Research Feed

This study investigated the link between our ability to forgive others and the Big Five personality traits. The findings show that people who are more Agreeable tend to forgive more easily, while those higher in Neuroticism may find it more difficult to let go of grudges. Interestingly, the research suggests that your personality profile predicts your level of forgiveness even after accounting for factors like religiousness or empathy.

This study questions whether the Five-Factor Model fully captures traits relevant to criminal behavior. It finds that only agreeableness and conscientiousness consistently predict offending, while additional criminogenic traits (such as deception and self-deception) add substantial explanatory power beyond the FFM. These traits significantly improved prediction of offending in both student and prisoner samples, suggesting important limits to the model’s coverage and to assumptions about accurate self-reported personality.

This longitudinal research reveals a reciprocal relationship between personality and professional life during the transition into adulthood. While personality traits at age 18 significantly predict both objective and subjective work experiences by age 26, the reverse is also true: early career experiences actively shape personality development. Most notably, the study identifies a 'corresponsive' effect, where the same traits that lead an individual to choose a specific career path are further strengthened and reinforced by the demands of that environment.

This study examines the connection between the Big Five personality traits and Holland’s RIASEC occupational types. The findings reveal that while these models overlap, they measure distinct aspects of an individual. The strongest links exist between Enterprising roles and Extraversion, as well as Artistic roles and Openness to Experience. In contrast, the 'Realistic' type showed almost no correlation with the Big Five, suggesting that personality and vocational interests provide unique, complementary insights into a person's profile.

Volunteerism is defined as long-term, planned prosocial behavior that benefits strangers within an organizational context. This research highlights that sustained service is driven by both dispositional variables (such as specific personality traits and religiosity) and organizational factors, such as the volunteer environment and management style. By presenting a theoretical model of these combined influences, the study suggests that the most effective way to foster community service is to understand how an individual's internal motivations interact with the structural support of the organization.

Research across four studies identifies gratitude as a distinct disposition strongly linked to higher well-being, prosociality, and spirituality. Notably, the grateful disposition is negatively associated with envy and materialism. These relationships remain significant even when controlling for Big Five traits like Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Agreeableness, proving that gratitude offers unique psychological insights beyond general personality. To facilitate future research, the authors developed the Gratitude Questionnaire (GQ-6), a highly reliable unidimensional scale.

This meta-analysis identifies robust links between Holland’s Big Six vocational interests and the Big Five personality domains. The strongest connections include Artistic with Openness (r=.48), Enterprising with Extraversion (r=.41), and Social with Extraversion (r=.31). These findings indicate that career interests are not distinct from personality; rather, they serve as specific, practical expressions of a person's broader dispositional traits in a professional context.

This longitudinal research identifies Agreeableness as the primary personality dimension influencing adolescent peer relations and social safety. While both Agreeableness and Extraversion correlate with peer acceptance, Agreeableness uniquely serves as a protective shield against victimization. Specifically, high Agreeableness moderates behavioral vulnerabilities; for agreeable children, these vulnerabilities do not lead to increased bullying, whereas less agreeable children experience a direct correlation between behavioral risks and victimization over time.

This research highlights how a strong sense of humor acts as a powerful social asset by shaping how others perceive our personality. Across two studies, observers consistently linked a 'well above average' sense of humor to a suite of socially desirable traits. Specifically, individuals with a great sense of humor are perceived as being significantly higher in Agreeableness and lower in Neuroticism compared to those with a typical or below-average sense of humor. These findings suggest that humor doesn't just make people laugh; it generates a 'halo effect' of positive expectations, leading others to view the humorous person as more emotionally stable and socially cooperative.

This meta-analysis of 59 studies demonstrates that personality research provides a powerful lens for understanding criminology. By comparing four major structural models—PEN, the three-factor model, the FFM, and the seven-factor model—the authors found that antisocial behavior consistently correlates with specific traits. Regardless of the framework used, the strongest predictors of antisocial behavior are low Agreeableness and low Conscientiousness. These results suggest that the 'core' of criminal and antisocial tendencies lies in a lack of empathy, poor impulse control, and a disregard for social norms, providing a unified psychological profile for future criminological research.

This study examined how personality traits and emotional tendencies relate to relationship satisfaction in married and dating couples. Both self- and partner-ratings of an individual’s personality showed similar predictive patterns, with positive and negative affectivity emerging as key influences. Traits such as conscientiousness, agreeableness, and extraversion were also linked to satisfaction, while a partner’s personality had a comparatively smaller impact on overall relationship quality.

This research identifies five robust dimensions of spirituality that constitute the Expressions of Spirituality Inventory (ESI): Cognitive Orientation, Experiential/Phenomenological, Existential Well-Being, Paranormal Beliefs, and Religiousness. While these dimensions correlate differentially with the Big Five, they remain conceptually unique. This suggests that spirituality represents a significant domain of human personality that is not fully captured by the standard Five-Factor Model framework.

This study of leaders across 200 organizations found that Extraversion and Agreeableness are the strongest predictors of transformational leadership behavior. While Openness to Experience showed an initial positive correlation, its impact vanished when controlling for other traits, and Neuroticism and Conscientiousness remained unrelated. Interestingly, broad personality domains predicted leadership better than specific facets, and transformational behaviors significantly improved leader effectiveness even after accounting for transactional styles.

Drawing from the longitudinal Intergenerational Studies, this research proves that personality and cognitive ability independently drive career success. Conscientiousness consistently predicted both job satisfaction and higher income, while Neuroticism hindered extrinsic achievements. Furthermore, general mental ability was a primary driver of status and earnings. While adulthood traits are more predictive, childhood personality still contributes unique variance to lifelong professional outcomes.

This meta-analysis of 45 studies identifies hostility as an independent risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD) and all-cause mortality. Using structured interviews to measure hostile potential yielded a correlation of r=.18 with CHD. Notably, the Cook-Medley Hostility Scale and similar cognitive measures were significant predictors of mortality (r=.16), even after controlling for traditional medical risk factors. While recent high-risk studies have introduced more null findings, the overall data suggests that a hostile personality profile significantly impacts long-term cardiovascular health and longevity.