Category: Personality

How tidy or messy desks reflect on your personality.

A tidy desk and office makes people think you have stable emotions, an agreeable personality and a conscientious nature, new research finds.

A cluttered desk, though, is linked to being neurotic, disagreeable and disorganised.

Essentially, people make a direct link from an untidy office to negative personality traits.

All is not lost, though, for messy people.

Messy desks have been linked to breaking rules and higher creativity in previous research.

The latest conclusions come from a study in which 160 people sat in three offices of varying levels of tidiness.

They were then asked to make judgements about the occupant’s personality.

Professor Terrence Horgan, who led the study, explained the results:

“When there are cues related to less cleanliness, order, organization and more clutter in an owner’s primary territory, perceivers’ ascribe lower conscientiousness to the owner, whether that owner is a worker in the real world (office), a job-seeker (apartment), a student (bedroom) or a researcher at a university (lab office).”

Ms Sarah Dyszlewski, study co-author, said:

“Once trait information about a target becomes activated in perceivers’ minds, either consciously or unconsciously, that information can subsequently affect how they process information about, the types of questions they ask of, and how they behave toward the target, possibly bringing out the very trait information that they expected to see from the target in the first place.”

The study was published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences (Horgan et al., 2019).

Many of the stereotypes about rich people’s personalities are true, research finds.

Rich people are more extraverted, conscientious, emotionally stable and narcissistic than others, new research reveals.

Confirming the stereotype, rich people are also more self-centred and less agreeable.

The results come from a study of 130 German millionaires who all had financial assets of at least one million euros (not including property).

They were compared to a large survey of the general public.

All were quizzed about their personality and wealth.

Dr Marius Leckelt, the study’s first author, said:

“Despite the influence of high net-worth people on society, evidence about their personality is scarce.

What research there has been has tended to concentrate on how social or antisocial they are.

We wanted to discover whether they differ from the wider population more generally and, if so, how.”

Along with their findings about the personalities of millionaires, the researchers also asked a group of people how they viewed the rich.

The results showed that people overestimated how different the rich were to themselves.

However, they did identify broadly the same trends of greater conscientiousness, emotional stability and self-centredness.

Many of the wealthy Germans in the study had their own businesses, the study’s authors write:

“…more than 60% of our millionaire sample indicated that one of their main sources of wealth came from running their own company, suggesting that entrepreneurial behaviour may play an especially important role for these high‐net‐worth individuals.”

This may well stem from the ‘entrepreneurial personality’, which is something rich people shared:

“The ‘entrepreneurial personality profile’ has been described by a combination of high Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and Openness as well as lower Agreeableness and Neuroticism.

This constellation is thought to address typical affordances of being an entrepreneur such as acquiring new customers, managing finances, developing innovative products, negotiating with suppliers, and coping with enduring phases of uncertainty and risk.”

The study was published in the British Journal of Psychology (Leckelt et al., 2018).

The personality trait linked to ‘getting lucky’ more often.

People who are extraverted have more ‘mating success’, new research finds.

The more extraverted men and women are, the more often they ‘get lucky’ with the opposite sex.

For men, those with certain combinations fare even better.

Men who are both extraverted and agreeable or extraverted and conscientious are especially fortunate.

Introverted men should not despair — they still do well if they are high on both agreeableness and conscientiousness.

Both extraverted men and women have more offspring, the study found.

Dr Stephen Whyte, the study’s first author, said:

“Throughout history, competitive advantages have helped men and women achieve increased success in their occupation, sport, artistic endeavours, their ability to acquire and secure resources, and ultimately, their survival.”

The conclusions come from a study of almost 4,500 heterosexual people.

They were given personality tests and asked about their private lives and any children they had.

Dr Whyte explained:

“The results showed certain trait combinations appear to result in higher mating frequency and more offspring for select males.

The combinations producing higher frequency for select males being high extraversion and high agreeableness, high extraversion and high conscientiousness, and high agreeableness with high conscientiousness.”

The study was published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences (Whyte et al., 2019).

This personality trait encourages persistence, cooperation and ambition.

Optimists in paid employment earn more than pessimists, new research finds.

Around 80% of people are optimistic, which tends to encourage persistence, cooperation and ambition.

However, being an optimist may not be as good for those starting their own business.

For entrepreneurs, pessimism is a more beneficial personality trait, the research also finds.

Pessimistic business owners earn 30% more than optimists.

Entrepreneurs typically earn less, work longer hours and take on more risk than those in paid employment.

Optimists, though, are more likely to face these issues without realising the dangers.

Dr Chris Dawson, the study’s first author, said:

“Our results suggest that too many people are starting business ventures, at least as far as personal returns are concerned.

As a society we celebrate optimism and entrepreneurial thinking but when the two combine it pays to take a reality check.

Every episode of the BBC’s Dragon’s Den provides examples of such wishful thinking.

Pessimism may not generally be seen as a desirable trait but it does protect people from taking on poor entrepreneurial projects.”

The conclusions come from data covering 18 years taken from a major longitudinal survey.

Professor David de Meza, study co-author, said:

“Governments frequently talk about the role of entrepreneurs in creating economic growth, but there is a downside.

The personal and societal fall-out of failed businesses shouldn’t be underestimated, which is exactly what optimists do.

Policy makers should not encourage the wrong sort of start-up.”

The study was published in the journal European Economic Review (Dawson et al., 2018).

People with this trait are 50% more likely to be declared bankrupt.

Being kind and trusting is linked to financial hardship, especially for the poor, new research finds.

In general, people who are more agreeable are at greater risk of bankruptcy and lower credit ratings.

The reason is that people who are agreeable tend to care less about money.

For those who have an adequate income, caring little about money is not as big a problem.

With greater financial resources to fall back on, richer people can afford to give money a low priority.

For those at the lower end of society, though, being nice and trusting can be financially problematic.

Dr Sandra Matz, the study’s first author, said:

“We were interested in understanding whether having a nice and warm personality, what academics in personality research describe as agreeableness, was related to negative financial outcomes.

Previous research suggested that agreeableness was associated with lower credit scores and income.

We wanted to see if that association held true for other financial indicators and, if so, better understand why nice guys seem to finish last.”

The study analysed data from over 3 million people.

It used bank account data, a national survey, two online panels and publicly available data.

Dr Joe Gladstone, study co-author, explained the results:

“Not every agreeable person is at equal risk of experiencing financial hardship.

The relationship was much stronger for lower-income individuals, who don’t have the financial means to compensate for the detrimental impact of their agreeable personality.”

The results also revealed that agreeableness in childhood predicted financial problems 25 years later.

Dr Matz said:

“Our results help us to understand one potential factor underlying financial hardship, which can have serious implications for people’s well-being.

Being kind and trusting has financial costs, especially for those who do not have the means to compensate for their personalities.”

The study was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Matz & Gladstone, 2018).

Obsessional people often have recurring thoughts or fears.

The personality trait of perfectionism is strongly linked to developing obsessive-compulsive disorder, new research finds.

Young children who have excessive self-control and perfectionist tendencies have double the chance of developing obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), psychologists have found.

For the study, children were asked to draw a perfect circle over three and a half minutes while researchers encouraged them to do better.

Those that concentrated more intensely were deemed to have perfectionist tendencies.

Scans also found that perfectionists had smaller brain volumes in an area linked to OCD, the anterior cingulate cortex.

OCD often involves recurring thoughts or obsessions, like having things in order or a fear of germs.

Dr Kirsten E. Gilbert, the study’s first author, said:

“Having a lot of self-control and striving for perfection often are considered by parents and society as good because they can eliminate mistakes, but excessive self-control and perfectionism raise a red flag.

In adolescents and adults, these characteristics are associated with OCD and other disorders, such as anorexia and social anxiety.

We’ve now been able to link this to OCD risk in children.”

It is important to catch OCD as early as possible in life so treatment can help to reduce compulsions and obsessions.

Dr Gilbert said:

“Some kids were very self-critical.

The researcher would point out flaws, but the child was critical of the effort, too.

That excessive perfectionism was the strongest predictor of OCD later on.”

The conclusions come from a study of 292 children aged just 4 and 5-years-old.

They were followed for 12 years, during which time 35 developed OCD.

Perfectionists were twice as likely to go on and develop OCD.

Dr Joan L. Luby, study co-author, said:

“In its most severe forms, OCD is a highly disabling and intractable disorder.

Therefore, this first identification of tangible risk behaviors in early childhood opens exciting new opportunities for the design of preventive interventions.”

Dr Gilbert concluded:

“One of my interests, ideally, is to create therapies geared toward prevention.

We also want to look at the role of parenting because if one of these kids has a parent who’s always saying, ‘That’s not good enough!’ you can see how this problem could spiral.”

The study was published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry (Gilbert et al., 2018).