these participants also rated themselves especially poorly on leadership ratings – worse than did their group members. Acting introverted had a particularly negative impact on how those individuals viewed their own leadership potential.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-too-many-fearless-people-on-a-team-make-collaboration-less-likely-115904">Why too many fearless people on a team make collaboration less likely</a>
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<h2>How acting out of character felt</h2>
<p>How our “actors” felt after the activity is shown in the next figure. </p>
<p>Compared with the control participants, there was no difference for those who acted extraverted. Even introverts felt perfectly OK after acting like extraverts.</p>
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<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372748/original/file-20201203-15-1l5cnq0.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372748/original/file-20201203-15-1l5cnq0.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372748/original/file-20201203-15-1l5cnq0.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372748/original/file-20201203-15-1l5cnq0.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372748/original/file-20201203-15-1l5cnq0.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372748/original/file-20201203-15-1l5cnq0.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372748/original/file-20201203-15-1l5cnq0.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>The extraverts who acted introverted were a different matter. They had fewer positive and more negative feelings compared with those in the control condition. In short, acting introverted made them feel bad.</p>
<h2>Should introverts act out of character to get ahead?</h2>
<p>Our research shows introverts can effectively act out of character to obtain and succeed in leadership roles. </p>
<p>If you’re an introvert, you might feel you should not have to. But we suggest that being prepared to adapt your behaviour to the demands of a situation gives you an advantage over those who aren’t.</p>
<p>Nor is it as hard as you may think. Research shows introverts <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886920301239?casa_token=9_XJ3MRYOrQAAAAA:dNnsOelos4xA8O1q7S4MS_HT02jiEU9pObNLEKIISp1S0Cds7jfz6l2yjWq2cky0z8GHxihN6dw">overestimate the unpleasantness</a> and underestimate the “<a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2013-13271-001">hedonic benefits</a>” of acting extraverted. <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2010.00653.x">One study</a> even suggests introverts feel more authentic when acting extraverted.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/introverts-think-they-wont-like-being-leaders-but-they-are-capable-84371">Introverts think they won't like being leaders but they are capable</a>
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<p>Knowing extraverted behaviour is <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fxge0000668">usually</a> – though <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-58861-001">not always</a> – enjoyable can help you feel more confident about “faking” extraverted behaviour in your own best interest.</p>
<p>So lead on – if you want.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151028/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Spark receives funding from the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council's Discovery Projects funding scheme (project DP190100848).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter O'Connor receives funding from the Australian Goverment through the Australian Research Council's Discovery Projects funding scheme (project DP190100848)</span></em></p>Introverts tend to overestimate the negatives of acting like an extravert and underestimate the positives.Andrew Spark, Postdoctoral research fellow, Queensland University of TechnologyPeter O'Connor, Professor, Business and Management, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1497402020-11-10T01:02:43Z2020-11-10T01:02:43ZWhy can’t some people admit defeat when they lose?<p>When US President-Elect Joe Biden and Deputy Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris gave their victory speeches on Saturday evening, local time, the tally of Electoral College votes showed they had decisively passed the crucial 270-vote threshold, delivering them to the White House this January.</p>
<p>Tradition dictates the losing candidate also gives their own speech to concede defeat. But their vanquished opponent, Donald Trump, hasn’t done that.</p>
<p>We cannot psychoanalyse Trump from a distance, though I am sure many of us have tried. We can, however, apply psychological theories and models to understand the denial of defeat. My area of research — personality psychology — may prove particularly useful here.</p>
<p>Reluctance to admit defeat, even when the battle is hopelessly lost, is a surprisingly understudied phenomenon. But there is some research that can help give an insight into why some people, particularly those who display a trait called “grandiose narcissism”, might struggle to accept losing. Put simply, these people may be unable to accept, or even comprehend, that they have not won. </p>
<p>Other psychological theories, such as cognitive dissonance (resulting from the discrepancy between what we believe and what happens) can also help explain why we double down on our beliefs in the face of overwhelming contrasting evidence.</p>
<h2>If you think you’re better than everyone, what would losing mean?</h2>
<p>Personality traits may provide insight as to why someone could be unwilling to accept defeat.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0092-6566(02)00505-6">Narcissism</a> is one such trait. There is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2010.00711.x">evidence to suggest</a> there are two main forms of narcissism: grandiose narcissism and vulnerable narcissism.</p>
<p>In this article, we’ll focus on grandiose narcissism, as characteristics of this trait seem most relevant to subsequent denial of defeat. People who show hallmarks of grandiose narcissism are likely to exhibit grandiosity, aggression, and dominance over others. According to researchers from Pennsylvania State University, publishing in the Journal of Personality Disorders, this type of narcissism is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1521/pedi.17.3.188.22146">associated with</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>…overt self-enhancement, denial of weaknesses, intimidating demands of entitlement … and devaluation of people that threaten self-esteem.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The grandiose narcissist is competitive, dominant, and has an inflated positive self-image regarding their own skills, abilities, and attributes. What’s more, grandiose narcissists <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.02.027">tend to have higher self-esteem</a> and inflated self-worth.</p>
<p>For the grandiose narcissist, defeat may compromise this inflated self-worth. According to researchers from Israel, these people find setbacks in achievement particularly threatening, as these setbacks could indicate a “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.2010.29.8.874">failure to keep up with the competition</a>”.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1325716193332883456"}"></div></p>
<p>Instead of accepting personal responsibility for failure and defeat, these individuals externalise blame, attributing personal setbacks and failures <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110280">to the shortcomings of others</a>. They do not, or even cannot, recognise and acknowledge the failure could be their own. </p>
<p>Based on the profile of the grandiose narcissist, the inability to accept defeat may best be characterised by an attempt to protect the grandiose positive self-image. Their dominance, denial of weaknesses, and tendency to devalue others results in a lack of comprehension it’s even possible for them to lose. </p>
<h2>Why do some people double down despite evidence to the contrary?</h2>
<p>In the 1950s, renowned psychologist Leon Festinger published <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Prophecy_Fails">When Prophecy Fails</a>, documenting the actions of a cult called The Seekers who believed in an imminent apocalypse on a set date. </p>
<p>Following the date when the apocalypse did not occur, The Seekers did not question their beliefs. Rather, they provided alternative explanations — doubling down on their ideas. To explain this strengthened denial in the face of evidence, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24936719">Festinger proposed cognitive dissonance</a>. </p>
<p>Cognitive dissonance occurs when we encounter events that are inconsistent with our attitudes, beliefs, and behaviour. This dissonance is uncomfortable as it challenges what we believe to be true. To reduce this discomfort, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12362">we engage in strategies</a> such as ignoring new evidence and justifying our behaviour. </p>
<p>Here’s an example of dissonance and reduction strategies.</p>
<p>Louise believes she is an excellent chess player. Louise invites a new friend, who has barely played chess, to play a game of chess with her. Rather than the easy win Louise thought it might be, her new friend plays a very challenging game and Louise ends up losing. This loss is evidence that contradicts Louise’s belief that she is an excellent chess player. However, to avoid challenging these beliefs, Louise tells herself that it was beginner’s luck, and that she was just having an off day. </p>
<p>Some researchers think experiencing dissonance has an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X19002176">adaptive purpose</a>, as our strategies to overcome dissonance help us navigate an uncertain world and reduce distress. </p>
<p>However, the strategies we use to reduce dissonance can also make us unyielding in our beliefs. Ongoing rigid acceptance of our beliefs could make us unable to accept outcomes even in the face of damning evidence.</p>
<p>Let’s consider how grandiose narcissism might interact with cognitive dissonance in the face of defeat. </p>
<p>The grandiose narcissistic has an inflated positive self-image. When presented with contrary evidence, such as defeat or failure, the grandiose narcissist is likely to experience cognitive dissonance. In an attempt to reduce the discomfort of this dissonance, the grandiose narcissist redirects and externalises the blame. This strategy of reducing dissonance allows the grandiose narcissists’ self-image to stay intact.</p>
<p>Finally, the act of not apologising for one’s behaviour could also be a dissonance strategy. <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ejsp.1901">One study by researchers in Australia</a> found refusing to apologise after doing something wrong allowed the perpetrator to keep their self-esteem intact. </p>
<p>It might be safe to say that, if Donald Trump’s denial of the election loss is a product of grandiose narcissism and dissonance, don’t hold your breath for an apology, let alone a graceful concession speech.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149740/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Evita March does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Grandiose narcissists do not, or even cannot, recognise and acknowledge a failure could be their own.Evita March, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Federation University AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1460192020-09-23T05:51:51Z2020-09-23T05:51:51ZMore neurotic, less agreeable, less conscientious: how job insecurity shapes your personality<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357794/original/file-20200914-20-1wwltes.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C938%2C3800%2C2855&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>With unemployment at its highest rate in three decades, <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/employment-and-unemployment/labour-force-australia/aug-2020">almost a million Australians</a> are experiencing the anxiety of being out of work. Even more are underemployed, and more still holding on to jobs for now, not knowing if that will last.</p>
<p>If you feel secure in your job, you are lucky. Because the psychological fallout of job insecurity can last a lifetime.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/winding-back-jobkeeper-and-jobseeker-will-push-740-000-australians-into-poverty-145308">Winding back JobKeeper and JobSeeker will push 740,000 Australians into poverty</a>
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<p>Many studies have shown the association between employment and psychological and physical well-being. A meta-analysis of <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2F0021-9010.90.1.53">104 empirical studies</a> by behavioural researcher Frances McKee-Ryan and colleagues argues the evidence is “strongly supportive of a causal relationship” between unemployment and mental health. </p>
<p>The effect of job insecurity, however, has been less researched, even though such insecurity has long been an issue for many in contract-based, casual and gig economy jobs; and it will affect many more as the threat of artificial intelligence and automation looms.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fapl0000488">large-scale study</a>, tracking the experience of more than a thousand Australians over nearly a decade, suggests job insecurity over a prolonged period can actually change your personality. And that could make a significant difference to your life and well-being decades down the track. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hunger-lost-income-and-increased-anxiety-how-coronavirus-lockdowns-put-huge-pressure-on-young-people-around-the-world-145059">Hunger, lost income and increased anxiety: how coronavirus lockdowns put huge pressure on young people around the world</a>
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<h2>How we tracked personality changes</h2>
<p>Personality is often assumed to be stable and enduring. A growing body of research, however, shows how personalities evolve over time. For example, on average self-confidence, warmth, self-control and emotional stability tends to increase as we age, with the greatest change being between the age of <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8721.2008.00543.x">20 and 40</a>. </p>
<p>Studies like ours are investigating how work experiences shape personality over time. Previous studies, for example, suggest more <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0001879115000585">autonomy at work</a> can increases a person’s ability to cope with new and unpredictable situations. A <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0001879115300191">demanding and stressful job</a>, on the other hand, can make someone more neurotic and less conscientious.</p>
<p>To explore the possible personality effects, we used data from the <a href="https://melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au/hilda">Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey</a>, a national survey that collects information from a large and representative sample of Australians each year. The survey tracks the same people as far as is possible, which enables researchers to look at how individual changes over time. Respondents are asked (among other things) how secure they feel their job is, as well as questions relating to personality traits. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359494/original/file-20200923-14-16kdhio.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359494/original/file-20200923-14-16kdhio.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359494/original/file-20200923-14-16kdhio.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359494/original/file-20200923-14-16kdhio.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359494/original/file-20200923-14-16kdhio.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359494/original/file-20200923-14-16kdhio.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359494/original/file-20200923-14-16kdhio.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Demanding and stressful work can make someone more neurotic and less conscientious.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>We analysed nine years of data from 1,046 Australians working in a range of occupations and professions. Every four years (years 1, 5 and 9) participants completed <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15327752jpa6303_8">a well-established personality measure</a>, asking them to describe their characteristics against adjectives such as “talkative”, “moody”, “warm”, “orderly” and “creative”. </p>
<p>These adjectives reflect where people sit in relation to five key personality traits: neuroticism (or emotional stability), extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359490/original/file-20200923-18-1k0qevp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Five key personality traits" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359490/original/file-20200923-18-1k0qevp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359490/original/file-20200923-18-1k0qevp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359490/original/file-20200923-18-1k0qevp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359490/original/file-20200923-18-1k0qevp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359490/original/file-20200923-18-1k0qevp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359490/original/file-20200923-18-1k0qevp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359490/original/file-20200923-18-1k0qevp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>In our modelling approach, we examined how participants’ chronic job insecurity in preceding years (i.e. during years 1-4 and 5-8) predicted their personality change after this experience (i.e. during years 1-5 and 5-9). We controlled for other job characteristics (such as job autonomy and demands) to establish the specific impact of chronic job insecurity. </p>
<h2>Effects of chronic job insecurity</h2>
<p>Our analysis showed that workers who experienced job insecurity over several consecutive years became less emotionally stable, less agreeable and less conscientious. </p>
<p><strong>1. Reduced emotional stability</strong></p>
<p>Understandably, chronic job insecurity can cause us to become anxious, tense, irritable and depressed. </p>
<p>Job insecurity itself is already worrying, and when this goes on for a long time, it can make us feel we are trapped in that situation, unable to escape. </p>
<p>As a result, we are likely to become more depressed and neurotic over time with obvious impacts on our personal and family relationships, as well as our professional relationships.</p>
<p><strong>2. Reduced agreeableness</strong></p>
<p>Agreeable people are big on sympathy, cooperation and helping others. They’re the ones really good at building harmonious social relationships.</p>
<p>But when a potential threat hangs over us for an extended period of time, chronic job insecurity can shift our focus to be more on ourselves instead of on others. </p>
<p>This can really affect our standing as a positive and likeable team member at work, or the home.</p>
<p><strong>3. Reduced conscientiousness</strong></p>
<p>Research shows that when we’re constantly worried about the continuity of our jobs we are likely to become less motivated to put in effort, set goals and achieve goals in a reliable way. </p>
<p>This is bad news for those of us trying to keep motivated through tough times. It’s also bad news for who we work for. Maintaining productivity and motivation will be a massive challenge for many managers.</p>
<h2>What this means for personality growth</h2>
<p>The three personality traits affected most severely by chronic job insecurity are those most associated with healthy personality growth.</p>
<p>As we age and mature, we generally become more emotionally stable, more agreeable and more conscientious. Our research shows chronic job insecurity can stunt this emotional growth, interrupting the healthy mellowing of our personalities. </p>
<h2>How to save your ‘self’</h2>
<p>None of this is very cheery. But the good news is that, apart from worrying about it, there are things you can actually do. </p>
<p>The first step is to “know thyself” and be aware of the pitfalls, then to cultivate a growth mindset by accepting change and being open to new opportunities. </p>
<p>Human beings have a natural tendency to <a href="https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/amr.2018.0271">perceive uncertainty in negative terms</a>, which helps explain why we are prone to falling into a vicious cycle induced by unemployment and job insecurity. But such negative thinking can be mitigated through conscious awareness and deliberate practice. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/struggling-with-the-uncertainty-of-life-under-coronavirus-how-kierkegaards-philosophy-can-help-144671">Struggling with the uncertainty of life under coronavirus? How Kierkegaard's philosophy can help</a>
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<p>Focus on things you can control. Look for solutions rather than dwell on problems.</p>
<p>Be willing to learn new skills or take on new tasks. Research has shown that <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2020-38573-001">being proactive in managing your career</a>, such as plotting a career plan, actively building a network of contacts for career advice, and talking with peers and boss about future opportunities, all help to cope with insecure work conditions. </p>
<p>Also important is to look out for each other. Support from <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/001872679604900203">colleagues, family and friends</a> has been found to help build resilience and confidence, mitigating the potential negative spiral of job insecurity on personality in the long run.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/146019/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span><a href="mailto:mark.griffin@curtin.edu.au">mark.griffin@curtin.edu.au</a> receives funding from the Australian Research Council</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sharon Kaye Parker receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chia-Huei Wu and Lena Wang do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Workers who experience job insecurity over several consecutive years become less emotionally stable, less agreeable and less conscientious.Lena Wang, Senior Lecturer in Management, RMIT UniversityChia-Huei Wu, Professor in Organizational Psychology, University of LeedsMark Griffin, Director, Future of Work Institute, Curtin UniversitySharon Kaye Parker, Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow, Curtin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1423642020-07-15T12:13:30Z2020-07-15T12:13:30ZPersonality can predict who’s a rule-follower and who flouts COVID-19 social distancing guidelines<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347340/original/file-20200714-139854-1wyiypp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=107%2C86%2C3368%2C2069&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Who will wait on the checkout line footprints and who will rage against them?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/vons-shopper-maintain-safe-distance-in-the-checkout-line-at-news-photo/1212798930">Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As states struggle to get the COVID-19 balance right – between eased restrictions and rising infection rates – it falls to individuals to abide by mask-wearing rules and to maintain six feet of distance between themselves and others when out and about.</p>
<p>Some people dutifully endure the hardships of coronavirus lockdown, while others can’t be bothered to keep their distance. Why?</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=fXwMNNMAAAAJ&hl=en">As a cognitive researcher</a>, I’m interested in how what psychologists call the <a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/the-big-five-personality-dimensions-2795422">“Big Five” personality traits</a> influence the ways individuals deal with social distancing rules in daily life. Who is more likely to mask up every time they leave their home? And who is more likely to flout these evolving behavioral expectations?</p>
<h2>Personal space, territorial invasion</h2>
<p>How comfortable you are being near to other people has a big cultural component. Anthropologist Edward T. Hall made a study of <a href="https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-proxemics-definition-examples.html">what he called proxemics</a>, measuring personal space expectations around the world.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347172/original/file-20200713-50-13b1guu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347172/original/file-20200713-50-13b1guu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347172/original/file-20200713-50-13b1guu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347172/original/file-20200713-50-13b1guu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347172/original/file-20200713-50-13b1guu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347172/original/file-20200713-50-13b1guu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347172/original/file-20200713-50-13b1guu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347172/original/file-20200713-50-13b1guu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Pandemic response means the personal space bubble is now bigger than the previous norm.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Personal_Spaces_in_Proxemics.svg">Jean-Louis Grall/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>Touching or whispering happens in the closest zone. From about 1.5 to 4 feet away is the distance reserved for communicating with friends. Now public health recommendations have extended that zone to 6 feet or more, the distance that had been normal for interactions with those you don’t know well.</p>
<p>When people violate proximity norms, it can feel like they’re invading your territory. And nowadays, the stakes are higher than just your personal comfort – these distance guidelines are meant to protect you from infectious germs.</p>
<p>Subconsciously, everyone knows the traditional spatial zones. The “wait here” foot emblems now found at a store’s checkout line are necessary to help rewrite the cognitive script for where you stand until it becomes a mindless habit. You are forced to “unlearn” subconscious behavior; old dogs must learn new tricks. </p>
<p>Strangers who invade your social distance are being aggressive if they’re aware of what they’re doing. But if it’s done mindlessly or subconsciously, then personality traits are helping drive the behavior.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<h2>Predictions based on personality traits</h2>
<p>For more than four decades, psychology researchers have divvied people up by personality types based on an individual’s <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781849200479.n9">combination of five key traits</a>. They’re used to predict how people make purchases, <a href="https://www.floridatechonline.com/blog/business/how-the-big-five-personality-traits-influence-work-behavior/">behave at work</a>, even <a href="https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/releases/personality-traits-life-outcomes-replication.html">long-term life outcomes</a> like marriage stability and career achievement. <a href="http://psychology.iresearchnet.com/counseling-psychology/history-of-counseling/paul-costa-and-robert-mccrae/">Paul Costa and Robert McRae</a> popularized the acronym OCEAN, for openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347342/original/file-20200714-38-fdgfjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347342/original/file-20200714-38-fdgfjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347342/original/file-20200714-38-fdgfjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347342/original/file-20200714-38-fdgfjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347342/original/file-20200714-38-fdgfjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347342/original/file-20200714-38-fdgfjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347342/original/file-20200714-38-fdgfjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347342/original/file-20200714-38-fdgfjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Everyone varies from high to low on each of the five personality traits.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/big-five-personality-traits-psychology-concept-royalty-free-image/1242962102">Olivier Le Moal/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span>
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<p>An open individual is inclined to be curious, imaginative, creative, original, artistic and flexible. Openness reflects a tendency to think in abstract, complex ways. People high in openness tend to be adventurous and intellectual and enjoy the arts, while those on the opposite end of the spectrum tend to be practical, conventional and focused on the concrete. The more open your personality is, the better you might cope with uncertainty over a long, sustained period – as in the case of a global pandemic.</p>
<p>Conscientiousness is the tendency to be habitually careful, reliable, hard-working, well-organized and purposeful. A conscientious person controls, regulates and directs their impulses. They would likely be early adopters of mask-wearing, even without direction to do so. This trait makes someone less willing to violate territorial space and social distancing guidelines.</p>
<p>Extroversion is characterized by being outgoing and drawing energy from interacting with others, compared to introverts who get their energy from within themselves. Behavioral neuroscience research has <a href="https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-014-0331-6">revealed two subtypes of this trait</a>.</p>
<p>Agentic extroversion is about being comfortable in the limelight and taking a leadership position. These people are less likely to feel a strong bond with others and have more interest in going for rewards in social or workplace contexts.</p>
<p>On the other hand, affiliative extroverts don’t seek out leadership roles as much and have close social bonds with a lot of people from which they gather happiness and meaning.</p>
<p>Both types of extroverts would likely enjoy virtual networking during isolation, while probably struggling with isolation if sheltering alone.</p>
<p>Agreeableness reflects compliance. It is the opposite pole of antagonism and reflects a tendency to be good-natured, acquiescent, courteous, helpful and trusting. People high in this trait would probably go along with mask-wearing right away and be more likely to follow social distancing guidelines as soon as they’re announced without grumbling about the rules.</p>
<p>Neuroticism is characterized by impulsivity and a tendency to experience negative emotions including anxiety, worry, fear, anger, depression or sadness, hostility, self-consciousness and loneliness. This trait is associated with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.093008.100352">wishful thinking and disengagement</a> in order to escape feelings of distress. Presumably people high on neuroticism would tend to react to the pandemic with avoidance and denial.</p>
<h2>The dark triad of personality traits</h2>
<p>Personalities can have their dark sides, too.</p>
<p>Narcissism involves loving oneself obsessively; it goes along with grandiosity and vanity.</p>
<p>Machiavellianism is about manipulating others; it’s characterized by cynicism and long-term, calculating strategies.</p>
<p>Finally there’s psychopathy, meaning a lack of empathy. Psychopathic people are usually impulsive and have cold interpersonal relations. Individuals at the higher end of the continuum are deceptive, aggressive, sexually promiscuous and coercive.</p>
<p>All of these dark triad traits, as psychologists group them, would likely be associated with more social distancing violations.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347344/original/file-20200714-22-102fpcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347344/original/file-20200714-22-102fpcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347344/original/file-20200714-22-102fpcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347344/original/file-20200714-22-102fpcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347344/original/file-20200714-22-102fpcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347344/original/file-20200714-22-102fpcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347344/original/file-20200714-22-102fpcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347344/original/file-20200714-22-102fpcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Personality traits influence who’s fine with masks and who isn’t.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/taxi-driver-with-thumbs-up-and-wearing-a-facemask-royalty-free-image/1223488542">andresr/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Personality influences your behavior</h2>
<p>Everyone varies on all of those personality traits from high to low. It’s possible to deduce a personality profile for someone more likely to rampantly violate social distancing guidelines.</p>
<p>Pulling from meta-analyses of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/psrm.2017.14">how personality affects pro-social behaviors</a>, I’ve come up with this formulation. I have in mind coronavirus-mitigating behaviors in the U.S., but it could be tested cross-culturally and in other contexts.</p>
<p>Social distancing violator = Low openness + Low conscientiousness + Low agreeableness + High neuroticism + High Machiavellianism + High narcissism + High psychopathy + Error</p>
<p>My model predicts that a person who scores lower in openness, conscientiousness and agreeableness would be more likely to violate social distancing guidelines. Same for someone higher in neuroticism, Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy.</p>
<p>The error term in the equation is a bit of a fudge factor; it represents all the variation in social distancing that is not explained by the personality traits. For example, political ideology influences social distancing compliance, with <a href="https://voxeu.org/article/political-beliefs-and-compliance-social-distancing-orders">Republicans less likely to adhere</a> to social distancing orders.</p>
<p>Psychology researchers are starting to collect data during the pandemic that supports this model. In one study, for instance, Pavel Blagov found that people with lower levels of agreeableness and conscientiousness were less likely to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550620936439">endorse health recommendations</a> related to social distancing and hygiene during the coronavirus pandemic. </p>
<p>Personality is not fixed; it <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8721.2008.00543.x">can evolve over one’s lifespan</a>. As the coronavirus crisis drags on, I’ll be interested to see how adherence to social distancing guidelines changes over time – and wondering how much personality traits are changing too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142364/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James M. Honeycutt does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Psychologists call these traits the ‘Big Five’: openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. A researcher suggests your profile implies your response to social distancing.James M. Honeycutt, Lecturer in Executive Education; Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Communication Studies from Louisiana State University, University of Texas at DallasLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1353072020-04-09T02:28:35Z2020-04-09T02:28:35ZPersonalities that thrive in isolation and what we can all learn from time alone<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/326384/original/file-20200408-125020-1ydssrl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C23%2C5147%2C3423&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Anthony Tran/Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The coronavirus pandemic has caused tens of thousands of deaths around the world and pushed major economies into a tailspin. Beyond those impacts, almost all of us will face psychological challenges – trying to maintain a responsible social distancing regimen without sliding into psychological <a href="https://theconversation.com/social-distancing-can-make-you-lonely-heres-how-to-stay-connected-when-youre-in-lockdown-133693">isolation and loneliness</a>. </p>
<p>At least we’re all in the same boat, and misery loves company, right?</p>
<p>Actually, we’re not all in the same boat. Generalisations about how the COVID-19 lockdown will affect us overlook the fact people have different personalities. We’re all going to respond in different ways to our changing situation. </p>
<h2>Extraverts and introverts</h2>
<p>Take Bob, for example. After two days working from home Bob couldn’t wait to try a social drinking session over Zoom. But drinking a beer in front of his laptop just wasn’t the same. He’s wondering how he’ll cope in the coming weeks and months, cooped up inside and away from his friends. </p>
<p>He wonders this on a call to his sister, Jan: “I might not get coronavirus but I’m going to get <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-self-isolation-a-psychologist-explains-how-to-avoid-cabin-fever-133317">cabin fever</a>!”</p>
<p>Jan doesn’t understand Bob’s agitation or why he’s so worried about staying at home. If Jan is feeling bad about anything, it is the guilt of realising she might actually be enjoying the apocalypse – quiet evenings to herself, far from the madding crowd. Bliss! </p>
<p>Jan and Bob are archetypes of people we all know well. Bob represents the classic extravert. He’s talkative, gregarious and highly social. Jan is an introvert. She enjoys solitude and finds rowdy Bob a bit too much. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1245999454089510912"}"></div></p>
<h2>Different people, different responses</h2>
<p>Differences in extraversion-introversion <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-63285-007">emerge in early life and are relatively stable over the lifespan</a>. They influence which environments we seek out and how we respond to those environments. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://theconversation.com/happiness-hinges-on-personality-so-initiatives-to-improve-well-being-need-to-be-tailor-made-102341">recent study</a>, extraverts and introverts were asked to spend a week engaging in higher levels of extravert-typical behaviour (being talkative, sociable, etc). Extraverts reaped several benefits including enhanced mood and feelings of authenticity. Conversely, introverts experienced no benefits, and reported feeling tired and irritable. </p>
<p>The social distancing rules to which we’re all trying to adhere are like a mirror image of this intervention. Now it’s the extraverts who are acting out of character, and who will likely experience decreased well-being in the coming weeks and months. Introverts, on the other hand, have been training for this moment their whole lives.</p>
<p>Why might introverts find isolation easier to deal with than extraverts? Most obviously, they tend to be <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/239522412_Person_and_Thing_Orientations_Psychological_Correlates_and_Predictive_Utility">less motivated to seek out social engagement</a>. Introverts also tend to feel <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236156661_What_you_wish_is_what_you_get_The_meaning_of_individual_variability_in_desired_affect_and_affective_discrepancy">less need to experience pleasure and excitement</a>. This may make them less prone to the boredom that will afflict many of us as social distancing drags on.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1238861345509879818"}"></div></p>
<h2>Looking deeper</h2>
<p>Other aspects of our personalities may also shape our coping during isolation. Consider the remaining four traits in the <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/basics/big-5-personality-traits">Big Five personality model</a>: </p>
<p>People high in <em>conscientiousness</em>, who are <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4492903/">more organised, less distractable and also more adaptable</a>, will find it easier to set up and stick to a structured daily schedule, as many experts recommend. </p>
<p>People high in <em>agreeableness</em>, who tend to be <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-being-nice-how-politeness-is-different-from-compassion-81819">polite, compassionate and cooperative</a>, will be better equipped to negotiate life in the pockets of family members or housemates. </p>
<p>People high in <em>openness to experience</em>, who tend to be <a href="https://theconversation.com/people-with-creative-personalities-really-do-see-the-world-differently-77083">curious and imaginative</a>, will likely become absorbed in books, music and creative solutions to the humdrum of lockdown. </p>
<p>In contrast, people high in <em>neuroticism</em>, who are more <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2792076/">susceptible to stress and negative emotions</a> than their more stable peers, will be most at risk for anxiety and depression during these challenging times.</p>
<p>Of course, these are all generalisations. Introverts are not immune to loneliness, and those with more vulnerable personalities can thrive with the right resources and social support.</p>
<h2>Life in a capsule</h2>
<p>For some, living under lockdown might feel like working on a space station or Antarctic research facility. What lessons can we draw from personality research in these extreme environments?</p>
<p><a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev.psych.51.1.227">That research shows</a> people who are emotionally stable, self-reliant and autonomous, goal-oriented, friendly, patient and open tend to cope better in conditions of extreme isolation. In particular, it has been observed that “‘sociable [read agreeable] introverts’ – who enjoy, but do not need, social interaction – seem optimally suited for capsule living”.</p>
<p>To manage as best we can in our earthbound and non-polar “capsules”, we might aspire to some of the qualities noted above: to be calm and organised, determined but patient, self-reliant but connected. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/326429/original/file-20200408-179201-uoohmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/326429/original/file-20200408-179201-uoohmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326429/original/file-20200408-179201-uoohmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326429/original/file-20200408-179201-uoohmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326429/original/file-20200408-179201-uoohmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326429/original/file-20200408-179201-uoohmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326429/original/file-20200408-179201-uoohmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">For some people, lockdown may provide time for creative pursuits.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jonathan Borba/Unsplash</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Lonelineness versus time alone</h2>
<p>The coronavirus pandemic has arrived on the heels of what some describe as a “loneliness epidemic”, but these headlines <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/loneliness-epidemic">may be overblown</a>. Again, part of what is missing in such descriptions is the fact that clouds for some are silver linings for others. </p>
<p>A counterpoint to the so-called loneliness epidemic is the study of “<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0191886919303101">aloneliness</a>”, the negative emotions many experience as a result of insufficient time spent alone. As Anthony Storr wrote in <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2005-11953-000">Solitude: A return to the self</a>, “solitude can be as therapeutic as emotional support”, and the capacity to be alone is as much a form of emotional maturity as the capacity to form close attachments.</p>
<p>Of course, some people in lockdown are facing formidable challenges that have nothing to do with their personality. Many have lost their jobs and face economic hardship. Some are completely isolated whereas others share their homes with loved ones. Even so, our response to these challenges reflects not only our predicament, but also ourselves.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/135307/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Luke Smillie does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nick Haslam receives funding from the Australian research Council. </span></em></p>The COVID-19 lockdown will affect people differently depending on their personality.Luke Smillie, Associate Professor, The University of MelbourneNick Haslam, Professor of Psychology, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1340372020-03-24T18:58:23Z2020-03-24T18:58:23ZCoronavirus and you: how your personality affects how you cope and what you can do about it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322190/original/file-20200323-22618-vsvdoi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5092%2C3397&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cuyahoga-falls-ohusa-02-28-2020-1659147811">Eleanor McDonie/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>To some people, fighting in the aisles over toilet paper makes sense. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/05/even-as-behavioural-researchers-we-couldnt-resist-the-urge-to-buy-toilet-paper">Driven by the social proof of empty shelves</a> and in fear of losing out, they fight. To others, such behaviour would be unthinkable. Clearly some cope differently to others when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic. The question is, why? </p>
<p>Our <a href="http://danariely.com/books/predictably-irrational/">behaviour is not that rational</a>. And it’s influenced by many factors, including <a href="http://web.missouri.edu/%7Esegerti/capstone/choicesvalues.pdf">change of context</a>, <a href="http://sciencesearch.defra.gov.uk/Default.aspx?Menu=Menu&Module=More&Location=None&Completed=0&ProjectID=16189">habit</a> and the focus of this piece – personality. </p>
<p>Personality is thought to be fairly stable across time and context, and difficult to change. So why bother to understand it? Exposing the cues your personality is sending will give you some choice over how to cope with the scarcity, threat of disease or social isolation the COVID-19 pandemic has brought. And if you’re lucky, you might just catch those personality cues in time and make better behavioural choices.</p>
<h2>The big 5 traits</h2>
<p>To understand personality let’s use the <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Between-facets-and-domains%3A-10-aspects-of-the-Big-DeYoung-Quilty/6257c0833dfa6fe89ef2e1133653b74f9dadc5f6">Big Five Aspect Scale</a>. The big five traits are commonly known by the acronym OCEAN. It stands for: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. </p>
<p>Each of those traits is a continuum. For example, on the extraversion trait scale extraversion is at one extreme and introversion at the other. </p>
<p>And each trait is comprised of two aspects:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>openness is comprised of openness to experience, and intelligence or preference for abstract thinking</p></li>
<li><p>conscientiousness is made up of the aspects industriousness, or work drive, and orderliness</p></li>
<li><p>extraversion is comprised of enthusiasm and assertiveness</p></li>
<li><p>agreeableness is comprised of compassion and politeness</p></li>
<li><p>neuroticism or susceptibility to negative emotion is comprised of the aspects, withdrawal and volatility, the latter a kind of defensive aggression.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>What does this mean for how we respond?</h2>
<p>So, what kinds of behavioural cues are those aspects of your personality likely to send you about coping with the coronavirus? While it’s still early days, the behavioural impact of this pandemic appears to be gathering around three themes – anxiety, social distancing and micro public disorder. </p>
<p>At a time like this anxiety is likely to loom large, particularly if you are high in neuroticism. While the withdrawal aspect of neuroticism describes psychological rather than physical withdrawal, the new behavioural norms of social distancing being broadcast will feel very natural if withdrawal is an important aspect of your personality. </p>
<p>But if volatility is a large part of your make-up, empty shelves could trigger a strong desire for you to defend your right to your share. Negative or defensive aggression cues like those, if strong enough, could overwhelm the more considered part of your thinking. If unchecked or, worse, provoked by jostling crowds, for instance, you could find yourself arguing over toilet paper, despite being mild-mannered most other times. </p>
<p>Another big change we are facing is social distancing. </p>
<p>Being low on extraversion, enforced social distancing could be an absolute boon – your guilty little secret. At last you have a socially sanctioned excuse to keep those noisy extraverts at bay and be left alone to your rich inner world. </p>
<p>If you’re conscientious too, and high in aspect orderliness, you get the chance to have everything at home just so. You can colour-coordinate your wardrobe and have all the hangers pointing the same way. Or better still you can put the tins in your pantry in alphabetical order, with the smallest packages to the front, labels facing outward, of course. </p>
<p>If you’re high in trait extraversion, something <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282720170_The_impact_of_individual_differences_on_influence_strategies">scarce is likely to be very attractive</a>. Seeking out excitement and opportunity, you’re likely drawn to the very thing you can’t have, those elusive toilet rolls.</p>
<p>And then there are the outbreaks of micro public disorder, cracks in the façade of acceptable behaviour that expose glimpses of something ugly below.</p>
<p>If you’re highly conscientious, it’s probably not so much that you enjoy working hard or being organised, but that you really can’t stand being idle or in a mess. Faced with shortages, you’re likely to want to be ready for the worst. The urge to hoard, and the temptation to work hard at it, could be difficult to resist.</p>
<p>Disagreeable people want to compete and dominate. So, if you’re low in agreeableness, the cues you’ll be getting will not be so much about getting toilet paper, as making sure you get more of the toilet paper than the next guy. If you’re also low in openness, you are more likely to be high in <a href="http://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/e82f/2cad364fee947f312be75bdb7d4366bb9a95.pdf">disgust sensitivity</a>. Which might be why we see people fighting over toilet rolls of all things.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322193/original/file-20200323-22590-1cu736v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322193/original/file-20200323-22590-1cu736v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322193/original/file-20200323-22590-1cu736v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322193/original/file-20200323-22590-1cu736v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322193/original/file-20200323-22590-1cu736v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322193/original/file-20200323-22590-1cu736v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322193/original/file-20200323-22590-1cu736v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322193/original/file-20200323-22590-1cu736v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People whose personalities rate low on agreeableness and high on volatility might find themselves fighting in the aisles.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/coronavirus-panic-shopping-women-fighting-over-1672900705">Jorieri/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Self-awareness will help</h2>
<p>The really difficult challenge is to spot the wave of behavioural cues as it crashes towards you and step back before you’re washed into a sea of unthinking action. </p>
<p>While personality change is really difficult, you can at least be aware of the behavioural cues your personality is sending you and try to make better choices.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Wondering about your personality traits? You can take an online Big 5 test <a href="https://openpsychometrics.org/tests/IPIP-BFFM/">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134037/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Conor Wynn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If you know your own personality traits, you might then be better placed to resist your worst unthinking impulses in a time of high anxiety.Conor Wynn, PhD Candidate at BehaviourWorks, Monash Sustainable Development Institute, Monash University, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1265282019-11-15T11:57:34Z2019-11-15T11:57:34ZNarcissists: why we need to take better care of them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300863/original/file-20191108-194641-1k88gcg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/superiority-power-hipster-bearded-looks-attractive-1478750648?src=d014e4ca-a8b9-4e48-83ba-70121da2720d-1-33">Shutterstock/Just dance</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Narcissists, like sharks, get a bad press. Both are generally seen as menacing, negative forces to be feared and avoided. </p>
<p>But as any biologist will tell you, sharks play a vital role in the marine ecosystem. And it may be that narcissists also have a necessary part to play in human society.</p>
<p>This of course, goes against the widely accepted perception of personality traits – that it is good to be agreeable and outgoing, and bad to be narcissistic. </p>
<p>After all, narcissistic people engage in risky behaviour, hold an unrealistic superior view of themselves, are overconfident, show little empathy for others, and have little shame or guilt. But if narcissism is so socially toxic, why does it persist and why is <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Narcissism-Epidemic-Living-Age-Entitlement/dp/1416575995">it said to be</a> on the rise in modern societies? </p>
<p>The answer is that human nature is complex. And while narcissism is often associated with “dark traits” like psychopathy and sadism, it <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jopy.12472">also has aspects</a> which are widely considered to be positive, such as extroversion and confidence. </p>
<p>In saying this, I do not mean to defend or excuse the worst examples of narcissistic behaviour. Instead, I want to highlight the potentially beneficial elements – which could then enable society to harness the positive potential of “dark” personalities while also curtailing their potential for harm. </p>
<h2>The best kind of narcissist</h2>
<p>There are two main types of narcissism: “grandiose” and “vulnerable”. Vulnerable narcissists are likely to be more defensive and view the behaviour of others as hostile, whereas grandiose narcissists usually have an over inflated sense of importance and a preoccupation with status and power.</p>
<p>The results <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0191886918305877">from our studies</a> (on the personality trait of sub-clinical narcissism, not narcissistic personality disorder) <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0924933818301871">show that</a> grandiose narcissism correlates with highly positive components of mental toughness. These include confidence and a focus on achieving goals, which help protect against symptoms of depression and stress.</p>
<p>The association between narcissism and mental toughness may help to explain the variation in symptoms of depression in society. If a person is more mentally tough, they are likely to embrace challenges head on, rather than viewing them as a hurdle.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300865/original/file-20191108-194665-u1abuh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300865/original/file-20191108-194665-u1abuh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300865/original/file-20191108-194665-u1abuh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300865/original/file-20191108-194665-u1abuh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300865/original/file-20191108-194665-u1abuh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300865/original/file-20191108-194665-u1abuh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300865/original/file-20191108-194665-u1abuh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Playing a vital role.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/great-white-shark-sun-rays-wound-1059047603?src=05ccbc90-f692-41f3-9475-ad667eaffdc6-1-28">Shutterstock/Ken Kiefer</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>So while not all dimensions of narcissism are good, certain aspects can lead to positive outcomes. And a little bit of narcissism can be a useful tool when faced with stressful situations, providing that extra bit of mental toughness we need to get through. </p>
<p>It’s a bit like having the ability to run when walking is not enough. The idea is that people need to be flexible. They need to walk when that’s all that is required, but run when that’s what’s necessary. Likewise, the ability to call on a little bit of narcissism when faced with a challenge, socially or professionally, is a useful skill.</p>
<h2>A bridge to the other side</h2>
<p><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jopy.12472">Recent research</a> from <a href="http://www.interractlab.co.uk">our lab</a> suggests that narcissism may act as a bridge connecting the “dark” (anti-social) and “light” (pro-social) sides of the human personality. Put simply, individuals can cross that bridge to use their dark traits when facing a challenge, and pro-social characteristics when in a safe environment. </p>
<p>Our work suggests that instead of perceiving human personality as a dichotomy (narcissistic versus agreeable) we should treat it as a constantly changing spectrum. </p>
<p>It is not about promoting grandiosity over healthy self-esteem and modesty. Instead it is about promoting diversity of people and ideas by advocating that dark traits, such as narcissism, should not be seen as either good or bad. They are products of evolution, and expressions of human nature that may be beneficial or harmful depending on the context. </p>
<p>This may help to reduce the marginalisation of individuals that score high on dark traits, and work out how best to cultivate some manifestations of these traits, while discouraging others, for the collective good. </p>
<p>It is too simplistic to say that personality traits like narcissism, which help individual empowerment, are socially toxic. People are trying to adapt, survive and succeed in a social, political and economic environment that promotes the “self-made man or woman”, and if they exhibit antagonistic traits such as narcissism they receive negative attention. Yet grandiose narcissism may be the key to protecting individuals from such needless pressure. </p>
<p>Nor do I think there are individuals who live without narcissism. In common with other psychological traits, it exists on a spectrum, with some individuals scoring higher than others. </p>
<p>Elsewhere in the natural world, a human fear and distrust of sharks has led to widespread attitude of “us” versus “them”. After the movie <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073195/">Jaws</a> was released, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-33049099">according to one conservationist</a> there was a “collective testosterone rush” which led to thousands of anglers targeting and killing sharks off the American coast.</p>
<p>Shark numbers have dropped dramatically (<a href="https://theconversation.com/some-sharks-have-declined-by-92-in-the-past-half-century-off-queenslands-coast-108742">by up to 92%</a>) in the past half century. So just as we are starting to understand the importance of sharks for the marine ecosystem, we have run out of sharks to study.</p>
<p>We should not let narcissists be similarly marginalised just because we don’t understand them. Instead of demonising parts of our personality, we need to celebrate all of its aspects – and work out how best to use them, for our own benefit and the benefit of society.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126528/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kostas Papageorgiou does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The trait can bring mental strength and resilience.Kostas Papageorgiou, Lecturer in Psychology, Queen's University BelfastLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1159042019-06-13T20:15:33Z2019-06-13T20:15:33ZWhy too many fearless people on a team make collaboration less likely<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279044/original/file-20190612-32317-1uf706c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=65%2C83%2C6139%2C4046&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People high on psychopathic personality traits, such as fearlessness and impulsiveness, often refuse to find common ground.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Team work is common across society. From schools to multinational businesses, people usually collaborate in groups towards a shared goal. </p>
<p>It can work well, but sometimes, it can be a disaster. One team might create a proposal for a new policy because all members manage to agree on details, while another fails because they can’t find common ground.</p>
<p>Why is it that groups can vary so much in their outcomes? We know that some people are better team players than others. In fact, job interviews and personality assessments often include questions about team skills. </p>
<p>But this assumes that only individual personality is relevant, not the interaction between people with various personality characteristics.</p>
<h2>Investigating group behaviour</h2>
<p>We don’t yet fully understand how different personality types within a group interact and how that affects group outcomes. To address this, we <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsos.181329">investigated</a> which mixes of personalities create more or less cooperative group working styles.</p>
<p>We wanted to know whether it matters how many group members show personality traits that have been found to be less cooperative. People high on so-called psychopathic personality traits are characterised by goal-oriented, fearless, impulsive, manipulative behaviours, and also by <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-38796-0">less cooperative behaviours</a> such as refusing to find common ground when interacting with another person.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/not-all-psychopaths-are-criminals-some-psychopathic-traits-are-actually-linked-to-success-51282">Not all psychopaths are criminals – some psychopathic traits are actually linked to success</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But does the proportion of individuals high on these traits within a group matter for the overall group behaviour?</p>
<p>We asked participants to decide whether to cooperate with the people sitting next to them in mixed groups, composed of different numbers of participants with high or low scores on a questionnaire for psychopathic personality traits.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279042/original/file-20190612-32335-ehqowb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279042/original/file-20190612-32335-ehqowb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=280&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279042/original/file-20190612-32335-ehqowb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=280&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279042/original/file-20190612-32335-ehqowb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=280&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279042/original/file-20190612-32335-ehqowb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279042/original/file-20190612-32335-ehqowb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279042/original/file-20190612-32335-ehqowb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Participants who did not know each other were asked if they would like to cooperate with the people next to them, over a series of rounds.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Supplied</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Usually, this setup leads to a <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/111/48/17093">maintenance of cooperative behaviour across a series of rounds of sharing</a>. In our research we investigated how this tendency toward mutual cooperation is influenced by personality traits of the members of the group.</p>
<p>We found groups that were composed entirely of people with low psychopathic traits and groups with a low proportion (20%) of individuals with high psychopathic traits showed the expected cooperative behaviour. But in groups with a larger proportion (50%) of individuals with high psychopathic traits, the overall rate of cooperative behaviour was significantly lower. We measured this by the number of cooperative decisions participants in a group made.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-design-thinking-can-help-teachers-collaborate-95932">How design thinking can help teachers collaborate</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>What does that mean for teams?</h2>
<p>The overall group behaviour seems to be more than the sum of its parts. Group composition had an effect on cooperation over and above the effect of the individuals’ own level of psychopathic traits. Group members with low levels of psychopathic traits behaved less cooperatively and more “psychopathically” when in groups with more people who had high levels of psychopathic traits. </p>
<p>This suggests that interacting with people with high psychopathic traits increases uncooperative behaviour across all members of a group. The personality characteristics of group members matter for cooperative behaviour, and can change individuals’ behaviour. But the effect is only seen when a substantial proportion of individuals in a group have non-cooperative personality traits.</p>
<p>These findings indicate that group composition matters. Teams working on a collaborative task are more likely to cooperate successfully if most of the group members have more cooperative personality types. But our findings also trigger new questions about what role the type of task plays in collaborations and whether group behaviour stabilises over longer time periods.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115904/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martina Testori receives funding from the School of Mathematical Sciences, School of Psychology and the Institute for Life Science at the University of Southampton.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hedwig Eisenbarth and Rebecca Hoyle do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Some people are better team players than others, but people with goal-oriented and manipulative personality traits can undermine collaborative efforts and affect the team outcome.Hedwig Eisenbarth, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of WellingtonMartina Testori, University of SouthamptonRebecca Hoyle, Professor, University of SouthamptonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1161182019-05-23T11:14:50Z2019-05-23T11:14:50ZCould a lack of humility be at the root of what ails America?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276137/original/file-20190523-187176-aze4jc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=130%2C59%2C1460%2C934&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What happens when everyone thinks they're smarter than everyone else?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/full-length-profile-shot-teacher-scolding-752646949?src=TUsplxCYMw2to7FPLKYnWw-1-27">Ljupco Smokovski/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There are a lot of reasons behind the <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/02/05/republicans-and-democrats-have-grown-further-apart-on-what-the-nations-top-priorities-should-be/">political polarization</a> of the country and the <a href="https://bpr.berkeley.edu/2019/01/23/snowflake-and-the-decline-in-civil-discourse/">deterioration of civic discourse</a>.</p>
<p>I wonder if a lack of humility is one of them. </p>
<p>In his recent book, “<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-death-of-expertise-9780190469412?cc=us&lang=en&">The Death of Expertise</a>,” national security expert Tom Nichols described a type of person each of us probably knows:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“They are young and old, rich and poor, some with education, others armed only with a laptop or a library card. But they all have one thing in common: They are ordinary people who believe they are actually troves of knowledge. [They are] convinced they are more informed than the experts, more broadly knowledgeable than the professors, and more insightful than the gullible masses…”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Interestingly, intellectual humility <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2019/1/4/17989224/intellectual-humility-explained-psychology-replication">has become a hot topic in the field of personality psychology</a>. In recent years, a spate of studies have emerged that highlight the important role it plays in our <a href="https://www.psypost.org/2019/03/intellectually-humble-people-tend-to-possess-more-knowledge-study-finds-53409">knowledge</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/this-trait-could-be-key-to-a-lasting-romance-111722">relationships</a> and worldview.</p>
<p>So what happens when everyone thinks they’re smarter than everyone else?</p>
<h2>Your traits determine who you are</h2>
<p>Seeing someone’s personality as a constellation of traits <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/0191-8869(91)90111-N">goes all the way back to ancient Greece and Rome</a>. Today, it’s widely accepted that personality traits have <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/0471264385.wei0504">a strong biological and genetic basis</a> that can be amplified or muted somewhat by experience.</p>
<p>Dozens of different traits have been studied by psychologists over the past 70 years. The relationships among these many traits are often distilled into five dimensions that <a href="https://psdlab.uoregon.edu/measuring-the-big-five-personality-domains/">have come to be known</a> as the “big five” – “extraversion,” “agreeableness,” “openness to experience,” “conscientiousness” and “neuroticism.” </p>
<p>Where an individual falls along each of these dimensions provides the skeleton for a personality, which can then be fleshed out with a plethora of other, more nuanced traits, like <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0065260108602609">self-monitoring</a> and <a href="https://www.edglossary.org/locus-of-control/">locus of control</a>.</p>
<p>Over the past few years, one of these peripheral traits, “intellectual humility,” has gotten a lot of attention, largely due to some pioneering research by psychologists <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/009164711404200106">Cameron Hopkin</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/009164711404200103">Stacey McElroy-Heltzel</a>.</p>
<h2>A willingness to be wrong</h2>
<p>In a nutshell, intellectual humility reflects the extent to which someone is willing to at least entertain the possibility that he or she might be wrong about something. People who score high in intellectual humility tend to be more open to experience and more agreeable. </p>
<p>Hopkin and McElroy-Heltzel saw intellectual humility as a way to explore individual religious beliefs and how people manage religious differences in everyday life.</p>
<p>However, Duke University psychologist Mark Leary quickly recognized the potential relevance of this trait to a wide range of political and social issues and ended up conducting <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0146167217697695">a series of influential studies</a> to explore how the trait predicts our reactions to people and ideas that we disagree with. </p>
<p>Leary found that individuals who score on the high end of intellectual humility process information differently from those who score on the low end. For example, they’re more tolerant of ambiguity and they realize that not every problem has a single, definitive answer or outcome. When they hear a claim, they are more likely to seek out evidence and prefer two-sided, balanced arguments.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, most people do not score high on intellectual humility.</p>
<p>Leary <a href="https://www.templeton.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Intellectual-Humility-Leary-FullLength-Final.pdf">discovered</a> that when he asked the following question – “Think about all of the disagreements you have had in the last six months. What percentage of the time do you think that you were right?” – the average response was about 66%. It was rare for someone to report being correct less than 50% of the time.</p>
<h2>Why so little humility today?</h2>
<p>Is there something about 21st-century American society that discourages intellectual humility – that, instead, seems to be incentivizing its exact opposite?</p>
<p>A suspicion of so-called “experts” and a <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/americas-cult-of-ignorance?fbclid=IwAR0RBYtHAUr-4hNaq4qXUXkCeq1rm0UI4RTaWyyatdHboEGG5d1-FLsnq5U">contempt for science and rationality is a long-standing American tradition</a>. </p>
<p>A new twist, however, is the <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2017-03-20/is-social-media-to-blame-for-political-polarization-in-america">splintering of news outlets and social media into echo chambers</a>, where like-minded individuals reinforce each other’s worldviews, making it easier than ever to feel like you’re always in the right. We’re less likely to be exposed to facts or points of view that we disagree with, except when they’re shredded or dismissed within our own cyber-ecosystems. </p>
<p>Receiving daily affirmation of our opinions and intuition from TV and the internet naturally coaxes us into seeing ourselves as being pretty darned smart. This can be especially toxic when fused with a lack of respect for expertise.</p>
<h2>What this means for our politics</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.templeton.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Intellectual-Humility-Leary-FullLength-Final.pdf">According to Leary</a>, your political party or religion doesn’t correlate with higher or lower intellectual humility. </p>
<p>However, those with more extreme religious and political views do tend to score lower in intellectual humility. It is not yet clear if the average voter’s political views are becoming more extreme, but <a href="https://www.people-press.org/2014/06/12/political-polarization-in-the-american-public/">there is evidence that this may be true for those who are most engaged in the political process</a>. </p>
<p>Furthermore, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0146167217697695">many voters</a> seem to prefer leaders who are confident, decisive – and who do not change their positions on issues – the very qualities that can readily be found in those who lack intellectual humility.</p>
<p>In fact, studies have found that Republicans – but not Democrats – who are low in intellectual humility <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0146167217697695">report being much less likely</a> to vote for a politician who has changed his or her stand on an issue over time. So, woe be to the Republican office seeker who has changed a position on an issue in light of new evidence, as the dreaded label of “flip-flopper” is all but certain to be applied. </p>
<p>There’s an irony to all of this: According to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17439760.2019.1579359">a recent study</a>, people who possess greater intellectual humility <a href="https://digest.bps.org.uk/2019/04/03/people-with-greater-intellectual-humility-have-superior-general-knowledge/">actually have a superior grasp of general knowledge</a>. They’re also less likely to brag about their intellectual prowess than low scorers.</p>
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<p>This creates a quandary for politicians who score high in intellectual humility, as they may appear indecisive to others. After all, they’ll tend to weigh evidence carefully and take longer to reach a decision than a leader who just “goes with his gut.” </p>
<p>And because individuals who are high in intellectual humility are interested in finding out why other people disagree with them, politicians with this quality may not be perceived as “team players” and may be seen as too ready to compromise.</p>
<p>In an era where a premium is placed on party loyalty and taking a hardball approach to dealing with the opposition, this may be come across as weakness.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/17/us/politics/political-fights.html">The New York Times’ Jeremy Peters</a> bemoaned that political anger and moral outrage are the only things that Americans really have in common anymore. Understanding the positions of our opponents, he noted, has become a lost art. A lack of intellectual humility is clearly one of the factors that handicaps our ability to engage in civil discourse.</p>
<p>And while there has probably never been an excess of intellectual humility in Washington, D.C., it’s rarely been as nakedly apparent as it is today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116118/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frank T. McAndrew does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A growing body of research points to the importance of one personality trait – intellectual humility – and how it influences our learning, relationships and worldview.Frank T. McAndrew, Cornelia H. Dudley Professor of Psychology, Knox CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1115802019-03-06T11:39:21Z2019-03-06T11:39:21ZHow to distinguish a psychopath from a ‘shy-chopath’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261711/original/file-20190301-110143-twin8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ted Bundy, a day before his execution in January 1989.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-International-News-Florida-U-S-/93b4e2409de3da11af9f0014c2589dfb/90/0">AP Photo/Mark Foley</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>What makes a criminal a <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2016-05587-001">psychopath</a>? </p>
<p>Their grisly deeds and commanding presence attract our attention – look no further than murderer Ted Bundy and cult leader Charles Manson. </p>
<p>But despite years of theorizing and research, the mental health field continues to hotly debate what are the defining features of this diagnosis. It might come as a surprise that the most widely used psychiatric diagnostic system in the U.S., the <a href="https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/practice/dsm">DSM-5</a>, doesn’t include psychopathy as a formal disorder.</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MoPb-7cAAAAJ&hl=en">As a personality researcher and forensic psychologist</a>, I’ve spent the last quarter-century studying psychopaths inside and outside of prisons. I’ve also debated what, exactly, are the defining features of psychopathy. </p>
<p>Most agree that psychopaths are remorseless people who lack empathy for others. But in recent years, much of this debate has centered on the relevance of one particular personality trait: boldness. </p>
<p>I’m in the camp that believes boldness is critical to separating out psychopaths from the more mundane law-breakers. It’s the trait that creates the veneer of normalcy, giving those who prey on others the mask to successfully blend in with the rest of society. To lack boldness, on the other hand, is to be what one might call a “shy-chopath.”</p>
<h2>The boldness factor</h2>
<p>About 10 years ago, psychologist Christopher Patrick and some of his colleagues published an extensive <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/development-and-psychopathology/article/triarchic-conceptualization-of-psychopathy-developmental-origins-of-disinhibition-boldness-and-meanness/172BC63ED5C4C4C295C47DDCB01E838D">literature review</a> in which they argued that psychopaths were people who expressed elevated levels of three basic traits: meanness, disinhibition and boldness. </p>
<p>Most experts in the mental health field generally agree that the prototypical psychopath is someone who is both mean and, at least to some extent, disinhibited – though <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359178911000176">there’s even some debate</a> about exactly how impulsive and hot-headed the prototypical psychopath truly is. </p>
<p>In a psychological context, people who are mean tend to lack empathy and have little interest in close emotional relationships. They’re also happy to use and exploit others for their own personal gain. </p>
<p>Highly disinhibited people have very poor impulse control, are prone to boredom and have difficulty managing emotions – particularly negative ones, like frustration and hostility. </p>
<p>In adding boldness to the mix, Patrick and his colleagues argued that genuine psychopaths are not just mean and disinhibited, they’re also individuals who are poised, fearless, emotionally resilient and socially dominant.</p>
<p>Although it had not been the focus of extensive research for the past few decades, the concept of the bold psychopath isn’t actually new. Famed psychiatrist Hervey Cleckley described it in his seminal 1941 book, “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=00aQCwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+Mask+of+Sanity&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwij2tm5quvgAhUoSN8KHXo3Bu0Q6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q&f=false">The Mask of Sanity</a>,” in which he described numerous case examples of psychopaths who were brazen, fearless and emotionally unflappable. </p>
<p>Ted Bundy is an excellent example of such a person. He was far from unassuming and timid. He never appeared wracked with anxiety or emotional distress. He charmed scores of victims, confidently served as his own attorney and even proposed to his girlfriend while in court. </p>
<p>“It’s probably just being willing to take risk,” Bundy said, in the Netflix documentary, of what motivated his crimes. “Or perhaps not even seeing risk. Just overcome by that boldness and desire to accomplish a particular thing.” </p>
<h2>Seeds planted in the DSM</h2>
<p>In the current DSM, the closest current diagnosis to psychopathy is antisocial personality disorder. Although the manual suggests that it historically has been referred to as psychopathy, <a href="http://www.psi.uba.ar/academica/carrerasdegrado/psicologia/sitios_catedras/practicas_profesionales/820_clinica_tr_personalidad_psicosis/material/dsm.pdf">the current seven diagnostic criteria for antisocial personality disorder</a> mostly fall under the umbrella of disinhibition – qualities like “recklessness,” “impulsiveness” and, to a lesser extent, meanness, which are evident in only two criteria: “lack of remorse” and “deceitfulness.” </p>
<p>There’s no mention of boldness. In other words, you don’t have to be bold to have antisocial personality disorder. In fact, because you only need to meet three of the seven criteria to be diagnosed with the disorder, it means you don’t even need to be all that mean, either.</p>
<p>However, the most recent revision to the DSM, the fifth edition, did include a <a href="https://dsm.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.5555/appi.books.9780890425596.Section3">supplemental section</a> for proposed diagnoses in need of further study.</p>
<p>In this supplemental section, a new specifier was offered for those who meet the diagnosis for antisocial personality disorder. If you have a bold and fearless interpersonal style that seems to serve as a mask for your otherwise mean and disinhibited personality, you might also be diagnosable as a psychopath.</p>
<h2>Can a psychopath be meek?</h2>
<p>Whether this new model, which seems to put boldness center stage in the diagnosis of psychopathy, ultimately will be adopted into subsequent iterations of the DSM system remains to be seen. </p>
<p><a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2011-17135-001">Several researchers</a> have criticized the concept. They see meanness and disinhibition as much more important than boldness when deciding whether someone is a psychopath. </p>
<p>Their main issue seems to be that people who are bold – but not mean or disinhibited – actually seem to be well-adjusted and not particularly violent. In fact, compared with being overly introverted or prone to emotional distress, it seems to be an asset in everyday life.</p>
<p>Other <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2012-19373-002">researchers</a>, myself included, tend to view those criticisms as not particularly compelling. In our view, someone who is simply disinhibited and mean – but not bold – would not be able to pull off the spectacular level of manipulation that a psychopath is capable of.</p>
<p>To be sure, being mean and disinhibited is a bad combination. But absent boldness, you’re probably not going to show up on the evening news for having schemed scores of investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars. The chances that you’ll successfully charm unsuspecting victim after unsuspecting victim into coming back to your apartment to sexually assault them seem pretty slim. </p>
<p>That being said, timid but mean people – the “shycho-paths” – almost certainly do exist, and it’s probably best to stay away from them, too. </p>
<p>But you’re unlikely to confuse them with the Ted Bundys and Charles Mansons of the world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111580/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Edens has received funding from the National Institute of Mental Health to conduct research on individuals in criminal justice and forensic settings. </span></em></p>Psychologists are debating whether the presence of one trait – boldness – is the key to determining if someone is a psychopath, or just a garden-variety criminal.John Edens, Professor of Psychology, Texas A&M UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1117222019-02-14T11:46:47Z2019-02-14T11:46:47ZThis trait could be key to a lasting romance<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258770/original/file-20190213-181612-835l6n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'I'm not perfect – and I know you aren't, either.'</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2016/10/25/12/01/couple-1768644_960_720.jpg">Pixabay</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Passion and commitment are widely believed to be the foundation of strong romantic relationships. </p>
<p>But a relationship is made of two unique individuals, and personality traits these individuals possess or lack can often make a relationship more likely to endure. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15427609.2017.1414670">2019</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15427609.2017.1415093">study</a>, we found that one trait in particular – humility – is an important indicator of successful relationships.</p>
<h2>An honest view of shortcomings</h2>
<p>Humility can sometimes be confused with low self-esteem, low confidence or meekness. </p>
<p>But researchers <a href="https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1030&context=phil_fac">have come to realize</a> that being humble generally indicates the presence of deeply admirable personal qualities. It means you have the ability to accurately assess your deficiencies without denying your skills and strengths. </p>
<p>For example, you might recognize that you’re smart but realize it would be absurd to call yourself all-knowing – especially when the scope of human knowledge is so vast. This is an honest and sober view of your shortcomings. </p>
<p>As the philosopher Jason Baehr <a href="https://www.bigquestionsonline.com/2013/12/10/how-does-humility-contribute-strength/">has argued</a>, “To be humble is to be attentive to and disposed to ‘own’ one’s limitations, weaknesses, and mistakes. A humble person does not ignore, avoid, or try to deny her limits or deficiencies.” </p>
<p>If you’re humble, you lack a host of negative qualities, such as arrogance and overconfidence. It means you can acknowledge mistakes, see value in things that are riddled with imperfections and identify areas for improvement. </p>
<h2>The link between humility and forgiveness</h2>
<p>Humility appears to be a huge asset to relationships. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2014.898317">One study</a> found that people tend to rate this quality highly in their significant other. It also found that someone who is humble is more likely to initiate a romantic relationship, perhaps because they’re less likely to see themselves as “too good” for someone else.</p>
<p>But in our study, we wanted to explore the link between humility and forgiveness in couples.</p>
<p>Humility is tricky to measure; we worried that people who were arrogant might presumptuously declare their humility, while people who were actually humble would, as a sign of their humility, downplay this trait.</p>
<p>So we approached this question by asking each partner in a romantic relationship about their own and their partner’s humility. We hoped that even if a truly humble person didn’t consider themselves humble, at least their partner would recognize this trait. </p>
<p>We asked 284 couples from the Detroit metropolitan area questions about how humble they were, how humble they thought their partner was and if they were likely to forgive their partner if they did something that was hurtful, like insulting them. </p>
<p>We found that people who felt their partner or spouse was humble were more likely to forgive them following a hurtful situation. This wasn’t true, however, of those who felt their partner or spouse was arrogant. Many of our respondents with arrogant partners indicated that because their partners were less likely to admit to any personal failings, they were less likely forgive them. </p>
<p>Interestingly, the strength of an individual’s social network can play a role too. If someone has a humble partner, they’re more likely to forgive that person. If someone has a lot of close, supportive friends and a humble partner, they’ll be even more likely to forgive that partner after he or she has screwed up. But if your partner is arrogant, it doesn’t matter how many great friends the couple has, they’ll still be less likely to be forgiven.</p>
<p>The ability to forgive is so important because pain is an inevitable part of any relationship. People mess up. They might say something they don’t mean, be unknowingly inconsiderate or forget an important event. So when looking for a partner, it’s probably a good idea to find someone who recognizes that making mistakes is part of being human.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111722/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Toni Antonucci receives funding from the Templeton Foundation which supported this study.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kristine J. Ajrouch receives funding from the Templeton Foundation which funded this study. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Noah J. Webster receives funding from the Templeton Foundation which funded this study. </span></em></p>If you’re having issues with your partner, one of you might need a nice dose of humility.Toni Antonucci, Elizabeth M. Douvan Collegiate Professor of Psychology, University of MichiganKristine J. Ajrouch, Adjunct Research Professor, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, University of MichiganNoah J. Webster, Assistant Research Scientist, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, University of MichiganLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1073902019-01-08T11:26:12Z2019-01-08T11:26:12ZFour common mistakes that can ruin your chances in a job interview<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251014/original/file-20181217-185237-18viaxl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/business-people-waiting-job-interview-447401278?src=hkSBfH5iZafsCRiZpUefrw-1-93">shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you make it to the job interview stage of an application process, the prospect of a new job is very much in sight. Make a good impression and you are likely to get the opportunity you want. </p>
<p>But imagine you get to the interview and, despite being highly qualified and motivated, you end up not getting the job offer. In spite of your best efforts to made a good impression, the chances are you made one of these four common errors: a failure of perspective taking, narcissism, hubris and humble bragging. </p>
<p>My <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/spc3.12321">research</a> suggests that these are four of the main reasons why people fail to make a good impression in high-stakes situations – which is when it really matters.</p>
<p>To avoid the four common errors when trying to make a positive impression, let’s consider them one by one to understand why they are unsuccessful. </p>
<h2>1. Lack of perspective taking</h2>
<p>First, failed perspective taking can lead interviewees to mispredict the interviewer’s reactions. For example, it’s common to mention one’s successes in a job interview, and there’s of course nothing wrong with doing that. But interviewees might underestimate the importance of how they talk about their success. </p>
<p>My <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01973533.2018.1500289">research shows</a> that people tend to explain their success by emphasising their own talent and abilities, because they think that interviewers will deem them competent when doing so. In these cases, interviewees err because they fail to put themselves in the shoes of the interviewer. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251287/original/file-20181218-27755-15mvu62.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251287/original/file-20181218-27755-15mvu62.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251287/original/file-20181218-27755-15mvu62.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251287/original/file-20181218-27755-15mvu62.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251287/original/file-20181218-27755-15mvu62.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251287/original/file-20181218-27755-15mvu62.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251287/original/file-20181218-27755-15mvu62.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">It’s important to be likeable as well as competent.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/nice-meet-you-portrait-cheerful-young-783900115">shutterstock</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>When adopting the interviewer’s perspective, it becomes clear that interviewers not only care about hiring a competent employee, but also about having a likeable employee. To ensure appearing likeable – as well as competent – interviewees should adopt a different strategy. Instead of talking about their talent and ability, they should focus instead on mentioning the hard work and effort that caused the success. The interviewer will then feel that the interviewee is not only competent but also relatable and likeable, which will increase the chances of getting hired.</p>
<h2>2. Narcissism</h2>
<p>When hearing the word “narcissist”, one might think of people who are extremely vain and self-possessed. But actually all of us can have a little bit of that trait in us. Narcissism can manifest in a sense of superiority toward interviewers, leading to arrogant and off-putting behaviour. </p>
<p>It is therefore important to suppress the tiny narcissist inside all of us when in a job interview. Keep in mind that the interviewer is looking for a confident employee, not for someone who believes they are superior to everyone else, including the interviewer.</p>
<h2>3. Hubris</h2>
<p>Interviewees can hurt their chances of nailing an interview by showing hubris. This often comes out in comparing oneself to others in a favourable way. For example, an interviewee might say that they were the best sales manager in their previous job or better at something than their former colleagues. </p>
<p>Even if that claim is true and conveys competence, it would probably diminish the chances of getting the job. This happens because when interviewees explicitly compare themselves to others, the interviewer might feel personally attacked by fearing that the interviewee also compares themself to the interviewer. Such a fear would undermine the interviewer’s desire to hire the interviewee.</p>
<h2>4. The humble brag</h2>
<p>Humble bragging is when you boast about yourself in a way that is thinly disguised as a gripe or self-deprecation. For example, in response to the classic question, “What are your weaknesses?” An interviewee might say: “In my current job, I struggle with being really busy because everyone is always coming to me for advice.” Or, “I’m too much of a perfectionist.”</p>
<p>But this strategy backfires. The interviewer can usually see through this tactic. Not only does the interviewee seem conceited for the bragging, but they also seem dishonest for the attempt to disguise the bragging. Therefore, this strategy is very unlikely to be successful.</p>
<p>Taken together, as an interviewee you should remember that it’s important to not only impress the interviewer but also to establish a relationship with them. To achieve this, it’s helpful to a) look at yourself from the interviewer’s eyes and remember they are looking for a likeable employee, b) avoid seeming superior, c) avoid comparisons to others, and d) be sincere about your strengths and weaknesses. </p>
<p>By sidestepping these common traps when trying to make a good impression, the next interviewer should have no trouble seeing you as the competent, motivated, and likeable potential employee that you are.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107390/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Janina Steinmetz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If you make it to the interview stage but don’t get a job offer, chances are you made one of four common errors.Janina Steinmetz, Senior Lecturer in Marketing, Cass Business School, City, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/947442018-04-17T20:05:36Z2018-04-17T20:05:36ZPlaying nice at work could cost you success<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/215125/original/file-20180417-101468-64tqyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Individuals high in traits like narcissism, actively seek out prestige, target high level jobs and make their accomplishments known to those around them.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">RJ/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you’re struggling to say “no” at work and instead feel the need to constantly assist coworkers you might be compromising your success. As sad as it sounds, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1999.tb00174.x">research shows</a> that being agreeable can come at a cost in terms of career success. It can even mean <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927537117303287">earning less</a> over the course of your career.</p>
<p>Agreeableness is a personality trait characterised by compassion, friendliness, politeness and empathy. People high in this personality trait can be described as “nice”; they tend to make good friends, are good listeners and good team players.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-understand-and-harness-your-workplace-rage-90174">How to understand and harness your workplace rage</a>
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<p><a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/001979391106400509">One study</a> found that, on average, agreeable people have lower income than “disagreeable” people. They also tend to have lower <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1999.tb00174.x">occupational status</a> (for example, they receive fewer promotions).</p>
<p>Being too agreeable can also be a problem for <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2009-21033-010">managers</a> who often need to make hard decisions and deliver bad news in order to get things done. </p>
<p>Agreeable people are likely to be attracted to “social” <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2004-15977-002">professions</a>
that are emotionally demanding (for example nursing and counselling) and have high rates of burnout. These professions also typically receive less pay than other professions classified as “investigative” - like scientists and surgeons, and “enterprising” - like entrepreneurs and managers.</p>
<h2>Why is being nice such a bad thing?</h2>
<p>There seem to be two reasons for why agreeable people can suffer career setbacks. According to <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1999.tb00174.x">this study</a>, more agreeable people might sacrifice their own success in the process of pleasing others. <a href="http://ww.timothy-judge.com/documents/Doniceguysandgalsreallyfinishlast.pdf">This study</a> also suggests that agreeable people are less likely to aggressively negotiate their wage and more likely to be passive in conflict situations.</p>
<p>People who are low in agreeableness, on the other hand, are more self-focused and competitive. They don’t let their compassion for others get in the way of their own goals. People with this personality type are also high in what is known as the “dark triad” traits of narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism, which have also recently been <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886917305962">linked to higher income</a>. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/emotionally-intelligent-employees-may-come-with-a-dark-side-manipulation-55942">Emotionally intelligent employees may come with a dark side – manipulation</a>
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<p>Individuals high in these traits, especially narcissism, actively seek out prestige, target high level jobs and make their accomplishments known to those around them. Meanwhile, agreeable people tend to be modest and less boastful about their achievements. </p>
<h2>The benefits of being nice</h2>
<p>Although agreeableness is problematic for extrinsic aspects of career success, being agreeable does have benefits in the workplace. </p>
<p>For example, agreeable people are less likely to be victims of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02678373.2015.1032383">bullying</a>. They also tend to <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2000-16508-004">perform well</a> in jobs requiring interpersonal interactions such as customer service, and generally do well in <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/per.588">teams</a>. </p>
<p>People high in agreeableness also make likeable coworkers and have a set of characteristics likely to contribute to positive organisational culture. </p>
<p>Although agreeable people are attracted to emotionally demanding professions, they tend be <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02678370903282600">more resilient</a> than others in these professions. This is because agreeable workers tend to form positive relationships with coworkers and patients, which possibly buffers the inherent challenges to these jobs. </p>
<p>It should be noted that most studies on agreeableness and career success reported weak to moderate relationships. This means that while on average agreeable people are at a disadvantage, there are many agreeable workers who have very successful careers. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/introverts-think-they-wont-like-being-leaders-but-they-are-capable-84371">Introverts think they won't like being leaders but they are capable</a>
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<p>Agreeableness can actually enhance career success when combined with certain other traits. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001879107000991">One study</a> demonstrated that agreeableness increases job performance when combined with political skill, that is the ability to leverage relationships in order to achieve goals. This suggests that being helpful and nice can be very beneficial when used strategically. </p>
<p>Other research demonstrates that agreeableness is beneficial when combined with <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2002-00102-015">conscientiousness</a>. This indicates that being agreeable can be beneficial when coupled with focus, self-discipline and the tendency to set and achieve goals. </p>
<h2>What to do if you think you’re too agreeable</h2>
<p>There are some things people can do if they feel their agreeableness is hampering their success at work. Agreeable employees can use their good nature more strategically by continuing to assist others but not hesitating to ask for favours in return. </p>
<p>Another recommendation is to be more organised and focused on meeting goals. You can remain a good colleague where possible, but not sacrifice your own work to help others.</p>
<p>Also, agreeable people could try to reign in their modesty. Although agreeable people feel uncomfortable promoting their achievements, there is nothing wrong with making others aware of a good outcome. </p>
<p>Agreeable people can benefit from choosing their battles. People who choose their battles will avoid conflict most of the time, but have the ability to stand up for themselves when they need to.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94744/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter O'Connor does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Research shows that being agreeable can come at a cost in terms of income and career success. But it can be used to your advantage if combined with being strategic and conscientious.Peter O'Connor, Associate Professor, Business and Management, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/912102018-02-09T17:01:14Z2018-02-09T17:01:14ZHow a thrill-seeking personality helps Olympic athletes<p>One of the main draws of the Winter Olympics is the opportunity to witness some of the most exciting and nail-biting athletic feats. </p>
<p>The daring events include the bobsled and downhill skiing. Then there’s the terrifying skeleton: Imagine barreling down a narrow chute of twisted ice-coated concrete at 125 miles per hour. Now imagine doing that head first, like a human battering ram. </p>
<p>Athletes train for years for these events, but most of these elite athletes possess something that helps them succeed during these high-stakes events: their personality.</p>
<p>Some people have a personality trait that helps them focus in highly chaotic environments like the ones you’ll see during the Winter Olympics. It’s called a high sensation-seeking personality, and it’s a trait that, as a psychologist, I’ve long been fascinated with.</p>
<h2>Calm in the face of danger</h2>
<p>To some extent, we all crave complex and new experiences – that is, we all seek new sensations. </p>
<p>Whether it’s our attraction to the latest shiny gadget or the newest fashion trend, novelty tugs at us. But even though we all share an interest in new sensations, what sets high sensation-seeking personalities apart is that they crave these exotic and intense experiences to an extent that they’re willing to risk their health.</p>
<p>What’s amazing is that some high sensation-seeking individuals experience less stress and are fearless and calm in the face of danger. For example, 2014 Olympic slalom gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin tears down mountains at speeds of 80 mph. But she recently <a href="https://view.imirus.com/209/document/12827/page/34">told Sky Magazine</a> that the experience can feel like it unfolds in slow motion while she’s “finding a way to control the controllable.”</p>
<p>There’s <a href="http://www.dana.org/News/Details.aspx?id=43484">neurological evidence</a> to back up the sense of calm that athletes like Shiffrin feel in midst of chaos and danger. </p>
<p>You may have heard of <a href="https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/what-is-cortisol#1">cortisol</a> – it’s the “fight or flight” hormone, and it can make us feel stressed and overwhelmed. </p>
<p>However, when people with high sensation-seeking personalities have intense experiences, they don’t produce that much cortisol. On top of that, they produce higher levels of “pleasure” chemicals like dopamine. </p>
<p>What’s more, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4763828/">researchers have found</a> that people with high sensation-seeking personalities have increased sensitivity to things that could be rewarding (like landing <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfSf8QZwHwY">a perfect switch backside 1620</a>) and decreased sensitivity to potential dangers (like the fear of wiping out after doing a triple jump).</p>
<p>High sensation-seeking isn’t exclusive to Winter Olympians, of course. It can creep into every aspect of life, influencing the way you interact with other people, the things you do for fun, the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0191886986901364">music you like</a>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9316713">the way you drive</a> and even the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0191886994901791">jokes you tell</a>.</p>
<h2>Leaping before you look</h2>
<p>In the 1950s, while studying sensory deprivation, psychologist <a href="http://www.euroformhealthcare.biz/temperament-traits/the-biological-theory-of-sensation-seeking-developed-by-zuckerman.html">Robert Zuckerman</a> stumbled upon this sensation-seeking trait. Zuckerman was eventually able to show that sensation-seeking is made up of four distinct components. </p>
<p>Each contributes to an individual’s unique way of seeking (or avoiding) sensation. (And you can actually <a href="http://buzz.drkencarter.com">take a test</a> to see where you fall for each of these four components on the sensation-seeking scale.)</p>
<p>The first two – thrill-seeking and experience-seeking – were mentioned earlier. But the sensation-seeking personality trait also involves disinhibition and boredom susceptibility.</p>
<p>Disinhibition has to do with our willingness to be spontaneous and our ability to let loose. People with low levels of disinhibition always look before they leap. Those high in disinhibition? They just leap. </p>
<p>Boredom susceptibility boils down to your ability to tolerate the absence of external stimuli. Those with high scores in boredom susceptibility dislike repetition: They tire easily of predictable or dull people, and they get restless when forced to perform mundane tasks. </p>
<p>This last component might be the toughest thing for Olympic athletes who are high-sensation seekers to deal with. In order to be a successful Olympian, you need to spend countless hours practicing dull, repetitive workouts and drills.</p>
<p>It’s easy to see how all of these aspects of sensation-seeking personalities might exist in Olympic athletes, whether it’s a snowboarder experimenting with a daring new trick or a hockey forward navigating a puck through a maze of defenders. </p>
<p>People with high sensation-seeking personalities don’t just crave these situations. In those moments, they’re in their element. Where a low sensation-seeking person might crumble, they thrive. </p>
<p>So when you’re watching the Winter Olympics and wondering how the athletes can handle the pressures and dangers of competition, just remember: For some of them, chaos and intensity are secret weapons of success.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91210/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kenneth Carter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When faced with chaos or danger, most people retreat. Not so for those who possess a certain personality trait.Kenneth Carter, Charles Howard Professor of Psychology, Oxford College, Emory UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/819512017-08-21T19:27:04Z2017-08-21T19:27:04ZIt’s hard to find a humble CEO. Here’s why<p>Humility is the latest badge of virtue for those in positions of influence. From <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bush-clinton-humble-presidential-library-talk_us_59683418e4b0d6341fe7ce11">politicians</a>, to <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/world/most-humble-day-of-my-life-20110719-1hndl.html">executives</a>, to <a href="http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/7768186/kendrick-lamar-humble-number-one-billboard-hot-100">chart-topping artists</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-014-2311-8">idea</a> of a <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0018726705059929">humble</a> CEO is a romantic departure from the greedy <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0304405X7690026X">self-serving</a> corporate hero. Rather, when faced with adversity, humble CEOs <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-case-for-humble-executives-1445385076">sacrifice their own interests</a> for the greater good. </p>
<p><a href="http://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/orsc.1120.0795">Studies echo</a> the intuition that humble leaders are more modest, emotionally stable, and eager to learn. Unsurprisingly, they are less likely to display self-aggrandizing traits such as <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0018726705059929">narcissism</a>. </p>
<p>Perhaps most telling is the finding that <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0149206315604187">companies</a> and <a href="http://amj.aom.org/content/59/3/1088.full">teams</a> led by more humble individuals, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/job.2211/full">perform better</a>. But despite humility being good for business, it’s extremely difficult for CEOs to be genuinely humble.</p>
<h2>Success culls humility</h2>
<p>A distinctive strength of humble leaders is <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0018726705059929">self-awareness</a> – confidence in their abilities paired with accurate self-appraisal of their limitations. Yet, people often <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10626367">overestimate their virtues</a> while underestimating their limitations. </p>
<p>For example, a <a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.64.2655">recurring</a> research finding is that people <em>think</em> they are <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/everyone-thinks-they-are-above-average/">better-than-average</a>. Smarter, better looking, even <a href="https://www.onepetro.org/journal-paper/ASSE-17-08-24">superior drivers</a>. CEOs are <a href="http://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/mnsc.1070.0830">no exception</a>, in fact they may be even <a href="http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/managing-overconfidence/">more at risk</a> of overestimating their strengths.</p>
<p>A key reason for this is that CEOs are – as a byproduct of their career success – highly confident. Whether the CEO climbs rungs of the corporate ladder or whether a <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/smj.405/full">celebrity CEO</a> is <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-has-embraced-the-outsider-ceo-but-they-cant-always-save-the-day-53733">parachuted in</a>, they will have successfully out-competed other confident and capable people for the job. </p>
<p>The confidence that accrues with career <a href="http://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/mnsc.1050.0485">success</a> is important for leading an organisation. Yet, success is a mixed blessing. The same string of career wins may also lead CEOs to <em>over</em>-appraise their strengths without attributing the role of other factors, such as <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/2696421">luck</a>, in their achievements. </p>
<p>Such overconfidence can even harm organisations. Studies show that CEOs who overestimate their abilities tend to <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/2393810">overpay for acquisitions</a>, take <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0149206317699521">undue risks</a>, introduce more <a href="http://amj.aom.org/content/46/2/139.short">unsuccessful new products</a>, and have more <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.2189/asqu.52.3.351">volatile firm performance</a>. </p>
<h2>Acting “like a CEO”</h2>
<p>If finding an authentically humble CEO candidate is rare, looking at the personality profiles of people who want to be CEOs complicates matters further.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0030507377900174">Research</a> shows certain jobs attract people with specific personalities. Recruiters in turn rely on judgements, oftentimes subjective, of how a candidate’s personality will <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2000.tb00217.x/full">fit the job and the organisation</a>.</p>
<p>CEOs tend to score <a href="http://under30ceo.com/the-psychological-profiles-of-the-worlds-top-ceos/">higher</a> than the general population on personality attributes such achievement-orientation, ambition, assertiveness, and risk-preference. Individuals with some, or a combination, of these traits may be particularly adept at <em>pretending</em> to fit ideal criteria for a <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886901000216">specific role</a>. </p>
<p>For instance, studies show that narcissists are particularly skilled at <em>appearing</em> charismatic at <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2009-24670-005">first sight</a>. Charisma, in turn, has long been considered a <a href="http://amr.aom.org/content/31/4/1049.short">desirable feature</a> of CEOs. CEOs perceived as charismatic, accordingly, receive <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1048984304000232">higher pay</a>. </p>
<p>Genuine humility may thus be a scarce personality feature among candidates for CEO positions.</p>
<h2>Hurdles to leading with humility</h2>
<p>Humble CEOs emphasise leadership as a <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/job.2211/full">shared activity</a> and actively <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0170840612470229">seek advice</a> from others. Although this might work for more considered and analytical decisions, it may come at the cost of speed. </p>
<p>High-performing firms are often characterised by an ability to make <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/smj.343/full">decisions quickly</a>. In fact, some evidence suggests that more narcissistic CEOs may be quicker in making judgement calls, for instance, about <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0001839213488773">adopting new technologies</a>. </p>
<p>CEOs are also expected to provide <a href="http://amj.aom.org/content/60/3/1094.short">precise forecasts</a> of an uncertain future. However, managers often engage in <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/2118364">herd behavior</a> in the face of uncertainty, and firms often end up <a href="http://amr.aom.org/content/31/2/366.short">imitating</a> each other. By virtue of their self-awareness, humble CEOs can be expected to issue more realistic expectations that may deviate from collective <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=71411">overoptimism</a>. </p>
<p>However, analysts tend to rate <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1540-6261.00526/full">optimistic forecasts</a> more favourably. As such, humble CEOs may be penalised for conveying more conservative, albeit more realistic, forecasts.</p>
<p>Some research suggests that accomplished professionals could potentially become more self aware in the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/rfs/article/14/1/1/1586886/Learning-to-Be-Overconfident">later stages</a> of <a href="http://amr.aom.org/content/16/4/719.short">their career</a>. If this is the case, then some CEOs may become more humble as they get closer to retirement.</p>
<p>However, the purported benefits of age and experience may be offset by other tendencies that emerge during later career phases. For instance, CEOs closer to retirement have a natural tendency to <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hrm.21730/full">reduce investments in innovation</a> and those with longer tenures tend to be <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0149206309345019">overly averse to change</a>. </p>
<p>Equipping organisations with the right leadership attributes is crucial for success. Humility is a precious, but rare, commodity in the executive suite. </p>
<p>Staying genuinely humble through progressive stages of high achievement is difficult for CEOs. Those who are authentically humble, in turn, face distinct challenges that may trump the benefits of their humility.</p>
<p>Humility is at risk of becoming the latest leadership buzzword. Organisations that manage to find an <em>authentically</em> humble CEO, however, may just have an edge. </p>
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<p><a href="http://aom.org/">Mariano L.M. Heyden is a member of the Academy of Management</a></p>
<footer>The academy is a funding partner of The Conversation US.</footer>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr. Mariano L.M. Heyden receives funding from the Australian Research Council. Dr. Mariano L.M. Heyden is an Academy of Management scholar.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mathew Hayward does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Humble CEOs may be the new prize, but they are in short supply and face distinctive challenges.Mariano L.M. Heyden, Associate Professor of Strategy & International Business, Monash UniversityMathew Hayward, Professor Entrepreneurship and Strategy, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/806802017-07-13T01:34:25Z2017-07-13T01:34:25ZHow empathy can make or break a troll<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177660/original/file-20170711-5939-1ije4yb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Trolls tend to downplay the impact of their abusive online behaviour on their victims and seem to relish the mayhem they cause. Let's use this to help them lift their game.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/343162364?src=1-MDWjwHaW-6Etsp0WgU7w-2-73&size=medium_jpg">from www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran recently announced he had <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jul/04/ed-sheeran-twitter-abuse-trolls">quit Twitter</a> because he was sick of internet trolls.</p>
<p>While this high-profile example shows the effects of antisocial online behaviour, it hides an alarming statistic. In one online poll <a href="https://today.yougov.com/news/2014/10/20/over-quarter-americans-admit-malicious-online-comm/">over a quarter of Americans</a> admitted to having engaged in trolling at some point.</p>
<p>Now <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886917304270">new research</a> into the personality of trolls suggests building their empathy for others could be one way to modify their behaviour.</p>
<h2>What is trolling?</h2>
<p><a href="https://clok.uclan.ac.uk/4980/2/Hardaker,%20C.%202010.%20Trolling%20in%20ACMC.pdf">We define trolling</a> as <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886916307930">deceptive and disruptive online behaviour</a>, which typically involves posting inflammatory and malicious comments to deliberately provoke and upset people.</p>
<p>An example might be posting a deceitful and inflammatory post on a Facebook memorial page, deliberately designed to upset the person’s family and friends.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"875439315295260673"}"></div></p>
<p>Our definition of trolling is different to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-media-dangerously-misuses-the-word-trolling-79999">how the media</a> sometimes uses the word trolling to describe a broader range of antisocial online activities.</p>
<p>Regardless of the strict definition, trolling (and antisocial online behaviour in general) can have <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886916307930">serious physical and psychological effects</a> on victims. These include lowered self-esteem, sleep disruption, depression, and in some cases <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/celebrity/charlotte-dawson-death-twitter-criticised-for-failing-to-act-against-trolls-20140222-338z6.html">suicide</a>.</p>
<h2>What do we know about trolls?</h2>
<p>Psychological studies show trolls <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886914000324">tend to be</a> male, show higher levels of psychopathy traits – low levels of empathy, guilt and responsibility for their actions – and higher levels of sadism traits – the enjoyment of causing others physical and psychological pain.</p>
<p>Trolls are <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886916307930">also motivated by</a> what psychologists call “atypical social rewards”. Generally, people are motivated by creating a positive social environment (<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24653711">typical, positive social rewards</a>). But trolls show higher motivation to achieve <em>negative</em> social rewards, like creating social mayhem and disruption.</p>
<p>We <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886917304270">wondered if different types of empathy</a> could explain such seemingly pointless, harmful behaviour. </p>
<p>In our sample of 415 online participants, we assessed relationships between common trolling behaviours (for instance, “although some people think my posts/comments are offensive, I think they are funny”) and two different forms of empathy: cognitive and affective.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Further reading: <a href="https://theconversation.com/internets-cloak-of-invisibility-how-trolls-are-made-73220">Internet’s cloak of invisibility: how trolls are made</a></em></p>
<hr>
<p>Cognitive empathy is the ability to recognise and understand other people’s emotions. But affective empathy is the ability to experience and internalise other people’s emotions. Put simply, cognitive empathy is the ability to predict how another person will feel and affective empathy is sharing the emotional experience.</p>
<p>As expected, people who were more likely to troll had significantly lower levels of affective empathy.</p>
<p>Surprisingly, people with high levels of cognitive empathy <em>and</em> psychopathic traits were more likely to troll. In other words, their high level of cognitive empathy indicates they are very good at understanding what hurts people, and their high level of psychopathy means they simply don’t care. </p>
<h2>Can we teach empathy?</h2>
<p>One area to change behaviour might be to teach trolls to become more empathic, in particular, targeting their low levels of affective empathy. </p>
<p>There’s <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/cou/63/1/32/">strong evidence</a> structured <a href="https://theconversation.com/children-learn-empathy-growing-up-but-can-we-train-adults-to-have-more-of-it-68153">empathy training</a> improves people’s empathy. Unfortunately, interventions targeting psychopathy and more severe, clinical empathy deficits are far more complex.</p>
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<p><em>Further reading: <a href="https://theconversation.com/understanding-others-feelings-what-is-empathy-and-why-do-we-need-it-68494">Understanding others’ feelings: what is empathy and why do we need it?</a></em></p>
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<p>Most mental health experts say <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/wicked-deeds/201408/psychopathic-criminals-cannot-be-cured">psychopathy cannot be cured</a>. However, as trolls show higher levels of <em>nonclinical</em> psychopathy traits (not enough to meet criteria for a clinical disorder) interventions may be more successful.</p>
<p>One psychopathy intervention that has previously indicated success in reducing antisocial behaviour and criminal activity is the <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0306624X01454006">decompression model</a>. Here, people are rewarded for every positive, prosocial behaviour (behaviour that benefits another), with the aim of increasing and reinforcing good behaviour.</p>
<h2>Can we treat trolling as an addiction?</h2>
<p>Not all trolls exhibit traits like low affective empathy or psychopathy. Some may simply be motivated by negative social rewards, like creating mayhem. And creating mayhem <a href="https://theconversation.com/dont-feed-the-trolls-really-is-good-advice-heres-the-evidence-63657">motivates the troll</a> to keep going back for more.</p>
<p>Due to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-power-of-rewards-and-why-we-seek-them-out-62691">addictive nature of rewards</a>, there may be an addictive element to trolling. So, other strategies that have been applied to addictive behaviours (for instance, internet addiction) could be used to modify trolls’ behaviour.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Further reading: <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-comparing-technology-to-drugs-isnt-simply-a-question-of-addiction-80150">Why comparing technology to drugs isn’t simply a question of addiction</a></em></p>
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<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-cognitive-behaviour-therapy-37351">Cognitive behaviour therapy</a> (or CBT, a talk therapy that targets negative thoughts, emotions, and behaviours), self-help treatment groups, group therapy, and even family therapy are all effective methods <a href="http://www.goodtherapy.org/learn-about-therapy/issues/internet-addiction">for treating addictions, particularly internet addictions</a>. </p>
<p>CBT <a href="http://netaddiction.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/JCP.CBT-IA.pdf">has been shown</a> to be a particularly effective. Clients learn to monitor and identify thoughts that trigger addictive behaviours and actions. And early stages of therapy, <a href="http://netaddiction.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/JCP.CBT-IA.pdf">focuses</a> on behaviour and abstinence from situations that induce the problem behaviour. </p>
<h2>Will all this stop trolling?</h2>
<p>Unfortunately, we don’t know if these methods will stop trolling. In the meantime, here are some guidelines based on psychological research on how we can manage it:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>If trolls are rewarded by creating social mayhem, then it’s best to not feed the trolls. Try not to reinforce their behaviour by reacting. If the troll knows they have succeeded in disrupting the social environment in some way, this will reinforce their behaviour</p></li>
<li><p>Psychopathy is generally associated with a lack of a fear of punishment. So, punishing the trolling behaviour might also prove ineffective</p></li>
<li><p>Reward good behaviour. By rewarding the good behaviour, we will see more of it.</p></li>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Evita March does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Trolls tend to know the impact they’ll have, but don’t seem to care. So, how do we use our new findings to help stop this seemingly pointless, harmful behaviour?Evita March, Lecturer of Psychology, Federation University AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/681862016-11-03T19:42:13Z2016-11-03T19:42:13ZThere really is a link between your Facebook posts and your personality<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/144401/original/image-20161103-25343-1938r03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What do you mean, risk-taker?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Privacy campaigners this week applauded Facebook’s <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37847647">decision to block</a> big UK insurance firm Admiral from using young people’s social media data to help set their car insurance premiums. But this is just the start of a debate over the use of social media information for such purposes. Setting aside privacy issues for a moment, there is a very valid social reason for doing this. In fact, it could benefit countless numbers of people. </p>
<p>Admiral wanted to use young customers’ Facebook conversations and “likes” (with their permission) to assess whether they were low-risk drivers and entitled to discounts of up to £150. But Facebook quickly announced that this was against their terms of use, thwarting Admiral’s plan.</p>
<p>Whatever side you take on this issue, it’s important to understand the science behind Admiral’s plan and behind similar plans sure to come from companies large and small. Indeed, my research suggests that using social media data to make such predictions could be very accurate.</p>
<p>In 2015, the average Facebook user had liked 225 things, from films to politicians, as well as statements such as “<a href="https://www.facebook.com/I-Will-Go-Slightly-Out-of-My-Way-To-Step-On-A-Crunchy-Looking-Leaf-128579817570/">I like stepping on crunchy leaves</a>”.</p>
<p>My colleagues and I collected data from 6m Facebook users through an opt-in survey that measured their personality and gave them feedback on their results. We then measured how well their Facebook activity could predict their personality using a number between 0 and 1. The higher the number, the stronger the correlation.</p>
<p>When we used 60,000 users’ “likes” to <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/112/4/1036.abstract">predict their self-reported psychological traits</a>, we found that the correlation between “Likes” and personality was 0.56. To put that in perspective, if you ask someone’s work colleague to predict their personality the accuracy is 0.27, friends can predict at 0.45, family at 0.50 and even someone’s spouse can only predict at 0.58. In other words, the computer knows you almost as well as your husband or wife –- and better than almost everyone else.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/144405/original/image-20161103-25353-1vj5ct4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/144405/original/image-20161103-25353-1vj5ct4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144405/original/image-20161103-25353-1vj5ct4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144405/original/image-20161103-25353-1vj5ct4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144405/original/image-20161103-25353-1vj5ct4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144405/original/image-20161103-25353-1vj5ct4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144405/original/image-20161103-25353-1vj5ct4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Out of my way … I need to post on Facebook!</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“Sensation seekers” (extroverts who look for new, varied, and risky experiences) <a href="http://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrpdf/rr020.pdf">are a poor car insurance risk</a>. On Facebook, these are the people who like “white water rafting” and “bungee jumping”, and use phrases such as “chillin”, “great night” and, bizarrely, “soooooooo”.</p>
<p>We can be extra confident in such a system because online data is surprisingly difficult to fake. Everything that happens on Facebook is timestamped, so if on the day before you apply for car insurance you suddenly like “chess” and “reading” (predictors of introversion) –- after years of talking about parties and drinking –- the system can easily pick that up.</p>
<h2>Social benefit</h2>
<p>For the record, I think it’s a shame that, in this case, social media data has been barred from a use that could benefit young people and society. Most young people take driving seriously and many never make an insurance claim, but they have no way of distinguishing themselves from the minority whose thrill-seeking and expensive crashes increase the premiums for everyone.</p>
<p>Older drivers have had time to build up their no-claims bonuses. But new drivers all look the same through the lens of the traditional demographic and geographical data used to set premiums. Young people whose social media data indicates they are mature and self-controlled could have had the opportunity to prove they are worthy of a £150 discount. This would have been a nice saving given that the cheapest comprehensive insurance cover for 17-22-year-olds in the UK costs <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37847647">£1,287 per year.</a> </p>
<p>There are plenty of ways our social media data could be used both for and against us, and that’s why we’ll see many more battles such as this one. The Admiral case could well be remembered as just the beginning of a tortuous back and forth over using digital footprints in financial modelling. <a href="http://tweetmewatson.mybluemix.net/">Other social networks</a>, <a href="http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-37210-0_6">mobile phones</a>, store loyalty cards and the billions of sensors that are forming the so-called <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-internet-of-things-16542">Internet of Things</a> all collect data that can predict psychological traits.</p>
<p>There will be plenty of close calls going forward as we debate these issues of social usefulness versus privacy, but in my view this wasn’t one of them. As long as companies use our data transparently and with our consent, why not allow both parties to an insurance transaction to rely on what appears to be very accurate data?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/68186/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Stillwell is Deputy Director of the Psychometrics Centre at Cambridge Judge Business School, which licenses a personality prediction API on <a href="http://www.applymagicsauce.com">www.applymagicsauce.com</a>. Neither he nor the Psychometrics Centre was involved with Admiral's social media insurance product.</span></em></p>Facebook has banned insurance firm Admiral from using its data but research suggests it could predict if you’re a risk taker.David Stillwell, Lecturer in Big Data Analytics and Quantitative Social Science, Cambridge Judge Business SchoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/638132016-09-29T20:08:14Z2016-09-29T20:08:14ZEveryone’s different: what parts of the brain make our personalities so unique?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137686/original/image-20160914-4936-1ihm9d6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Because everyone is different, psychologists have long debated how to characterise personality.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/beautyisintheeye2/15521669960/in/photolist-pDABHj-aiFiJD-a1XehG-9xrJQt-m7QQgG-agE9Pa-fSXY5-e3eqvr-zbaYaW-gBGYH-7z3iQx-zBwUYH-5jufDb-7seAyF-arMviZ-5jpWYa-8SQ5hq-8FxQQ6-7fBZu1-7z75Dw-pbDV69-kJxsec-4YpHr-8mTCZ3-6AUXhm-7F568S-6Ny7sN-7F5671-5Ly6k3-95E8D5-bBtVH-8SQ4VA-9QCvzw-KG98y-298da-Cxriz1-e8gQ4i-eVnL3r-c5xdef-pkTRug-6HMM3q-CA5dY9-DxpS5N-DvgpUQ-A9xfhH-eiYwS6-8SQ4y5-f83g4R-8SLZP4-kJyHNW">Szoki Adams/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The brain is key to our existence, but there’s a long way to go before neuroscience can truly capture its staggering capacity. For now though, our <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/brain-control-series-31489">Brain Control</a> series explores what we do know about the brain’s command of six central functions: <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-brain-regions-control-our-language-and-how-do-we-know-this-63318">language</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-emotion-centre-is-the-oldest-part-of-the-human-brain-why-is-mood-so-important-63324">mood</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/were-capable-of-infinite-memory-but-where-in-the-brain-is-it-stored-and-what-parts-help-retrieve-it-63386">memory</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/some-people-cant-see-but-still-think-they-can-heres-how-the-brain-controls-our-vision-63323">vision</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-our-brain-controls-movement-and-makes-new-connections-when-parts-are-damaged-63520">motor skills</a> and personality – and what happens when things go wrong.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Personality is a broad term describing how people <a href="http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/150/4/443">habitually relate to the world</a> and their inner self. After the developmental period through childhood and adolescence, these patterns of relating remain reasonably stable through life. They are then <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1838804.Psychology">referred to as traits</a> and influence behaviour, thinking, motivation and emotion.</p>
<p>Since everyone is different in their own way, <a href="http://projects.ori.org/lrg/PDFs_papers/Goldberg.Am.Psych.1993.pdf">psychologists have debated</a> how to characterise personality. The most popular approach has so far been to <a href="http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.ps.41.020190.002221">use five dimensions</a>: openness to experience (curious or cautious), conscientiousness (organised or careless), extraversion (outgoing or solitary), agreeableness (friendly or detached) and neuroticism (nervous or secure). </p>
<p>A <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/1992-25763-001">self-report questionnaire</a> is often used to give a score to each dimension, which then describes someone’s personality. These descriptions have been used to understand normal and abnormal behaviour, and to predict work success, academic achievement and interpersonal relationships. </p>
<p>Both genetic and environmental factors determine someone’s personality. Genes <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1399-0004.1994.tb04214.x/abstract">account for between 30-50%</a> of the determination and the rest is made up largely of environmental experiences unique to the individual. </p>
<h2>History of personality</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139385/original/image-20160927-20144-15ztr1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139385/original/image-20160927-20144-15ztr1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139385/original/image-20160927-20144-15ztr1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1369&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139385/original/image-20160927-20144-15ztr1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1369&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139385/original/image-20160927-20144-15ztr1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1369&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139385/original/image-20160927-20144-15ztr1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1720&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139385/original/image-20160927-20144-15ztr1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1720&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139385/original/image-20160927-20144-15ztr1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1720&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An iron rod was driven through Gage’s head, destroying most of his left frontal lobe and resulting in a profound change in his personality.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Phineas_Gage_GageMillerPhoto2010-02-17_Unretouched_Color_CroppedEmphasizingIron.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Understanding the neurological physiology of personality is sometimes seen as the holy grail of psychology, and was the topic of Sigmund <a href="http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/like/122132968218?lpid=107&chn=ps">Freud’s first paper</a>, Project for a Scientific Psychology, in 1895.</p>
<p>Early developments in this field came from historical case descriptions. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1114479/">classical case is of Phineas Gage</a> (1823-60), an American railroad worker who had a large iron rod driven completely through his head in an accident, which destroyed most of his left frontal lobe and resulted in a profound personality change. </p>
<p>After the accident, Gage was described as having become “fitful, irreverent, indulging at times in the grossest profanity (which was not previously his custom), manifesting… little deference for his fellows, impatient of restraint or advice when it conflicts with his desires.”</p>
<p>From this case, the frontal lobes, which occupy the front third of the brain, <a href="http://people.hss.caltech.edu/%7Esteve/files/grafman.pdf">emerged as the seat of higher functions</a> such as judgement, motivation, regulation of behaviour and social consciousness. </p>
<p>Later, in the early 20th century, neuroanatomists identified the limbic lobe – an arc-shaped part of the frontal, temporal and parietal lobes that sits in the middle of the brain – as the seat of emotion. It was recognised as <a href="http://www.springer.com/la/book/9783540346845">making an important contribution</a> to personality. </p>
<p>As our understanding evolved, personality has been regarded as a composite of character and temperament. </p>
<h2>Temperamental traits</h2>
<p>Temperament is understood as the way the body produces behaviour. It <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8038587">refers to certain biases</a> an individual has when responding to external stimuli.</p>
<p>A well-established model proposes that whereas personality traits are based on habitual behaviour, temperamental traits are <a href="http://www.lww.co.uk/kaplan-and-sadocks-comprehensive-textbook-of-psychiatry">someone’s predispositions</a> when it comes to four areas: harm avoidance, novelty seeking, reward dependence, and persistence. These are closely related to basic emotions such as fear, anger, attachment and ambition. </p>
<p>High harm-avoidance leads to avoiding behaviours that don’t produce reward or cause punishment; as in people who are shy, uncertain or socially inhibited.</p>
<p>Individuals with such traits have <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19904278">increased activity in the fear circuit of the brain</a>, involving the amygdala and other structures of the limbic lobe.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139505/original/image-20160927-30419-1c3barj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139505/original/image-20160927-30419-1c3barj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139505/original/image-20160927-30419-1c3barj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139505/original/image-20160927-30419-1c3barj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139505/original/image-20160927-30419-1c3barj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139505/original/image-20160927-30419-1c3barj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139505/original/image-20160927-30419-1c3barj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139505/original/image-20160927-30419-1c3barj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Individuals who are shy have high activity in the fear circuit of the brain.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This activity has been linked to abnormalities in two neurotransmitters: serotonin and γ-amino butyric acid (GABA). Modulating these with drugs – such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs that include Prozac) and benzodiazepines, <a href="https://theconversation.com/weekly-dose-valium-the-safer-choice-that-led-to-dependence-and-addiction-59824">including Valium</a> – can help people with depressive, anxious and obsessive thoughts.</p>
<p>Novelty seeking leads to exploration and individuals high on this trait are curious, quick-tempered, impulsive and easily bored. They have <a href="http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v17/n8/full/nn.3743.html">increased activity in the basal ganglia</a>, which are clumps of neurons sitting in the middle of the brain. This trait has also been linked to the so-called pleasure molecule dopamine, which acts on the basal ganglia, and changes in this pathway are <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16715055">associated with seeking novelty in different ways</a>. </p>
<p>People with high reward dependence seek social rewards and are <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8038587">likely to be socially sensitive</a> and reliant on social approval. Those low on this trait are tough-minded, cold and aloof.</p>
<p>The temporal lobes of the brain play a major role in how we process social cues, and increased activity in the anterior part of these lobes and in a brain structure called the thalamus has been <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21126511">related to higher levels of reward</a> dependence.</p>
<p>Persistence leads to the maintenance of a behaviour despite fatigue, repetitiveness and frustration, and often results in such qualities as industriousness and determination. The regions of the brain particularly important for this include the inner and lower parts of the frontal lobes, <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21126511">especially those called the anterior cingulate and the orbitofrontal cortex</a>, and their networks that involve the basal ganglia.</p>
<p>Persistence is loosely related to motivation. Emotion plays a <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23329161">major role in maintaining this drive</a>, as basic emotions, such as happiness, tend to energise behaviour and lack of emotion has the opposite effect.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139679/original/image-20160929-27026-18nqblu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139679/original/image-20160929-27026-18nqblu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139679/original/image-20160929-27026-18nqblu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139679/original/image-20160929-27026-18nqblu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139679/original/image-20160929-27026-18nqblu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1449&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139679/original/image-20160929-27026-18nqblu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139679/original/image-20160929-27026-18nqblu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1449&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Conversation</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-emotion-centre-is-the-oldest-part-of-the-human-brain-why-is-mood-so-important-63324">The emotion centre is the oldest part of the human brain: why is mood so important?</a>
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<p>Researchers have attempted to examine whether brains of high achieving people, such as Einstein, are different. While there <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23161163">have been reports</a> that brain regions involved in numerical and spatial abilities (mid-frontal and inferior parietal regions) were larger and the bundle of <a href="http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2013/09/24/brain.awt252">fibres connecting the two halves of the brain</a> (corpus callosum) was thicker, <a href="http://www.bic.mni.mcgill.ca/users/elise/Alberts_brain.pdf">there is no consensus</a> that Einstein’s brain was remarkably different from others. </p>
<p>There is, however, considerable evidence that people with higher intelligence, as measured on psychometric tests, <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9246731">have larger brains on the average</a>. Geniuses whose brains have been studied and found to be large include Carl Gauss (mathematician), Rudolf Wagner (composer) and Vladimir Lenin (political leader), although there are also many exceptions to this rule.</p>
<h2>Character</h2>
<p>Character involves an individual’s goals and values in relation to oneself and others. It is the <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8038587">conceptual core of personality</a> and involves complex higher functions such as reasoning, abstraction, concept formation and interpretation of symbols.</p>
<p>A network involving the frontal, temporal and parietal lobes is <a href="http://www.cell.com/neuron/abstract/S0896-6273(15)00816-8">important for these functions</a>, with reasoning and abstraction being largely frontal lobe functions, symbolic representation served by the temporal and parietal lobes and formation of new memories facilitated by the hippocampus and the memory network. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/were-capable-of-infinite-memory-but-where-in-the-brain-is-it-stored-and-what-parts-help-retrieve-it-63386">We're capable of infinite memory, but where in the brain is it stored, and what parts help retrieve it?</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Interaction of these networks with regions regulating temperament and emotion leads to the emergence of individual personality. It is important to emphasise that no particular personality characteristic comes from a specific brain region, as the brain operates as a complex network. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139507/original/image-20160928-30448-1xniwas.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139507/original/image-20160928-30448-1xniwas.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139507/original/image-20160928-30448-1xniwas.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139507/original/image-20160928-30448-1xniwas.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139507/original/image-20160928-30448-1xniwas.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139507/original/image-20160928-30448-1xniwas.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1080&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139507/original/image-20160928-30448-1xniwas.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1080&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139507/original/image-20160928-30448-1xniwas.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1080&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People suffering from dissociative identity disorder have been reported to have reduced volumes of the hippocampus and amygdala and reduced activity of the orbitofrontal cortex.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is also considerable redundancy in these networks, as they have an innate ability to compensate, <a href="http://www.normandoidge.com/?page_id=1259">sometimes referred to as neuroplasticity</a>. An excellent example of neuroplasticity was demonstrated in <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/97/8/4398.full">London taxi drivers who were shown</a> to have increased grey matter in the back part of their hippocampi – related to spatial representation of the environment - when compared to those who weren’t professional drivers. </p>
<p>Neuroplasticity is <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12783955">instrumental in recovery from brain injury</a>, such as after a stroke, when other parts of the brain take over some of the functions of injured regions.</p>
<p>Not uncommonly, a problem in brain development or the failure of adaptive mechanisms leads to the development of personality disorder. This is when a person has an enduring pattern of behaviour and ways of thinking that deviates from social and cultural norms, causing distress. </p>
<p>Researchers have begun to look at the neurological biology of various personality disorders. One subject of interest has been multiple personality disorder, now referred to as dissociative identity disorder. People suffering from this have been reported to have <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16585437">reduced volumes of the hippocampus and amygdala</a> and reduced activity of the <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17961993">orbitofrontal cortex</a>. These have been linked to childhood trauma which results in abnormal regulation of emotion. </p>
<p>While we have come a long way from the days of phrenology, when personality was read by feeling bumps on the head, the neurological biology of normal and abnormal aspects of personality is only beginning to be understood. What is clear though, is that personality comes from a complex neural construct, shaped by genetics and early developmental experiences that influence the structure and function of the brain.</p>
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<p><em>Read the other articles on Brain Control <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/brain-control-series-31489">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63813/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Perminder Sachdev receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and the Australian Research Council (ARC). He also has funding support from a number off oundations, including the Vincent Fairfax Foundation, the Holden Foundation, the Yulgilbar Foundation, and the Rebecca Cooper Foundation. </span></em></p>Both genetic and environmental factors determine someone’s personality. Genes account for between 30-50% of the determination and unique environmental experiences making up the rest.Perminder Sachdev, Scientia Professor of Neuropsychiatry, Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA), School of Psychiatry, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.