A man's character is his fate.

Personality represents the innate and persistent thought, feeling, and action tendencies of individuals. An overall personality profile is thought to be comprised of multiple parts (or traits). The five-factor model of personality identifies five traits that represent key aspects of an individual’s personality: openness (O), conscientiousness (C), extraversion (E), agreeableness (A), neuroticism (N).

Each trait is represented as part of all personalities to varying degrees and there are tools available to assess and measure individual standing for each trait. Using a five-factor assessment, trait scores have consistently been found to be normally distributed across the population (McCrae, R. R., & Costa, P. T., 2003). If the cutoff for high and low trait scores is set to one standard deviation of the mean then for each of the five major traits: about 68% of people will fall into the average, 16% high, and 16% low. 20% of people will have all five traits within the average range of the curve while 80% will have one or more traits that are either significantly higher or lower than the general population. Large assessment studies have been conducted that provide norm data corroborating these trait patters, providing more granular insights on how individuals generally fall above or below standard thresholds on each trait. The data referred to in this article leverages openly published results from one such study (see Johnson, 2014).

Traits are scored on a continuum and individuals are generally identified as scoring higher, similar to, or lower than a norm group reference. The threshold used to determine high or low scores for each trait is a statistical measure of the distance from the norm group average, such as one standard deviation. Differentiating each of the five traits into high, average, or low relative scores allows for evaluating general patterns based on 3⁵ (243) personality trait configurations.

Over the last 100 years, there has been a growing body of academic research dedicated to understanding and defining human personality and how differences among personalities are related to important individual, interpersonal, and social-institutional outcome constructs that impact our lives in important ways (Ozer & Benet, 2006). Large-scale replication studies have reinforced confidence in these findings (Soto, 2019).

Thus far, there are over 40 outcomes which have been found by peer-reviewed research to have a valid and reliable relationship with five factor personality traits. Outcomes can be associated with one or more of the five factor traits and the relationship can be positive or negative.

For example, the construct of peer status refers to the relative prominence, respect, and influence one has among group members. Individuals whose status is higher than the norm will have more peers perceive them as a friend and have greater influence within the peer group. Peer status is positively related to both extraversion and agreeableness and negatively related to neuroticism. Understanding an individual’s relative standing for each of those traits will provide insight into how their personality will meaningfully contribute to their status among peers in a group context. For example, if it is known that a person is relatively extraverted (high E) and emotionally stable (low N) relative to their peers then it is likely that the group will view that person with some esteem, their opinion will carry weight.

For the purposes of the observations highlighted in this article, social outcomes are designated based on their general expected impact – either positive or negative – to an individual’s life experience. These distinctions are intended to be self-evident: for example, it is generally viewed that having a higher disposition to heart disease is negative. The article does not attempt to distinguish outcomes which are not readily apparent as either positive or negative to an individual’s life experience.

Individual level outcomes represent constructs that primarily impact the self. Research on the relationship between individual outcomes and personality traits has found significant evidence on at least twenty different constructs. Of those twenty individual outcomes, trait pattern analysis indicates that, overall, about 39% of people are predisposed to experience net positive (more positive than negative) individual outcomes. 23% are predisposed to have net neutral and the remaining 38% net negative.

Individual Outcomes Summary

Outcome Type	Outcome	% Positive Impact*	% Negative Impact*	% Neutral Impact*	A	C	E	N	O
Cognition	Verbal Fluency	30%	29%	41%	0	0	1	-1	1
Happiness and Subjective Well-Being	Subjective well-being	25%	23%	52%	0	0	1	-1	0
Physical Health and Longevity	Coping	25%	23%	52%	0	0	1	-1	0
	Heart disease	15%	16%	69%	-1	0	0	0	0
	Risky behavior & longevity	16%	16%	68%	0	-1	0	0	0
Psychopathology	Anxiety	16%	16%	68%	0	0	0	1	0
	Depression	25%	23%	52%	0	0	-1	1	0
	Substance abuse	25%	25%	50%	0	-1	0	0	1
Self-Concept and Identity	Identity Foreclosure	0%	0%	100%	0	0	0	0	-1
	Ethnic-culture identification (for minorities)	16%	16%	68%	0	1	0	0	0
	Identity Achievement	16%	16%	68%	0	1	0	0	0
	Identity integration or consolidation	25%	25%	50%	0	0	0	-1	1
	Majority-culture identification (for minorities)	25%	23%	52%	0	0	1	0	1
Spirituality and Virtues	Religious beliefs and behavior	0%	0%	100%	1	1	0	0	0
	Spiritual Concerns	0%	0%	100%	0	0	0	0	1
	Existential well-being	25%	23%	52%	0	0	1	-1	0
	Forgiveness	15%	16%	69%	1	0	0	0	0
	Gratitude	24%	23%	53%	1	0	1	0	0
	Humor	25%	24%	51%	1	0	0	-1	0
	Inspiration	25%	23%	52%	0	0	1	0	1

Extraversion and neuroticism are both related to the highest number of individual outcomes at eight each, including what is arguably one of the most important overall individual outcomes – subjective well-being (self-assessment of the quality of one’s life).

What does this mean for those of us who are lower on the extraversion spectrum? At the aggregate level within the 39% net positive group (looking only at the group whose trait pattern aligns with a net positive on individual outcome impact), 60% (25% within the overall population) of people will have average or low scores on extraversion and twelve of the twenty outcomes do not have a significant correlation with extraversion. This indicates that while extravert tendencies such as experiencing joy in engaging with the external world can lead to internal appreciations of ones’ life and other individual outcomes, there are also many other important individual outcomes related to other aspects of a personality. Examples include developing one’s self-identity (conscientiousness and openness), virtues such as the ability to forgive and appreciate humor (agreeableness), and maintain a healthy mind by avoiding substance abuse and controlling anxiety (low neuroticism). All five factors are related to important individual outcomes.

Cognition is the mental process of acquiring knowledge through thought, experience, and senses. Generally, the higher the level of cognition, the more adept someone is at collecting and internalizing information into useful knowledge, and this is related to positive life outcomes such as job performance (Schmidt & Hunter, 1998).

Verbal fluency, which is the ability to understand, process, and reproduce language is an important dimension of cognition and research has connected it with several personality traits (Sutin et al., 2019). Specifically, high openness and extraversion and lower neuroticism are associated with higher scores of verbal fluency tests.

The estimated percent of personality configurations that result in positive overall cognition impact is 30.5%. The most common five factor trait configuration resulting in high cognition is average conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism and high openness, approximately 4% of personalities. A cumulative total of about 1.5% of personalities are associated with high extraversion and openness and low neuroticism, the traits configuration that is most closely aligned with high cognition.

Subjective Well-Being (SWB) is a construct that reflects an individual’s overall evaluation on the quality or their life, from their own perspective. Generally, higher levels of subjective well-being are positively associated with related constructs of happiness, positive affect, overall life satisfaction, and lower levels of negative affect.

SWB is important to individuals and has also been used to measure policy outcomes across organizations, cities, states, and nations. There are many variables that can influence and predict SWB including income, health, safety, and quality of relationships. However, personality has often been found to have the strongest predictive value for an individual’s own perceptions of SWB.

Research indicates that lower neuroticism and higher extraversion are associated with higher scores on measures of SWB (Steel, P., Schmidt, J., & Shultz, J., 2008). It is also hypothesized that there are biological mechanisms underpinning the connection between individual’s personality traits and SWB. For example, extraversion may be related to engagement with the external world resulting in releases of dopamine in the brain and leading to higher levels of positive affect and higher SWB; whereas genetic traits related to the body’s ability to regulate the release of serotonin and its subsequent ability to moderate mood may influence overall neuroticism and its associated avoidance behavior, negative affect, and ultimately lower SWB. Scores on SWB tend to be stable over time.

The estimated percent of personality configurations that result in a relatively high disposition towards SWB is 24.9%. The most common five factor trait configuration resulting in high SWB is average openness, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and neuroticism and high extraversion, approximately 3.1% of personalities. A cumulative total of about 5.5% of personalities are associated with both high extraversion and low neuroticism which is the trait configuration that is most closely aligned with high SWB.

Measures of physical health are (understandably) often associated with people’s physical qualities and behavior. However, personality can strongly influence our ability to make healthy decisions and consistently take actions which contribute to personal well-being. Personality contributes to our understanding of individual physical health over time, influencing how we behave and also how long we live.

Physical health related outcomes that have been found to have significant associations to personality traits include the ability to cope with hardship, the tendency to engage in risky behavior as well as a more direct association with heart disease.

Coping refers to the ability to successfully overcome stressful situations such as at work (e.g., long hours, poor conditions, job insecurity) and in life (e.g., traumatic events, moving, relationship events, etc.) by using strategies such as distraction, redefinition, direct action, social support, and others. Left unchecked, stress can contribute to many serious negative physical health outcomes. Successful use of coping strategies will reduce the negative effects of stress and over time will result in fewer negative health outcomes. Research indicates that higher scores in extraversion and lower scores in neuroticism are linked with higher use of successful coping strategies (David & Suls, 1999 and Fredrickson & Joiner, 2002).

Another behavioral outcome of personality that influences longevity is the tendency to take risks. Risky behavior such as drug use, violence, unsafe driving, or excessive alcohol use increase the risk of mortality. Research indicates that lower scores in conscientiousness are associated with more risky behavior (Bogg, 2004) and, conversely, higher scores in conscientiousness are associated with greater longevity (Friedman, 1995).

There is also evidence that heart disease (or at least the behavioral contributors that lead to heart disease) is associated with lower scores in agreeableness (Miller et al., 1996). This may be related to elevated levels of anger (a facet of agreeableness in the five-factor model) which is associated with a stress response and elevated heart rates.

The estimated percent of personality configurations that result in relatively high disposition towards positive physical health outcomes is 33.1%. The most common five factor trait configuration resulting in high cognition is average openness, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and neuroticism and relatively high extraversion, approximately 3.1% of personalities. A cumulative total of about 2.6% of personalities are associated with high conscientiousness, high agreeableness, and either high extraversion or low neuroticism, the traits configurations that are most closely aligned with high physical health.

The American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) is the authoritative guide for classifying and describing mental disorders. Personality disorders represent an entire category within the manual and are generally marked in part by extreme highs and lows of the five factors (Widgier, 2016), in combination with other important behavioral indicators. Other than personality disorders, there are other mental health disorders that are associated with different aspects of personality such as anxiety, depression, and substance abuse.

There are several types of anxiety disorders including generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and social phobia among others. The disorders can manifest as physical symptoms, can be debilitating, and are marked by concern, fear, apprehension about something uncertain. A negative relationship has been found between trait scores of neuroticism and anxiety disorders (Trull & Sher, 1994).

Major depression is a mood disorder characterized by regular episodes in which there are persistent feelings of sadness and loss of interest in normal social or career activities. In addition to related mental and behavioral problems, it can also impact physical health if associated with loss of appetite, sleep, and cognitive functioning. In a longitudinal study, it was found that the prevalence of major depression was negatively related to extraversion and positively related with neuroticism (Trull & Sher, 1994).

Substance abuse disorders are characterized by repeated use several types of substances including drugs, medications, or toxins to the extent that it interferes with normal social activity or in physically hazardous situations. There are distinctions drawn between casual drug use which may not interfere with day-to-day life and abusive behavior in which the use of substances has debilitating effects on an individual’s normal social activities. Meta-analytic review has shown substance abuse to be negatively related to conscientiousness and positively related to openness (Bogg & Roberts 2004 and Trull & Sher, 1994).

The estimated percent of personality configurations that result in relatively low disposition towards psychopathology is 34.8%. The most common five factor trait configuration resulting in high cognition is average conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism, and low openness, approximately 4.4% of personalities. A cumulative total of about 2.6% of personalities are associated with low neuroticism, and some combination of high extraversion, low openness, and high conscientiousness, which are the traits configurations most closely aligned with lower disposition towards psychopathology.

Identity refers to a self-structure: an internal, self-constructed, dynamic organization of drives, abilities, beliefs, and individual history that develops over time (Marcia, 1980). Having a fully developed self-identity allows someone to understand their own unique qualities including vocational interests, ideological goals, and relative strengths and weaknesses compared with others and in different environments. Personality traits have been found to influence how identities are developed as well as sense of belonging with certain cultures.

Marcia (1980) describes several identity statuses that help to differentiate the process by which an individual makes decisions resulting in the formation of their identity. Two of these statuses are identity achievement (identity developed through self-determination) and foreclosure (identity is selected by an external authority such as a parent). Of the two, self-determined identity achievement is generally viewed as a universally positive process whereas the foreclosure process has mixed reviews. Identity achievement is associated with high conscientiousness and foreclosure is related to lower openness (Clancy & Dollinger, 1993).

As life unfolds, the number and types of roles that an individual plays often changes. The process of identity integration is when people continually evaluate their investments of emotional energy into reconciling various roles, responsibilities, and contexts towards the construction of a coherent identity (Pals, 1999). Having a coherent identity results in a positive self-perception within ones’ larger social reality. Identity integration is associated with higher openness and lower neuroticism.

Changes to self-identity can result when moving into a new culture, especially when the individual becomes part of a minority. A sense of belonging, acceptance, having a voice, and continuing to be supported by their ethnic culture of origin or the new majority-culture may vary based in part on personality traits. Specifically, identification with the ethnic group is related to high conscientiousness and identification with majority-culture is related to higher conscientiousness and extraversion (Ryder et al., 2000).

The estimated percent of personality configurations that result in relatively high self-concept and identity is 35.0%. The most common five factor trait configuration resulting in high cognition is average conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism, and high openness, approximately 4.0% of personalities. A cumulative total of about 3.8% of personalities are associated with high conscientiousness, and some combination of high extraversion, high openness, and low neuroticism, which are the traits configurations most closely aligned with higher disposition towards self-concept and identity.

Major religions, philosophers of all ages, and modern social scientists alike have all studied and developed theories around the concept of human virtues. Generally, virtues refer to culturally positive moral characteristics of an individual. Virtuous people consistently behave in ways that are highly valued among others in that culture – their behavior is judged as morally good. Specific behaviors that are classified as virtuous may differ. Psychologists have also studied how virtuous behavior is related to personality traits. Their findings have linked personality traits with a handful of virtuous behaviors including forgiveness, gratitude, humor, and inspiration.

Forgiveness refers to one’s ability to mentally transition a perceived transgression to a neutral or positive outcome with the offender. In general, the ability to forgive is thought to be an overall strength. It is an adaptive construct that assists with coping and can lead to overall well-being and higher quality relationships (Thompson et al., 2005). Forgiveness can be contrasted with resentment and vindictiveness in which perceived wrongs either persist as negative sentiment within a relationship or lead to further negative outcomes. Higher scores on agreeableness are associated with more forgiving behavior (Brose et al., 2005).

Gratitude is the tendency to recognize kindness from other people and respond by showing appreciation, thankfulness, and kindness to them. It requires the ability to recognize that a positive outcome has occurred and then associate that with an external source. Those with a higher disposition towards gratitude also tend to display more prosocial behaviors and report higher well-being. Higher scores on extraversion and agreeableness are associated with more frequent displays of gratitude (McCullough, 2002).

A humorous disposition – or sense of humor - is the tendency to appreciate amusement, comedy, jests, self-referential humor, wit, or sarcasm. It has been found to be a social asset linked with higher creativity, friendship, social intelligence, and mental health. Higher levels of humor are associated with high agreeableness and low neuroticism (Cann & Calhoun, 2001).

Inspiration is when something external to oneself evokes a realization of the possibility to transcend some type of self-perceived limit or capacity and to be motivated to act towards achieving the object of that realization. Common sources of inspiration include exemplary others, literature, music, and nature. Higher disposition towards being inspired is associated with higher extraversion and openness (Thrash & Elliot, 2004).

The estimated percent of personality configurations that result in relatively high levels of these virtues is 35.9%. The most common five factor trait configuration resulting in high cognition is average conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism, and high openness, approximately 4.0% of personalities. A cumulative total of about 3.8% of personalities are associated with high agreeableness, either high openness or agreeableness, and some combination of high openness or low neuroticism, which are the traits configurations most closely aligned with higher disposition these select virtues.

Interpersonal outcomes also have a proportionally large number of correlations with neuroticism and extraversion. Of the ten interpersonal outcomes, six and five of them are significantly correlated with these two traits, respectively. Agreeableness and conscientiousness are both related to two and, interestingly, openness is not related to any.

Interpersonal Outcomes Summary

Outcome Type	Outcome	% Positive Impact*	% Negative Impact*	% Neutral Impact*	A	C	E	N	O
Family and Peer Relationships	Family Satisfaction	24%	25%	51%	0	1	0	-1	0
	Peer Status	30%	29%	41%	1	0	1	-1	0
	Peer's acceptance and friendship	15%	14%	71%	0	0	1	0	0
Romantic Relationships	Abuse of romantic partner	16%	16%	68%	0	0	0	1	0
	Attractiveness	15%	14%	71%	0	0	1	0	0
	Dating variety	15%	14%	71%	0	0	1	0	0
	Romantic conflict	16%	16%	68%	0	0	0	1	0
	Romantic dissolution	16%	16%	68%	0	0	0	1	0
	Romantic satisfaction	25%	23%	52%	0	0	1	-1	0
	Romantic satisfactions while pursuing a romantic relationship	24%	24%	52%	1	1	0	0	0

Trait pattern analysis for interpersonal outcomes indicates that 36% of people are predisposed with net positive interpersonal outcomes; 29% net neutral; and 35% net negative. Relatively low neuroticism and high extraversion are the biggest influence over positive interpersonal outcomes.

Neuroticism’s relatedness to emotionality in the social realm such as the ability to control impulses, experience vulnerability, and self-assess play an outsize role in how others perceive and think about us. By definition, extraversion is directly related to preferences for social interaction and engaging in the world, so it makes sense that many of the interpersonal outcomes are related to this trait.

It is known that openness is related to verbal fluency and it could be hypothesized that the ability to communicate may translate into higher quality interpersonal outcomes. However, perhaps surprisingly, openness has not consistently been found to relate to interpersonal outcomes. There is some evidence that openness may serve as a mediating factor in attractiveness where partners seek for someone with relatively similar levels of openness (Figueredo et al., 2006).

Relationships with family and peers evolve over the course of a life and have important impact to higher well-being (e.g., when relationships are mutually supportive) and stress (e.g., when the relationship drains various resources). Strong social support from family and friends often results in psychological, behavioral, physiological benefits (Thomas et al., 2017). For example, these relationships may provide encouragement, social support, buttress mental health, and influence the adoption of healthier choices. Psychologists have discovered links between personality traits with family satisfaction, peer status, acceptance, and friendship.

Family satisfaction refers to the overall quality, amount of contact, conflict, and assistance provided to each other within the relationships between parents and children. It is influenced by many factors such as socioeconomics, lifestyle choices and expectations, early childhood experiences, and mental health. Importantly, higher family satisfaction has been found to be related with high conscientiousness and low neuroticism (Belsky et al., 2003).

Having positive relationships with non-family members is related to many positive outcomes including positive mental health, higher self-esteem, social support, and life satisfaction. Peer friendship refers to one’s likelihood to create positive reciprocal bonds among non-family members and has been found to be higher for those with higher extraversion (Jensen-Campbell et al., 2002).

Status within face-to-face peer groups is different from socio-economic status, leadership, or popularity. Peer status refers to the amount of attention, respect, and influence an individual is granted relative to others in the group. Higher status has been found to result in higher well-being, lower levels of victimization, and positive emotional experience. Research indicates that peer status is positively related to high extraversion, high agreeableness, and low neuroticism (Anderson et al., 2001).

The estimated percent of personality configurations that result in relatively positive relationships with family and friends is 35.7%. The most common five factor trait configuration resulting in high cognition is average openness, conscientiousness, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and high extraversion, approximately 3.1% of personalities. A cumulative total of about 6.6% of personalities are associated with high extraversion and low neuroticism or high conscientiousness, which are the traits configurations most closely aligned with positive outcomes among family and friendships.

Romantic relationships are generally considered a sub-type within the larger set of companionate relationships, distinguished by their levels of attraction, desire, and intimacy. It often refers to relationships of couples that are in some stage of romantic pursuit (e.g., dating) or marriage. Romantic partners are often central figures within one’s life and can become part of a shared identity.

Given the outsize prominence of this type of relationship within an individual’s life experience, research has focused on how personality traits can influence the dynamic between romantic partners. As a result, we now understand how the personalities can influence important romantic relationship outcomes such as dating variety, attractiveness, romantic satisfaction during while dating and while married, as well as abuse, conflict, and dissolution.

People who are better at appealing to and arousing interest in others, including romantic partners are referred to as being highly attractive. Those who are perceived as attractive are often able to leave favorable initial impressions with others and capture attention. Attractiveness can be related to many qualities such as intelligence, appearance, status, or health. Research has shown that expressive social communication styles (high extraversion) are related to perceptions of attractiveness (Riggio et al., 1991) as well as the number of different people that were dated over time, referred to as dating variety (Paunonen, 2003).

When romantic relationships deteriorate or break, it can cause significant stress and disruption. The ability of both partners to build and maintain a healthy and long-lasting romantic relationship is a way to avoid those negative effects. Research indicates that when married partners have lower neuroticism this is associated with marital longevity (Kelly & Conley, 1987) and lower levels of abuse and conflict (Robins et al., 2002).

Relationship satisfaction is a common measure of the quality of social connection between romantic partners. It is a measure that summarizes how positive or negative various aspects of the relationship are such as helpfulness, the ability to overcome problems, and levels of conflict. Higher satisfaction with the romantic relationship has a significant positive impact on ones’ overall well-being, especially as it avoids the negative consequences of relationship breaks. Interestingly, the literature indicates that those with higher conscientiousness and agreeableness were found to predict satisfaction among dating couples while those with high extraversion and low neuroticism were found to most predict the same for married couples (Watson, 2000).

The estimated percent of personality configurations that result in relatively positive romantic relationships is 36.4%. The most common five factor trait configuration resulting in relatively positive romantic relationships is average openness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism, and either high extraversion or high agreeableness, approximately 3.1% of personalities for each. A cumulative total of about 2.9% of personalities are associated with low neuroticism, high extraversion, and either high agreeableness or high conscientiousness, which are the traits configurations most closely aligned with relatively positive romantic relationship outcomes.

Relative to interpersonal outcomes, institutional outcomes have a comparatively balanced relation with the five traits. Across 17 institutional outcomes there are 27 significant correlations with traits: six each for agreeableness, conscientiousness, and extraversion; and five and four for neuroticism and openness, respectively.

Social-Institutional Outcomes Summary

Outcome Type	Outcome	% Positive Impact*	% Negative Impact*	% Neutral Impact*	A	C	E	N	O
Criminality	Antisocial behavior	24%	25%	51%	0	-1	0	1	0
	Criminal behavior	24%	24%	52%	-1	-1	0	0	0
Occupational Choice and Performance	Artistic occupational interests	0%	0%	100%	0	0	0	0	1
	Enterprising occupational interests	0%	0%	100%	0	0	1	0	0
	Investigative occupational interests	0%	0%	100%	0	0	0	0	1
	Social occupational interests	0%	0%	100%	1	0	1	0	0
	Extrinsic success	27%	27%	46%	-1	1	0	-1	0
	Financial Security	16%	16%	68%	0	0	0	-1	0
	Intrinsic success	16%	16%	68%	0	1	0	0	0
	Job attainment	15%	16%	69%	1	0	0	0	0
	Job satisfaction	25%	23%	52%	0	0	1	-1	0
	Leadership	24%	23%	53%	1	0	1	0	0
	Occupational commitment	25%	23%	52%	0	0	1	-1	0
	Occupational performance	16%	16%	68%	0	1	0	0	0
Political Attitudes and Values	Conservatism	0%	0%	100%	0	1	0	0	-1
	Right-wing authoritarianism	17%	16%	67%	0	0	0	0	-1
	Volunteerism	24%	23%	53%	1	0	1	0	0

Like individual outcomes, trait pattern analysis for institutional outcomes indicates that 39% of people are predisposed with net positive interpersonal outcomes; 22% net neutral; and 39% net negative. Relatively low neuroticism and high conscientiousness are the biggest influence over positive interpersonal outcomes.

The relatively important role of conscientiousness in institutional-level outcomes makes sense given its focus on controlling and regulating emotional and behavioral impulses. Organizations tend to thrive on the ability to take a long-term strategic view and follow through with well-considered action to achieve desired results. Conscientiousness is all about maintaining ones’ self-control, being planful, setting goals, and working hard to successfully accomplish said goals. How that focused effort is directed and impacts to social outcomes can be influenced by many factors, including in combination with other personality traits.

Behavior is labeled criminal when it is formally determined to explicitly break an established public law. More broadly, scientists refer to a concept of antisocial behavior when considering actions that people take which result in the disapproval or harm of others.

Most societies have methods for encouraging prosocial behavior and discouraging antisocial behavior. Often, entire branches of government or intergovernmental organizations are dedicated to this mission (e.g., ministries of justice, law enforcement agencies, security councils, investigative services, corrections departments, etc.). Just to put the issue in perspective, an example of the estimated annual economic impact of crime in the United States was between $690 billion and $3.41 trillion dollars (Government Accountability Office, 2017).

There are many factors that will lead individuals to engage in antisocial behavior: socioeconomic background, availability of social support, quality of relationships to friends and family, and many others. Personality traits are also an important factor in understanding antisocial behavior, especially when considering how people with different behavior tendencies react within different social situations. For example, how someone with low impulse control may react in an environment demanding quick responses to others who are perceived as aggressive or overdemanding. Knowledge of how personality influences behavior in different environments can assist communities with seeking to solution methods to anticipate, mitigate, and prevent criminal behavior.

Research also makes a distinction between antisocial behavior (actions which go against social norms) and criminal behavior (participation in an unlawful act). Both outcomes describe behavior that violates the rights of others in some way, with the latter containing a formal legal distinction. Trait-wise, there is a common thread of low conscientiousness associated with both types of behavior (Miller & Lyman, 2001). In part, this may be related to the interaction between related social outcomes: individuals who are less orderly, dutiful, and self-disciplined may experience poorer quality educational and career opportunities, increasing the risk to pursue antisocial or criminal activities.

Antisocial behavior has been found to also correlate with relatively high neuroticism (Krueger et al, 1994). It is possible that this may be a self-reinforcing cycle, first those who tend to be quick to anger and are more impulsive engage in antisocial behavior. Then the resulting consequences of punishment and isolation further increase the likelihood to behave antisocially.

Further, criminal behavior has been linked to lower levels of agreeableness. This indicates that those who are less altruistic, have difficulty engaging in cooperative behavior, and tend to have less sympathy for others may be more likely to commit crimes.

The estimated percent of personality configurations that result in relatively low antisocial behavior and criminality is 30.7%. The most common five factor trait configuration resulting in relatively low antisocial behavior and criminality is average openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, and high agreeableness, approximately 3.1% of personalities. A cumulative total of about 16.0% of personalities are associated with a mix of low neuroticism and high agreeableness or conscientiousness, which are the trait configurations most closely aligned with relatively higher likelihood for antisocial behavior and criminality.

Time spent in the role of an employed worker consumes a large amount of adult life for many people. 2020 data from the International Labor Organization (ILO) indicate that approximately 4.4 billion people (55% of the global population) is employed, and this doesn’t count many of the forms of unpaid work that are not tracked as official employment (e.g., domestic care or subsistence). According to OECD data, workers spend an average of four hours per day participating in paid work during the age span 15-64 years old or approximately 71,500 hours spent working.

At the level of social systems, employment is seen as a key driver of economic development, social inclusion, and well-being. Fostering employment leads to positive outcomes for nations. Career success also often leads to positive outcomes at the level of individual workers too, including higher personal income and better mental health (van der Noordt et al., 2014).

Given the impact of career effort to society and individuals, significant effort has gone into understanding the how people’s natural behavioral tendencies translate into work outcomes. As a result of this research, personality traits have been linked with many types of career-related outcomes including interest in specific types of work, levels of career success and satisfaction, ability to lead, and performance.

Research has long debated the types and nature of relationships between interests and personality, especially as it relates to career interests. Career interests refer to the different types of work that appeal to individuals based on their inherent preferences and values for various work-related attributes (e.g., career activities, environment, rewards, social aspects, etc.). Several well-founded relationships have emerged from this work.

Foremost, Holland’s typology of persons and environments (Holland, 1985; also referred to as the RIASEC model), defines the following distinct categories of career interests: realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional (see below illustration of Holland’s typology for more details on these types). In measuring work preferences and personality types of individuals, the following relationships have been consistently observed: openness is related to investigative and artistic career interests; extraversion is related to enterprising and social career interests; and agreeableness is also related to social career interests (Larson et al., 2002 and Barrick et al., 2003).

Extrinsic success in ones’ career refers to observable rewards such as titles, salary, benefits, perks, status (e.g., signaling associated with required skills, potential for rewards, and ability to contribute to society through work performance), etc. Higher extrinsic success is generally a positive outcome for individuals. Personality traits that are related to higher extrinsic career success are lower neuroticism and agreeableness, and higher conscientiousness (Judge, 1999).

The fact that lower agreeableness is associated with extrinsic success may seem surprising since it is also associated with lower social likeability. However, in this context when the lower agreeableness is combined with higher conscientiousness, the combination is associated with individuals who may be more willing to step over others to accomplish their goals. In some environments, this has been found to translate into more extrinsic career successes.

One specific and common measure of extrinsic career success outcome is related to financial security, which is the degree that an individual is earning wages that meet their necessities (e.g., food, medications, paying bills). Low neuroticism was specifically found to correlate with higher levels of financial security (Roberts, 2003).

Intrinsic career success refers to the natural appreciation and resulting positive emotional state that one has when appraising their work experiences. The experiences that elicit a positive emotional state will obviously vary from person to person based on different interests and values, but often include the level of autonomy of the work, positive social experiences with colleagues, and the alignment of the work with personal values. Job satisfaction is a common metric used to measure this construct and it is often associated with positive outcomes such as greater well-being, sense of identity, and happiness. Lower neuroticism and higher extraversion are associated with higher levels of intrinsic career success (Judge, 2002).

Job attainment is the achievement of specific career goals such as being hired into a more complex, higher paying roles that requires unique knowledge, skills, and abilities. It can be measured in terms of metrics such as job status, complexity, required educational level, and earnings. Higher job attainment is generally associated with positive career and life outcomes. Studies have shown that high agreeableness is related to higher job attainment outcomes (Roberts, 2003).

The ability to lead is an individual’s capacity to connect with and inspire the support of others to follow, cooperate, and act. On the largest scale, great leaders have been catalysts to great successes and failures of entire societies. However, leadership tends to emerge from all levels within society and drives many important outcomes, including spearheading transformation, fundraising for important social causes, or raising awareness on the need for change. The impact of quality leadership to society is significantly positive and consequently highly valued.

Research has confirmed that high agreeableness and extraversion are associated with higher leadership abilities (Judge & Bono, 2000). According to the circumplex model of personality, the combination of relatively high agreeableness and extraversion is related to being personable, friendly, enthusiastic, helpful, and sociable which may translate into the ability to form trust-worthy bonds with others.

Organizational commitment refers to the emotional attachment, identification with, and level of engagement that one has with a group. Most commonly in research, the group is an organization they are employed with. Emotional attachment is meaningful since it relates directly to a person’s affective associations with their job. Generally, people who have relatively more frequent and more positive affective experiences at their job will be more likely to want to stay at the organization. Higher levels of commitment from workers is generally good for employees (they are more engaged in and find more enjoyment with their work) and employer (experience lower turnover and can grow talent from within the organization).

Outcomes across many studies indicate that relatively high extraversion and low neuroticism are associated with higher levels of organizational commitment (Thoresen et al., 2003). Extraversion and Neuroticism are generally associated with two related constructs called positive affectivity and negative affectivity, respectively. Affect refers to an emotion that is related to individual behavior. Given the relation between these traits to an individual’s emotional experience, it follows that individuals who are higher positive affect and lower in negative affect (are prewired to experience more positive emotions) will also be more likely to build positive connections within an organization and subsequently become more personally-invested and committed.

Job performance refers to differences in the overall proficiency (e.g., behavior resulting in quality and quantity of job-related outcomes) for similar roles and responsibilities. Often, this is measured according to an organization’s performance management system where a supervisor will provide a rating based on achievement of job-related goals or tasks. For example, an employee whose work exceeded expected levels of performance during a performance period may receive a relatively high rating compared to average performers on the team. Performance can also be measured using more numerical metrics such as level of sales or productivity.

Despite the challenges inherent in assessing more subjective types of individual performance, large organizations spend millions of dollars each year on implementing performance management systems to increase their ability to deliver outcomes to their stakeholders (Pulakos et al., 2019). Talented, proficient, and higher-performing workers are valuable to every organization. The personality trait that has been consistently found in individuals with relatively high job performance is high conscientiousness (Barrick et al., 2001).

The estimated percent of personality configurations that result in relatively positive career outcomes is 36.1%. The most common five factor trait configuration resulting in relatively more positive career outcomes is average openness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism and either high agreeableness or high extraversion, approximately 3.1% of personalities for each. A cumulative total of about 6.2% of personalities are associated with a mix of relatively low neuroticism and high conscientiousness, which is the trait configuration most closely aligned with relatively positive career outcomes.

At an individual-level, political attitudes refer to ones’ personal proclivities towards group decision-making, distribution of resources, and social power within a given governing entity such as a nation. Individual political attitudes and values can have a significant social impact. For example, groups may coalesce based on similar attitudes and values, leading to large-scale social change (e.g., in a democratic system this can happen by electing leaders to positions where they are able to enact policies aligned with those attitudes and values) or cause people to take direct action in support of those values.

Ideologically, political attitudes are traditionally categorized as relatively liberal, conservative, or moderate. Liberal attitudes are characterized as accepting of unconventional behavior and new government involvement in the economy. Conservative attitudes are associated with appreciation for maintaining social norms and achievement striving.

In general, liberal political policies are more likely to guide that people accept changes such as new and relatively unconventional behavior standards or increased government involvement in the economy. Findings indicate that openness is positively associated with liberal attitudes. This is perhaps in part due to the tendency for people high in openness to appreciate nonconvention and novel stimuli.

Contrast that with conservative policies, which are more likely to guide towards rejecting challenges to conventional behavior standards and advocate for economic policies emphasizing incentives for individual effort and outcomes. Here, research indicates that conscientiousness is positively associated with conservative policies since this trait is associated with social norms and achievement striving (summarized in Gerber et al., 2011).

Although interesting, since there is no established methodology or consensus to broadly categorize general political attitudes and the impact they may have on individuals, this article does not factor in liberal or conservative attitudes into individual impact outcomes. However, there is one political attitude that has been established as detrimental to individuals and societies. Right-wing authoritarianism is a social construct characterized as a set of political attitudes including submission to an established authority; belief in the social norms endorsed by this authority; and aggression towards any group or individuals targeted by the authority (Altemeyer, 1998). It is associated with antisocial behavior and violence and for those reasons considered to negatively impact people.

Right-wing authoritarianism research originated out of a larger body of research on authoritarianism, to examine the psychological factors contributing to people following a fascist dictator such as Germans following Hitler. It is associated with strong conservative political orientation, self-righteousness, prejudice, and fear that society is in danger from evil and violence. Openness is negatively related to right-wing authoritarianism (Saucier, 2000), that is: those with higher openness are less susceptible to engage in right-wing authoritarian behavior.

The estimated percent of personality configurations that result in relatively positive political attitude outcomes (those who are less susceptible to right-wing authoritarianism) is 17.3%. The most common five factor trait configuration resulting in relatively more positive political attitude outcomes is average conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism and high openness, approximately 4.0% of personalities.

Volunteerism can be described as an effort to provide services to address the unmet needs of individuals, organizations, and communities (Snyder & Maki, 2015). It is differentiated from other forms of prosocial behavior because it often involves the volunteer proactively seeking opportunities to provide help, at personal costs, over an extended or recurring period. According to a report from AmeriCorps (AmeriCorps, 2021), there are approximately 78 million volunteers in the United States who contribute 6.9 billion service hours such as spending time with friends and family, doing favors for their neighbors, participating in local organizations, or donating $25 or more, and the sum total of these efforts is worth $167 Billion.

Volunteerism is often measured in questionnaires that gather information about the length and amount of time they have performed services for a charitable organization. Studies have generally found strong correlations between high agreeableness and volunteering behavior (Carlo et al., 2005; Penner, 2002; Thielmann et al., 2020). Facets of agreeableness include altruism and sympathy which provide a strong connection with having an appreciation to help others.

The estimated percent of personality configurations that result in relatively positive predisposition towards volunteerism is 15.2%. The most common five factor trait configuration resulting in relatively higher likelihood to volunteer is average openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, and neuroticism, and high agreeableness, approximately 3.1% of personalities.

At this time, the substantial body of personality traits and social outcome research that has been touched on in the above sections provides a strong foundation for linking innate individual thoughts, feelings, and actions with at least forty-seven different social outcomes. Twenty-eight of these outcomes have a readily identifiable positive impact for the individual, eleven have a negative impact for the individual, and eight are not readily identifiable as either positive or negative impact.

Of the five personality traits, extraversion and neuroticism are related to the highest number of social outcomes at nineteen and eighteen, respectively. Openness is related to the fewest number of outcomes at eleven. Trait patterns that are associated with the largest number of positive social outcomes include combinations of low neuroticism and high openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, and agreeableness. This is consistent with previous personality pattern (or typology) research (Gerlach et al., 2018 and Robins et al., 1996).

Trait pattern analysis for all outcomes indicates that 41% of people are predisposed with net positive outcomes; 19% net neutral; and 40% net negative. Relatively low neuroticism and high extraversion are the biggest influence over positive interpersonal outcomes.

This indicates that individuals who tend to experience fewer negative emotions and enjoy engaging with people and society are more likely to experience more positive social outcomes. They will self-report that they have a relatively good life, they will cultivate more positive relationships with friends and partners and are more likely to enjoy their careers.

That said, there are many important outcomes that are influenced by agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness, including physical health and longevity, introspection about ones’ life goals, the tendency to forgive, the ability to engage in satisfying romantic relationships, engaging in criminal behavior, career advancement and success, and political attitudes. Additionally, many outcomes are related to a combination of traits that may balance, enhance, or offset each other.

What makes the five-factor model so powerful is that each trait is a nuanced continuum built on a long history of linguistic and psychological research. The model can provide predictable and repeatable insight into the patterns of how we and others around us behave and feel. As discussed here, it can also provide insights into how those broad patterns tend to translate into important social outcomes. The relationships between traits and outcomes is not determinative, but illustrative as to the meaningful connections between people’s innate individual differences and highly complex social patterns in the real world.